More Continuity Puzzlings (aka the Supercorp patch)
I just tried to do maths for this post, and while splicing in the "let's share appetizers" scene almost immediately after Kara returns the emails does make sense in terms of math and the dialogue of "you're my only friend in National City" in Crossfire, it DOES NOT make sense for the "do tell wiggle" in Welcome to Earth.
That scene happens before Survivors and the alien fight ring, and therefore before Kara returns the leaked emails, and if you watch the scene on the couch, where Lena opens up about Lex, and Kara re-examines her kneejerk reaction about the alien detection device, that is not purely professional. There is absolutely no way anyone can try to convince me it is.
HOWEVER
I found a work around that helps make it make sense.
Imagine for a moment that Lena has just said good bye to Kara after their heart-to-heart in Welcome to Earth, and she's still smiling when she returns to her desk to pack up for the night. She finds herself thinking of Kara, enjoying the warmth in her chest that had bloomed at the sight of Kara's smile, and lingers still.
Then she freezes, her happiness chilling with realization. No. Not again. She will not allow this rookie reporter to slip in under her guard and convince her they're friends.
They're not.
That much was proven when Kara first stopped by for an interview. Lena’s newsworthy name gets Kara her word count, and Lena gets her new device on the public’s radar. Quid pro quo. Clean. Efficient. Reward without risk.
But smiling over flowers? Confessing her heartbreak over Lex? Listening to Kara’s own change of heart?
Hasn't she learned her lesson???
Don't get attached.
Don't get close.
Guard your goddamn heart before one more person puts a knife in it.
So when Kara Danvers next comes barrelling through her door, Lena rises to her feet with a stiff spine and stiffer jaw, ready to re-establish the boundaries of professional courtesy.
But Kara leaves with the information she needs and priority access she didn't ask for. Lena watches her go with self-reprehension roiling in her belly, kicking herself for immediately capitulating.
It hurt nothing to rat out Veronica Sinclair-- Lena maybe even enjoyed it, just a little. But she should have guarded it, asked for a promise in return.
Instead she presumes it, and takes absolutely zero measures to hold Kara to it.
Weak, her mother's voice echoes in her ears, even as Lex's taunting smirk flashes behind her eyes, with Andrea's conniving sneer chasing close on its heels.
She is weak, but Lena vows to be stronger.
And she is, the next time Kara Danvers arrives unannounced. She is strong when she makes it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she has no intention of being friends, and stronger still when she returns the USB rather than accept it as a favor.
Kara is gracious enough not to push, and Lena is grateful for it-- she doesn't trust herself to rebuff the offer a second time.
That doubt comes true to life when Kara greets her brightly in a downtown cafe barely a day later.
Lena doesn't know if it's the genuine smile that softens into something intimate, despite their professional arrangement, or the vulnerability that Kara trusts her with when she confides how close she'd been to losing herself, but a crack forms in her resolve, and only widens when Kara's smile hollows in disappointment at her sister's rain check.
Lena knows that danger... the risk of losing herself. It's the one thing she has left to lose, and already she feels herself starting to slip beyond her own recognition.
The slope of the challenge Lex has left her with is smooth as glass, offering no handholds to cling to, and when she leaves the office each night she swirls around the empty hotel suite she's leased, spiraling around a dark and yawning drain as she paddles mindlessly towards some invisible shore.
But here Kara is, stroking out to her with a life raft in tow.
they didn’t really change their friendship tho? they just gave us more information about how it began?
The first scene? A very shaky maaaaaaybe. But the cafe scene is canonically dated one month following Cat’s appointment to Secretary of State. Which puts it definitely after Season 2, likely during the 3-months that happen during the hiatus, but even potentially in to the first episode or so of Season 3. So they very clearly misplaced the beginning of their friendship, regardless of what new details they gave us.
There is a separate rant incoming about how I think it *does* change their friendship, but for right now, I’ll leave it with this: I’m choosing to ignore the news anchor, and will be smooshing the “I don’t want friends” to “please share appetizers with me” scenes to within a week of each other starting about two days after the alien fight club, specifically so that it doesn’t change their friendship as established by previous canon.
comic stuff is full of retcons tho. we just have to deal with it tbh
Doesn't mean its not a retcon.
Furthermore, I'm not reading a comic. I'm watching a television show that's been made with generic non-comic reader audiences in mind. If it's gonna drastically change one of the core friendships at the heart of the show, I'm gonna call them out on it. That one little oversight changes two years of their friendship in the onscreen canon, and in my mind actually lessens the impact of Kara's betrayal, so yeah.
A retcon is a retcon, and as much as I'm gonna mostly ignore it in anything I write, I'm not going to stop calling it what it is, or being frustrated that the show can't bother to verify its own timeline.
didn’t lena regret that 5th (?) grade event where she ruined that girl’s reputation/life, or was the regret not canon? also, 5th grade is years before being a teenager, so lena could’ve been somewhat mean when she was very young and then she could’ve become more shy when she became a pre-teen/teen
No regret expressed as far as I'm aware. By the time Lena meets Andrea, it's possible she's already fallen into a depression since we STILL don't know when or how Lionel dies.Or she could have been taken down a peg or two by Veronica Sinclair.Or, if Lena's timeline is similar to Kara's, by that point Lex would already have had run ins with Superma-- oh wait. That's another retcon isn't it. A retcon of a retcon. My brain is so tired y'all.
Anyway my point is, yes there's lots of reasons Lena might have changed, but there was some confusion as to how the meangirl fanon idea started, so I just shared when I started entertaining the idea.
I think the lunch date scene is less of a retcon and more that the Supergirl writing staff can't keep the timeline straight to save their lives. It's probably supposed to take place early in S2 but someone screwed up and didn't look up when Cat actually became the president's press secretary. It wouldn't be the first time, especially for this dang show.
I may or may not post something later arguing the writer's actual intentions regarding the timeline, but the bottom line is, the writers' oversight doesn't make it any less of a retcon. I'm not going to stop calling a weed a weed just because no one's tending the garden.
Okay BUUUUT, can we talk about how these new insights inadvertently play up Sam's importance? Lena said Andrea was the person she cared about most/Kara is her favorite person. Both of these deep friendships began because Andrea & Kara actively sought Lena out. They saw her loneliness, her shy brilliance, SOMETHING that made them want to be friends and they pursued her. But with Sam. Lena CHOSE to pursue/open up to her. "Her. I wanna work with her". This is not to downplay the others, but damn.
SG Writers: *guts entirety of Supercorp chemistry in S2*
SG Writers: there we go! lena is now totally alone and heartbroken!
Lena: I decided Sam would be my friend years ago and now i’m going to give her my company for a while. there may or may not have been kissing involved when we first met.
why would Lena be so distant if it was a retcon idk feels a little off if it's post s2
I’m confused by what you mean here. Distant when? during the retcon scenes this past episode? Or are you suggesting Lena “you’re my only friend in national city” Luthor was distant in S2?
Sorry, just trying to know what you mean so I know how best to respond. :)
