The Supergirl season finale aired this past Sunday night, and instead of going out with a whimper, the show went out with a whole lot of open-mouthed gaping and enough new plot points to fill an entire season of a less-complex show.

Supergirl’s fourth season has dealt with a lot of intense issues. From hate crimes to transgender rights to immigrant issues (couched in alien terms) to self-doubt to familial tension—I could go on. Our heroes worked through it all the best that they could, even when a doppelganger framed Kara for an attack on the White House and the DEO became a perverse version of itself, thanks to Ben Lockwood and his Agents of Liberty.

In the penultimate episode of the season, we found out just how much Lex Luthor has been manipulating situations and people for his own benefit, but it wasn’t until the finale that the real reason behind it all came to light: No, it wasn’t his lust for power—it was, as we all might have expected, a way to wipe Superman and Argo City off the galactic map. The fact that he became de facto President of the United States and America’s Hero were bonuses on his way to ridding himself of his nemesis, and someone, like Lex, who quotes Hitler isn’t going to be bothered by the myriad of aliens he has to destroy to reach this end goal.

Thankfully, the side of good prevailed over both Lex and Lockwood, and the episode saw both of them getting their just desserts. Lex getting shot by his sister might have been a little more brutal than Lockwood’s being sent to prison, but Lex’s actions were quite a bit more atrocious than Lockwood’s.

Those last ten minutes, though. If we thought (or hoped) that the Supergirl writers were going to give us a moment to breathe after a season filled with heightened emotion and a lot of stress, we were severely wrong.

I have a lot of questions, y’all.

During the final battle with Lex, Kara’s nearly overcome by his alien energy-augmented weapons. She’s saved, heroically, by Red Daughter, who jumps in the way of a massively powerful kryptonite blast…and poofs into a purple mist that then absorbs into Kara. Her heat vision turns a familiar shade of purple, and her powers seem to be heightened. Will there be long term effects from the melding of the two Supergirls? And what kind of side effects—particularly adverse ones—come with absorbing one’s doppelganger-turned-purple-mist?

As he was dying, Lex revealed Supergirl’s secret identity to his sister, and couldn’t help but twist the knife by telling Lena that all of her friends (and family) have known this truth for a while and have enjoyed excluding her. Naturally, he’s lying about that last part, but Lena, who was already immensely fragile when it comes to trusted friends keeping secrets, breaks completely after his vicious words. She hides it well, when she later comes face to face with her friends, but I can’t help but fear the ripples from Lex’s figurative stone-dropping are going to keep getting bigger. Will Lena lean more on her Luthor traits in season five? And if she does, what does that mean for her (former) friends? (Also: Lex isn’t really dead, right?)

We got a hint of the big bad to come when Eve Teschmacher tries to run, but is found by an old woman with a foreboding message about how Leviathan (!!!) is everyone, everywhere and not so happy that Lex didn’t “move the needle.” It was both surprising and encouraging to discover that Eve wasn’t totally deluded by Lex and was actually working for an even greater power—it was an unexpected twist for a character whose motivations I thought I understood. What can we expect from Supergirl’s take on Leviathan? And what nefarious plots are they plotting?

AND THEN, J'onn’s brother (?!?) arrives through a portal opened by the meddling dude with the weird hair (the Monitor) from the Elseworlds crossover event. Who is this other Green Martian, where has he been, and what kind of vengeance does he have on his mind?

Although those are the moments that are likely going to have the most repercussions in Supergirl’s fifth season, there were some delightful, much more light-hearted moments that tempered my racing heartbeat. Particularly:

  • Who knew that Jimmy Olsen could pull off an eyepatch?
  • Kara and Jimmy might soon be related by marriage! (Honestly, I’d been waiting for either Alex or Kelly to make a move for for-ever.)
  • Brainy and Dreamer finally getting together had me seeing through heart eyes. Those two crazy kids are MFEO.
  • George Lockwood bucking his father’s horrible brainwashing—loudly and openly. The youth really are going to save the world, be it on Earth-38 or our real life one.

It’s gonna take me a while to fully catch my breath, that’s for sure.

What were the most shocking moments of the Supergirl season finale? What about your favorite moments? Do you have any predictions for what’s to come in the next season? Let us know!
 

Supergirl airs Sundays at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. CST) on The CW. For more news, features and conversation on Supergirl, click here.

Mandy Curtis writes about comics, specifically the Young Adult DC Ink line, and TV for DCComics.com. She's a new contributor to the Couch Club, our weekly television column. You can find her on Twitter at @mandyannecurtis.