Supergirl: Is Lena about to fulfill her Luthor destiny?

Is Lena Luthor close to fulfilling her nefarious destiny?

During Monday’s episode of Supergirl, Morgan Edge (Adrian Pasdar) sets his sights on Lena (Katie McGrath) after many children get sick from lead poisoning. He reasons that the lead dispersal device she set off in the season 2 finale is the cause, so Lena is to blame, forcing Kara (Melissa Benoist) and Sam (Odette Annable) to try and clear her name. Will this truth push Lena toward her birthright as a Luthor? EW sat down with McGrath to get the scoop:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How will Lena handle this possible truth that she caused these kids to get sick?
KATIE MCGRATH: Lena is facing her worst fear: Lena is facing the fact that she might actually be a Luthor after all and all that that means. What’s lovely about this episode is you get to see a broken Lena, not emotionally broken with a man, like broken, like all of her worst fears have come to life that she is exactly like her family, that in doing what she thought was the right thing, she has essentially become this monster that has poisoned children.

How does Lena feel about Morgan basically blaming her when it could possibly not be true?
She just loses it. It’s this moment where you see how powerful and how strong she can be, but also how blind she can be of this possibly not being the best course of action to take, but she’s splintered. What you do start to see is indications and inklings of the Lena that she could be, the very forceful, stubborn, dogmatic, blinkered, powerful, smart woman.

Andrew Kreisberg previously said that no one just turns evil, it’s about a series of small bad decisions that are like a domino effect. Are Lena’s dominos starting to fall this season?
It’s a really good way of putting it. Because we’re so early in the season, I think you have to reference last season as well. Every moment that she fights brings her closer to the person she’s going to be, and we just don’t know how many moments it’s going to take. It’s exactly what he says: It’s not one thing that’s going to happen, it’s the constant break down of who she was and who she is. Actually, in this episode, there’s a very interesting line she says in that the Luthors always rationalize what they’re doing as saving the world, even when they’re hurting people. So the Luthors believe they’re doing the right thing. Nobody sets out to just be evil. Everybody believes that what they’re doing is for the greater good. I don’t think Lena is going to be any different. I think everything you see her do is going to be part of what makes her into what she ultimately becomes, because she always believes she’s doing the right thing.

Lena is a smart girl, and you’ve said before you don’t want Lena to find out that Kara is Supergirl, but do you feel like the deception is almost worse at this point?
The difficulty with Lena knowing is that then you don’t have anybody that Kara can just be Kara with. You don’t have anybody Kara can be human with. If everybody knows she’s Supergirl, she always has to be Supergirl. One of the great things about a superhero — and this one in particular — is that she’s flawed and she’s not perfect. So her being Kara gives her the ability to be vulnerable and to be all of those things. If I’m the only one that knows that, and I have to put up with not realizing they’re the same person, that’s the magic of the show. The magic of the show is that you believe that they’re two different people. If you’re going to believe that she flies and she’s an alien, I don’t see why I can’t believe that Lena doesn’t know the difference, so that’s where I’m going with that. It’s important as a character for Kara to have somebody that she doesn’t have to be Supergirl with, she doesn’t have to have all the answers, she doesn’t have to always be the solution. She can just be a normal, flawed human being.

And yet Supergirl has been chipping away at Lena’s life, from the arrest of her mother to the death of her first love. Could these little moments build up toward animosity?
Personally, for Lena, I imagine what will happen is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. There will be one final thing that just makes her go, “Are you kidding?” Because she can deal with all of them right now, because a lot of them she doesn’t blame Supergirl for, a lot of them she blames herself for. But I believe there will be an ultimate thing that makes her go, “You know what? This isn’t all me. I’m trying to be good here, and every time I think I’m doing the right thing, you make it harder for me.” I have no idea, I’m intellectualizing this here, but I think there will be one thing that will make the rest of her just go, “And then this happened, and then this happened, and oh my God, I’m going to throw balls of Kryptonite at you.”

Will we get more info on her family history this season? Maybe with Lionel or with Lex? Will her mom be back?
I have no idea. Absolutely none whatsoever. That is an Andrew question. They play everything very close to the vest. What’s funny is I don’t like to read episodes beyond what I’m doing for precisely this reason. I have total foot-in-mouth syndrome and I would tell everyone. I’d be like, “What do you want to know?” I’m like, “Don’t tell me, it’s probably better!”

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.