‘Supergirl’: Lex Luthor’s Relationship With Miss Tessmacher To Be Explored

By the end of last night’s episode of Supergirl, titled “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” Lex Luthor had recovered from the debilitating illness he had at the start of the episode and been joined by some familiar faces as his partners-in-crime. Not only was Otis, thought killed early in the season, back from the dead but also, Eve Tessmacher has been a sleeper agent for Lex all along, keeping an eye on Supergirl and Lena for him. It was a hell of a long game — and one that put together the same trio of villains from Superman: The Movie, in which the characters were played by Gene Hackman (Lex), Ned Beatty (Otis), and Valerie Perrine (Eve).

The revelation that Eve Tessmacher, first introduced as a pretty and clueless office girl but ultimately revealed to be fairly smart and driven in her own right, has been a deep-cover operative for the most evil man on the planet is something that is likely to shake those around her to their core. Given how genuine she has seemed, and how often she has helped out in the last half-season or so, it will also raise some serious questions about how they trust anybody else going forward, if anyone in their orbit could secretly be a plant for Lex.

“A lot of that backstory gets filled in in the next episode,” promised producer Robert Rovner ad a screening last week. “But at the end of the next episode, Lex Luthor is still on the loose, and so is Eve. Eve is one of those threads that we’re on the hunt for.”

“You will get the backstory of how Eve and Lex met, and how he has masterminded her as his spy and brilliant helper throughout the time that we have known Eve,” promised Jessica Queller, who serves with Rovner as the series’ showrunners.

In Superman: The Movie, Eve Tessmacher was essentially a pretty, daffy girl Lex kept around to keep his paperwork in order and so that he had somebody to bark orders at. It was likely Eve that helped shape the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths version of Lex as a person who always has an army of hyper-confident, beautiful women around him (see also Mercy Graves).

So what’s next? Well, we won’t have to wait long to find out.

Supergirl airs on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT, before episodes of Charmed on The CW. Sunday’s episode, “House of L,” will center on Lex’s backstory.