Supergirl: Could Livewire Become a Superhero?

01/30/2017 09:21 pm EST

On tonight's episode of Supergirl, the writers took great pains to make it clear that Supergirl and Livewire saw one another as nemeses -- and then turned that dynamic on its head by the end of the episode.

Livewire, originally a shock jock fired by Cat Grant who came after both Cat and eventually Supergirl in a quest for revenge, escaped custody at the end of tonight's episode after a rogue scientist abducted her, tortured her, and tried to use her as a weapon against Supergirl, Guardian, and Mon-El.

She escaped because Supergirl specifically allowed it, and Supergirl allowed it because she was able to reason with Livewire and connect with the character's inner humanity.

Its a very "Super" thing to do, and somewhat reminiscent of Superman's faith in Lex Luthor at the end of All-Star Superman -- but it's also not entirely unprecedented with Livewire in particular.

The character first appeared as a villain in the comics, as well, but after a few defeats at the hands of Supergirl, Superman, and even the children of The Flash (Jai and Iris West, who do not exist either on TV or in comics right now), she eventually reformed.

Why?

Well, in the late '90s, Superman's powers had briefly changed and he had electric powers, along with blue skin and hair and a containment suit that helped his body keep from dissipating away. After realizing that Livewire's powers were messing with her mind, Superman offered her his containment suit, which she was able to use to control not only her powers, but the mad impulses they had been giving her.

Reformed, she joined the short-lived super-team the Supermen of America, which was essentially a group of young heroes inspired by the Man of Steel.

Could something similar happen on Supergirl?

It wouldn't be an unreasonable extension of this season's theme: Supergirl has helped to inspire both James Olsen and Mon-El to become superheroes, and the recurring idea of what "makes" a hero is one that could be subverted in an interesting way by creating a hero out of one of the show's deadliest and most unstable villains.

The idea of Leslie regaining her humanity and rejecting "Livewire" could be a big change for the show -- but if it happened, one could argue that it was foreshadowed by tonight's episode, which saw her fighting to be identified as "Livewire" whenever anyone referred to her by her birth name.

It would also be one of the only ways we could see some variation on the "Electric Blue" Superman in live action -- which we're all for.

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Supergirl airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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