Supergirl Showrunners Explain Why Kelly Found Out About Kara’s Secret Identity Off-Screen

On Supergirl, one of the issues that Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) faced was that not everyone close to her knew the truth about her identity. In fact, when Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) found out, it didn’t exactly go so well. In the Season 6 premiere, however, Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) made the decision to tell her girlfriend, Kelly Olsen (Azie Tesfai) the truth, and her timing was pretty perfect. With Supergirl now trapped in the Phantom Zone, Alex will need Kelly’s support more than ever. However, fans hoping to see that important conversation play out on screen were disappointed. Last week’s “A Few Good Women” showed a Kelly already in the know — and fans were none too happy about it. Now, Supergirl showrunners Jessica Queller and Robert Rovner explain why they opted to do that reveal offscreen.

“It was something that we had toyed about being able to do at the end of the first episode, but the story kind of — we didn’t have the time in that episode to achieve that,” Rovner told The Wrap. “Because Kelly was fine with the news, we felt that we could integrate it into the story and that their relationship — it was something that Kelly was going to be very supportive [of] and helping Alex cope with this. And some of it is explored in the next episode, when Alex is having a very difficult time.”

Queller added that they also had already spent a season dealing with an identity reveal and its fallout with Lena.

“And I’ll just add, we spent an entire season on when that news did not go well,” Queller said. “We felt like we really played that conflict last season.”

While the reasons may not necessarily satisfy fans, taking Kelly’s update offscreen does free up the space for the larger story: how the Super Friends are going to get Supergirl back.

“I think that telling Kelly, you know, Kelly is her person and I think they’re able to move forward quickly. In this moment it’s really Alex needing her girlfriend and her friends to really support her as she’s facing the possibility that she might never get her sister back,” Rovner told ComicBook.com. “So it’s really, the story is focused on that and her fears, her whole life has been about protecting Kara. You know, that’s why she joined the DEO, that’s how she got into this was really because she felt this duty to her sister. And for the first time in her life, she’s facing that she might have failed at that and so she has to process a lot of things as she’s trying to rescue Supergirl from the Phantom Zone.”

Supergirl airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.