Supergirl: How Mr. Mxyzptlk Has Changed Since Season 2

Supergirl crossed a pretty major milestone this Sunday night, when the superhero series officially aired its 100th episode. The installment, called “It’s a Super Life”, took an unpredictable approach to the superhero story of Kara Danvers/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), as she visited alternate realities in which she told Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) her superhero identity at a different time. That trip down memory lane was anchored by a familiar character, Mister Mxyzptlk (Thomas Lennon), who had definitely evolved and changed since we last saw him in Season 2. If the circumstances around the new Mxy left you scratching your head, here’s what you need to know.

Obviously, spoilers for this week’s episode of Supergirl, “It’s a Super Life”, below! Only look if you want to know!

As Supergirl fans will probably remember, Mxy was originally portrayed by Peter Gadoit in the show’s second season, in a two-episode arc where he tried (and failed) to woo Kara into marrying. As it turns out, the idea of a Fifth-Dimensional imp changing his appearance isn’t too unfounded, as Mxy claimed he took on that younger form because he thought it would be more appealing to Kara.

Mxy also explained that he was essentially court-ordered to go around and use his powers to right his previous wrongs, and that Kara was the last person on his list.

“I think we wanted to, rather than have an episode where Mxyzptlk is our adversary, we wanted him to come in and to be our guide,” showrunner Robert Rovner told ComicBook.com. “And so we needed to quickly modulate the character that he was. And what’s nice about the episode is that Mxy has his own journey in this. He is coming from a place of mea culpa and trying to do better than he did before. But also, I think he’s able to resolve things with Mon-El in this episode and learn from it himself, which is something we wanted to do. And, we get to fall in love with Mxyzptlk in a much different way than we did when he came in demanding marriage.”

Throughout the episode, it became clear that Mxy was much less adversarial than his past appearance, even culminating in him apologizing to Mon-El (Chris Wood) about how he behaved towards Kara in Season 2.”It’s meant to be genuine,” Rovner explained.

“We wanted him to be genuinely repentant from the beginning before the Mon-El part,” showrunner Jessica Queller added. “…That’s one of the reasons why he came in this form.”

What do you think of Supergirl‘s new Mister Mxyzptlk? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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