Why Lobo Is the Key to Supergirl’s Ending

Why is Lobo the key to making sense of *Supergirl’s* ending?

Ruthye gives mercy. Kara gives death. And Lobo without realizing it gives Kara the gift of an ethical witness.

Major spoilers for Supergirl follow.

In this seven-minute philosophical analysis, I argue that Ruthye, Kara, and Lobo form an unexpected community through three gifts surrounding the death of Krem.

Ruthye spares Krem. Kara then kills him herself, attempting to spare Ruthye from the moral burden of taking a life. But Kara’s gift is also paternalistic: she decides alone what burden Ruthye should be permitted to carry.

Then Lobo witnesses the killing.

Kara never knows that he is watching, and Lobo does not intend his presence as a gift. He cannot authorize, forgive, or absolve Kara. Yet his witness means that her act is no longer entirely solitary.

Through Jacques Derrida’s The Gift of Death, feminist care ethics, and the problem of paternalism, I ask whether Lobo of all people performs the film’s most unexpectedly feminist gesture.

Does Lobo transform Kara’s private burden into a shared ethical event or is he simply enjoying the violence? And is Kara protecting Ruthye, deciding for her, or doing both?

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#Supergirl #Lobo #DCU

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