Warning: Don’t mess with Lena Luthor... or her friends.

In the past, Lena's been occupied with thwarting her mother Lillian’s schemes at Project Cadmus, but as we saw in Supergirl’s Season 3 premiere, now she has a brand new target. Media mogul Morgan Edge not only got under Lena’s skin, he targeted CatCo, essentially putting Kara’s career in jeopardy.

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This, of course, was a big mistake -- but the question now is, for whom? Lena retaliated by buying CatCo before Edge could acquire the company, and poked the proverbial hornet's nest in the process. While her bravado and confidence has served her well throughout her career, this time she may not be quite ready for the fight she's chosen. As Edge put it, “Now you have all of my attention.”

What that means for Lena, Kara and the rest of the Supergirl cast remains to be seen, but according to Katie McGrath (who portrays Lena on the series), Lena would do it all again. "Lena thinks he is scum," McGrath told CBR of her character's disdain for Edge, adding that his basic sexism both fuels him, and will ultimately define their adversarial relationship.

Ahead of tonight's episode, titled "Triggers," McGrath opened up further on the Lena/Morgan feud, her character's relationship with Supergirl and Kara, and was Reign will add to the mix as audiences get to know the new supervillain throughout the season.

CBR: What does Lena make of Morgan Edge?

Katie McGrath: Lena thinks he is scum. He’s everything that she detests in a person and a business man. He’s the exact opposite to her in how she runs her life and her company. Morgan Edge has no morals. What we’ve seen about Lena is that she’s unlike the rest of her family in the fact that she has a strong moral compass and is attempting to rise above the Luthor name. With Morgan, he keeps trying to drag her back to being a Luthor. He keeps reminding her that she is one. She feels Morgan is absolute scum because, you know what? He is.

Lena outmaneuvered Morgan by buying CatCo before he could. Will that move end up coming back to bite her?

Morgan Edge doesn’t like coming in second place to anyone, but coming second place to a woman really bothers his ego. Morgan Edge is all ego. I think Lena is aware she created an enemy, but she’s done it because she knows it’s the right thing to do. Whether it means that personally she’s going to get attacked, I think, like she said, she’s trying to be her own little Supergirl, her own kind of hero. She does the right thing even though she’s made an enemy.

It’s an adversarial relationship that’s concentrated on Lena. Yes, it weaves in with James and Kara, but it’s like Lena and her mother, Lillian. It’s that type of storylines that speaks to Lena specifically, with her fears and vulnerabilities, but, also. her strengths.

Lena did a lot of good against the Daxamites last year, but she ultimately caused Kara and Mon-El to end their relationship. Has that guilt driven or motivated Lena?

Kara is her best friend, and her best friend is hurting. Lena feels responsible for that. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a fight with your friend, but how awful does that make you feel? It’s not easy for Lena to make friends, and I don’t think it’s easy for Kara to make friends. Supergirl makes loads of friends, but she’s only Kara with Lena. This is why they have this specifically close relationship, and it got close very quickly. I think that it has been damaged inadvertently, because I don’t think Kara blames Lena at all -- Lena blames herself -- but the fact that it’s damaged is weighing very heavily on Lena. Out of all her relationships, her relationship with Kara is by far the most important to her.

The fact that it is in flux, it means Lena will do anything she can to fix it. It would be denying Lena’s humanity to say that part of the reason she bought CatCo was to help out her best friend. It was also to say fuck off to Morgan Edge, but Lena’s not a stupid woman. She wouldn’t make a massive business decision out of the blue.

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Speaking of guilt, does the death of her ex, Jack, still haunt Lena?

Of course it does. One hundred percent. It is referenced as the season goes on. It has come up. it still affects her. Lena cared about him deeply. Whenever anybody dies around Lena – and it happens quite a lot or people get hurt – she blames herself. “If I wasn’t a Luthor, this wouldn’t have happened.” She can’t help but feel responsible for things that aren’t her fault. She’s essentially Irish. She has a very healthy sense of guilt. Lena is possibly Lena McLuthor.

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Jack and Lillian helped viewers get to know Lena better. What else are we going to learn about her?

Her buying CatCo opens up a wealth of other relationships in the show. There’s her personal relationship with Kara. Now, she has some professional ones. James is going to come into her orbit. As time goes on, now that she’s interacting with more characters, it opens up the whole world at National City. Her new relationships will reveal more about her as a person. Her past, feelings and her future will all come into play.

What can you tease about Lena’s connection to Samantha/Reign?

We’re only a couple of episodes in. I don’t know. You might just have to watch the show. I can tell you Odette [Annable] is one of my favorite people. I love her dearly. She’s astonishing. And there’s so many levels with what she’s brought to Reign. It’s inspiring to work with people like Melissa [Benoist] and Odette.

One of the series’ brightest spots is the bond between Lena and Kara. How do you feel these two raise each other’s game?

The great thing for Kara with Lena is Lena is almost Kara’s humanity. She doesn’t have to be Supergirl. She can be human, and she can be vulnerable, frail and weak and needy. If Lena knew Kara was Supergirl, she couldn’t be that any more. That’s so poignant this season because this year opened with Kara not wanting to be human any more. She’s like, “I am Supergirl.”

With regards to Lena, her relationship with Kara is the same type of thing. It’s where she can be vulnerable. Lena is not this CEO, this powerful woman. She’s not running all these companies. The great part of the friendship the two of them have, is it allows them to be vulnerable, to say, “I need this, and I need this from you.” For me, from my friends, that’s the best part. I can go to them and say, “Things suck. Help.” There’s very few people that you can do that with. For Lena, it’s Kara. For Kara, it’s Lena, too.


Airing on The CW on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, Supergirl stars Melissa Benoist in the title role, David Harewood as Martian Manhunter, Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers and Jeremy Jordan as Winn Schott, with appearances by Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant and Tyler Hoechlin as Superman.