Look. It’s not a common trend, but it’s a trend irritating enough to bug me nonetheless.
Some shows focus a lot around keeping a secret. Whether it’s for protection, out of fear, a necessity. The secret is there. They will dedicate whole episodes to reinforcing that this secret is necessary, construct season long arcs around ensuring it’s security.
All I’m saying, is that said secret should not be revealed IN THE SERIES FINALE.
If you show me routinely that the secret is important to be kept, then revealing it should be treated as an inciting incident, not a conclusion to your character’s story.
Example 1: Supergirl
Grievances with The CW aside, Supergirl is written decently well. I mean, it was set up excellently by CBS, where it initially aired, and so they had a head start, but it is pretty good for a CW standard. There’s good representation, nicely handled, if not occasionally overt, metaphors and messages. Ya know, their subtext might occasionally feel like it’s just straight up text, but overall it’s pretty good. I mean, it’s cast is excellent. Talk about a starting off point, they could write crap and the cast would pull it out of the gutter.
So… Why end like that, huh?
You wanted your Flockhart cameo? Fine. What you didn’t need was to pull that reveal.
Was Kara struggling with her identity? Maybe? Did she want to feel whole? Stop living behind cover identities? Doing this whole thing about taking off the mask? Did Ollie do it?
Some BS.
Look. They showed us time and time again Why Kara kept her identity secret from the public. I can understand why Kara, who has to pretend she’s human, may want to live her every day life without having to do so… did she have to come out as Supergirl to do that? I’d argue not necessarily. Sure, people would put two and two together eventually, but only those that know her well and only those willing to see past the glasses. The whole argument is that the glasses work because no one expects the cub reporter to be Super-anything. Kara could start walking around showing off some latent alien abilities and half her co-worker’s wouldn’t even notice. Ya know whose gonna notice when she comes out as Supergirl, though? Everyone.
Secret Identities exist for a reason! As they have proved. Season 2, one guy knows her identity, and kidnaps Alex to blackmail her. Another Season has several DEO agents, including Alex, mind’s erased to protect that identity! I mean what’s the point of that if she’s just going to out herself anyways? The point is, it keeps herself and her family safe. Protecting it from just the government alone has her leave the DEO! Leave her family. She comes out she doesn’t just endanger herself, she endangers Alex, her mother and her friends. AS THEY HAVE PROVEN.
Do I sound annoyed? ‘Cause it does bug me just so much.
That is not a revolutionary moment. Did she ditch the glasses she hid behind? Wow. What a revelation. No. She put herself and everyone in danger. This is not freeing. Stop framing it as freeing. It’s downright idiotic.
It is an inciting incident. It’s the kind of thing you could get a season out of. It is not something you should just tack on the end of your series finale for a Cat Grant cameo and a half-arsed attempt at wrapping up your lead character. She’s already learnt this lesson, several times, what the hell are you doing going back on all that?
Look. I get it. Her secret identity has caused her some pain recently. Not entirely her fault, if you ask me. Lena acted, how do I say this?… Rashly. But, yes, it caused some issues. Issues that have since been rectified and fought through, but issues nonetheless. I can see how maybe Kara thinks this a solution to avoiding those issues in the future. That is naive.
For me, it always felt like there was a weird comparison between coming out as Supergirl and coming out as gay, and while Kara definitely also needs to do the latter, that overlap is certainly touchy. Do they come on the same level? Debatable, but the point really is that this means a lot to Kara. Like coming out of the closet, one coming out does not a finished job make. You spend your life coming out, over and over again, because people do not presume you to be gay, just as they do not presume you to be a superhero.
Each time Kara comes out there’s always another one around the corner, and does just outing herself to the world solve that issue? Technically, but is it really an issue? Even if she decided to just start living as an alien rather than masquerading as human she’d still have to tell each new person she met. Regardless of how the world changes and however more regular it becomes, Kara is ‘passing’ and as such would spend her life reiterating anyways. No one’s going to assume she’s an alien when she looks human. Though, of course, that is very human-centric, which is generally about right for the human population when you think about it. Ya know? What if it’s that humans look Kryptonian?
The whole thing with Lena kind of proves there’s not really a good time to drop the Supergirl bomb. Being gay would eventually come up in conversation, hell, even being an alien would in their world, but a superhero? Well, as we’ve discussed, no one expects that of the cub reporter. Superhero may be a regular thing but no one’s going around assuming their friend or co-worker is one.
It’s ill-advised that she tells Nia before Lena, to be fair, but they were doing a whole alien bonding thing. The longer it went on with Lena the harder it became to tell her. It doesn’t help that putting on the symbol seems to give Kara quite the ego boost. They may be technically the same person, but there is a noticeable different level of arrogance between the two. Her good will be damned, the bravado certainly led to a fraught relationship. Two egos butting heads, as it were. Then Kara would listen to Lena complain about her! No wonder she was pissed and felt betrayed. However, I am also of the opinion that Lena is someone who values her intelligence, and having met Supergirl several times she probably finds not noticing that her best friend is a superhero as something rather insulting. She is, as they say, insecure. Little Luthor twist up, and it’s that Kara made her feel stupid and broke her trust, but in the end she’s insecure and a tad blind to what Kara may have been going through. Need we forget tears were involved in the coming out?
There’s no good time. Fine. Arguably a better time was two… three years earlier, the minute you trusted her enough to say it… but as time goes on, the time gets worse, and it’s one of those things where the best time just becomes now. The longer you leave it, the bigger a thing it amounts into. When they started to consider telling Lena, and how she would react is debatable, because until Nia was introduced Lena was kind of the only person in Kara’s life who 1) met her first as Kara and 2) didn’t know her when she became Supergirl. There was no debate about whether she told her mother, or Alex or Winn, because they knew her before Supergirl. Mon-El meets her via Supergirl, Brainy is a future century hero. They are people who know Supergirl first. Lena is the first person to know Kara first. When does Kara bring that up in conversation? Like Luthor surname aside, which we already know that Kara barely even considers anyways, meet anybody when do you drop that you’re superhero?
It might just be me, but if a friend told me they were a superhero I’d be a slight bit more concerned for the daily danger they put themselves in than whether they broke my trust. Maybe I’d be more concerned about why it took them so long to tell me? Maybe I’d wonder if I was the untrustworthy party in this scenario. As, holy shit, they are a superhero! Not only is it noble work, it’s life-ending. You know what breaks your trust? If someone comes out as a super-villian! That’s betrayal. Lena might as well be mad at the fire department. Talk about a non-platonic reaction. Insecure or not, Lena is a logical person, are you actually telling me that it never crossed her scientist brain that actually maybe Kara had a reason? Just let her be Lena, stop making this about who her family is, because that’s what it is, isn’t it? Lena’s villain era because she’s a Luthor? No. She worked hard to make herself don’t you negate that because you want to be dramatic. She’s a logical, scientist thinking person, whose best friend is Kara Danvers, are you actually telling me she’s incapable of putting herself in Kara’s shoes?
I may have got distracted.
The point is, regardless of the issues in the past (and their poor executions), the fix to this problem sure as hell is not outing herself to the world like she’s not learnt anything these past six years. You want to be honest about yourself? Be honest to the people you love, and the people you see everyday. You know who doesn’t need to know? Everyone who doesn’t know you. Shed the glasses if you want, but you don’t have to make an announcement. It’s idiotic, and back tracks on half her development and life lessons.
Secrets exist for a reason, and I’m 90% sure AOS spends half a season teaching such a thing to Daisy. For safety, some things should be kept secret, like for example, the secret identity that protects your friends and family as well as yourself. You want to out yourself to the public? That is something you run by everyone in your inner circle first and then protect them like you’re the president while you’re at it. People suck, and it’s naive to think otherwise, Kara. Protect your identity like your life depends on it, because it does.
It’s an idiotic decision on her part, however misguided by thoughts of freedom and honesty she may be. It’s a frustrating decision on the writers part. You want to end on a revelation? Make SuperCorp canon you cowards! They’re already at a queer wedding and Sara Lance exists, just let them kiss! Revealing herself just doubled the problems in her life, not solved them. That is the beginning of a season! Not a series finale you knew was the finale. You can’t illustrate a point several times then backtrack on it without showing consequences, that’s just poor writing. It makes Kara look stupid at it’s best and ignores parts of her development at it’s worst.
Example 2: Bitten
I just want you to take a moment and consider what you’d do if you found out Werewolves or Vampires or any of the various supernatural creatures media and literature has written about over the last few centuries actually existed. Then, after you’ve decided how empathetic or scared you may be, what the many government’s currently in shambles, distrusted and some at war with each other, would do with that information?
Secrets exist for a reason.
Personally, I am of the opinion that if any of those supernatural creatures do exist they live in hiding and secret because the human race very obviously cannot be trusted with anything different. As they have proven, multiple times. Hell, if we can’t even handle different sexualities what the hell are we gonna do with somebody who drinks blood? Or has a tail? Or could bite our heads off?
Bitten ends it’s three wonderful and slightly traumatising seasons by revealing to… the public in the general… that werewolves exist. Idiotic.
Confession: I have not watched Bitten in awhile, and that is a bit of an understatement, but I do adore it. It’s been so long, I can’t remember what the hell happened that led to their… “coming out”, as it were… but I can almost guarantee it solved only half of their problems and caused way more.
Like, correct me if I’m wrong, but did Jeremy not almost murder Elena on the off-chance she had seen him shifting? He had no proof of it, but hey the very possibility was worthy enough of murder, and now she’s a werewolf because Clay over here just couldn’t handle that loss.
They have literally killed to protect this secret. Revealing it, is an inciting incident not, and I cannot stress this enough, a conclusion. Definitely not one that should be in the series finale. Indications seem to be that they knew it was their finale, which let me be clear, makes it worse.
It’s dumb! It’s stupid! It’s idiotic!
The Other Hand
As I can’t, at this moment, think if any other examples of such idiotic decision lets look at some examples of media that handled it correctly.
What we’re looking at here is not late dropping secrets to the audience. Reveals are reveals, and if you want to wait the entire season before clueing the audience in, you do you. We may criticises your lack of ever mentioning it again, or waiting too long just to give us everything at once, but, hell, sometimes the twist is worth it (if you set it up right).
What I’m specifically looking at is characters that reveal a secret to their world, and it has an effect on their circumstances, their setting, their relationships, just their life in general (or it should).
Such as:
Example 1: Just… Marvel
First, Agent’s of S.H.I.E.L.D
S.H.I.E.LD, the top secret organisation, is shown to the public multiple times throughout the season, for the first few it goes horribly wrong and they have to go underground and rebuild again.
To their credit, the first dismantling was Hydra’s fault. A reveal, by the way, where the consequences are not just shown but vitally important to the plot.
Then in Season 4, S.H.I.E.LD coming out of the shadows again is a starting off point for the season. Do they conclude there, no? That would be in poor taste. We see the effect it’s had on the characters, their jobs, setting and dynamics. This season also shows us in more detail the effects of the Sokovia Accords, which might as well just be a list of secrets. An alien registry (or in this case powered individuals), if you will. Sure, S.H.E.I.L.D had one before, but it was like top secret. Besides, they’re kind of like the whole reason the inhumans were off the grid. Jiaying may have lost the plot towards the end of the season, but she is the epitome of damn good reasons when your history is, well, hers, and the future has done very little to prove you wrong. Her line of thought is, well, understandable if not justifiable. Regardless, the Accords lists everyone and it is BAD.
This is good execution.
I recognise that S.H.I.E.L.D also reveal themselves in the Season 5 finale, received with much joy as far as we see because they’re here to stop Talbot and save the day again. While I do firmly hold the belief that Season 6 and 7 kind of read like they planned up to Season 5 and then got given two more seasons and panicked, the point is those seasons exist, so S.H.I.E.L.D’S reveal is not in the finale. We see plenty of the consequences of this action, this time with much better reception and execution than it went for them in Season 4. As a side note, AOS Season 7 is perhaps one of my favourite final seasons to ever exist.
Also, Daisy’s identity is revealed midway through Season 4 and we more than see the consequences of her being known to the public as Inhuman, Quake and Agent Daisy Johnson of S.H.I.E.L.D., and her friends and family can more than protect themselves. She may not have signed up to be Quake, but she did sign up to put her life on the line and pretty much all her friends and family signed up to do the same thing. S.H.I.E.L.D. is her family after all. The one in the most danger after she’s outed is her, and the show more than explores this.
The MCU
You can reference just all of Civil War, while we’re at it. A movie, plotted around the idea of listing them all in the Accords, and by byproduct outing them. The Avenger’s specifically then becoming sanctioned tools of the government. The entire basis of the movie is the disagreement as to whether that should be a thing they all sign.
You can oust their secrets all you want as a plot device, it’s a good plot device. I have grievances with doing it as a conclusion, it is not a conclusion. This is good execution. The reveal, or potential of it, is the inciting incident.
The same goes for Spider-Man, who has his entire third movie plotted around the fact his secret identity is revealed. As let me remind you, Secret Identities KEEP US SAFE. His outing endangers everybody he knows, and as a byproduct of his own actions leads to his Aunt’s death.
Do you see why the framing of Kara’s outing as freeing is dumb? She just endangered everyone she loves, as Peter Parker proves!
It doesn’t help that his outing also tarnishes his stellar friendly neighbourhood reputation but that is beside my point. That also endangers his loved ones, but I do think it adds extra evidence to the need for Secret Identities.
There’s the counter argument in this situation that Secret Identities allow you to get away with shit… but if you just think of sunshine and rainbows then it will be sunshine and rainbows. Look, if the supervillains can lie and say they’re not who they say they are then the heroes can do exactly the same for exactly the same reason. They protect their family that way. When you put on a suit and go out and fight people, you are endangering yourself, your actions should not also put others at risk. Having your secret identity protects those you love who did not sign up to get shot, while you have.
Ironman, famously, announces to the world. He’s also a trilogy. It’s not like he does it at the end of his last movie, though ironically it is his final line ever. The point is we see the consequences of this choice. In a different movie, sure, but we see those consequences. Besides that, he is a man who is loaded. He can afford private security for all his loved ones if he wanted to. He hardly endangers them more than him simply being Tony Stark does, because he can afford to protect them.
You know who can’t? Kara and Peter. These are normal people. The identities protect them and their family.
At least, Marvel shows the consequences of these choices to come out, of being who you want to be. We see what happens to Peter when he’s outed, we see how Daisy’s life is changed by embracing and not hiding her inhuman origin, how her life is changed when that becomes public knowledge.
The point is consequences exist, and this reveal is big, it should not be treated as some nice bow to tie on top of your series.
Example 2: Twilight
I’m as shocked as you are, but when I was thinking about this I realised there’s a lot of thought and effort gone into showing us that keeping the vampire secret is not only a matter of life or death but necessary. Is it a Vampire enforced rule to keep the Vampire Secret? Yes. Is it broken? No.
It’s never back tracked on. We’re shown why it’s kept and it is kept. I can’t believe this, but Twilight did something right.
Look, the reveal in Bitten, is kind of similar to if Edward and Bella had responded to Evil Sheen planning to kill their daughter by telling all of Forks, Washington they were vampires. Would that have solved their problem? Absolutely not. As, it is a dumb solution! It is not one! It’s not even a conclusion! Dear God!
Example 3: Carmilla
Just basically everything after Season 1, is what happens if all the supernatural stuff is not only super common but also now more an open secret. Things like pronouns become a lacklustre issue when your daughter dates a vampire and your tour guide is a giant named Bob. Papa Hollis may be overprotective but at least he has perspective.
The Movie more than anything shows the state of the world when the creatures in the shadows emerge from the shadows. Vampires have rights activists and people build whole companies on the basis of vegan blood supplements.
These consequences are not bad. I’m not saying the consequences have to be, I’m saying they could be, making the reveal a bad mark on your finale. Carmilla is a portrayal of consequences, good and bad.
The world adapted because the reveal in Carmilla is less about one creature coming out, and more of an entire underbelly to the world that’s just always been there coming to light. It was one vampire when we figured out it was Carmilla, and the characters adapted; it was harpies and gods by the end of the series, and the world adapted. More importantly, we were shown the adaptations.
Sure, Season 1 was probably written with the careful thinking that it may have been their only season, (it wasn’t, thank god) but that doesn’t mean the hints at the consequences weren’t shown. The reveal that stuff is being revealed isn’t in the finale, and we see just a little of what is to come in Laf’s claims that they’ll have to listen to them now and etc.
You Can Do it Right
Reveal the secrets. Totally for it.
As an Inciting Incident.
Or, I suppose in the case of Carmilla, a consequence within itself, but still an effect that has consequences.
Revealing the secret has consequences. That is the point. It is not something that happens, everything immediately goes swimmingly and it’s never spoken about again. It will have an effect, and by god, you should show it.
Reveal away. But not as a conclusion. It is not a conclusion. It’s a consequence with consequences, or an incident with consequences. Don’t pretend it’s all sunshine and rainbows when you ended by opening the flood gates. Now, for the love of god, show the flood.
Thanks
For reading this far and sticking with me on this little ramble.
I want to be clear, that I say all of this with love. I have watched Supergirl and Bitten a few times, and I adore them. Whatever issues I may have with their finales. They are shows always worth returning to, in my opinion.
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Thank you once more for reading, and I shall see you in the next! Whenever that may be.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images, narratives or characters present or referenced in this post. All rights belong to CBS, Kinda TV, Marvel Studios, and all other relevant parties.