Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the latest episode of “Supergirl.”
Mr. Mxyzptlk popped in once again on “Supergirl” this week and finally redeemed himself to Kara and the Super Friends by helping them weaken Nyxly. Unfortunately, he had to sacrifice himself to do it — and that sacrifice is looking pretty permanent.
“That was my swan song on Supergirl,” Thomas Lennon confirmed to TheWrap. “Until, of course, the probably amazing spinoff Mxy show.”
Before we start dreaming about what that hypothetical spinoff could look like though, let’s discuss what went down. After summoning Mr. Mxyzptlk to free her from Nyxly’s ice trap, Kara learns that the two imps have a rocky relationship. As it turns out, Mxy was originally part of Nxyly’s plans to overthrow her father in the Fifth Dimension. But, when they got caught, Mxy sold her out and fell in line with the patriarchy.
As Mr. Mxyzptlk is prone to do, he explained their sordid past in an absolutely insane way: an exposition-heavy song, set to the tune of “I Will Survive.” And for Lennon, the song was definitely the hardest part of the episode.
“There’s so much information and so many names of fifth dimensional characters,” Lennon said. “I mean, it was a very good thing that I was locked in a hotel room for two weeks because there was nothing else I could work on or do, because it was so hard.”
And this time around, he had less help. Because, as Lennon recounts, “Supergirl” star Melissa Benoist helped him a lot when it came to first learning his own character’s name.
“I wasn’t great at saying the name out loud. And then, Melissa, who’s amazing at everything, just stepped in and she was like ‘Mr. Mxyzptlk!’” Lennon said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s how you say it!’ I forgot. I knew that that’s vaguely how you say it, but she said it with such confidence that every time I say the name, I’m just trying to remember the way that Melissa says it.”
Of course, the hardest part of the night for Mr. Mxyzptlk, the character, was not being able to use his magic. Imps can track each other’s magic, so in order to keep Nyxly from discovering the Tower, Mxy had to just be a plain — well, a very loosely defined “plain” — guy.
“It was great to play like the sort of the side of Mxy that regrets, you know, the things that had happened in the fifth dimension,” Lennon said. “It just adds like a level of, kind of gravitas to the character. Generally when I’m brought in it’s for pretty silly stuff, but it was fun to play the Mxy without magic and what he thinks he’s good at what he thinks he can be helpful with.”
To be fair, Lennon got his typical silly stuff. After all, at one point Dreamer used an image inducer to turn herself into Mxy as a way to lure Nyxly out, forcing Lennon to act as Nicole Maines acting as Dreamer acting as Mxy (told you…silliness).
“I honestly think the one thing I tried to do is, because Nicole’s fairly taller than me, is I tried to stand up straight,” Lennon said. “That’s about the amount of heavy lifting of acting I did for that. I was like ‘Okay, well Nicole’s about two inches taller than me. So let’s just do that.’”
Sadly, it was a short-lived gag, as Nia was quickly exposed. In the end, Mxy sacrificed himself, allowing Nxyly to capture him in her crystal, but slipping a power dampener onto her wrist as he vanished.
At this point, it’s unclear what exactly happens to Mxy now. As Dreamer notes, there may still be hope if the imp is just stuck inside the crystal. It’s possible that though Lennon won’t appear on-screen again, Mr. Mxyzptlk could survive off-screen. But honestly, Lennon has no idea.
“I swear, it seems like I’m being cagey. But I actually don’t know what happens next in the storyline,” he admitted.
The good news is, what comes next still involves the Super Friends still having magic on their side. As it so happens, Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) has discovered not only that her mother was a witch, but that she passed on her magical gift to Lena. Lena just needs to “choose to embrace it.”
Lest we forget Nyxly’s own menacing words: “Only magic can beat magic.” There’s likely a difference between 5th dimensional magic and witchcraft, but at least Kara and the team will be on a more level playing field.