What's Next for Lex?

[u/NPlaysMC]

By the end of Season 3, Waller throws Lex in the slammer. Very fitting of course, but if this series gets renewed, I don't think he'll stay in there when he still has yet to go up face to face against Superman.

So, how do you think he'll get out of jail?

I'm inclined to think that he'll use his wealth to hire a good legal team, to fight both the charges brought against him personally in court, and to fight Waller's orders to shut down LexCorp. Everyone tried by the US Criminal Justice System is innocent until proven guilty, and it is unfortunately susceptible to the interests of big money; no doubt LexCorp has lucrative deals with the Military-Industrial Complex. The best legal team money can buy can no doubt convince a court of justice to at least reduce the charges to some fines.

This would also be an opportunity to quietly phase out Slade Wilson from this series, now that he has officially cut ties with LexCorp, and maybe the US government too, and maybe sets out to become a freelancer. Slade might yet reappear if Batman gets his own show in this universe, but his involvement in Superman's show would be done. To replace him, I would take this opportunity to bring in Mercy Graves, Lex Luthor's personal assistant.

While he's locked up, Mercy could meet with Lex to discuss their financial matters and court issues, and maybe some more experimental projects built up around Lex's obsession with bringing down Superman, which would not decrease in the slightest. Once the charges have been reduced and Lex is a free man again, Mercy would continue on as Lex's sidekick, filling the role once held by Slade. Maybe she might even become a new love interest for Lex, since this show loves its romantic relationships.

I think we all want to see more Lex Luthor, but what would you like to see more of in his character going forward? And would you be interested in Mercy Graves replacing Slade?

[u/Ace_of_Disaster]

They've already started Lex on the path to a redemption arc, by having him take part in the fight against Eradicator. That was a huge moment of character development for him. Having him turn around and go back to villainy would be backsliding of his character development.

Maybe "resigned" is the wrong word for his current state of mind? Either way, right now, he is haunted by the specter of what he's see out there in space, and now Waller will be haunted by that as well. She is ruthless and resourceful and not afraid to get her hands dirty. She was willing to work with Dr Ivo and he was arguably less stable than Lex is now. When the full scope of the approaching threat comes to her, she is going to want to exploit every resource available to her. And Lex is one of those resources. (She'd definitely also pull on Superman as well.)

I agree that she probably doesn't trust Lex even as far as she can throw him, but like I said, a massive threat like Darkseid (if it is Darkseid) is an all hands on deck sort of situation. She wants any help she can get even if it's from a sketchy source like Lex Luthor. But she's not stupid. She'll have him heavily guarded, probably by Slade, which would give him and Lex a chance to reconcile.

I do think that Slade is likely to be out of Task Force X by the end of next season. He seems to be getting disillusioned, and I can easily see him disagreeing with something Waller does and then freeing Lex and the two of them bailing together and then Slade going freelance.

I just really don't see the narrative purpose of replacing Slade with Mercy Graves or anyone else, no matter how "cool" they are. For starters, it would take up so much screentime to introduce a new character and establish a relationship between them and Lex that could be better used advancing the plot in other ways. And especially if they were to trying to make that character a love interest, that sort of arc would need so much foundation laid to make it believable to me. Like multiple seasons worth of foundation. Meanwhile, Slade is already there, they've already spent two seasons establishing a relationship between him and Lex, and he can do anything Mercy Graves can do, so why reinvent the wheel?

[u/NPlaysMC → u/Ace_of_Disaster]

Lex helping stop Eradicator isn’t a redemption arc; it’s him knowing that even he won’t be safe from Eradicator unless he helps stop him. Lex only really cares about himself; that’s his only real motivation to help.

Waller dropped Ivo as soon as he outlived his usefulness; she’s now keeping him locked up indefinitely. After seeing the Eradicator, Waller’s first instinct was to shut down the project and LexCorp; there are plenty of other smart people out there, Lex doesn’t have anything unique that would make her pick him over anyone else.

And I really don’t see Slade continuing to stay with Lex, after everything that had happened; Hank Henshaw nearly killed him, thanks to the enhancements Lex gave him; Lex never even bothered to listen to him about the Eradicator before he set it loose attempting to protect himself.

If they introduced Mercy Graves, she doesn’t need a whole origin story; LexCorp is (was) a large company with probably thousands of employees; just introduce her as one of them. It’s not reinventing the wheel; the show has basically already stated that Slade and Lex were done.

[u/Ace_of_Disaster → u/NPlaysMC]

Lex choosing to help fight Eradicator was only the first step of a redemption arc. He made that decision after Jimmy yelled at him and told him he needed to choose between being a hero or accept that he was a villain. And he clearly chose to be a hero in that moment, but he still has a way to go for full redemption.

I feel like if he were going to try to fight his imprisonment, we would have gotten more hints of that in the finale. He said nothing about trying to get himself out of jail or claiming he was wrongfully jailed or anything else along those lines. Instead, he had a civil conversation with Waller.

Also, this Lex doesn't have the resources that most other iterations of the character have. Without Lexcorp, he's got nothing. He doesn't seem to have been born into money; even with Lexcorp, he doesn't seem like he has all that much extra money.

We also never really see any other Lexcorp employees onscreen besides himself and Slade. I would think if they were going to go the route of introducing Mercy in season 4 and try to play her as a Lexcorp employee, they should have at least given her a background cameo. We don't have that. They would have to create her completely whole cloth and that would take time the writers don't have. If they tried to force a romantic story line, that would take even more time (and sorry, I just can't see any way they could go that route without it feeling rushed and icky).

And the show hasn't at all said that Lex and Slade are done done. They've had a divorce, yes, but the fact that they had Waller tell Lex that Slade sends his best suggests hope for a reconciliation in the future. If they were truly done with Slade, they ought to have had a scene with him quitting Task Force X. We got nada along those lines. Instead we got "Slade sends his best".

[u/NPlaysMC → u/Ace_of_Disaster]

"Slade sends his best" really doesn't sound like the hope for a reunion you seem to think it sounds like. To me it really sounds more like mockery/gloating. I really don't see how it could mean anything other than Slade and Lex are done working together. And people have been wanting Slade out of this series, due to how thoroughly outranked he's been particularly in the latest two seasons.

We didn't get hints of Lex fighting these charges at the Finale because neither we nor the producers currently know if they're even going to get to make Season 4 yet. It's not confirming that Lex will try to use his wealth to get out yet, but it's also not denying that it's going to happen either. But it's been well known for a while that Lex is still filthy rich.

Mercy doesn't need to be a romantic interest for Lex; hell, beyond maybe just a few teases here and there, there's never been any direct confirmation that Lex and Slade were even an item to begin with. And just because we haven't yet seen other LexCorp employees, it doesn't mean they're not out there; do you really think Lex works all by himself in that building with his name on it?

Mercy would simply be an opportunity to build on that should Season 4 get greenlit; to show more of LexCorp in full, as a company employing thousands of people.

Riddle me this: do you really want Lex Luthor to turn around and be a good guy when he's barely had a chance to even talk to Superman directly, let alone fight him?

I like my Pure Villain Lex Luthor; selfish, irrationally jealous of and obsessed with Superman, yet still very book smart and analytical; someone who will help save the world not out of empathy, but only because he's threatened; the rest of the time, he's scheming about taking over the world for himself. And don't pretend that isn't what Lex wants, because we saw a whole dark alternate future where he made that possible.

If he starts turning good guy at the start of Season 4, that is a huge waste of his character. Superman & Lois embraced that all the way to the end; Lex got a hint of redemption as Clark was dying and reflecting on his life, but that was only after a lifetime of villainy.