In last week‘s Supergirl, Kelly (Azie Tesfai) and Alex (Chyler Leigh) had a near-brush with death when J’onn’s (David Harewood) evil shape-shifting brother Malefic targeted them. Unfortunately for the couple, that was just the beginning of the perils the superhero drama’s crazy world will throw them this season.

“There are big events that happen this year,” Azie Tesfai tells EW. “[In] this world that these characters live in, there’s no peaceful time for very long. You have like a couple of minutes of peace and then the world’s about to end every week. So, it’s been interesting to explore this relationship with these two under the stress of that and under the microscope of life or death.”

Tesfai believes that Kelly and Alex’s response to the constant danger is what makes them stand-out from other romantic pairings on television. “Kelly and Alex, my favorite thing about them is that they communicate in such a healthy and adult way,” she says. “What I love about these characters, to our writers’ credit, is on television, a lot of love relationships don’t have such a healthy, stable dynamic. People find it that they need to create lots of drama. I really appreciate we have made them a very loving and very supportive and very grounded and kind, and healthy. But for what Kelly and Alex represent as women that are in this relationship and both have past trauma and are helping each other, [they] have all the makings for something that could be disruptive and it’s not. I think that that is as something that I wanted to show on television.”

She continues: “So seeing them trying to navigate that separately and together brings a new level of depth to their relationship and a vulnerability that I think is really interesting to have been able to explore — Kelly to Alex and then me to Chyler. Getting to hang out with her has been really incredible.”

In tonight’s episode, Kelly tries to move past her encounter with Malefic and return to her normal life, which may end up being harder than she thinks. “Kelly is new to this world and very optimistic and takes the attitude of like, ‘Okay that’s been dealt with. Moving on,'” says Tesfai. “Kelly’s optimism and her positive attitude and her heart and how much she cares about everybody is what Alex adores about her. I think the only negative feelings that [Alex] has towards Kelly with this is for Kelly’s safety and to make sure that she’s okay. I think she thinks that Kelly might be a little naive in terms of how open she is.”

Supergirl airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on The CW.

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