Everything from the snark and sarcasm when Melissa Benoist’s Girl of Steel discovered his ploy to the classic hubris in assuming he’d truly succeeded just before it all fell apart worked wonderfully, insofar as a bad guy can be wonderful.
Of course, he did kind of win in the premiere, though it came at a great cost.
The episode was a masterclass in why Jon Cryer’s Lex Luthor is so great and why it’ll be such a shame to see him less often once Supergirl is gone.