Supergirl S1E6 - "Red Faced" Review

                                               

Tonight’s episode is called, “Red Faced”.  The episode begins with Kara intervening in a vehicle altercation. Before the two cars can hit an incoming flux of children, Supergirl stops them. However, she ends up (accidentally, of course) breaking one of the men’s arm. Maxwell Lord, after his “talk” with Supergirl last episode, takes it upon himself to publicly advocate for body cameras on Supergirl.

Cat’s mother is in town and this is something I’ve been looking forward to, personally. Within a second, you can already see how disapproving she is of Cat’s lifestyle. I do like that she echoed Kara’s sentiments about Supergirl being called Superwoman. Though, all of that was lessened slightly by her preferring a male superhero (she’s based in Metropolis).

We get some more story about Alex’s father. Remember in the Thanksgiving episode (damn airing episodes out of order…!) when we learned that Jeremiah Danvers worked for the DEO and Eliza believed Henshaw had something to do with it? Well, Alex wants to follow up on that by asking Winn to break into the DEO’s files to find out what really happened to him. After some prodding, he finally agrees.

Lucy’s father is in town and he’s one of those military guys who doesn’t like aliens. He needs Supergirl to help with the testing of a new machine. He lets slip that we have a female president. So you know, no freaking out or anything. Anyway, when Henshaw hesitates, Lucy shows up handing over an executive order. That was a tad shocking, and Kara looked none too pleased but she agreed.

We get our first introduction to Red Tornado, the robot that Supergirl will help test. 

Cat’s mother is a work of art, it has to be said. She’s incredibly condescending to her daughter, ignoring all of her very real achievements as well as the fact that she had canceled her evening just to spend time with her. At the last minute, her mother decides that an intimate night with a famous author is more important and cancels. I think it's her way of trying to be more important than she really is.

So Winn, Kara, James, and Lucy play charades and it’s obvious that James and Lucy are a good team. Lucy mentions meeting Supergirl and not being impressed. Getting the sense that this episode’s theme is about emotions and how to control them, which Kara is struggling with. So, Supergirl and Red Tornado have their fight and while the robot seems to get some good shots in early, it really wasn’t much of a fight for Supergirl. However, all her pent up anger releases onto the robot and it eventually flees, in stealth mode. Now it’s free to mess up National City and General Lane blames Supergirl, because that’s what they all do.

Marrow, the creator of the Red Tornado, is subsequently fired (somehow, I have a feeling General Lane is going to regret that). Cat, who I think lashes out on everyone else because of the way her mother treats her, starts belittling Kara as usual. Kara has been seething most of the episode and it was only a matter of time before she blow up at Cat. Well, tonight she finally did it. Cat, reacted differently than I or Kara expected. She didn’t seem angry.

Alex, meanwhile, goes to Maxwell Lord to try and get his help in finding the missing Red Tornado. He refuses. James, Lucy, and General Lane are all out to dinner. It’s very tense. When Lucy leaves for the restroom, we get down to the bottom of the hostility. James believes it has to do with him knowing “aliens”, but the truth is, General Lane doesn’t think James is good enough for his daughter. He refers to him as a “glorified paparazzo”.

Elsewhere, we find out where Kara and Cat went to: a bar. Cat, in her on unique way, is more of a mentor to Kara than anyone else on the show. She’s sort of Kara’s moral compass, even if she can’t see it. Kara wasn’t really angry at Cat; she’s been angry the whole episode.

Red Tornado makes its appearance and starts attacking civilians, Lucy being one of them. General Lane foolishly believes he can get Red Tornado to stand down. Luckily, James had more sense and alerted Supergirl who arrived in the nick of time. Red Tornado unleashes a real tornado on National City. Supergirl saves the day by spinning fast enough to stop it. However, Red Tornado gets away. Supergirl thinks that it learned from the last time they fought and knew she would chose to save the people as opposed to fighting it.

It turns out, the Red Tornado was designed purely to fight Kryptonians. I don’t like General Lane, by the way. So, Maxwell Lord, who totally has a thing for Alex, decides he does want to help after all. Alex lets it slip about her father’s death, but covers it up nicely. Lord tells her that Red Tornado wasn’t acting alone; there was a GPS on the arm she had shown him. Basically, like I said earlier. Marrow, the creator, is the one they need to go after.

Cat had suggested that Kara release her anger somehow, and she finally figures out a way. James joins her. They have a nice little conversation about sexism and racism. It’s those little things that Supergirl manages to write into each episode that really makes it worth watching. Both Kara and James are boxing. James, with a boxing bag and Kara with a car (cute). We finally get to the bottom of what’s making Kara so angry. She wants a normal life and seeing James and Lucy together forces her to come to the realization that it’s not going to happen. This is a really good scene for Kara’s character. We’re seeing the woman behind the suit, behind the dorky glasses and smile. We’re really getting to the bottom of her and I’m so glad that the series didn’t waste time.

Alex finds Marrow and it turns out that the only way to stop Red Tornado is to kill him. After a nasty fight, Alex kills Marrow, but the Red Tornado no longer needs Marrow; it’s sentient. Kara channels all the anger that she feels (at her parents for making her leave) and users her laser eyes to destroy Red Tornado. Oh, what an amazing scene. The music really did wonders!

After some digging, Winn is able to find out a little of what happened to Alex’s father. There was an issue with an alien and Henshaw and Jeremiah were MIA and presumed dead until Henshaw returned and claimed he had no idea what happened. However, he was the one who deleted the files and now Alex is determined to find out the truth.

Meanwhile, Cat’s mother is on her way out and talks down to Kara, to which Cat takes great offense. She finally calls her mother out on her BS, and Kara speechless, but happy. Kara cuts herself and starts bleeding; she’s normal, just like she wanted. But I have a feeling it’s going to come at a price if next week’s previews are anything to go by.

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8pm Eastern Standard Time.