Well, that was… an episode. I’m still not entirely sure what I thought of it overall, but I do know that I have five different thoughts from throughout the episode. Quite a coincidence, you might think.
Still, let’s drop the pre-amble and jump into our Five Thoughts on Supergirl‘s “Red Faced”. Be warned: spoilers ahead!
1. Supergirl Gets Angry
This was probably the best part of this episode. As much as I love Melissa Benoist as Supergirl, for the past few episodes she’s rarely gone beyond being cute and adorable and being all “Oh, I can’t do this so I’m sad, but really I had the power in me to do it the whole time.” It was starting to get a little formulaic and if the show wasn’t careful, it was going to really restrict the character. Thankfully, this episode is built entirely around Kara’s anger! Seriously, it’s almost like this show picks a singular emotional theme for each episode and just runs with it.
This week as anger and, as it turns out, Kara’s still harbouring some anger over the fact that her planet got blown up that one time and she’s gone like 20 years without actually dealing with it. Thankfully, there’s handy dandy robot for her to beat up in order to work out her anger! Thankfully, Melissa Benoist’s performance saves this whole thing with the final heat vision attack on Red Tornado being an outlet for her rage as most feels kind of… I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels like this whole rage thing came out of nowhere just because it was thematically appropriate? There was very little build up to it and it felt very insularly important to only this episode.
2. The Parents Are Coming! The Parents Are Coming!
So, turns out everyone has shitty parents. Everyone. Kara and Alex’s mum was borderline abusive to Alex over literally nothing a couple episodes back and now Cat’s mum and Lucy’s dad is in town and they’re both just awful parents. Cat’s mum is probably the worst as she’s basically all of Episode One Cat’s worst traits without all the self-awarness or character development since then (she’s rich, snooty and treats everyone like they’re below her) and Lucy’s dad is a racist. No, seriously. The whole thing with Jimmy Olsen being not good enough for Lucy? It’s not because he’s a “glorified papparazzo”, he has an amazing job at a well renowned media conglomerate. It’s because he’s black. You can’t fool me, show. I can spot racist old men from a mile away. It’s a survival tactic.
Still, this was a pretty neat way to lead to a great moment for Cat (more on that in a sec) and to develop James and Lucy’s relationship. And, weirdly, felt more important to the episode than the Red Tornado did.
3. Red Tornado On A Budget
Okay, I know that TV budgets aren’t as big as film budgets and this isn’t exactly Man Of Steel, but… yikes. That thing looked damn cheap. Of course it’s hard to make an android look good no matter what (even Age Of Ultron’s Vision had some weirdness to it), but here Red Tornado looks like bloody Power Rangers villain. What was most disappointing, though, was the decision to take away Red Tornado’ sentience for most of the episode and focus on Dr. Morrow (because the show wasn’t quite ready to call him T. O. Morrow, apparently) as the villain because he… wanted revenge on Genereal Lane… for scrapping his robot project, I think? I don’t know, all of the villains on this show feel like they have the exact same revenge motive and it did Red Tornado no favours.
Although I do love the fact that General Lane sets up a test fight between Supergirl and Red Tornado only to get pissed off when Supergirl beats it. That’s the most dad thing he could have possibly done. Like sorry you spent a billion dollars and 11 years on something that can be taken out in ten seconds.
But I really hope the show is able to re-introduce Red Tornado and actually build him as a heroic character this time around. Otherwise, his appearance here was kind of a waste.
Continued below4. Cat Grant Continues To Be A God Tier Character
Seriously, the biggest recommendation I would give to someone thinking of watching Supergirl is to watch it for Cat Grant because she is amazing. This episode gives her a very motherly moment that develops her relationship with Kara where, after Kara has a bit of a meltdown at work, Cat takes her out and actually imparts some wisdom onto her about the expectations of women in the workplace. I thought it was a really nice moment and Calista Flockhart continues to act circles around everyone else in this show, including Melissa Benoist. I would honestly watch a show that was just a day in the life of Cat Grant. It would have less goofy looking androids.
5. Please Stop Pushing The Alex Danvers/Maxwell Lord Thing
I don’t want this to be a thingy. Maxwell Lord is smarmy and awful and is basically Lex Luthor with hair. Don’t try and tell me Alex “I’m the one who defeats all the villains” Danvers would ever be interested in him. I’m going full fangirl here, please don’t make this a thing, I beg of you. Just please don’t.
