TV Review: Supergirl – Season 1 Episode 6 “Red Faced”

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

EPISODE 6: "Red Faced"

SYNOPSIS: The military has developed a new weapon system named Red Tornado for Kara to test, but will her emotions get in the way? Red Tornado isn't the only tornado in National City. Cat's monstrous mother swoops in, making a headache for everyone in her path.

REVIEW:

Huge congratulations are in order for SUPERGIRL! Today CBS announced that the series has been picked up for seven more episodes, which gives the first season a 20 episode order. While 20 episodes are slightly less than the usual order of 22-23 episodes, the difference can be attributed to a later start date and the series' increasing production costs. But nonetheless, it's obvious the network has confidence in the freshman drama and is investing in our favorite girl of steel. And word on the street is SUPERGIRL is currently in the midst of casting a thirteen-year-old Kal-El. Could we be seeing the makings of Superboy?

With tonight's "Red Faced", we are finally back in sync with the SUPERGIRL timeline. Last week's episode focused on the issue of Kara stretching herself too thin. And tonight, that problem comes to a head as Kara learns not to let the stresses of her personal life and her emotions affect her crime fighting. Her first Hulk-out (is that Marvel reference blasphemous?) comes when she saves a group of children from being run over by drivers with road rage. One driver has the nerve to get mad at Kara for totaling his car and attempts to punch her. She catches his fist in mid-air and shows him who is boss. However, when the press get wind of this they paint her as someone to be scared of. Maxwell Lord even compares her to the issue of police brutality. As Hank Henshaw says, people aren't scared of Supergirl and her cousin because of their powers, but because of what they fear will happen when the supes get angry.

The next mistake Kara makes is during a test fight against Red Tornado (RT), a government-made android that we later find out was made to kill Kryptonians. General Lane and his daughter Lucy use political and military pressure to enlist Supergirl's help in testing RT's abilities. At first, Kara is leery to join the mission, and can you blame her? If my crush's girlfriend demanded I do something, I would probably do the opposite. However, Kara wants to prove that she and her cousin can be trusted, so she agrees to participate.

But after watching James and Lucy fawn all over each other at game night, Kara's not in the best of moods to compete against RT. Again, her anger bubbles up and she takes it out on the android, continuing to pummel it even after being ordered to stop. She even discovers a new fighting technique that enables her to attack from underground! When RT is finally able to get away from Kara, it goes into self-preservation mode and flies away. The DEO and military are afraid RT's next target will be National City.

Kara's anger doesn't just stop on the battlefield. It bleeds over into her work at CatCo as well. We have seen Kara take abuse after abuse from her difficult boss, but tonight she finally snaps. As it turns out, Cat was being extra vicious at work because her mother Katherine was in town. Katherine has been an unseen, yet looming figure so far this season, especially when it comes to getting to know more about Cat's character. And now that we finally meet the Grant matriarch, she is every bit as biting, selfish, and nasty as expected. It's no wonder Cat is the way she is.

After being called out for being so mean, Cat seems to respect Kara even more and takes her out for drinks. She gives Kara advice that she can use at work and as Supergirl. Cat explains that men can be seen as angry at work (e.g., she once saw Perry White throw a chair out the window); but there's a double-standard for women and Kara needs to control herself. In order to get past the anger, Kara needs to find out what is actually bothering her; there is anger behind the anger. This anger, Kara later discovers while using a car as a punching bag, is jealousy over what Lucy and James have, and not just because she has a crush on James. She wants a normal relationship with someone who knows her the way Lucy and James know each other. Kara thought acknowledging her superpowers would finally make her feel normal, but it doesn't and she is upset about that. She is angry that the last time she felt normal was right before her parents sent her away from Krypton. Cue another cop-out phone call that draws Kara's attention and takes her out of the conversation with James. Now I'm angry!

Meanwhile, General Lane orders Red Tornado be destroyed. But the android's creator, Dr. Morrow, refuses to let years of work and billions of dollars go down the drain. Morrow is fired, but isn't out of the picture for long. A subsequent attack on General Lane, who is saved by Supergirl, shows that Morrow is actually controlling the android and the team realizes they need to go after Dr. Frankenstein instead of his monster.

Because Morrow is using RT to seek revenge against General Lane, the team uses a hologram of the General as bait. Alex realizes she can trace Morrow's signal once they have RT in their sights. At first, everything goes according to plan. Kara fights RT while Alex fights Morrow to get him to lose control of the android. However, when Alex eventually kills the doctor, RT doesn't stop fighting. In order to finally defeat the sentient being, Kara has to use the anger to fight for her instead of against her. She channels this rage into her heat vision and eventually blows RT to smithereens.

But that's not the end of the story. In not so surprising news, we find out that Jeremiah Danvers might not be dead after all. As it turns out, he and Hank Henshaw went missing while on a mission in South America many years ago. Henshaw returned to the DEO two years ago, with no recollection of what happened and no external injuries. Could this mean Jeremiah Danvers is still alive as well? And not only that, it also appears that her extra strength heat vision depleted her powers. While trying to clean broken glass in Cat's office, Kara cuts herself and doesn't immediately heal. We will see how this works out next week!

"Red Faced" was another step up in terms of episode quality. It continued unraveling more of the mystery surrounding Jeremiah Danvers, and gave us more insight into Cat and Kara as characters. But as much as I enjoyed the anger element with Kara's character, it seemed to come out of nowhere. In previous episodes, anger is not one of the emotions Kara has really shown. Now, all of a sudden, her rage problem is so out of hand that it needs to have an entire episode dedicated to stopping it?

And while the villains (I consider General Lane one, too) from tonight's episode brought out another interesting side of Kara, Red Tornado was a bit of a letdown. I appreciate that RT broke up the typical superhero villain formula (first fight: villain defeats hero; second fight: hero defeats villain). But it seemed like RT should be a more menacing force than it was. However, based on preview pictures from upcoming episodes, there's a good chance RT will come back, but in what capacity? In terms of villains, we have yet to find one that is close to General Astra. And speaking of which, I still find it a bit ridiculous that there hasn't been any more talk about her (either making plans for when she resurfaces or wondering where she is). Astra has been Kara's strongest challenger yet, and if it were me, I would be trying to think of a game plan to defeat her.

Despite the villain issues, perhaps the weakest element of the episode was the focus on James and Lucy, who are the Iris and Eddie (THE FLASH reference) of this show. I don't particularly care about James and Lucy's relationship and so far, their time onscreen is less critical and more throwaway. Yes, it sucks that General Lane is an a-hole and doesn't accept their relationship, but does it really matter that much in the grand scheme of things? When I think of the elements of the show that most entertain me, it is the dramatics of Cat Grant, the mystery of Henshaw, and watching Kara discover herself and grow into her superhero duties. More of that and less of the unnecessary romance, please.
 

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS

• When Alex asks Wynn for his help to break into the DEO's computer system, he tells her he has daddy issues. We know where this is leading…
• Did Cat's mom name her daughter after herself?
• The show makes sure to highlight there is a female President.
• Lucy refuses to go back with her dad, and decides to stay with James. Uhhhh…. as a member of the armed forces, you can't really do that.
• When it comes to General Lane, can someone seriously be that big of an asshole?
• We don't need the continuous cuts to Hank Henshaw's red eyes. We get it.
• How many times are we going to see tornadoes used on these DC shows??

FINAL VERDICT: