Supergirl Season 4, Episode 21: "Red Dawn" (SPOILERS)

[LL2K2]

Official description:

SUPERGIRL BATTLES RED DAUGHTER — Kara (Melissa Benoist) comes face to face with Red Daughter and the two engage in an epic battle. Determined to find a way to extract the Harun-El, Lena (Katie McGrath) turns to an unlikely source for help – Lillian Luthor (guest star Brenda Strong). Meanwhile, Alex (Chyler Leigh) realizes she’s missing parts of her memory, and Brainy (Jesse Rath), Nia (Nicole Maines) and J’onn (David Harewood) set out to track down aliens who have been abducted by Lex. Alexis Ostrander directed the episode with story by Lindsay Sturman and teleplay by Gabriel Llanas & Eric Carrasco (#421).

 

[Kelly]

Sounds very interesting, but here we go AGAIN with a cluttered episode. WHY? the need for the Alien abduction scenario, we have had that before....this episode should have been totally Red Daughter and have the Harun-El storyline fit with the Red Daughter storyline by it not only taking powers away from everyone who took it, but also reuniting Kara and Red Daughter....So much freaking clutter with these people.

 

[vantheman77]

This is too little, too late when Supergirl meets Red Daughter towards the end of the season compared to last season when she met Reign. There could have many storyline opportunities between them during the course of the season.

 

[LL2K2]

Unfortunately, this is why I haven't watched a single episode (except for the crossovers) since "Reign" aired last year. Sam was supposed to be the main ally/antagonist but they kept adding one Worldkiller, then another, then a whole other villain, and that put me off.

Now it appears they're doing the same thing this year. Agent Liberty was supposed to be the main antagonist along with the new President. In the past six or seven episodes, we've seen the emergence of Red Daughter and Lex Luthor, and a stunning (but almost inevitable) betrayal by Eve.

(I'm aware of the last fact because of recaps and it's a bit hard to avoid spoilers, especially on Twitter.)

 

[flickchick85]

Unfortunately, this is why I haven't watched a single episode (except for the crossovers) since "Reign" aired last year. Sam was supposed to be the main ally/antagonist but they kept adding one Worldkiller, then another, then a whole other villain, and that put me off.

Now it appears they're doing the same thing this year. Agent Liberty was supposed to be the main antagonist along with the new President. In the past six or seven episodes, we've seen the emergence of Red Daughter and Lex Luthor, and a stunning (but almost inevitable) betrayal by Eve.

(I'm aware of the last fact because of recaps and it's a bit hard to avoid spoilers, especially on Twitter.)

You've been missing out this season, imo. The plotting has been tighter here than any season prior. The whole Lex plot tied into the Agent Liberty/New President one in a pretty organic way, so it all really feels like one plot for a change.

 

[Web-Head]

You've been missing out this season, imo. The plotting has been tighter here than any season prior. The whole Lex plot tied into the Agent Liberty/New President one in a pretty organic way, so it all really feels like one plot for a change.

Agreed. This might honestly be the best season of Supergirl so far

 

[Kelly]

I think several are like me, no way near the majority, but many like myself that are fine with the plot....but the lack of action with SG, is lacking in a big way. We had way too many episodes with little of SG fighting without 3 to 4 others rushing in after she has been put on her ass. 1 or 2 times not a big deal....hell I was fine with this last episode.....Kara actually fought and didnt end up on her ass....so when SG was doing her thing it was great. BUT far too many SUPERHEROES for me this season. When SG was being Super, it was awesome, just not enough of that...that first montage of Superness in Ep.1 made me so excited. And dont get me wrong, I have loved the smart Reporter Kara....but did not see the need for Jonn's journey, Dreamer's ok, and Lena has been really good, she just needs some stronger acting in the emotional parts....but if James ends up keeping those powers, this series will end up a Summer binge for me....I actually hope that Monitor is there for James' death....and I hate to say that, but Im tired of his character, even though I think he did a good job with the PTSD story line.

 

[flickchick85]

Every season has been underwhelming when it comes to showing Supergirl kicking ass. Every. Single. Season. S1 had SG getting her ass kicked all the time by "threats" she should be able to dispatch no problem, in order to show how much of a newbie and "underdog" in her cousin's shadow she was (not to mention whenever they tried to do action in that season it looked so painful I had to literally turn it off because CBS's crew insisted on hilariously awful wire-fu and the worst portrayal of superpowers I've seen since the 1990's). S2 had a confident and powerful Supergirl and managed their vfx better, but sidelined her ass-kicking for romance for the majority of the season, yet went big with the first and last two of the season. S3 gave us a little better action in the middle but sidelined it mostly to develop the villain. S4 is doing so to highlight reporter!Kara and a stronger plot. CW shows simply can't afford proper action on a regular basis, not with what are some of the smallest hour-long budgets on American television, so they find ways to avoid it each season - each season (including this one) features roughly 3 or 4 strategically-placed major Supergirl action set-pieces that they put more money into than usual, just to remind you that it's a thing that happens sometimes, and then it's back to the tiny moments of Supergirl doing some smaller super-feats as usual. It's been that way since the beginning. All you can hope for with these shows is that the stories compensate for lack of super-fights with decent characterization and plotting. Which this season has done a better job of than any that's come before, imo.

Each season also has undercooked/boring sublplots. That's also not unique to recent seasons. These are issues that have plagued ALL Arrowverse shows from day one. Early Flash avoided it best, but unfortunately, not for long. None of these shows seem to be willing to cut their dead weight, which are usually the same characters from season-to-season. It's very frustrating.

But as I've said, these complaints bother me less in this season than any prior, because they're doing all the other stuff so much better than usual.

 

[flickchick85]

Promo:

 

[NotNickFury]

The answer was right in front of us all along: in order to overpower Kryptonite, just endure dealing with it for 15 years and you can break free.

 

[flickchick85]

Sam Witwer's Brainy impression was A+.

 

[flickchick85]

Um. Did Brainy just become Brainiac?

Hello S5 villain, I guess?

 

[flickchick85]

Oh joy, the director of this episode has decided to go back to S1's wire-fu approach to action. Because that was such a success.

Edit: Did they really just give Red Daughter an offscreen death?! Boo.

 

[vantheman77]

No way Red Daughter can’t die as we need round two between her and Supergirl and reunite them back
Into one.

It’s a shame Supergirl and Red Daughter meet right close to season’s end.

 

[Frodo]

I was kinda thrown a bit during the red daughter vs Supergirl fight. Did Red daughter take out the sunlight ? It was kinda weird .

Then I was shocked that Kara seemed to be dead given Reign did much more damage to her then RD ever did. Then when Kara sucked up the sunlight from the grass ....

I mean , I know at a certain point you have to kinda just go with it, but Kara and RD's powers felt very Dick Lester Superman 2ish to me.

Other than that whole sequence, which just seemed rushed and off beat to me , I really liked the episode.

 

[flickchick85]

My general opinion of the episode is pretty cut and dry. Directing: TERRIBLE. Everything else: pretty darn good. I wasn't here for the magic grass bit but the emotions happening in the scene were on-point so I just rolled with it. Lots of great acting moments in this ep, a surprising amount of emotional content AND they managed to surprise me with Lex's plot a little bit. A pretty strong ep and excellent setup for the finale, imo.

But seriously though, that fight was abysmal. And I also blame the director for the silliness of the portrayal of the magic grass, too, because I can kinda imagine that part working better on paper if it had been conveyed with different visuals. It was just...really bad directing.

 

[batdude]

The ONLY way that magic grass bit would have worked is a Swamp Thing guest appearance. Would have been a great way to see the new guy playing him.

 

[Frodo]

My general opinion of the episode is pretty cut and dry. Directing: TERRIBLE. Everything else: pretty darn good. I wasn't here for the magic grass bit but the emotions happening in the scene were on-point so I just rolled with it. Lots of great acting moments in this ep, a surprising amount of emotional content AND they managed to surprise me with Lex's plot a little bit. A pretty strong ep and excellent setup for the finale, imo.

But seriously though, that fight was abysmal. And I also blame the director for the silliness of the portrayal of the magic grass, too, because I can kinda imagine that part working better on paper if it had been conveyed with different visuals. It was just...really bad directing.

Yeah, pretty much agree all around. It seemed liked they were rushing to get to the end of the episode by the time of the fight and the fight was sorta slapped together.

I mean, I really was surprised that Kara was supposed to be dead given quality of the fight . Then once Kara is lying there and everyone is crying I was like , "did I miss something ?".

Then , when Alex threw the grass on her I thought that that was supposed to be a desperate , futile, emotional, attempt to revive her, that wouldn't go anywhere. And when the grass lit up, I thought it was liquid Kryptonite at first.

 

[flickchick85]

Also, didn't Lena leave the truth-seeker thing on Lillian at the end? If so, my money's on that being how Kara's secret comes out next ep.

 

[Brierrose]

This is where the idea for the grass came from.

I agree that the execution was poor and the director’s to blame for that.
Edit:I want to add that Chyler acted the hell out that scene. The failed adoption thing last episode doesn’t seem nearly as misplaced now, so golf clap to the writers on that. I’m satisfied with the way the mindwipe ended, we’re gonna need a couch scene to finish it.

 

[Web-Head]

The showdown was a bit of a letdown, but a good episode overall. I agree that the whole magic grass thing was weird, lol. I hope Red Daughter isn't really dead, but I think she might be.

Melissa was fantastic in this scene

Um. Did Brainy just become Brainiac?

Hello S5 villain, I guess?

I was wondering the other day if Braniac would show up on Supergirl. I think it's a no brainer

 

[Dr.]

I don’t recall the mind wipe episode so well. Did J’onn zap Eliza too?

 

[Frodo]

The showdown was a bit of a letdown, but a good episode overall. I agree that the whole magic grass thing was weird, lol. I hope Red Daughter isn't really dead, but I think she might be.

I think she might be as well given that she seemed pretty much an afterthought this season. I think the problem was that at the end of last season , they planned for Red Daughter to really be a major threat and focus of this season.

However , I think Agent Liberty and alien discrimination idea ultimately took priority ,and once they decided to throw Lex in as a puppetmaster of sorts, that meant Red Daughter storyline became less and less crucial as a driving narrative of the season.

With Reign , they pretty much set her up in the season finale and followed through with her being big threat. This season you had 3 big villains in Agent Liberty, Lex, and the President. RD sort of fell through the cracks imo.

 

[Sithborg]

Yeah, I doubt Red Daughter is really dead. We will see what really happened next episode.

I am curious about Brainy's development. I like the Rod Serling impression. It would be fun to see the actual Brainiac next season. Maybe even bring back Indigo.

 

[Web-Head]

I don’t recall the mind wipe episode so well. Did J’onn zap Eliza too?

No