Supergirl – Red Faced

Playing catch up with the Supergirl series so only watched this episode last night.

It’s another solid entry in the series – Supergirl is recruited/forced to battle the new Red Tornado android to test its capabilities against insurgents, a test mandated by General Sam Lane (Lois and Lucy’s dad). Due to having already had a stressful day, Kara loses her temper, totals the Tornado and knocks some wiring loose allowing it to go rogue, something with General Lane blames her for.

There’s another parallel story – Kara needs to learn to control her temper both as Cat Grant’s assistant and as Supergirl, working out what’s really making her angry (the fact that she’ll never have a normal life) before being able to use that anger to her advantage. She and Cat bond a little more while Max Lord makes a short appearance, slowly growing his role as villain and yet potential love interest for Kara’s sister Alex. And then there’s the mystery about Hank Henshaw which the internet has already spoiled.

Like I said, another good episode – Supergirl grows a little more, General Lane is a xenophobic arsehole and Red Tornado makes his on screen début – but I did have a couple of problems with it, mostly about dear old Reddy.

Sadly, unlike any of the other aliens/bad guys featured to date on the show (or even Supergirl herself) Reddy looked like nothing more than a man in a suit:

and not a very good one, either. Nothing about the character’s design said “android” – it was just a suit, a fact that was reinforced when Max Lord lifted the severed arm up as if it were made of polystyrene; the prop clearly had no weight to it. Reddy was described as a prototype, though, so I’m hoping if and when he returns, he’ll look a bit better.

And I’d put money on his return, as well, as despite Kara blowing him to bits at the episode’s end, Red Tornado has a long history of being destroyed and rebuilt which inevitably leads to scenes like this:

Androids get all the love.