Supergirl Season 4 Episode 21 ‘Red Dawn

Story by: Lindsay Sturman Written by: Gabriel Llanas & Eric Carrasco

Directed by: Alexis Ostrander

Starring: Starring: Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, Katie Mcgrath, Sam Witwer, David Harewood, Jesse Wrath, Nicole Maines, April Parker Jones

Official synopsis Kara comes face to face with Red Daughter and the two engage in an epic battle; Lena turns to an unlikely source for help; Alex realizes she’s missing parts of her memory; Brainy, Nia and J’onn set out to track down aliens who have been abducted.”

As far as penultimate episodes go we couldn’t ask for much more. We got the conclusion to certain story arcs and took huge steps forward in others. Supergirl has been missing from our screen for a few weeks now and it was great to get a Supergirl heavy episode. It was double the Melissa Benoist this week also as Supergirl confronts Red Daughter. A very emotional episode this week with some sequences ripped straight from the comics.

A special shout out to Eric Carrasco on his final episode of Supergirl. Having been writing for the show for 3 years, and credited with some of the stand out episodes I have been a huge admirer of his work. A big well done on his achievements and good luck in the future from all at DC World.

red dawn

HOPE, HELP AND COMPASSION FOR ALL

The showdown between Supergirl and Red Daughter gave us some good action sequences. The slow-motion effect during battle was used a little too much for my liking but a scene very similar to what we see Rey do on the recent Star Wars Episode 9 trailer was very well shot.

I liked the way Supergirl continues to try and get through to Red Daughter without violence. We learn more about the motivations of Red Daughter and why she is helping Lex. All this puts a lot of what we have seen into perspective and adds potential conflict for the final episode. Seeing the two become allies might be a stretch however, having empathy for each other could create a truce.

THE PAWN

Emotions ran deep in this episode for every character. Arguably none more than Ben Lockwood. We know everything that Ben has lost along the way to make him the man we see today. He lost his father and family business, he has lost his wife and his son doesn’t want to see him. He feels aliens are to blame and that’s his rationale for becoming Agent Liberty.

Believing he was the master of his own destiny. Believing Agent Liberty was what the people of America needed and that it was all his achievement. To potentially learn someone else was pulling the strings all along would be enough to question the choices you were making. This is a very intriguing story that I can’t wait to see its conclusion next week.

SYSTEM REBOOT

Brainy and Dreamer once again team up to try and rescue the aliens that have been captured by the government. This gave us the only funny moment of this episode, but it was a good one. It wasn’t Jesse Wrath’s Brainy that gave us the laughs this time, it was Sam Witwer’s Brainy.

That might sound wrong, but when Brainy decides to impersonate Ben Lockwood it gives us Brainy’s personality in Ben Lockwoods body and Sam Witwer does an incredible job.

During interrogation Brainy resets himself and we see a very different, darker version of Brainiac 5. We have been on an incredible journey with Brainy this season. A character I have truly come to enjoy. His straight edged, robotic form we met last season has developed into a much deeper and emotional person now. I hope we see the return of our Brainy sooner rather than later.

THE RETURN OF LEX

A very short cameo at the end of the episode was all we needed to confirm Jon Cryer’s return to the show next week. We uncover the full extent of Lex’s plan this week and I cannot wait to see how it unravels next week.