Note: there will be spoilers below!

Recap

Supergirl stops some road rage that almost ends with a group of kids getting run over. One of the driver gets mad at her. She almost loses it while the kids watch (and film her reaction on their phones, of course). Hank Henshaw chews her out at the D.E.O. base and Max Lord slams her on TV as well.

Lucy tells James her dad wants to have dinner with them. James later tells Kara her dad doesn't like him since he associates with aliens. Speaking of parents, Cat's mom visits her at the office. As an editor, she's on a book tour. Cat mentions her son would live to see her but she says she won't have time. She brings up the "Shouldn't she be called Superwoman?" bit making it clear she couldn't be bothered to read Cat's article on her.

Alex talks to Winn about breaking into the D.E.O.'s servers to try to find out about her dad. Since he admittedly has dad issues, he agrees to help. Kara and Alex are called to the D.E.O. base camp where General Sam Lane asks for Supergirl to be transferred to his unit. They've been working on a weapon and want her to help test it. Lucy comes with a court order from the President saying she has to help. The weapon is the robot, Red Tornado.

James and Lucy do really well during game night since they know each other so well. Things are pretty awkward. She also mentions meeting Supergirl and not being impressed. This gives Kara the desire to really fight something (the robot). She gets knocked back but soon gets the upper hand. When told to stand down, she keeps punching the robot. It goes into self-preservation mode and leaves. They can't track it since it's also in stealth mode. The robot's creator, T.O. Morrow, gets fired since it's been unleashed on National City.

The next day Cat is still upset her mom canceled on their dinner plans to go to another event. She yells at Kara until she finally snaps back at Cat. She realizes what she's doing and apologizes. Cat says they're going somewhere. She takes Kara out for a drink. She talks to her about getting angry at work. She says she can't get angry, especially because she's a girl. She says you have to find a different release. If a woman shows anger, it's different than if a man gets angry. She recounts a story where Perry White actually threw a chair out a window (that wasn't open). You have to find out why you're really mad.

Alex takes Red Tornado's arm to Lord. She says she needs his help finding it since it went rogue. Because he doesn't trust the government, she figures he'd want to help but he refuses.

At dinner, things are tense between James and General Lane. Lane tells James it's not that he talks to aliens he doesn't want him with Lucy, it's because he's not good enough for her. He says he's nothing special. Afterwards, Red Tornado shows up and attacks. Lucy is hurt but Supergirl arrives before he can hit the General. A mini tornado is unleashed and Supergirl stops it while Red Tornado flies away.

Lane tries placing the blame on Supergirl for letting it get away. Henshaw gets in his face. Red Tornado is lined with lead. He figures Lane wanted to use it against her and her cousin.

Kara realizes she's mad because she can't have a normal life. Alex calls and tells her Morrow is still controlling Red Tornado. He's trying to get revenge against Lane. Supergirl will keep Red Tornado busy as Alex tracks down Morrow. Red Tornado is being controlled by Morrow's thoughts. Both are fighting and Morrow ends up getting shot. Red Tornado is still operating on it's own. It's become sentient. She uses her anger to blast it with all she has.

Lucy tells her dad she resigned her commission. She wants to stay with James. He's obviously not happy with the "terrible mistake" she's made.

Winn tells Alex what he found. There was a file on her dad. Her father and another agent were both presumed dead. A month later the other agent showed up without a scratch. It was Hank. He deleted the files and is the last one to see her father alive.

At Cat's office, her mom yells at Kara for not calling a car for her to go to the airport. Cat comes to her defense saying she is not allowed to yell at her assistant who is good at her job. She leaves for the ladies room and Cat takes some aspirin. Her glass breaks and Kara starts picking up the pieces. To her surprise, she cut herself and is bleeding.

Thoughts

This episode was a huge improvement over last week's. We're also back on track after the last two episodes were flipped around. It's cool to see familiar characters from the comics like General Lane, Red Tornado, and T.O. Morrow appear. Lane was portrayed well and Kara's fight when Red Tornado was being tested was done well.

I still think Red Tornado looks a little silly. It actually works for the show to some extent. Morrow may be a brilliant scientist that's able to create Red Tornado but maybe it'd be too much if it looked too perfect. It was odd when he lost his arm but had both when he attacked the Lanes after their dinner with James. I guess it must have some self-repair setting as well, right?

A big complaint is how the show keeps driving home the point about girls and women having to stand up for themselves. As a father to a daughter, it's a good message but can get to be a bit much. Recent episodes have toned it back a little but Cat talking to her mom about Supergirl and then her conversation with Kara about getting mad focused too much on the topic. There is truth to what Cat was saying. Men can get mad without many repercussions but if a woman does, it's blown out of proportion. The show really needs to find the right balance in this.

Kara dealing with her anger was a handled nicely. It is a good reminder that she's not just a girl. We've seen it mentioned in the comics that she is more powerful than Superman before and it's good to see her unleash that rage. Again, Melissa Benoist is doing a great job handling the different aspects of Supergirl's life and personality.

I was impressed with how well Morrow could fight against a highly trained D.E.O. agent. Obviously it felt like too much as well. It's too bad he died but who knows what'll happen next. Henshaw's connection to the death of Alex's father was a little predictable. We know her dad probably survived as well and will show up later. It's almost funny how Henshaw keeps walking off camera towards the end of an episode with his eyes glowing red. You'd think someone at the D.E.O. might actually see it sometime.

The show has set things up for Kara to experience a little bit of a normal life since it seems unleashing her heat vision in full force may have temporarily drained her powers. Hopefully it won't cause problems next week.

I love this show. I am glad that it got picked up for a full season.

Red Tornado still looks awful.

The best part of the episode for me was cat talking about women never being allowed to be angry. It felt very real and i was a powerful moment. I cant just get mad or be as assertive as men because if I do people think I'm being a B****.

If no one's gonna say it, I guess I will...Sam Lane is a tad racist IMHO. However, it was good to see a different side of Cat and it was good for her and Kara to have a nice conversation. Red Tornado's look is somewhat OK, but the action scenes were pretty good.

This was a good episode.

Not liking your daughter's boyfriend doesn't mean you're racist

This was the best episode so far. The only thing I really hated about it is Tornado's stupid @$$ design.

the screen shots don't show it but they CGI'd his eyes out and it looked much better. smoothed his face as well i think. anyhow. the android body can be upgraded down the road in a later appearance.

this was probably the best episode so far. if they keep on this pace, it's a hit. i think there was only one awkward moment in the whole thing. this was a fair 5 star episode.

the discussion about women never being allowed to publicly emote while men get a pass, was not only realness but poignant. and then later when Kara returns to that discussion with Jimmy Olsen and he replies that he understands and points out black men have the same double standard... my mouth dropped. that is the absolute FIRST time in any of the Arrowverse shows OR any of the MCU/DCEU media where they've actually acknowledged the marginalization of any casted minority. ie. Black actors are cast but they never address the fact they're black (or any kind of minority) ever. they're just there for window dressing for the most part. same with gender swaps and token gay/lesbians. the effort is to present these characters' differences as a non-issue with the best of intentions, but by ignoring someone's difference the end result is whitewashing and continued marginalization. this was a big moment for the genre and diversity. that said, they may as well have made Gen. Lane come out and be a racist. he might not have been, but nothing else makes sense so it makes the situation hard to buy into.

Red Tornado looked a little better but it still looked like something that came out of the old Buck Rogers TV show. But I thought the tornado effect looked pretty good.

Gen. Lane was very poorly written. He demands that Supergirl fight Red Tornado and then gets mad when Supergirl damages it? Supergirl saves his daughter's life and he insinuates that she isn't really on their side because Red Tornado got away?

I see that line touted a lot. It's only the women who get angry in a b***** way that get called a b****. Most women who get angry or assert themselves have no issue...

@dondave: exactly! When it comes to fathers and daughters no guy is good enough!

yeah when men do it they are called assholes or bitches too depending on what type of freak out they have.....

It get touted out a lot because it's true. Most women do face this issue. It's real and it happens all the time. We're meant to play nice and never lose are cool never be to pushy. Here's an article. It's about Jenifer Lawrence not wanting to come off as bossy and spoiled. Women in all walks of life feel like asserting or really fighting for what we rightfully deserve is going to be looked at in a negative light. So we don't in order to not rock the boat.

That line for a guy is a lot higher. They get more leeway to order people around then women do.

Tell me... do you bleed? (с)

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS ASTRA???

Wasn't she supposed to be the big bad? They don't even mention her! Now the main villain seems to be Henshaw in a Harrison Wells plot.

@obsidian_raindrop1: i disagree that men get more leeway, we face the same scrutiny how we handle it is different.

@saintwildcard:

<------dead.

It's really easy for a guy to say. The truth is you'll never know what it's like to be a girl and the pressure that comes with it.

Didn't like the idea she was ordered around with a piece of document. WTF she has no obligation to do anything for anyone lol. But that ending with her heat vision was sublime her face was showing insane amount of emotion there. Just wish her fighting skill involved blitzing leaving mirages after her, she is way too stationary at times.

Cool show otherwise and added character development for some of the cast.

And you will never know what its like to be a man. See how that works?

I am not agreeing or disagreeing with your overall point, but it is a very weak tactic to pull the: "You aren't this so you don't understand what its like to be this" card. By that logic, no one should ever make statements about the behavior of any group to which they don't belong.

Also, speaking of "pressure", there is far more pressure on men to be financially successful, which is why they commit suicide at a MUCH higher rate than women. If pressure is literally killing one group more often than the other, I think the group offing themselves has more pressure.

Great episode. But where in the world is Astra San Diego???

@theblackhood

no, as a woman and understanding pressure thresholds for her gender, she can observe the higher threshold and standard for men by comparison.

a man could observe the difference also but they have to be conditioned to look for it. and the average straight while male looks at the world from his perspective and doesn't know how to look at it from any other perspective. that's the point.

bringing up suicide statistics: non sequitur.

the LGBT community has a much higher instance of suicide rate than str8 men. so? no one is suggesting that there aren't disadvantages to belonging to the status quo group. it's not a competition.

the problem is instead of listening to the criticism she levied, you became defensive and looked for something else to blame to distract from her point. instead; acknowledge her point. listen to the complaint and be aware of the double standard.

I have two major issues with the episode - the first is General Lane, who was pathetically 2 dimensional, fell into cliché in almost every scene, and frankly would have been much better if he hadn't been it it - if Lucy had simply been executing his orders without him appearing, it would have improved both of them.

Second is the rematch between Kara and red tornado - in the first fight she used two very effective techniques, flying underground and freezing him, to beat red tornado. What happened to that? She said it's as if he was learning from the first fight, but it was much more like she wasn't.

This may be true but if a guy gets mad or overly assertive people often think of him as a prick.

More often then not when a man takes charge it's viewed in a more positive light. They're strong and a leader. When a woman pulls that we're nagging and trying to control everything.

You guys are over-generalizing as usual. It depends on the person (and their social standing within their group), their group (the type of people they are with eg; the difference between angry outbursts in a gang of juvenile delinquents and angry outbursts in a book club) the situation and how it is done (the difference between throwing a sh*t fit and sternly expressing your grievances).

Did Kat always call Kara "Kira"?

Also i love the morals of the episodes. I hope Red Tornado returns someday.

very solid episode

There aren't a lot of nice likable people associated with the US government on this is there. I can really understand where Max Lord is coming from.

the only thing i didnt like was how Red Tornado looked

@laabitres: Give him a cape and he'd look better.

I think it's more of an excuse more often than not. It's the type of nonsense hatesites like TMS constantly tout instead of actually focusing on real issues. No doubt it affects some women, and there is still rampant sexism and jerks who will be dismissive or worse troll by saying stuff like that, but if you really think you can't be assertive without being seen as a b**** maybe the problem is in how you are being assertive...because many women pull it off without issue. Mom from futurama....deserving....sam carter from sg1...not so. See the difference?

@ips: But what really is the issue here? Feelings getting hurt when someone calls you bossy or a b*tch?

Not a bad episode.

Funny how the ending battle, was somewhat similar to the Maxwell Lord, thing. Where Wonder Woman, had to kill him, just to stop the mind controlled Superman, from hurting others.

Also ......

I get the odd feeling that Dean Cain's character (of something Danvers). Is actually Hank Henshaw, and is of course Cyborg Superman . Rather than Hank Henshaw, himself.

Red looks like something out of a bad Super Sentai show.

@muyjingo:

I think it's more of an excuse more often than not. It's the type of nonsense hatesites like TMS constantly tout instead of actually focusing on real issues. No doubt it affects some women, and there is still rampant sexism and jerks who will be dismissive or worse troll by saying stuff like that, but if you really think you can't be assertive without being seen as a b**** maybe the problem is in how you are being assertive...because many women pull it off without issue. Mom from futurama....deserving....sam carter from sg1...not so. See the difference?

You'd be surprised how hard that is to do. It's not like you can't be assertive without being seen as a b**** however the problem is you can't really control how other people see you or really think about you. Even the slightest bit of force can be meet with harsh backlash that most women don't want to deal with for a number of reasons. And all you wanted was some god damn mutual respect.

As for your example they are fictional characters. They are written and portrayed whatever way the writer wants them to be and are not accurate representations of life. .

I think that was just a short cut for the writers and a way to show the Lane's as the heavies. It would be nice if the knew a bit about he law, but I doubt that'll ever happen.

I think in the first one she had a wide open field to work with, no one in the way and in the second one she was in the city and has learned to be careful of extra damage. I agree with you on Lane, but none of the government agents outside of Kara's sister has risen beyond the stereotype level yet.

This.

And this.

This.

His Tornado effect was pretty decent though.

You'd be surprised how hard that is to do.

It isn't hard at all. Literally millions of women manage it every single day without issue. The sheer amount of female managers, teachers etc disproves this.

It's not like you can't be assertive without being seen as a b****

Of course you can. See above. I've provided more of an argument than just reiterating my beliefs, how about you do the same?

however the problem is you can't really control how other people see you or really think about you

That's a problem? That's not a problem, that's what goes along with free will. The problem, apparently, is that you are too worried about what people think about you.

Even the slightest bit of force can be meet with harsh backlash that most women don't want to deal with for a number of reasons.

This sounds like your talking from having formed opinions on the internet and not real world experience. Like seriously, where did you get that from? That is absolute nonsense.

I work for a very large corporation, and there are a huge number of female managers, directors, partners etc. There are plenty of women who are not discriminated against for doing their jobs competently. It's not hard to find other examples of women being assertive with no backlash.

Not to say discrimination and sexism are not issues, but you are making mountains out of molehills, extrapolating far more than is reasonable without a shred of data to back it up.

Even the slightest bit of force can be meet with harsh backlash that most women don't want to deal with for a number of reasons.

I quoted this again to make a second point. "The slightest bit of force", so basically any resistance? So if someone disagrees or pushes back, women shouldn't have to deal with that, "for a number of reasons"? Sorry, but if you want to be in a position of authority part of that is proving yourself when challenged. Which is also something literally millions of women can do without issue..it isn't complicated.

And all you wanted was some god damn mutual respect.

Respect isn't earned by whining. Respect is earned by doing. The women who do, have respect. The women who whine about being considered a bitch instead of just taking charge don't.

As for your example they are fictional characters. They are written and portrayed whatever way the writer wants them to be and are not accurate representations of life. .

Oh please. Fictional characters written by humans who act exactly like a number of people do in the real world. Are you really saying there are no women with similar personalities to the fictional charaacters I named? Because that is ridiculous and I can find a number of real world examples if you need. Let's see. How about KimK vs JLaw?

Please send me a message where you are getting these numbers from. if you don't have a source then you are using hear-say info and that is not fact.

On another topic :

also if this series is always going to bring out social justice warriors every time there is a new episode I do not see this series lasting all that long. people are sick and tired of SJW's they are angry all the time. they will never be happy cause they are fighting against natural human nature and biology half the time. Cause according to them and everyone else who follows that blind dogma say. As a straight white male I am considered a horrible person, and I am equal to that to hitler if I dare question their beliefs or dare point out their double standards.

If people want to talk about politics or your own personal belief systems. there are forums for that. but in this article talking about a superhero show that I just want to watch and not have to deal with everyone elses personal agendas. Make a series with a good story and good character development.

And now for something completely different:

I liked how Max lord used his powers and he did not know it. or unless he knows and he really will be the endgame villain for this season.

@ips: Give it a rest take your SJW bullshit somewhere else. If women have it sooooooo bad here in America, take your whiny bullshit to Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan

@muyjingo: Look it's obvious that you're unwilling to change or really listen. So I'm done trying to gt through to a lost cause.

Bull. That's a cheap reply because you don't like that I actually made an argument. You can't respond to basic points except to reiterate your feelings and then get upset when people don't see things the way you do.

Just like women who won't assert themselves for fear of being perceived a certain way, you won't defend your points because you project the problem on to someone else.

I do everything I can to further my knowledge on issues, including these issues. I probably have more books on my bookshelf about feminism and gender studies than you've read. I'm not just dismissing your point, I'm telling you you are wrong because I've looked into it, and while it is a problem for a minority of women it is nonsense to claim it is a problem for ALL women.

We can agree to disagree. What I can say is, people who act like you do hold back women's rights and equality more than they further those causes.

WHY IS SHE BLEEDING??? (From her hand, I mean...).

Maybe her letting all that power out. Is the shows equivalent to that Solar Flare ability, that was made recently in the comics?

Every episode has a moment or two I find so cringe-worthy that I have to leave it and come back in a few hours.