- "How do you think this ends? We have the same powers."
- "Not exactly. I am evolved."
- —Supergirl and Red Daughter
"Red Dawn" is the twenty-first episode of the fourth season of Supergirl, and the eighty-sixth episode overall. It aired on May 12, 2019.
Synopsis[]
Kara 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 turns to an unlikely source for help – Lillian Luthor. Meanwhile, Alex realizes she's missing parts of her memory, and Brainy, Nia and J'onn set out to track down aliens who have been abducted by Lex.[src] |
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers/Supergirl and Red Daughter/Linda Lee
- Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen
- Chyler Leigh as Dr./Director Alex Danvers
- Katie McGrath as Lena Luthor
- Jesse Rath as Querl Dox/Brainiac 5
- Sam Witwer as Professor Ben Lockwood and Querl Dox
- Nicole Maines as Dreamer
- April Parker Jones as Colonel Lauren Haley
- David Harewood as J'onn J'onzz
Special guest star[]
- Helen Slater as Dr. Eliza Danvers
Guest starring[]
- Bruce Boxleitner as President Phil Baker
- Brenda Strong as Dr. Lillian Luthor
- Robert Baker as Otis Graves
- Azie Tesfai as Dr. Kelly Olsen
- Izabela Vidovic as young Kara Danvers
- Olivia Nikkanen as young Alex Danvers
- Andrea Brooks as "Eve Teschmacher"
Co-starring[]
- Mark Krysko as Head Guard
- Al McFoster as Secret Service
- J-C Roy as Guard 1
- Sterling Schneider as Greta
- Colby Wilson as Guard 2
Plot[]
The beginning of this episode takes place in Midvale in 2007, when Kara and Alex were walking on the seacliffs as teenagers. Alex was trying to teach Kara to walk in rhythm with music. But when Kara claps her hands with it, she causes a thunderclap and they both fall down from the cliff. The scene was a memory dreamed by Alex. She wakes up with Kelly at her side, and she talks about Kara, yet she feels the memory means something significant.
Kara wakes up to find herself a captive of Secret Service. As her guards tell her, President Baker ordered her evidence scrubbed from CatCo. Kara then pretends to see a bug before using her powers to free hself and knock out the agents. But before she could escape, she is intercepted by Red Daughter, who opens a box of kryptonite, causing her to pass out When Kara comes to, she meets Red Daughter, whom Lex has instructed to kill Kara. Kara tries to convince her copy, that Lex doesn't care about her, or Kaznia, only himself. She also tries to convince her, that once Lex wins, she will become a loose end. Red Daughter is unconvinced and claims, that Kara is weak for serving herself by flying around doing heroics. She opens a case containing Kryptonite, thinking it will weaken Kara in order for her to kill her. However, it affects Red Daughter as well. Kara says that Red Daughter has been in contact with Kryptonite only for months, while she has been dealing with it for years, thus she has much higher resilience to it. Using this to her advantage, Kara beats Red Daughter and escapes through window, though not without taking bullet wounds. Red Daughter is disappointed for failing to kill Kara.
In the D.E.O. Alex and Colonel Haley learn that Ben Lockwood has taken all the Harun-El serum. Lena comes there as well, and Alex says they will need a way to extract Harun-El from both James and Ben. Lena intends to get help from Lillian.
Meanwhile, J'onn, Brainy and Nia are outside the facility, where captured aliens have been taken. As they try to figure out a way to get inside, Nia suggest they do "The Wookiee Gambit". J'onn disagrees, as it means someone would have to pose as a prisoner. Eventually, they go with it, with Nia posing as a prisoner and Brainy disguising himself as Ben Lockwood. However, they are caught and taken inside. There, they discover a transmat portal. In order to find out, where the aliens are taken, they need to go through. But the Children of Liberty take Brainy away for brutal interrogation, and as a result, they brutally hit him, which causes his system to reboot, installing memories of his ancesters to the forefront of his personality . In this state, he manages to break free and defeat the interrogators, calling himself “Version 5. (Braniac 5 was a historically evil villain) He then uses unethical ways to have J'onn and Nia go through the portal.
Lena has Lillian brought to L-Corp, and attaches a baby Vertullarian (truth-speaker) on her to ensure she will speak truth. To test her, Lena asks her about Lena's first boyfriend, and gets a satisfactory answer. Lena smugly says she would ask Lillian, if she loves her, but claims she already knows the answer. Lillian answers nonetheless, and truthfully says she does. Eventually, Lillian manages to create the necessary device to extract Harun-El.
Kara sneaks in to the D.E.O. as Supergirl to warn Alex about the Red Daughter. She manages to reach her. Kara tells Alex not to pursue Red Daughter for her own safety. Colonel Haley enters the room and when she sees Supergirl, she is shocked and thinks that Alex brought an enemy into the D.E.O. But Alex and Kara convince her, that she didn't attack the White House; it was done by a clone of Supergirl under Lex's control. Kara also reveals Lex has engineered Kaznia to attack America. Haley admits, that she didn't believe Supergirl would attack the White House, and she has also been suspicious about President Baker's erratic decisions. All three then start to put their heads together to try to ascertain, where Red Daughter might be. They conclude she must have been in National City for some time already. Eventually, they track an address in the city. Kara intends to go and check it out. Alex wants to come along, but Kara tells her to remain behind. Haley intends to keep finding information about the Claymore satellite, since she was unaware such a weapon existed.
Kara arrives to to the address, and enters Red Daughter's apartment. She is instantly shocked; although the apartment is in an old building, it has been furnished and decorated to be like an exact copy of Kara's own apartment. Alex also arrives, claiming she couldn't sit idly by. She is even more shocked about the apartment, and looks through the window to see, that Kara's apartment can be seen from there. Alex wonders, why someone would be interested in her sister's apartment. Alex has more flashes of memories. As Kara and Alex look over the place, Kara finds pictures about the Kaznian boy, Mikhail, realizing that Red Daughter cared about him, and that Lex made it look like he was killed by Americans, fueling her hatred. Alex's phone rings. The caller is Eliza, saying that Kara just came by. Kara instantly realizes it's actually Red Daughter and flies to Midvale. Alex follows suit in her motorcycle.
Kara reaches Danvers house in Midvale to find Eliza being held hostage by Red Daughter. Kara tries to reason with her, even saying about Mikhail, but Red Daughter still claims Kara is weak for serving herself, while she is strong, since she serves the collective. Red Daughter activates a similar armor that Kara also has, and the two Kryptonians clash. As Red Daughter taunts her template, Kara sees she really doesn't know her, as she doesn't serve herself, but everyone by giving them hope, help and compassion. Kara also asks her, how does she think this will end, since they have same powers. Red Daughter corrects her by showing she can wield Harun-El-powered electrical shocks. Kara gets an early upper hand in the fight.
The fight continues to the night. Alex finally arrives and hears the fight. Kara has lost her early upper hand, and is now being pummeled by Red Daughter. As Alex watches without interfering, knowing she can't handle Kryptonian on her own, she has a memory flash every time Red Daughter punches Kara. The flashes include: Kara saving her from the cliffs after causing the thunderclap, Kara creating a snowfall inside Danvers house during Christmas, Alex holding her hand on spaceship window, with Kara as Supergirl holding hers against it[1]. After the final blow, Alex's memories return in its entirety, and she remembers again that Kara and Supergirl are one and the same, her beloved adoptive sister. As Red Daughter hovers away after defeating her enemy, she witnesses, as Alex goes to her sister. She hears, as Kara's heartbeat fades, but right after, she hears explosions, and worriedly flies away. Eliza arrives and is saddened to see Kara defeated and seemingly dead. Alex is unwilling to believe her sister is dead, saying all she needs is sunlight to recover. But it's night, so no sunlight. She then rips some grass on Kara's hand, as plants have sunlight within them. At first nothing happens, and Alex is devastated, but then sunlight starts to seep from plants towards Kara. The sunlight re-energizes her, and she is revived. Alex cries out of happiness, and Kara sees Alex has regained her memories, and says she missed Alex so much.
Back at the Danvers House, Alex calls Colonel Haley, and she says the Claymore Kara destroyed was only a prototype. Since then, it has been developed into such that it can be controlled by a Lexosuit. Haley then tells Alex to turn on the news. The news report has President Baker holding a speech towards the heroism of Lex Luthor, about how he stopped a Kaznian invasion. The report closes with Lex carrying seemingly dead Supergirl in his arms, (Although it’s really Red Daughter) with Baker framing Supergirl as the one behind the invasion. Kara is shocked about how this could've happened.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- The title references the 1984 film of the same name.
- This episode marks the first appearances of Izabela Vidovic and Olivia Nikkanen as the younger versions of Kara and Alex since season three's flashback episode "Midvale".
- When Supergirl is in Red Daughter's apartment, she stands in front of a mirror, potentially referencing Red Daughter's similarity to Bizarro.
- There are two references to Star Wars made throughout the episode.
- The "Wookiee gambit", that Dreamer mentions is an allusion to the scene in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) when Luke and Han, disguised as stormtroopers, pretend to have captured Chewbacca in order to access the detention area in the Death Star where Princess Leia is being held prisoner.
- Brainy mentions having been shamed for his unawareness of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, once before. He's referring to a scene in "Battles Lost and Won" when Kara quotes Han Solo to him; Brainy inquires whether she's making a film reference, and she expresses her surprise that they've never shown him Star Wars.
- As they had done it with DC's Legends of Tomorrow, which was done in Japanese, the Supergirl logo was briefly done in Russian.
- While being tortured, Brainy tries his "little boxes" exercise of compartmentalization, and mentions a Greek story about a box being opened, referring to the mythology of Pandora's box.
- When Red Daughter and Supergirl have their fight, the scene in the background goes bright daylight to night with one punch.
- The sequence where Supergirl draws the sunlight out of the plants surrounding her has precedent in the comics-- in the 1985 Limited Series/Graphic Novel "The Dark Knight Returns", set in an alternate future, Superman is caught in the blast of a nuclear bomb, where he falls to earth and drains the sunlight from the plants in the field he crashes in. Similarly, the blasts fired from Red Daughter's hands are reminiscent of the Eradicator, a Kryptonian who briefly assumed the identity of Superman after his "death" using a copy of his body, and shot energy bolts from his hands.
- Framing Supergirl plays on public stupidity; which Lex knows how to take advantage of. Despite the fact Supergirl's main protectorate being National City and the fact neither she nor Superman ally with a single country, everyone completely buys the fake news about her allying with Kaznia and leading an invasion. Even with the fact Lex Luthor, a certified lunatic is a part of it; adding the fact he nearly caused an apocalypse by turning the sun red, to spite Superman.
Goofs[]
- It's never explained to the public how Lex was let out of prison. Despite the fact he's technically made a prison break, which is another crime in itself.
- Kara tells Red Daughter that she "has been dealing with Kryptonite for 15 years", but in the pilot episode, when Supergirl is captured by the DEO with Kryptonite needles, she appears to be learning of the existence of Kryptonite for the first time. The pilot takes place only about four years before "Red Dawn".
- It’s likely Kara lied to Red Daughter to seem more impressive about her ability to withstand it.
References[]
Supergirl season 4 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
"American Alien" • "Fallout" • "Man of Steel" • "Ahimsa" • "Parasite Lost" • "Call to Action" • "Rather the Fallen Angel" • "Bunker Hill" • "Elseworlds, Part 3" • "Suspicious Minds" • "Blood Memory" • "Menagerie" • "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" • "Stand and Deliver" • "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" • "The House of L" • "All About Eve" • "Crime and Punishment" • "American Dreamer" • "Will The Real Miss Tessmacher Please Stand Up?" • "Red Dawn" • "The Quest for Peace" |