TV Review: SUPERGIRL: Season 1, Episode 16: Falling [CBS]

CBS’s Supergirl Falling TV Show Review. Supergirl Season 1, Episode 16: Falling gave us a different side to Kara (Melissa Benoist) that we haven’t seen before thanks to the effects of red kryptonite. Being exposed to the red kryptonite caused our heroine to fall into the dark side, giving us one of the best episodes of the season so far. Even though the story wasn’t as gripping, ‘Falling’ gave some game-changing developments for Kara and the rest of the team.

Despite the show going a bit dark, we did find some humor in Kara’s transformation. She goes from the goody two-shoes to the fashionista that gained notice in the office. Kara also tries to outsmart Siobhan Smythe (Italia Ricci) going steps ahead of her to please Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart), thus sending Siobhan down the villainous route. She even uses Cat’s elevator into the office, which pisses her off even though she seems to like Kara’s new attitude. During her run-in with escaped Fort Rozz prisoner K’Hund, she starts belittling him in their fight and showing off her strength. However, rather than turn him into the DEO she ultimately lets him go seeing that he is a waste of her talents.

Melissa Benoist succeeds in portraying Kara in a different light, adding another layer to her character by showing this icy personality with a mean girl streak. It’s quite obvious that her violent behavior would project onto her friends and family, ending all of the laughter as things get serious for her. We’ve seen Kara tap into her anger in some of the earlier episodes, giving us an emotionally powerful moment for her and now she has returned to that state of mind. Despite how verbally abusive and furious she has become, there is some truth in her actions. It was incredibly hurtful for Alex (Chyler Leigh) to witness this after seeing that Kara hasn’t truly forgiven her for killing Astra.

Kara also switched her superhero outfit into something more militaristic, similar to what Non’s men were wearing. This was really a sign that things have gotten worse at this point. In what was the most shocking moment in the episode, Supergirl pushes Cat down a building after Kara belittles Cat’s role in National City. Luckily, Supergirl manages to save Cat in time, but only to give her a warning not to get in her way. Supergirl and Cat’s relationship was the highlight of the show; so seeing what just happened will start to damage their friendship. Supergirl has crossed a line that she can’t get out from, and rest assured there will be consequences.

Cat made her stand and did what any respectable journalist would do, which is to address the media that Supergirl is dangerous to the city after labeling her a hero. This will really tarnish Supergirl’s reputation and it will be hard for her to gain the public’s trust. This just goes to show that even Cat’s responsibility as a reporter comes first and must expose the truth to the public no matter how bad it will turn out for her sources. It even affected James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) after Kara willingly exposed her feelings for him after his break-up with James. This will really alter their relationship as we reach the final episodes of the season.

It all came down to the DEO stopping Supergirl in her tracks. It was strange for them to send a task force with guns instead of using kryptonite-based weapons to put her down. We can all thank Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli) for that since he was the one whose red kryptonite was exposed to Supergirl after an experiment gone wrong on his part. It was such a waste of time having the DEO toss Maxwell back into their holding cell, only to release him after explaining himself and offering his help. This was the only weak development in what was otherwise a pretty dramatic hour.

In an unexpected twist, J’onn J’onzz (David Harewood) exposes his true self after trying to stop Supergirl. It certainly was shocking to behold, since he didn’t think about the consequences of his actions, all to save Kara. Instead of fleeing away, he chose to surrender himself to the DEO. This will cause some big changes to happen within the DEO and for Kara going forward.

‘Falling’ went from being a humorous episode into one of the best ones in the series. The red kryptonite really brought out the worse in Supergirl, giving Melissa one of her finest performances on the show by making her character funny and gave us some powerfully dramatic scenes that left an impact on the show. Despite some hiccups in the development of the story with the addition of Maxwell’s involvement in all of this, we can move past with some emotional moments that helped make it so engaging.

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