SUPERGIRL - Season 4.8

REVIEW:  SUPERGIRL - SEASON 4, EPISODE 8:  "Bunker Hill"

The midseason finale of the Girl of Steel left us with a cliffhanger that sends us on a month long hiatus that leaves us wishing for a little more than what we got.  At one point in this episode, I really thought that MAYBE this storyline would end...but I was wrong.  And maybe it's wrong of me to WANT it to end, because, apparently, they're not done telling this story.  I guess there's an Act II to this drama.  But we finally get to know who Nia Nahl really is, and Briany's connection to her.  We see Manchester Black's further descent into darkness, and the deepening effects of Agent Liberty's influence over the public.  Let's dive in, shall we?

We enter Nia Nahl’s apartment where she’s watching tv---but she suddenly gets a premonition about Agent Liberty.  We then see her being woken up  by her roommate.  She reprimands him to letting her sleep.

Kara and J’Onn search Manchester’s apartment for clues as to what he’s up to.  They discuss both being played.  They find a pair of brass knuckles in the apartment.

Nia, James, and Kara in the elevator.  Nia has another dream about Agent Liberty and drops the coffee she’s holding.  Kara wants to help, but Nia refuses.

Col. Hayley interrogates the man named Frank, who portrayed Agent Liberty that was caught by the DEO.  He keeps claiming he’s Agent Liberty.  Kara talks about Nia’s issues.  Brainy kind of lets it slip that he knows about Nia’s issue as well as knowing her from the future, and goes to talk to her.  Haley and Alex get a chewing from the President.  He wants them to find Agent Liberty.  After all…it’s KILLING his poll numbers.  Nice priorities, Mr. President. 

Lockwood is in his car, talking to someone about Agent Liberty, and the need to keep him aside, while he tries to rally the public as himself.  He then gets home, and surprise!  Manchester Black has come calling.

J’Onn is using the brass knuckles to try and channel Manchester and find him.  Meanwhile, Manchester is having tea with Lockwood, and he plays Ben, telling him about a gift that he got his fiance’, Fiona.  J’Onn manages to contact Black, and he hesitates.  But he’s intent on carrying out his plan.  He pulls a gun on Ben, and plans on holding him hostage, and reveal himself.

Kara comes to see Nia, and Nia fesses up to being from another planet.  She tells Kara that her powers can dream the future.  She can’t control them.  Last time she had a dream, she saw Agent Liberty murder a woman.  Kara says she knows someone who can help.  She calls in Brainy, who says that Nia’s dreams don’t have to be the future. Brainy accidently calls her by her real name, giving Nia pause. They put Nia in a dream trance, and she tells Kara what she sees. At first, she sees a swinging hook in a warehouse. Then she sees a woman who’s vibrating, and sees if she can slow her down.  She sees the woman begging for someone to stop.  Turns out, it’s Agent Liberty’s wife.  Then she sees Agent Liberty with a gun.  She panics, and they wake her up.  They then go to find the woman in trouble, and as they do, there’s a Son of Liberty watching them.

Back at the Lockwood home, we see Lockwood’s wife giving the home tour.  Lockwood tries to usher Black out.  Black looks at a knife that was used at the Battle of Bunker Hill.  Manchester calls Lockwood out as Agent Liberty.  Lockwood denies it.  J’Onn reaches him telepathically again.  Begs him to stop.  J’Onn wants to help him with his pain.  Black slices his hand and tells him here’s some pain to feel.

Nia, Brainy, and Kara are looking for the woman in the dream.  She recognizes nothing so far, but Kara knows they’re being followed.  Kara decides to have Brainy distract Nia while she confronts them.  She allows herself to be captured, and Nia gives chase, while Brainy tries to stop her.

All three are captured, and taken to the warehouse that Nia saw in her dream.  The Sons argue about capturing them, and one goes to kill them.  Nia ducks, and the bullet breaks her chains, and ricochets into a container.  The trio escape and go to do battle.

Black has Lockwood reveal his secret cache, and his wife finds out he’s Agent Liberty.  Black looks at her, and says he’s a killer.  His wife is in shock.

Nia, Kara, and Brainy find out that they’re at Lockwood Steel.  They find weapons and everything.  Kara contacts Alex.  Alex goes to Frank to confirm Lockwood as Agent Liberty.  Meanwhile, Lockwood is in his Agent Liberty gear, Black threatens to kill his wife, just like he killed Fiona.  J’Onn tries to telepathically interfere, but Black resists.  Black is hurt enough for Liberty to get the jump on him.  They fight.  Lockwood looks to escape, and Black gives chase.

Lockwood is on the run from Black, and Black is looking to shoot him.  We see Supergirl in Lockwood’s home looking for him.  J’Onn let’s Kara know that Liberty is on the run, and Black is looking to kill him.  Kara is on her way.

Brainy let’s Nia know that he can’t let her know how he knows her, but she can help save the day.  Nia is at the place where her dream is supposed to happen.  Black is caught by Kara, but he blasts her with moon dust to nullify her powers.  She tries to appeal to Black, but he resists, saying that all she’ll ever be is a roach to the people.  He says he’s gotta do what he must, and that’s kill Lockwood.  Nia and Brainy see what they can do to stop Lockwood.  Lockwood’s wife shows up with a gun, and Black faces her.  Nia manages to stop him with the hook.  Ben then shows up, and points the gun at Black, but also sees Supergirl.  He plans on ending it.  The wife falls as Supergirl flies up to save her, while still trapped in the Nth Metal.  Supergirl then thanks Nia for the help.

Supergirl looks at Black while he’s arrested.  They also arrest Lockwood.  But he admits who he is, but then he screams out who is Supergirl? 

Black is in lockup, and J’Onn shows up to try and appeal to him, and let him know his soul is worth saving.  Black doesn’t believe so, and J’Onn takes off.

Supergirl shows up at the DEO, and President Bicker says that Lockwood’s words still have weight with the public, and he demands to have Supergirl reveal her secret ID for the sake of National Security.  Kara refuses.  He fires Kara.  He says he doesn’t want a war with Supergirl, and she hopes he won’t start one with her.  She leaves, after telling Alex to protect this place.  People are protesting in the streets, and Lockwood’s words become more meaningful.  We see him taken away at the prison with his wife watching….his wife shouting “Liberty” as he’s taken away.  Supergirl can only look on.

EARTH 90 is where we end the episode.  Very post-apocalyptic. We hear explosions in the background, and what can only be the bodies of superheroes strewn about.  We see The Flash of that earth reaching for a book, but it’s picked up by The MONITOR.  The Monitor tells Flash he failed.  Flash asks him why he’s doing this, and the Monitor says he did it to himself, and that now they will all perish.  He opens the book and this energy starts flowing from it, Flash takes off running.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Overall, I did feel this was a good episode.  It finally exposed Lockwood to the public, but it also didn't do anything to sway public opinion from their prejudice against aliens.  It goes to show the full power of propaganda and fear that can be used to turn the public against each other.  History is rife with such examples, and I feel that this season, while trying to tell a good superhero story, is also trying to each us a valuable lesson---especially in a digital age as this one, where social media and the court of public opinion often means more and does more than the actual process and system that makes up our democracy.  Now, instead of "innocent until proven guilty", it's the other way around.  And someone who's committed dastardly crimes, and has been exposed for them, has seen the crowd only cheer him more, and make him a martyr.  It's a frightening parallel to what we see in the world today.  A man who can commit acts of evil---and convince the public to do the same thing---under the guise of "freedom" and "democracy", be excused and further revered for what the public assumes is the "right thing".  The message being sent here is that putting ANY such person on a pedestal is a dangerous precedence....and those that follow will lose the ability to think and rationalize for themselves.  Clarity can only possibly come when it's too late.

Seeing Nia fulfill her destiny as the Dreamer was long overdue.  I understand having use her sparingly, but we could've gotten more moments where she was in the process of using her powers.  But we DO know she has a roommate, and that Brainy's connection to her is strong, because he knows of her from the future.  What he DOES know will probably be revealed as the season goes on.

We knew Manchester Black was all about revenge and retribution.  But HAD he killed Agent Liberty, he only would've made matters worse, so kudos to John for trying to help keep him down long enough so Nia and Brainy could take him out.  I have to believe that it won't be too long before J'Onn stops sitting on the sidelines, and has to step back in to help the cause.

"Stand by your man" seemed to be the theme running through Mrs. Lockwood as she decided to stick by her husband, even in the wake of finding out about his little "hobby".

Alex was in backup mode again this week, but she is shrewed as hell...especially when it came to getting Frank to spill his guts.  Plus---she is no one's fool.  She sees Haley as nothing more than a power hungry, two-bit wannabe politician, and the President as nothing more than a shill.  He cares more for his poll numbers than actually trying to resolve the conflict.  Down the road, though....karma is gonna find BOTH their asses.

Now, with Kara "fired" from the DEO, there should be NOTHING stopping her from being every bit the hero as her cousin.  It has bothered me to NO END that Kara has ALLOWED herself to be a pawn of the US Government.  How is it SHE is answering to nothing more than an egotistical and power hungry oversight committee?  Haley is nothing more than a poor woman's excuse for Amanda Waller.  The President is a boob, who only cares about his legacy and his popularity.  I get that Alex has to answer to them, but what makes Supergirl such a case that SHE has to be hired BY them to be allowed to be hero, and they hold NO SUCH sanctions on Clark?  Clark in NO WAY shape or form, would allow himself to be manipulated by ANY government.  As I have stated before---he may have LANDED in Kansas, but he BELONGS to the universe at large.  Superman isn't the property or weapon of any nation on Planet Earth.  So, that being the case, WHY does Kara concede?  I think it's time she rises above the petty politics and lines on a map and do what Clark has done...take a page out of his book.  They KNOW Superman isn't from Earth, so why does HE get a pass, and not his cousin?  It's the lazy aspect of not being smart with the continuity, nor consistent enough to know that if ONE person is allowed to operate and roam free to be the hero, why can't his cousin?  Makes no sense to me.  And I hope...I really HOPE that by the end of this arc, Kara either says "screw it", and leaves Earth to its own devices....or she just takes charge of her own superhero life, and screw the governments.  Her ONLY goal should be that of her cousin Kal's:  preservation of ALL life on Earth and beyond.

I dunno about anyone else...but I was giddy as a schoolkid to see John Wesley Shipp back in the old Barry Allen Flash togs.  Had a wave of nostalgia hit me like a freight train.  Was SO AWESOME to see!  And the look of The Monitor---they nailed it!  Now, I can't tell you who the bodies were laid about the destruction were, but the Earth that I remember seeing back in 1990 is totally gone.  That breaks my heart.  But glad to see Barry still around on that Earth, fighting until the end.  And that little music bit of the old Flash TV show theme---sweeeeeeeet!  Nice they paid homage to the old show theme (there you go, Danny Elfman!).  They have CERTAINLY given me much to think about in the days leading up to this crossover.  Hmmm...now that I think about it---I wonder if the future timeline on Arrow might have something to do with it?  Guess we shall see.

That does it for this week.  After next week, the shows go on hiatus for about a month or so for the holidays, so forewarning you NOW...after next week, I won't be blogging about the shows until mid January.  The Elseworlds Crossover is going to be the last of any new programming until then.  But until that time, PLEASE drop me a comment, subscribe to the page, and tell all your friends!  I'd sure as heck appreciate it.

I should note:  Supergirl will be airing next Wednesday as the END of the crossover, so this blog WON'T appear until late that same night or early Thursday morning.

Until next Wednesday...Up, Up, and Away!