Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 15 - O Brother, Where Art Thou?

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.


Plot

Dying of a mysterious ailment, Lex Luthor is secretly furloughed from prison. Naturally Lex isn't ready to die and seeks out Lena's help to develop a cure. Of course Lena is skeptical of her older brother's intentions, but another life or death situation will leave her questioning just how far Lex can be trusted, even with his own life on the line. Meanwhile, as Supergirl and Martian Manhunter continue the hunt for Manchester Black, James' sister Kelly comes to town after he is hospitalized by an assassin's bullet.


Influences

The Superman comics of Roger Stone (Lex Luthor's dying of cancer caused by Kryptonite exposure), the War of the Supermen storyline (Lex Luthor turning the sun red), Watchmen (Lex's "ten minutes ago" speech.) and Superman: The Movie (the power trio of Lex, Otis and Miss Teschmacher.


Goofs

Lex says that his quote from Epicurus is 230 years old, but Epicurus died over 2000 years ago, in 270 BC.

The final scene doesn't make a lot of sense and demands many explanations for how Otis is still alive and at what point did Miss Teschmacher pull her face-heel turn. Has Lex had a nuclear physicist playing the bimbo secretary just to spy on Cat Grant and James Olsen all these years? (I can see Lex doing it, but I still want to know how and why all this happened.)


Performances

Jon Cryer finds the perfect edge for Lex Luthor. While you can hear snatches of the sarcasm from his character on Two And A Half Men here and there, that sarcasm is very appropriate to Luthor's character. Cryer also manages to go over the top at just the right moments, playing Lex in a manner that evokes the memory of Gene Hackman in Superman: The Movie. This Lex is a smart ass who can't help but show-off his intelligence, quoting Jesus of Nazareth even as he's writing in pain and further pissing off the guards who would gladly sit there and watch him die.


Artistry

The nightmare scene in which Manchester attacks J'onn with images of a zombie Kara and Alex is very well executed. Though we know it's a fake-out, the make-up for Kara and Alex is fantastic and the general pacing and choreography of the scene truly captures J'onn's terror.


Super Trivia

The title of the episode is a nod to the Coen Brothers movie of the same name.

Jon Cryer, the actor who plays Lex Luthor in this episode, also played Lenny Luthor, Lex's nephew, in the movie Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

The idea of a villain making the sun red in a bid to depower Superman has been used countless times in the Superman comics. Lex Luthor did it in the War of the Supermen storyline to stop an invasion fleet of Kryptoians who sought to conquer Earth. The same ploy was used by the light-manipulating science villain Luminus in Superman: The Animated Series.

The idea of Lex poisoning himself with Kryptonite first appeared in Action Comics in the early 1990s, just before the Death of Superman storyline. It was here that Lex discovered that the Kryptonite ring he had made to keep Superman at bay was slowly killing him, as Kryptonite radiation was lethal to humans albeit it not as immediately as it was to Kryptonians.The same idea was also used in the Justice League animated series.

Kelly Olsen is a new character created specifically for Supergirl. In the comics, Jimmy Olsen was an only child. He had an older brother in the reality of Smallville, but this seems to be the first times James Olsen ever had a sister in any medium.

Lex tells Lena a story about the dog that he owned before she was adopted by The Luthors. He says the dog's name was Ignatius. This is also the name of Lex Luthor's pet iguana in the realities of both the Krypto: The Superdog animated series and the DC Super Pets book line.



Technobabble

James is said to have had a large amount of shrapnel removed from around his cervical vertebra, which was created by a bullet that did far more damage than a standard bullet of its kind.

Lena and Lex are eventually able to get Lena's Harun-El serum down to having a 99% chance of not being lethal.


Dialogue Triumphs

(We hear the sounds of sirens and people screaming as guns fire. The sky is red. We see Lex Luthor looking out over the city, with Lena tied to a chair, close to tears as Lex smiles.)
Lex: "Against other things, it is possible to obtain security, but when it comes to death, we human beings all live in an unwalled city." Do you know who said that?
Lena: Please, Lex, you don't have to do this!
Lex: I'm doing this for us. For the entire human race. Listen down below.
(The sound of screaming is heard.)
Lex: They're already cheering. And it was Epicurus, by the way. An aphorism 230 years old, and yet still as apt as ever.
Lena: You sound like a freshman philosophy major and you're gonna kill millions of people. The world can't live under a red sun!
Lex: Neither can Superman.

(Manchester appears before J'onn as the fire surrounds them, holding a familiar looking staff.)
Manchester: Hello, J'onn.
J'onn: How are you capable of this?
Manchester: When you broke into my mind to stop me from killing the Lockwood brood, you opened up a motorway. It goes both ways. So, whenever you poke around in my mind I can poke around in yours. So I did. And lookie what I found. Your peoples' most powerful weapon.
J'onn: You don't know what you're toying with.
Manchester: Oh, but I do. I dug deep into your mind. And the ground. You call yourself a man of peace, Martian, but your god was one of wrath!
J'onn: You burned my father's grave to teach me a theology lesson?!
Manchester: (laughs) You forget H'ronmeer's punishments. You're a hypocrite. Wake up, man! It's time you followed the true righteous path. And we can put a stop to the hate that's burning this world up, just like it burned up Mars. We can stop it together.

Lena: Eve, what's wrong?
Eve Teschmacher: I understand you wanting to save your dying brother, no matter what he did. But now we're giving him full access to everything in order to save Mr. Olsen. Look, I care about James, too. But I just wanna make sure that you're not gonna let your sympathy jeopardize everything that you've been working toward.
Lena: Eve, I know what my brother's capable of more than anyone. But I truly believe his lone scheme right now is just to live. (smiles) I don't think he can imagine the world without him in it. 

(Lena enters into the room she and Lex turned into a lab, She sees Lex on the floor, having tumbled out of his wheelchair, as a guard stands-by, doing nothing as Lex coughs and seems to have a seizure.)
Lena: What's going on?
Guard: He's making a mess of your floor.
Lena: I'll have you arrested!
Lex: (weakly) Don't blame him. He knows not what he does. (smirks, speaking with a sharper edge) He's on a government salary after all.

Lex: Did I ever tell you about my dog, Ignatius? Before you joined our family, he was my closest companion. And when I was seven, he had to be put down.
Lena: If you're gonna continue to compare James to your dying dog, I'm not sure I'm gonna be amenable to your point.
Lex: I wanted to be there for the procedure. But Mother insisted that I go on a business trip with Father. She thought I was being too sentimental.
Lena: That's our mom.
Lex: That's -my- mom. (sighs) A trip with Father, that sounds like something that ordinarily would've pleased me. But on this particular trip, he brought a woman with him, and insisted that she go everywhere with us.(chuckles and coughs) So, here I was, seven years old, dog dying, Father ignoring me...
Lena: Is there a point to this story?
Lex: At first, I swore to loathe this woman. How dare she take my father from me at the moment I needed him most? But I couldn't keep my promise. Because she was wonderful. She was so kind to me. On the day they put Ignatius down, she embraced me, and sang me this beautiful Irish song. By the end of the trip, I wished that she was my mother.
Lena: But she wasn't your mother.
Lex: She was yours.
(Lena looks stunned.)
Lex: I want you to know with certainty that while I came from poison, you came from love. And if the rest of this family stands steadily in darkness, you will always fall into the light. I knew that from the moment I met her.

(Lena enters into the operating theater where James' surgery has just been cut short.)
Lena:What I'm about to do is absolutely illegal. Any witnesses will be considered accessories to a crime.
Doctor: Miss Luthor. -
Lena: (firmly) Leave now before I fire you.

(J'onn looks at the ring he took from Manchester.)
Kara: You should give that ring back to Brainy. He'll be happy to see it.
J'onn: I'm not ready to explain how I got it.
Kara: James is okay. The whole city is okay because of you.
J'onn: Yeah, but at what cost? Manchester is dead.
Kara: I know you're trying to follow your father's code, but what happened today doesn't change who you're trying to be.
J'onn: But I don't know who that is, Kara. One thing I do know, I am not a man of peace.

(Lena enters into her study, where Lex is sitting in his wheelchair, reading a book.)
Lena: You know, most bad kids burn ants using a magnifying glass. But not you. No, you would build ant hills out of mud and twigs, to scale. It would take you hours, sometimes days. And then, you would trick the ants into thinking they were going home. They would follow the maze you laid out and walk right into an open flame.
Lex: I'm sorry, exactly what are you accusing me of?
Lena: The power in the hospital didn't go off because of the attack on the dam. You did that! And I know because the L-Corp foundation has its name on every scalpel, bench, and backup generator in the place.
Lex: Hmm. Quite the philanthropist you've become. (coughs fitfully)\
Lena: There were children in that hospital, Lex. You took advantage of the attack on the dam to kill the power, while James was on the operating table. You risked his life and the lives of countless others just so I would be forced to test the Harun-El.
Lex: (mockingly) Aw, you figured it all out. Well, mostly. You missed one big thing.
Lena: Yeah, the story about my mother was just another lie to manipulate me.
Lex: No, that was true. That's what made it so effective. But I also had Jimmy shot. Unfortunately, that wasn't as effective a cattle prod as I'd hoped.
Lena: You are sick.
Lex: Exactly. I'm dying. This horrible cancer is eating me up and you are sitting pretty on the very thing that could cure me, and you wouldn't even test it! God knows I'm not going to test an experimental, lethal drug on myself, so you needed a nudge, and a test dummy.
Lena: Well, it worked. James is gonna live, and you're gonna rot. 'Cause I will never, never give you the cure. (to the guard) Take him away.
Lex: Lena, Lena.. I... I'm disappointed that this is your reaction, but I'm not surprised. Which is why I had someone give me the cure ten minutes ago.


Continuity

Four years ago (i.e. 2015) Lex Luthor turned the sun red in a bid to take away Superman's powers. This resulted in his arrest.

As the episode opens, Lex Luthor had a stroke.

Whoever shot James Olsen knew about his signal watch and used it.

Kara hears the signal watch and finds James wounded in his office.

Reportedly, Lex was diagnosed as dying six weeks earlier - something he has mentioned to Lena and the start and end of every phone call he's made to her since.

Lex has been released from prison to be placed under house arrest due to his ill health.

Lex is revealed to have been helping Lena with her research into Harun-El and to have been pulling the strings to give her access to the resources of the DEO.

Lena was unaware that James had been shot.

Kara determines that James was shot in the back with a hollow-point bullet and it splintered passing through his spine. Even in a best-case scenario he will be paralyzed for life.

J'onn is certain Manchester Black is responsible for shooting James.

Alex tries to persuade Lena to use the Harun-El treatment on James.

Kara leaves with J'onn to help in his search, telling Alex to stay with James as she needs to run the office in James' absence.

J'onn tracks Manchester to the place where his father died in 323.

Manchester is revealed to have armed himself with The Staff of Kolar, which was first seen in 303.

Manchester also reveals that the psychic link J'onn created between them goes both ways and enabled him to read J'onn's mind and learn all about his life on Mars.

Lena says that she's been unable to separate the potential curative properties of Harun-El from the part that could give a human super-powers and it is this later part that can potentially kill someone.

Lena asks Lex to help her get the Harun-El cure to work - for James' sake as well as his own.

As children, Lex would make fun of Lena's inventions as a way of encouraging her, thinking that she needed someone to fight against in order to prove herself.

Lex makes reference to how Lena created synthetic Kryptonite in 317 and says even he could never manage that.

J'onn says that H'ronmeer tested the Martian people in many ways and his punishments for failure were severe.

Lex had a dog when he was 7 that his mother wouldn't let him stay with as it was put down. Instead he was sent on a trip with his father, who spent most of the trip with some strange woman leaving Lex alone. The woman was Lena's mother, whom Lionel Luthor had an affair with. By the end of the trip, Lex wishes she was his real mother because she was far kinder and loving than Lilian Luthor ever had been.

Kelly Olsen is a military psychologist.

Kelly says she has had to visit James in the hospital 11 times before this incident.

Dreamer and Brainiac-5 kiss for the first time.

Manchester attacks the National City dam, apparently causing a power outage that even shorts out the hospital's back-up generators.

Lena uses the Harun-El cure on James. It works, healing his spine and all the other trauma to his body.

J'onn loses his temper as Manchester shows him images of his children being abducted by White Martians. He seemingly kills Manchester, vaporizing his body, leaving behind only Brainiac-5's Legion Flight Ring.

Brainiac-5 tells Dreamer that they can never have a relationship, quoting the movie Speed to justify the idea that relationships built on intense experiences never work in the long run. Dreamer is less than convinced.

Lex is revealed to have had someone else give him the Harun-El cure while Lena was away treating James, most likely Eve Teschmacher.

Otis Graves, believed to have been killed in 404, is revealed to be alive. It is not explained how.

Eve Teschmacher is revealed to have been working for Lex for sometime. Again, it is not explained why.

The episode ends with Lex killing all the federal agents on the Luthor Manor property and leaving in a helicopter, only to wind up staring down Supergirl.


Location

Metropolis - Spring 2015


The Bottom Line

A mixed bag, despite likely being the best episode of the season in many respects. The scenes between Lex and Lena are golden and Jon Cryer was a perfect casting choice, able to play the humor and the viciousness of Lex Luthor equally well. The problem is that there's so much gravity to the fact that the show finally has Lex Luthor on it that the episode feels over-stuffed. As a result, everything else that happens feels like a distraction until Luthor is back on-screen because, come on, we ALL know he's about to do something big. Otherwise why have him on the show in the first place?

The Manchester Black storyline fizzles out anti-climactically and what should be a big deal - J'onn giving up the path of peace - seems like a foregone conclusion. Brainy and Dreamer's scenes could have been cut without the episode losing anything. Kelly Olsen's introduction and meet-cute with Alex seems like filler. And even the fact that James Olsen is dying seems like the fourth of fifth most important storyline despite being the center of the episode!

Your enjoyment of this episode may ultimately come down to how much you can forgive the sudden pile-up of unexplained plot points in the final two minutes, all so we can get Lex, Otis and Miss Teschmacher taking on the world to classical music and winning. If you can forgive the rest of the episode for getting us to that point, you'll like it.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 14 - Stand And Deliver

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

Between Ben Lockwood's efforts to empower the anti-alien movement and The Elite's desire to bring down Lockwood and his followers, Supergirl is more worried than ever about the safety of the American people and innocents getting caught in the crossfire. When Lockwood organizes a Children of Liberty recruitment drive under the guise of a patriotic rally as J'onn organizes a peaceful counter-protest and The Elite plan to attack it, Kara may finally be forced to make a public stand. Meanwhile, James plays photographer to cover the rally as Alex finds herself being assigned to a task by Col. Haley that goes against her beliefs.


Influences

This episode was clearly inspired by the real-world Charlottesville Unite The Right rally held on August 11 & 12, 2017 and the following riots.

The idea of the baby sun-eater was taken from All-Star Superman.


Goofs

Kara gives Nia a hard time about getting in Menagerie's face and threatening her but says nothing about J'onn doing the same?

Reassigning the director of a federal organization to act as a security guard seems like a total waste of resources and the excuse that Alex has more experience than anyone fighting hostile aliens doesn't ring true either since most of The Elite aren't aliens. (Since when has President Baker cared about wasting resources?)

The Hat is able to teleport The Elite to The Fortress of Solutude but he said last week he couldn't go places he hadn't already been.

Why do Kelex or none of the other security protocols inside the Fortress of Solitude react to The Hat and Manchester and the Morae?

Why do Hat and Manchester make a great show of falling out in the Fotress when they have no reason to believe they are being watched? Their whole scene makes no sense outside the context of the television show needing us to believe Manchester is honestly dead.

There is no way a protest march would be allowed to enter the same building as the rally said march was protesting. (Unless Alex intentionally screwed up the perimeter security...)


Artistry

While Mad World is probably the most over-used song for this kind of montage, the scene of James taking pictures of the riot while Kara and Dreamer try to help people IS well staged.


Super Trivia

The key to the Fortress of Solitude is made of dwarf star material and weighs around 500,000 kilograms (i.e. 500 tons )

Much as in the comic All-Star Superman, the Arrowverse version of Superman is revealed to have a pet sun-eater, who lives in a room in the Fortress of Solitude. It feeds on the chemical mass of small stars, which Superman makes himself using a cosmic anvil and an atomic hammer. Kara says it's basically a living bomb.

The "Us or Them" speech started by Ben Lockwood at his rally is based on an actual chant used by neo-Nazis during the Charlottesville Riots.


Technobabble

Lena refuses to run human trials until the purification rate of her serum is 90% or higher.

Hat takes two items from the Fortress of Solitude - a crystal wand he says will let them activate all their aliens brothers and sisters and am amulet he says can do even more. The wand is later shown to be able to create holographic clones and illusions.

Manchester takes a belt that seems to give him some kind of protective force-field.


Dialogue Triumphs

(J'onn is watching the sleeping Dreamer.)
J'onn: (whispering) Have you told her she doesn't have to wear the suit in private?
Kara: (chuckling) It's just a phase. I did the same thing when I became Supergirl. I practically slept in my suit.

(Supergirl and Dreamer are facing down the Morae)
Dreamer: Yield or die!
Supergirl: (quietly) Just take it down to... like a 7?
Dreamer: Yield or else!

James: It's just important to remember what we do here every day. Reporting on events like this - taking the risks to show all sides and showing the humanity there? It's nothing less than heroic. I mean, think about it - you fight injustice with your firsts?  You help one - maybe a dozen people. But good journalism? That can impact millions. That's why we became journalists in the first place, right?

Brainiac-5: I think it would mean a lot to have Supergirl march today.
Kara: I wish I could, Brainy, but I think its more important for me to patrol in case anything gets out of hand.
Brainiac-5: It won't. (dramatically) I am AmericanAlien. Hashtag American Alien.
Kara: You... you organized it?
Brainiac-5: When I lost my Legion ring, I realized how much I depended on it for strength and confidence. I thought it's hat made me a hero. But not having it these past few days has made me see it wasn't my ring that gave me strength. It was fighting alongside all of you, helping to make the Earth a better place. In times like this change won't come from someone with a ring or a cape. It will only come when each one of us answers the call to stand up and be heard. El Mayara - Stronger Together.
(Brainiac-5 glances at Dreamer, and sighs a bit as if hesitating to say something.) 
Brainiac-5: Just because we're superheroes doesn't mean we forget who we are.
Kara: I'm sorry, Brainy. The risk is too great.
Dreamer: Ready!
(Brainiac-5 looks at Kara again, disappointed.)
Brainiac-5: Supergirl may be a symbol. But more importantly she's a citizen of Earth. Like the rest of us. Remember that.

(Supergirl confronts one of Lockwood's men - the one she saved at his first speech - as he his heckling the pro-alien protesters.)
Man: Supergirl?
Supergirl: What are you doing here?!
Man: We're here to show our support for the repeal of Alien Amnesty.
Supergirl: But that amnesty is what gives these aliens their rights.
Man: Why should they get any rights? They're just here to hurt us.
Supergirl: They're not - look at them! They're not here to hurt anyone! Most of them are fleeing from war and violence, just like I did when I first came to Earth.
Man: They're not like you. You're a superhero.
(Kara's jaw actually drops.)
Supergirl: No, you're wrong. I'm just like them.

(Supergirl flies before the protest, wearing a formal Kryptonian robe.)
Brainiac-5: Supergirl.
Supergirl: Kara Zor-El. Citizen of Earth.

Eve Teschmacher: Well, I guess tomorrow is another day.
Lena: Tomorrow may be too late.


Continuity

Dreamer, Supergirl and Martian Manhunter capture Menagerie as she's in the middle of stalking a rich woman with fancy jewelry. She is turned into the DEO.

The Elite attempt to assassinate Ben Lockwood at his first speech as Director of Alien Affairs.

Supergirl saves Lockwood's life and sends The Elite running.

James Olsen takes his coffee with two sugars.

James asks Eve Teschmacher about the black budget at L-Corp. Eve says she'll have to get permission from Lena to share it with him but she says the budget is only there to hide proprietary science from the company's competitors.

Col. Hayley demands that Lena speed up the process for human testing on her serum, saying that she needs her soldiers to be superhuman soon.

Alex is reassigned to oversee Ben Lockwood's security detail.

J'onn says that something about Manchester pushes his buttons and is making him come close to losing control.

Lockwood announces that he is moving to repeal the Alien Amnesty Act and start arranging the mass deportation of aliens from Earth. Legally, he has no power to do this, but he certainly has the capacity to rally people to lobby their congressional representatives to repeal the law.

Dreamer has a dream about the balcony opposite where Ben Lockwood had his rally the night before.  It is here that Kara finds a Morae claw, which J'onn can use to track the Morae psychically.

A pro-alien rights rally is organized by someone called AmericanAlien on-line.  Col. Hayley tasks Braniac-5 with figuring out who they are and what their intentions are. Brainiac-5 says that it will bot be easy, as whoever they are is a master of encryption.

Hat was told where to find The Fortress of Solitude by his friend "Mixy". This may be a reference to Mister Mxyzptlk, whom Kara fought at the Fortress in 213.

It is confirmed that Hat's powers come from the Fifth Dimension, but he does not seem to he an imp. Instead, he seems to just have a magic hat.

Hat has access to a pair of gloves that let him increase his strength enough to lift the key to the Fortress of Solitude.

Hat and Manchester seemingly have a falling out. Hat is worried Manchester is obsessed with seeking revenge over running their revolution. Manchester says that bringing down Lockwood IS the revolution. Hat wants to loot the Fortress of Solitude blind. Manchester is searching for something specific he can use against Lockwood and Supergirl.

The Morae sides with Manchester.

Dreamer is able to use her powers to augment J'onn's clairvoyance. This leads her to see Manchester in the Fortress of Solitude.

Manchester seemingly dies after running into a room containing Superman's pet baby sun-eater.

Supergirl turns the Morae into the DEO.

Brainiac-5 is placed in charge of organizing a DEO team to be embedded within AmericanAlien's protest rally and coordinating with Alex to make sure that people are kept safe.

J'onn says he can no longer sense Manchester's anger.

J'onn tries to search for Hat psychically, but he guesses that Hat is hiding in the Fifth Dimension.

Franklin - the Dryad from 402 - is sent to cover the rally for CatCo.

James decides to work as a photographer to cover the rally.

Brainy asks the rest of the team to march in the pro-alien rally. J'onn agrees, but Kara says she and Nia should be on patrol and look for trouble.

Brainy reveals that he is AmericanAlien and that he organized the march.

Alex evacuated Ben Lockwood from the rally once he has the crowd worked into a frenzy.

Manchester Black and Hat are revealed to have faked their display in the Fortress of Solitude and Manchester was teleported away to the Fifth Dimension after seeming to run into the sun-eater room.

Brainiac-5 and Supergirl are able to subdue The Hat.

Dreamer saves Franklin the Dryad from one of the Children of Liberty.

Manchester tricks J'onn into venting his anger on a Child of Liberty holographically altered to look like him.

The Child of Liberty follower Kara spoke to is later shown helping save an alien in the middle of the riot. He thanks Supergirl for saving him again and she thanks him in turn.

Manchester escapes in the confusion.

James says that the protest marches in Metropolis and Gotham were peaceful.

Ben Lockwood announces that he and the President agree that they should hold Congressional hearings regarding repealing the Alien Amnesty Act before making any decisions.

Col. Haley tells Alex that she appreciates her not letting her politics get in the way of her doing her job.

Col. Haley complements Brainiac-5 on the job he did managing the protest and says it's a good thing AmericanAlien was a good guy.

The implication is that Col. Haley knows that Brainiac-5 was American Alien and that Alex only allowed Lockwood to speak until he was officially inciting a riot.

Col. Haley tells Lena there is no rush on getting the super soldier program finished now.

Unable to find Manchester Black using his father's methods, J'onn declares that he will find him as a Manhunter.

James is shot by an unseen assailant in his office at CatCo.


Location

Fortress of Solitude.


The Bottom Line

On the one hand, this episode has a lot of logic problems, The Elite are defeated way too easily after having just been established as a major threat and Manchester Black undergoes the worst bit of character assassination ever.  Col. Haley is back to being a decent person after being depicted as a military hardliner but a fair one or a total fascist depending on the writer. And Lena is just sorta... there.

On the other hand, the acting manages to make-up for a lot of this and some of the individual scenes are good, even if the performances have all the emotional flow of a roller-coaster. Still, it could be far worse, and what it does well it does very well.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 13 - What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

With Agent Liberty released from prison, Manchester Black makes a bold move and escapes with the aid of his new super-powered allies. Forming a new group called The Elite, they will test Kara as much as a new revelation regarding Agent Liberty and President Baker's efforts to turn his popularity to the benefit of his administration.


Influences

Superman #775 


Goofs

So Manchester Black has been friends with a guy with a magic hat all this time?

Why DOESN"T Kara use the door when she enters the diner to confront Manchester? That restaurant owner didn't deserve to have a hole put in their ceiling.

It beggars belief that Kara is still willing to believe the best of President Baker after everything he has done to undermine her position publicly and to promote Agent Liberty's agenda.

A close second? That the Morae can sneak into the White House undetected and don't kill President Baker - the man who gave the order to kill all the Morae employed by the government a few episodes ago? The man who pardoned Agent Liberty? The man about to launch a satellite that will destroy any spaceship approaching Earth, hostile or no?


Performances

David Ajala has been sorely missed as Manchester Black over the past few episodes. He more than makes up for his absence here. Indeed, he is so charming that he threatens to undermine the script by being far more clever in his performance than his dialogue allows.


Super Trivia

The title of the episode is taken from Superman #775 - the story which introduced the character of Manchester Black and the other members of The Elite.

This is the first episode to feature a new introduction, which reflects the changed reality of Kara no longer working for the DEO and Alex not knowing that Kara is Supergirl.

In the comics, The Hat was a young Asian earth elemental named Rampotatek who possessed a measure of invulnerability & the natural ability to breathe fire. He armed himself with a magic hat from which he could pull any item he desires, summon demons, & wield magic.

The Arrowverse version of The Hat has the same powers as his comic book counterpart, but his hat is said to be from the Fifth Dimension rather than a magical artifact. (This could be a clever nod to the Arrowverse version of Mister Mxyzptlk, who did not have the character's trademark hat from the comics. )

Brainiac-5 makes reference to a friend named Val, who taught him how to fight in ways that involved improvisation rather than calculation. This is a reference to the Legionnaire Val Armorr - aka Karate Kid.


Technobabble

Kelex is an Caretaker Android Mark IV.

Alex's lab contains a gel electrophoresis apparatus, which Eve Teschmacher needs for some reason.

Alex says that Lena's process is reducing mitophagy while increasing mitochondrial efficiency at the same time.

Manchester Black gives Supergirl the location for where he wants to meet her using superliminal stimuli embedded in structured light.

Brainiac-5 creates a pair of gloves that allow Nia to harness raw dream energy, creating focused blasts of astral force.


Dialogue Triumphs

Supergirl: My name is Kara Zor-El. I'm from Krypton. I'm a refugee on this planet. I was sent to Earth to protect my cousin. But my pod got knocked off course. And by the time I got here, my cousin had already grown up and become Superman. I hid who I really was until one day when an accident forced me to reveal myself to the world. To most people, including my adoptive sister Alex, I'm a reporter at CatCo Worldwide Media. But in secret, I work to protect this planet I call my home from anyone that means to cause it harm. I am Supergirl.

Nia: Did I cover okay about training and everything? Did I blow it?
Kara: No, no! I'm still getting used to the lying to Alex, too. And don't worry, you'll get better at the whole "sneaking out" thing. The key is subtlety.
(As the elevator opens, the two see Brainy, wearing a ball-cap, sunglasses and a T-shirt that reads "Don't Hassle Me - I'm Local." He looks as conspicuous as it is possible for a person to look without being on fire.)
Kara: Case in point.

Manchester Black: (To J'onn) You think I'm good deep down, eh? Well, it's a bad time to be a good man. Take you, for instance. If it weren't for your bloody promise, I believe you could solve all the worlds problems. You just need motivation.

Manchester Black: Every action has an opposite and equal, yeah? This "Earth First" Liberty crowd, they hurt aliens. And what, they don't think we'll hurt them in kind? Why? 'Cause Supergirl says that's not the way? Supergirl's like a folktale. In theory, comforting, noble. In reality, (scoffs)  ill-equipped and clinging to ideals of a time long past. When they go low, she goes high. We put them six feet lower.
(The crowd behind Manchester begin applauding politely.)
Manchester Black: We're through giving these devils the benefit of the law. Supergirl's done. This is the era of the Elite.

Kara: Manchester got to you, didn't he? At the prison?
J'onn: All I've wanted to do since my father died is honor him. Live by his example.
Kara: And you have.
J'onn: But I'm struggling, Kara. There's a duality in me that's at war. I want to be a man of peace just like my father, but every fiber of my being is fighting against that. Being a Manhunter was part of my nature.
Kara: Are you considering picking back up the sword?
J'onn: I made a personal vow I wouldn't take that lightly.
Kara: Well, if you choose to join the fight to bring the Elite to justice, I'm sure your father would understand. Even Myr'nn joined the fight against Reign.
J'onn: Manchester is baiting me. We're connected somehow. I think he can feel the rage that lies within me. The rage born of the massacre of my family. One thing's for certain, Manchester was a test for me. But whether he's a test of my resolve, or just a mirror showing me that I cannot walk my father's path, I just don't know.
Kara: You will find clarity, J'onn. I know you will.
J'onn: Thank you.

Manchester Black: You won't join us, and I can't beat you. So, let's make a deal.
Supergirl: I accept your surrender.
Manchester Black: Never. But I can stay out of your soup. Cat in a tree, idiot in tights, bank robbers? All yours. But the racists, the fascists, the Children of Liberty? That's our department.
Supergirl: I won't let you keep killing people.
Manchester Black: (sarcastically) Oh, like your government intends to kill people?
(Supergirl looks confused by this.)
Manchester Black:You really don't know, do you? Next week, your beloved government is launching a satellite that will shoot down any alien spacecraft trying to enter our atmosphere.
Supergirl: That's impossible.
Manchester Black: I have it on good authority. Hat kidnaps secret agent types, learns what they're up to. That's why we formed this band of merry men.
(Menagerie clears her throat.)
Manchester Black: Sorry, merry people.
Supergirl: Why should I believe you?
Manchester Black: Talk to your mate, Baker. You know, the bloke who just pardoned the grand bloody wizard of the Children of Liberty? Ask him 'bout Operation Claymore. And then ask yourself, what if it were your ship they were blowing up? You came here in a rocket. Child in a basket, you know? Real Moses stuff. Here's your chance to tell the bosses to "let your people go. " Or us plagues'll do it for ya.


Continuity

Kara completely forgets about her lunch plans with Alex, in favor of a training session with Brainiac-5 and Dreamer.

Lena is said to be moving her operation into Alex's old lab at the DEO.

Brainiac-5 is still using Barney as an alias when posing as a human.

MacKenzie, the CatCo reporter who approached James with a story about strange goings-on at L-Corp that he shot down in 411, approaches him again about new information from the same source.

Kara, Dreamer and Braniac-5 are using the Fortress of Solitude to train.

Manchester Black has dyed his hair purple.

Hat is an old friend of Manchester's from way back.

The Hat can teleport himself and others but only to places he has been before.

The Elite is made up of Manchester Black, Hat, Menagerie and the one uncaptured Morae from 410.

Brainiac-5 uses differential calculus to anticipate his opponent's moves in a fight.

Brainy also tries to teach Dreamer the importance of improvisation and not depending on what you think will happen, be it because of predictive dreams or mathematical probabilities.

Brainy refuses to tell Dreamer what her descendants were able to do with their powers for fear of causing a paradox.

Alex makes reference to when Lena spoke about giving people super powers at Thanksgiving in 406.

Lena's deal with the DEO only gives them access to products, not procedures. She will maintain all control over how the process works because she does not trust the DEO to handle her work.

Lena asks for Alex to come work her in the DEO lab, saying she's wasted in management.

Ben Lockwood is confronted by a man named Cooper, who runs the Children of Liberty operations around Washington DC. He accuses Lockwood of selling-out and paling around with politicians instead of doing the work that needs doing ever since getting out of prison.

The Elite steal the Crown Jewels of England in order to get publicity for their cause.  Manchester asks Supergirl to meet him at dawn at a diner in Manchester.

Ben Lockwood asks President Baker to deputize the Children of Liberty during their meeting. President Baker laughs this off, saying his government is doing just fine keeping the peace and fighting violent aliens.

Kelex gives Dreamer access to the Fortress of Solitude records on Naltor.

Project Claymore is a secret US Government project to launch a satellite capable of shooting down any alien aircraft approaching Earth.

Dreamer begins learning how to astral project.

Supergirl approaches Alex about Project Claymore. She knows nothing about it and says such a project legally should fall under DEO control, though morally she cannot support it.

The Hat steals Brainiac-5's Legion flight ring and gives it to Manchester Black.

The Elite attempt to redirect Project Claymore so it will destroy The White House.

Alex brings the Armored Supergirl Suit from 404. This enables Kara to fly into orbit to stop Project Claymore and destroy it.

The Project Claymore satellite cost $2 billion dollars to make.

Alex unofficially leaves the door open for Supergirl to work with the DEO when requested.

Col. Haley claims that she didn't know about Project Claymore either and is disturbed when Alex asks her about it and President Baker going outside of the standard protocol.

Alex tells Lena she doesn't trust the DEO anymore and wants to help her with her work.

President Baker names Ben Lockwood as the new Director of Alien Affairs.

James Olsen asks Mackenzie if her source would be willing to speak about the corruption at L-Corps on the record.

Ben Lockwood beats Cooper (possibly to death) with an Agent Liberty mask to assert his control of the Children of Liberty.


Location

Fortress of Solitude
Rio de Janeiro , Brazil.
London, UK.
Manchester, UK
Washington DC, USA
Devil's Tower, Wyoming, USA.
Low Earth Orbit above the United States


Untelevised Adventures

Brainiac-5 and Kelex apparently met at some point (probably during Elseworlds) and immediately failed to hit it off with each other, for some unspecified reason.


The Kryptonite Factor

The core problem with this episode is two-fold. First, that it wastes time trying to build sympathy for Ben Lockwood as a pawn of a politician who only sees him as a prop toward helping his own sagging poll numbers - a conceit that doesn't work since, as Kara points out, he's a murder who flushed any higher principals he had away a while ago.  Next, it goes out of its way to try paint Manchester Black as a villain, turning The Elite into thieves and killers of innocents rather than superheroes with no qualms about killing.

Any chance of nuanced discussion regarding Black's position is immediately negated because he's a criminal ignoring his attitude that violence can be met in kind with violence when lives are at stake. It's almost as if the show's writers got this far, realized the fallacy of Kara's own centrist argument about "both sides being just as bad" and twisted things to make it true.


The Bottom Line

A bit of a mess, which works far better than it should thanks to some terrific speeches and some strong performances. A marked stepped down from every other adaptation of What's So Funny About Truth, Justice And The American Way? the introduction of the Elite is rushed and they're made into generic punk criminals who mostly beat up bad people rather than the heroic but violent characters from the original story. The execution of The Elite, however, is solid but one wishes more time had been taken to establish them instead of just happening to have all these characters come together now. Still, for more David Ajala being snarky, I can put up with a lot.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 8 - Bunker Hill

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Nia has a dream about Agent Liberty she refuses to believe is a vision of the future. Brainiac-5 tries to help her embrace her gift after Kara realizes there is something wrong with her protege. Meanwhile, Manchester Black confronts Ben Lockwood over his ties to the Children of Liberty.


Influences

Spartacus (The Children of Liberty all claim to be Agent Liberty, prompting Brainy to make reference to the movie.) and The Purge (Nia refers to the town of Colinwood and its residents feeling like something out of this movie.)


Goofs

Given that tracking dogs are trained to sense specific scents, how can an alien-sniffing dog be trained to track a Kryptonian when there are only two of them on Earth?

How the heck does Ben Lockwood know that Supergirl has a secret identity.

For that matter, how does he have any credibility on this point with anyone other than crazed conspiracy theorists, much less have the pull to get The President to demand Supergirl reveal her secret identity?

How is Manchester sent to prison and put in a uniform faster than Ben Lockwood, despite being arrested at roughly the same time?


Super Trivia

The movie Nia is watching in her dream as the episode opens is North by Northwest.

Nia confesses that she is an alien from the planet Naltor. In the DC Comics Universe, many natives of the planet Naltor possess precognitive powers. Depending upon the continuity, their visions of the future may only come to them in dreams or may come to them when they are awake.

According to Nia, once in a generation, some women of the Arrowverse version of Naltor gain the power to see the future. She cannot control what she sees and often doesn't know what she is looking at.

Brainiac-5 accidentally calls Nia by the name Nura. This is a reference to Nura Nal - the Legionnaire known as Dream Girl. In the comics, Nura Nal was a precognitive member of the Legion of Super Heroes. It was revealed in the press for the new season that in the Arrowverse, Nura Nal exists in Brainiac-5's time and Nia Nal is her ancestor.

Brainiac says that there is a little bit of Nth Metal in his ring. One of the many powers conferred to all Legion members through their rings is the power to fly - a property granted by objects made of Nth Metal.

The final scene of the episode is set on Earth-90 and is revealed to be the world of the 1990 The Flash TV series. It seems likely it was named Earth 90 in honor of the year 1990. The music sting that is heard as The Flash runs towards the camera is The Flash theme from that TV series.


Technobabble

Brainiac-5 says that in his time, the symbolism of dreams pioneered by Jung and Freud is now called Frungian.

Nth Metal is the strongest metal in existence. There is a bit of it in every Legion flight ring.

Manchester attacks Supergirl with a bomb full of dust from an alien moon. The dust fragments are sharp enough to cut Kryptonian DNA, honest to a nanometer. Manchester figured that Supergirl's insides were probably softer than her outside, so getting her to inhale a lungful of particles should slow her down.


Dialogue Triumphs

J'onn: I am still so sorry about what happened. I led you right into his trap.
Kara: You're apologizing to me for believing the best in someone? Kind of my whole thing.

Lydia: I think it's very thoughtful of you to come all the way here in person to thank him.
Manchester: Well, how could I not after what he did?
(There is a long pause as Ben Lockwood stares blankly at Manchester.)
Manchester: I'm talking about the gift, man.
Ben: (as if remembering) The gift! Of course. The gift.
Lydia: What gift?
(There is another long pause.)
Manchester: The wedding gift. Great big set of steak knives for me and my fiancee. Fiona?
(Comprehension slowly dawns in Ben Lockwood's eyes, though he tries to keep his face neutral. He doesn't quite manage it as Manchester watches him carefully.)
Manchester: You all right there, Benjamin?

(Manchester is admiring the bayonet blade made by Ben's ancestor.)
Ben: You know, that's from Bunker Hill? Remember that one? The one where The Brits thought they had won, but the battle ended up so bloody that it cost them the war and it wasn't worth it?

(Manchester is facing down Ben and Lydia Lockwood. Suddenly, he is surrounded by orange lights as J'onn's voice reaches him.)
J'onn: Manchester. Tell me where you are.
Manchester: (smacking himself in the side of the face) Get out of my head!
J'onn: You made a promise.
Manchester: That promise died with Fiona.
J'onn: But it didn't die with me! If you can't hold yourself to that promise, I will.
Manchester: What?
(Manchester is suddenly forced to his knees.)
J'onn: I feel your pain, Manchester. Give this up!
Manchester (panting): You want to feel my pain?  (starts cutting his hand with the bayonet blade) Feel it!
(J'onn screams and the psychic connection is broken.)

Brainy: It's going to be alright.
Nia: Alright?! We've been kidnapped!
Kara: Reporting 101 - If you get kidnapped, you're on the right track.
Nia: That doesn't make any sense!
Kara: Tell that to Lois Lane.

(Brainy shows Nia his Legion flight ring.)
Nia: I thought that was a class ring?
Brainy: I was home-schooled.

Supergirl: If you kill him.... what does that make you?
Manchester: (holding up his coat like he was curtsying, mockingly) The Intolerant Left.
Supergirl: (gasping) If we want to win this... we have to be better. Let me take him to prison. Show people who he really is!
Manchester: Don't be daft! Those people hate you! You can put a cape on, say you're a superhero, but to him and everyone else like him you'll only ever be an alien! (draws out some kind of energy weapon) A roach!
(Manchester fires an energy bolt into some nearby machinery. Molten Nth Metal suddenly pours down on Kara. hardening around her legs.)
Manchester: Time to pick a side, Pollyanna. You're with them?  Government stooge?  Happy Meal Hero? Or you're with me. And we string up the lot. Every terrorist turning your streets into war zones. You keep saying it's a never-ending battle. How about you and I end it together?
Supergirl: I'll never be like you.
(Manchester turns as he hears a figure running behind him and goes chasing after it, leaving Supergirl to struggle with the Nth metal that has her trapped.)

(Ben is about to leave with Lydia but he turns and takes her gun, pointing it at the fallen Manchester. From the lower level, Supergirl, still trapped in the hardened Nth Metal sees this.)
Supergirl: Ben! Ben, stop!
Lydia: Ben, don't! Ben, put the gun down!
(Supegirl grunts and reaches up with her free arm.)
Ben: That's Nth Metal. Supergirl! No point struggling!
Supergirl: (growling) I'm not struggling!  I'm flying!
(Suddenly, the whole building starts to shake off its foundations as if hit by an earthquake. Supergirl yells as the whole building is lifted perhaps thirty feet off the ground before it falls back down.  The impact shatters the Nth metal around Supergirl, freeing her to catch Lydia Lockwood as she goes flying over the rails of the platform above.)

President Baker: I hope you will comply. The United States does not want a war with Supergirl.
Supergirl: Then I trust you won't start one.

(A Caption Box reads Earth-90 as we see the aftermath of a war and numerous people in costumes lying on the ground, dead. Eventually we come to a figure in a somewhat familiar red suit crawling on the ground toward a large book that is glowing purple. A figure walks over and picks the book up before he can reach it.)
The Monitor: You failed.
(The figure in red pulls himself up to his knees. It is The Flash. Not the Flash we know, but definitely The Flash.)
The Flash: (gasping) Why are you doing this?
The Monitor: You did this to yourselves. And now... all of you will perish.
(The Monitor opens the book and light pours from it. As he does so, The Flash stands and runs toward the camera, as a familiar theme to older comic book TV show fans plays, as we zoom in on his chest symbol....) 


Continuity

Nia has a roommate, who she asked not to let her sleep.

J'onn says he saw no light left inside of Manchester when he last touched his mind.

Manchester Black's brass knuckles have a Union Jack engraved on the base.

One of the Children of Liberty captured on Shelley Island is a man named Frank whose background has been erased.

Brainiac-5 has begun studying the classic films of Earth. He can discuss auteur theory, has seen Spartacus and is quite fond of Ed Wood.

Brainiac-5 knew who Nia Nal was from the the 31s Century but he refuses to tell Kara or Alex why because it could have a devastating effect on the space-time continuum.

All Brainiac-5 will say is that Nia might be able to help the DEO find Agent Liberty. He does seem disturbed that Kara let it go when Nia said she had a nightmare about Agent Liberty.

The President's approval numbers went down after the Children of Liberty on Shelley Island were captured.

Ben Lockwood speaks to someone he calls Thack about their war being multi-front and putting Agent Liberty on hold for a while and letting him and his new TV show take priority in trying to shift more moderate people towards their cause.

Ben Lockwood's show is on Tuesdays at 5 PM.

Manchester Black introduces himself to Ben Lockwood's family as a friend from the university.

J'onn tries to use Manchester's brass knuckles to locate Manchester.

Nia tells Kara that her family is from the planet Naltor.

Nia says she had a dream of Agent Liberty killing a woman.

Brainiac-5 tells Nia that her visions are of probable futures - not set events. He later says that the things she sees are sometimes more symbolic than literal - what 21st century psychologists would call Jungian or Freudian imagery.

Brainiac-5 accidentally calls Nia Nura.

Nia sees a hook in her nightmare. She is able to slow down the vibrating image of the woman crying for help, begging for her life, asking the person to put the gun down. She is wearing a hoodie for the Collinwood 5K.  She then sees Agent Liberty drawing a gun. There is also quick flash of a man in a long coat holding a long weapon on the woman as well.

Ben Lockwood's great-great-great-grandfather was a blacksmith. He has a bayonet blade that his ancestor forged on display in his home, which was used at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

J'onn is shown to be capable of telepathically controlling a person when he has an object to focus on. However, this connection can be broken by intense pain, as Manchester cuts himself to force J'onn out of his head.

Brainiac-5 says that Colinwood was an early center for anti-alien activity.

Brainiac-5 apparently considers the original The Purge to be a classic movie.

Kara spots two men with guns and a woman with a Child of Liberty mask in her purse following her, Nia and Brainy with an alien-sniffing dog.

Nia's has a narcoleptic fit that gives her a vision of the Children of Liberty trying to shoot her seconds before it happens. She is able to duck in time and raise her hands so her shackle chain is broken by the bullet. This is the first time her powers worked on a reflexively level.

Ben Lockwood is forced to show his wife where he hides his Agent of Liberty costume and confesses to having killed because of what he has done.

Kara discovers that the building she, Brainy and Nia were taken is a Lockwood Family Steel building.

Alex tricks Frank into outing Ben Lockwood as Agent Liberty by pretending they already caught the real Agent Liberty.

J'onn tries to stop Manchester one more time, but Manchester tells him the only way to stop him is to kill him. J'onn relents when he realizes that is true.

Manchester chases Agent Liberty to the Nth Metal Foundry near the Lockwood Family Steel Mill.

Supergirl goes to the Lockwood home and discovers the bayonet in the basement.

Nia has another vision.  This time she sees the woman is holding a gun on a man in a long coat who is holding some kind of long weapon.

The man in the long coat is revealed to be Manchester Black. The woman is revealed to be Lydia Lockwood.

Nia is able to knock Manchester out using a hook in the factory's equipment.

Both Manchester Black and Ben Lockwood are arrested.

J'onn visits Manchester in prison and tells him he thinks he can still be saved.

Supergirl is fired from the DEO after she refuses to reveal her secret identity.

A mob of supporters masses outside the prison where Ben Lockwood was arrested.

Lydia Lockwood is at the front of the mob, and begins a chant of "Liberty!" when Supergirl shows up to watch Ben Lockwood being put in jail.

The final scene reveals that Earth 90 is the Earth of The Flash TV series from 1990.


Location

Colinwood
Earth-90


Untelevised Adventures

The battle on Earth-90.


The Bottom Line

An effective mid-season finale that brings most of the subplots to an effective stopping place while setting up a few mysteries to propel things forward. And the final scene to lead into Elseworlds sent my inner 12 year old screaming with excitement.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 7 - Rather the Fallen Angel

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

As James Olsen gets in too deep trying to find the leader of the Children of Liberty, Supergirl and Manchester Black join forces to root out the terrorist leader more directly... with deadly consequences for The Girl of Steel!  Meanwhile, Lena prepares to start human trials in her efforts to find a way to accelerate human evolution using Harun-El.


Influences

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (title, character named Adam who is the subject of an experiment, general theme of good people being made into monsters by the want of love), 52 (Lex Luthor's Everyman Project is similar to what Lena is attempting here.)


Goofs

Lena makes reference to Nagel's Spider In The Shower Conundrum. It may be different on Earth 38, but in our world the conundrum involves a Spider In A Urinal. (The CW censors might not have allowed them to mention urinal.)


Performances

David Ajala continues to manage an impossible balancing act as Manchester Black. On the one hand, part of you can't help but love the guy and sympathize with him even as he pushes the limits of what Supergirl can ignore with his vigilantism. And then we find out just how far he's gone and.... well, you still sympathize with him and are left wondering, like Kara, how much of his betrayal was planned out and if he truly was counting on being able to save Supergirl on his own or her being able to free herself or if he truly was throwing her to the wolves only to change his mind and save her at the last moment. It's a complex performance that perfect captures the conflicted nature of the episode's core theme.


Artistry

The script of the episode is a brilliant piece of work, full of literary allusion and complex moral arguments one doesn't usually expect to see in a CW series.

The fifth segment is well-directed, with some wonderful fight scenes and that final shot of Kara before the Torch of Liberty is a beautiful one.

The final Manchester Black costume is a dead on perfect adaptation of the costume from the comics.


Super Trivia

The title of the episode is taken from a line from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - "Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend." The line itself is a reference to Milton's Paradise Lost and how Lucifer fell because it was God's will that he fall as part of the Divine Plan where as Adam fell because of his own free will. In this, the creature Dr. Frankenstein created suggests that he is only a monster because Frankenstein's neglect made him become one.

The title somewhat mirrors the stories of most of its characters, who undertake monstrous actions in the name of love. James' efforts to investigate The Children of Liberty almost lead to him becoming a killer in the name of maintaining a cover. Manchester Black has already become a murderer because of his anger at losing Fiona to The Children of Liberty. And Lena is crossing several lines in her efforts to try and protect people by trying to create an equalizer for her species. Even Agent Liberty himself can be seen as an example of this, as his actions ultimately were born of his desire to protect his family and their employees.

Lena makes reference to Nagel's Spider in The Shower Conundrum. In our reality, this is more commonly known as The Spider In The Urinal Conundrum. The story was told by philosopher Thomas Nagel that he noticed a spider in a urinal near his office and how the poor creature seemed to survived despite being urinated upon several times a day. One day, he used a paper towel to gently remove the spider from the gutter in which it was trapped and deposited it on the ground. A day later, he found the spider was where he had left it, quite dead. Nagel used this story to show the unintended consequences of altruism and how every often well meaning attempts at helping people could cause far greater harm than doing nothing.

Shelley Island - the government base used to process alien immigrants to America - is clearly modeled on Ellis Island - the American base that handled processing immigrants in Manhattan until 1954. It is named in honor of Mary Shelley.

Lena's efforts to turn ordinary humans into superhumans are similar to Lex Luthor's Everyman Project in the mini-series 52, allowing nearly anyone who could pay the price or was willing to sign on to Lex Luthor's corporate-owned superhero team to get superpowers.


Technobabble

DISL Codes are the international standard for IDing freight containers.

Out of over 100 applicants for Lena's experiment, all but 12 were acceptably risk-tolerant.

Brainy says that the shipping label fragment couldn't be read. It was made up of 80% glue, 9.7% ink and the rest was Nalcyite - a.k.a. Nalcian table salt.

Nalcian table salt can be quite volatile on Earth and under the right conditions it has an explosive factor of 8,000 joules per gram. This is equal to a small, precise nuclear explosion.

Shelley Island has power-dampening pylons that prevent most alien powers from functioning there.

Supergirl just happens to have a yellow sun grenade to boost her powers for when she goes into areas she knows will have power-dampening tech.

Manchester has an armored vest with a Union Jack design on it that he slips on to fight the Agents of Liberty.

Manchester uses an empathy amplifier against J'onn - a device that doubles the pain an empath feels in others but keeps them from letting it out.

Adam showed signs of having extra-human powers for 3 minutes and 14 seconds before dying at 4:03 a.m.. Lena says that the experiment still gave her new information on the human genome despite his death. She predicts an 87% chance of success on future trails.


Dialogue Triumphs

Adam: Believe me. I've never been a hero. 
Lena: Neither have I.
Adam: You ever lost someone, Dr. Kieran?
Lena: Yes. She was the only hero I ever had.

Tom: I guess this is what happens when we let fear guide us.

James: But what is reputation? I mean, what is it? It's nothing. It's not who you are. So if the latest fringe group wants to tear that monument down, we will build it right back up. Agent Liberty can do whatever he wants with my reputation. I know who I am.

Lena: Bad luck doesn't make you a bad person. Bad choices do. And I would know, because I am a much worse person than you.

(Manchester pulls the mask off the fake Agent Liberty and puts a gun to his chin.)
Manchester Black: I made a deal with our dead friend over there and he did not deliver. Maybe you can. Who is Agent Liberty?
Fake Agent Liberty: If I tell you, you'll let me live? 
Manchester Black: I believe disloyalty should be rewarded.

Adam: Please let me do something good.

J'onn: You betrayed Supergirl, tonight! You betrayed me and your promise to Fiona! No vengeance is worth your soul!
Manchester Black What soul, old man?
J'onn: I saw the love you had for Fiona. How you fought for her! I also know what you're going to do. And I can't let you kill a man, even if that man is Agent Liberty. Once you cross that line, Manchester, there is no going back!
Manchester Black: You have no idea what lines I've already crossed.(points to J'onn's chest.) You see that there? That's your heart beating. Mine is dead. (half-sobbing)  And every time I close my eyes, and wait to hear Fi's voice?  There's nothing! There's just silence. (shakes his head) I'm empty, man.
J'onn: That's not true!
Manchester Black: You want to know the truth? Look.
(Manchester takes J'onn's hand and puts it on his forehead before slapping his chest with a blue electric disc with his other hand. We see visions of Manchester killing The Children of Liberty. He releases his grip as J'onn collapses to the ground.) 
J'onn:  (pained) Why won't it stop?
Manchester Black: It's an empathy amplifier. It was created to use against empaths. Double the hurt and keep everything in. If I can't escape this pain, neither can you..You shouldn't have believed in me.
(Manchester Black returns to his bike, leaving John wallowing on the ground in pain.)

Lena: I'm so sorry, Adam. I moved the spider.

(James tells Kara he's writing about his time among the Children of Liberty.)
Kara: Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about that too. Duality? How people can surprise you. Manchester Black is... bad. He killed people. He betrayed me. But... then he turned around to help me.
James: Well, maybe he wasn't trying to help you? Maybe that was just a consequence.
Kara: Yeah. I guess people only show you what they want you to see. And that's not always who they are.
James: Yeah. I mean, look at me, I... I compromised myself tonight.
Kara: You saved Tom's life.
James: But I risked everything I've worked for. Everything. My reputation. My life (pauses) Your life. (pauses) You know, though - I guess I kinda understand a little better why Lena lied to me about the DA now.
Kara: You should tell her that.


Continuity

Supergirl and Manchester Black meet up after they stop a Child of Liberty from stealing fission rods from an alien-run factory.

Supergirl agrees to contact Manchester if she learns anything about what The Children of Liberty are planning.

Agent Liberty refuses to tell James anything about his motivations and instead asks him to destroy something that is a symbol of everything The Children of Liberty stand against.

Lena's first test subect is given the designation Subject 331. He has nice green eyes, according to Eve Teschmacher. He is a Caucasian Male, 5'9", with brown hair. He has a three-inch scar on his left flank. He originally claims it was from a hockey injury but it is eventually revealed to have been from surgery to implant a kidney.

Eve Teschmacher has a cousin with cancer in hospice care. The cousin has two daughters.

Ben Lockwood's new TV show is called The Lockdown. His first episode is devoted to blaming Supergirl for the disappearance of five Agents of Liberty who were "peacefully protesting" on Thanksgiving. These agents are presumed to be the men killed by Manchester Black in 406.

Tom, the Agent of Liberty whom James stopped from taking part in the Thanksgiving night attacks, gives James back his Guardian gear and helps him to escape.

Shelley Island is an island base used by the US Government to process alien immigrants to Earth. It was shut down after President Marsdin resigned and The Children of Liberty turned it into a base.

The container Manchester Black tracks down was a sub-zero unit.  Supergirl finds part of a shipping label under it.

Supergirl rejects Manchester's help after he beats up the dock foreman with brass kunckles to get answers without trying to ask for help first.

Lema lies and says her name is Dr. Kieran when her test subject asks for her name.

Lena chose Subject 331 because of Nagel's Spider in The Shower Conundrum - a multiple choice question regarding how one treats a spider stuck in a shower. Subject 331 was the only one who made the same choice as Lena - leave it alone because you don't know what the spider wants.

Lena said she chose Subject 331 because of his response to The Shower Conundrum i.e. he showed no desire to be a hero (i.e. move the spider) but likewise didn't go out of his way to kill the spider just because he could. Lena's worst fear for her project involves creating another wannabe superhero whose power will outstrip their ability.

Subject 331 had a brother who died who was a real hero and so perfect it was nauseating.

The five dead Agents of Liberty are found. There's no evidence they were killed by aliens, with all five men having died from broken jaws, shattered skulls and gunshot wounds. Alex thinks the killings were personal.

Kara asks if a person with brass kunckles could break someone's jaw. Alex says they could if they were strong enough.

J'onn says he thinks Manchester could be a useful ally to Supergirl and says he is resourceful and clever even if he is stubborn and has a temper. J'onn says that under all his anger and pain he has a good heart.

Supergirl gives Manchester a pot pie and offers to give him a second chance.

Subject 331 confesses that his scar is from kidney surgery rather than a hockey injury. He also reveals that the reason his hero brother died is from complications donatings a kidney to save his life. He survived the transplant - his brother didn't survive having the kidney removed. Despite this, Lena stands by her decision when Subject 331 says he's a selfish person and he still wouldn't risk his life to save his brother if their situations had been reversed.

Supergirl and Manchester deduce the container was meant to hold fission rods but that it was empty before it came to port. That means it had to be emptied out on an island. Since Shelley Island is powered by fission rods, they figure that it must have been turned into a base by the Children of Liberty.

Manchester persuades Supergirl to go deal with Agent Liberty stealthily, without a big DEO team.

Manchester disables Supergirl's yellow sun grenade so she is powerless when she arrives on Shelley Island. He did this in exchange for an audience with Agent Liberty.

Subject 331's name is revealed to be Adam.

Lena reveals the only hero she ever had was her birth mother, who died when she was four. Lena says that her mother drowned while she was swimming in a lake and that Lena just stood there and watched her die.

Lena feels, on some level, that she was destined to be with the Luthors because of her own muted reaction to her birth mother's dying in front of her.

Manchester was running a con on The Children of Liberty and deduces that he isn't meeting the real Agent Liberty when the "Agent Liberty" he makes reference to Fiona. Knowing that if The Children of Liberty knew who he was and knew he was engaged to an alien who was killed by The Children of Liberty, that there is no way they'd ever let him near their real leader, Manchester reveals himself and attacks.

Manchester destroys the power-dampening pylons, allowing Supergirl to break free and remove the bombs before Shelley island is blown up.

Adam convinces Lena not to discontinue the experiment and tells her that she's a good person for wanting to help people with this treatment.  He later dies after showing signs of having powers for a little over three minutes.

James goes to Lena and asks if they can talk about rekindling their romance. She asks to see him tomorrow instead.

The final scene shows Manchester Black arriving at Lockwood Steel, suggesting he did learn Agent Liberty's true identity.


Location

Shelley Island


The Bottom Line

Easily the strongest episode of the season so far. When Supergirl comes to an end, this will likely be remembered as one of its greatest, most well-written episodes. Things that seem to be plot-holes are later explained away as foreshadowing of various elements and the whole story is full of wit, allusion and complex morality. The only aspect in which it suffers is that Agent Liberty is made into more of an outright villain by his actions here, which removes the ambiguity that most of the other characters are meant to display. Yet even though his actions here represent a further push for the line, they are still well within the boundaries established by earlier episodes.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 6 - Call To Action

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

As masked vigilantes modeled on Agent Liberty began attacking aliens and Manchester Black starts violently defending them, Col. Haley orders Alex to stop investigating the terrorist group and Supergirl to stop patrolling National City on her own time.

Meanwhile, James and Lena argue about the best way to address the Children of Liberty, as James seeks to work his way into the group to bring it down from within through the guise of an interview while Lena pressures him to speak against the group on a popular talk-show. Kara fills in for James, but can she hold her own in a debate against Ben Lockwood - the secret identity of Agent Liberty


Influences

The film version of V For Vendetta (the masks of the Children of Liberty are similar to the Guy Fawkes masks worn by V's followers at the end of the film) and My Little Pony (the dragon is named Spike)


Goofs

How did the Children of Liberty get anti-alien attack dogs trained so quickly? More importantly, how did they scent train them to attack a variety of aliens when dogs are usually trained to respond to a single scene?

The CGI for the falling Children of Liberty manifestos looks incredibly fake.

Alex doesn't salute Col. Haley when leaving the room, despite being ordered to from now on in the last episode.

Why didn't the Counterpoint Today host cut Ben Lockwood off when the time was up?

Granting that fascists don't usually recruit great intellects as foot soldiers, The Children of Liberty have got to be the most stupid group of fascists bully boys ever. Seemingly inspired by their fear of more powerful aliens, they go out to beat up random aliens armed with bats and pipes. They don't seem to consider that they could wind up facing an alien with heat vision. Or freeze breath. Or one who is immune to blunt instrument damage. Or, hypothetically, a shape-shifting alien lizard that can transform into a fire-breathing dragon when his owner is threatened. Or an alien with a gun. Not even alien technology. Just a regular ol' American pistol.

Since when has Alex been an enlisted member of the military? The DEO has never been portrayed as a military body before.

Why does Alex have trouble explaining what Eliza is speaking about when she is a bio-engineer with two doctorates and an expert on alien biology?


Artistry

The fight scene with Brainy fighting several Children of Liberty is nicely handled. Well shot, well blocked and the music is an ironic contrast to the action. It also does a lot to redeem Brainy considering how much of a joke the episode makes his inability to understand innuendo.

It may be filler, but Kara's fight with the dragon looks awesome.


Technobabble

The Children of Liberty begin employing dogs that can distinguish aliens from ordinary humans in their "hunts".

Lena is testing Harun-El on human heart tumors to find a cure for cancer.

Brainy says that by scrambling every seventh letter in the Children of Liberty manifesto, it indicates a common phrase in the Raolian language that translates to "ham sandwich."

The Harun-El radiation seems to be causing the tumors to grow rather than shrink. The tumor on the second test heart grows to 3.6 mm. However, it later refuses to be incinerated.

Eliza says that the biological process that cause aliens to develop powers are incompatible with human DNA

The lenses in the Children of Liberty masks are low-spectrum enhancers that allow a person to see infrared signatures. This leads to the discovery that the Children of Liberty are marking alien-owned houses so that they can mark them later.

Ben Lockwood is offered his own talk show on the same network as Counterpoint Today based on his performance opposite Kara.

Eliza had to leave National City early to go to an ethno-xeno biology conference, to speak about the regressive hereditary traits of interterrestrial children.


Dialogue Triumphs

(A couple are surrounded by several Children of Liberty with angry dogs.)
Child Of Liberty: This used to be a nice neighborhood.
(The man in the couple trips and falls, his image inducer temporarily shorting to reveal his alien face.)
Child Of Liberty: Until you infested it!
(The Child of Liberty swings a bat at the alien. Manchester Black steps in and blocks the attack.)
Manchester Black: Nice is overrated.

Col. Haley: I may not be the Woman of Steel, but if you push me you will find I do not bend.

(James has just said that he intends to go to a secret meeting with the Children of Liberty despite Lena' objections.)
Lena: So it doesn't matter what I think?
James: Not about this. This is work.
Lena: Oh? "This is work?" Well then - your boss has booked a major television appearance for you. So figure it out.

Tom, Child of Liberty: What do you bench?
James: Usually drug dealers.

Lena: I love you. And there is no line in the universe I would not cross to keep you safe.
James: If that's what you think love is... I'm not sure if I want any part of that.

(Several Children of Liberty find Brainy erasing one of their marks.)
Child of Liberty: Hey! What are you doing?
Brainy: Return to your homes. Or else.
Child of Liberty: Or else what?
Brainy: Or else I'll be required to beat you up. With physics.
(An elegant fight-scene ensues, in which Brainy side-steps all of the attacks and basically causes the Children of Liberty to beat themselves up.)

(Manchester Black opens the door, pulls off the mask and regards the Children of Liberty. He then draws a pistol as the Children of Liberty run.) 
Manchester Black: Sorry, Fi. I've got to do it my own way.

Alex: (To Col. Haley): I followed my instincts and they were right. And I will continue to do so because that is what makes me a great leader. And if that means that you have to court-martial me, so be it.


Continuity

Kara says dogs usually love her.

One of the Children of Liberty attacking the couple is Officer Petrocelli from 404.

Kara remembers meeting Manchester in 404.

Lena was last seen experimenting with Harun-El in 323.

Col. Haley orders Alex to stop all DEO investigations into the Children of Liberty, saying that as a human hate group they are the business of the FBI.

Col. Haley also orders Supergirl to stop patrolling the city on her own time and only respond to DEO approved emergencies.

Alex and Kara plan to keep investigating regardless.

Officer Petrocelli and his men were patrolling against Agent Liberty's orders.

The Lockwoods are struggling financially and Ben Lockwood is greeted with the good news that they'll be able to make their mortgage payment on their new home that month.

Ben Lockwood's wife and son are unaware that he is Agent Liberty.

Lena buys James a new suit coat.

Lena books James on a talk show called Counterpoint Daily.

J'onn invites Manchester to Thanksgiving Dinner. Manchester declines but J'onn gives him the address to the location of the party anyway.

Manchester is revealed to be torturing Officer Petrocelli for information on the Children of Liberty.

Kara offers to appear on Counterpoint Daily for James.

Nia Nul claims to be narcoleptic, despite not knowing the proper medical term for "that sleep thing."

Eve Teschmacher says she doesn't like her family that much and offers to stay with Lena and help her work on the Harun-El problem through the Thanksgiving holiday.

Kara says her mother can hlp Nia find a good doctor, saying she knows all the best ones in National City.

The Children of Liberty masks have weird lenses, according to Manchester Black.

Kara's apartment address is 16 Hope Street - Apartment 4A.

Brainy says that his mother did not raise him right.

Nia lies when Eliza recommends a friend of hers who is an expert in sleep disorders, Dr. Moger. Nia says she found another doctor - Dr. Minsky Smith.

J'onn tells Manchester that he would never use his powers against someone, except maybe in self defense. He applies that also to his mind reading, particularly if done without consent. When J'onn asks why he asks, Manchester says he's just been thinking about what Fiona would have done with her powers.

Lena suggests that if you could give humans super powers to put them on par with aliens, it would eliminate the power of the hate groups. Everyone else is skeptical, thinking you'd only wind up with evil super-powered people who would act out on their hatreds.

Lena tells James about how she got the DA to back down on pressing charges against him in 401.

One of the alien families is protected by a shape-shifting dragon that looks like a lizard named Spike.

Col. Haley agrees to let the DEO investigate the Children of Liberty in the wake of their attempted series of attacks, but only because they might provoke the more powerful aliens into retaliating in kind.

Col. Haley reveals that she knew what Alex was up to and was just giving her the rope to hang herself, when it turned out the Agents of Liberty were a relevant threat after all.

Eliza had to leave National City early to go to an ethno-xeno biology conference, to speak about the regressive hereditary traits of interterrestrial children.

James meets with Tom, who says that all the guys he was supposed to meet in the Children of Liberty have disappeared.  He agrees to guide James to people who have direct access to Agent Liberty. This leads to James being abducted.

Lena tries to call James before he is abducted. He ignores the call.

Lena tells Eve Teschmacher that she wants to move forward with The Harun-El Protocl and  they will need a human test subject.

Manchester gets Officer Petrocelli that he got his orders from a man named Caldwell. The episode ends as Manchester Black is seemingly about to kll him.


The Bottom Line

This episode does a masterful job of keeping all its subplots moving and giving the whole ensemble something to do, however briefly. Despite a number of logic questions that leave me wondering if the writers know all of the series continuity all that well (does anyone else remember that Alex was a scientist before she became a field agent?)

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 4 - Ahimsa

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

The combined efforts of Brainiac-5 and Lena Luthor have saved Supergirl's life. Unfortunately, though the atmosphere is still laden with Kryptonite, Kara refuses to sit on the sidelines while lives are endangered... much to Alex's annoyance. Meanwhile, J'onn meets with Fiona's fiancee, Manchester, and begins to consider another way he might help during the current conflict while still honoring his promise to his father to abandon the way of the warrior.


Influences

The Superman comics of Cary Bates and Joe Kelly. The Superman animated series episode "Feeding Time." (Creation of special protective armor for a Kryptonian hero.) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (the alien parasite Agent Liberty uses to control the alien prisoner resembles the Ceti Eel from this film.) the Iron Man movies (Kara's face in the HUD display when she's in the armor) and the classic Captain Marvel comics (the alien worm could be a nod to the villain Mr. Mind)


Goofs

It's a little odd that Agent Liberty - who objected to needlessly killing a rogue DEO agent because humans shouldn't be killing humans - is the one who hits upon the idea of sending the aliens under his control after children. One would think that idea would come from the more ruthless (and ironically named) Mercy.

It's also a little odd that it takes Brainiac-5 running a simulation for the DEO to figure that Fiona is probably describing the National City Fair. What happened, J'onn?  You were such a great detective in the last three episodes!

Fiona was described as being an empathy in earlier episodes. Not it seems she is a telepath. Also, it seemed that she fairly definitely killed in the first episode of the season.

Ignoring whether or not it should be possible for Alex to charge up Kara's exoskeleton by shooting it with an electric blast from her special gun, one wonders why she didn't just shoot Hellgrammite?


Performances

David Ajala is a treat as Manchester Black, perfectly capturing the bloke's bloke attitude of the character from the comics, though it seems this story will be exploring how he becomes the anti-hero he was in the comics. Suits me, because he is hilarious and a welcome foil to the overly serious J'onn.


Super Trivia

The episode title - Ahimsa - comes from the Sanskrit word for the principal of non-violence towards all living things practiced in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions. It was also a favorite saying of Fiona Byme.

The radiation-controlled proto-environment housed in a vacuum-sealed mechanical exoskeleton Lena creates is comparable to the Anti-Kryptonite Armor that Dr. Emil Hamilton created for Superman in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Feeding Time." Though primarily intended to protect Superman from the effects of Kryptonite, the suit (which was made of a flexible titanium-lead alloy, and topped by a helmet with a transparent leaded-polycarbonate faceplate) was durable enough it allowed Superman to wear it as armor against enemies he could not risking touching directly, such as The Parasite.

Supergirl's new suit is also reminiscent of The Supermobile from the Superman comics of Cary Bates and Curt Swan.  First appearing in Action Comics #481, the Supermobile was a unique vehicle designed by Superman himself which acted as an extension of Superman's powers in those environments where he could not safely travel, such as planets orbiting a red sun or worlds with a high concentration of Kryptonite. He first used the Supermovile to fight the power-replicating robot Amazo during a time in which a wave of red sun radiation had engulfed the Earth, making Superman powerless outside the safety of The Supermobile.

The character of Manchester Black was created by Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke in Action Comics #775. Leader of the team of super-powered anti-heroes known as The Elite, Manchester Black was a powerful telepath and telekinetic who believed the only way to deal with super-powered criminals was to kill them so they could never be a threat in the future. This attitude brought him into direct conflict with Superman, who ultimately challenged the whole of The Elite to a duel of sorts and was able to incapacitate the whole team using non-lethal methods. Humiliated, Black swore revenge and dedicated himself to pushing Superman into breaking his moral code to prove that he was right. He later committed suicide after realizing that he had become one of the villains he hated so much. The character was later revived in the Superman: Rebirth series, though this time he met his end by having his consciousness transferred into the body of a dairy cow.

The truck holding Fiona is for F.A. Thoom - Portable Washroom Rentals.  FA-THOOM is a popular sound effect used in comic books for the noise of large waves and water, perhaps as a nod to the word "fathom."

One of the aliens abducted by Mercy and Agent Liberty is called Kopy and he has the power to create multiple duplicates of himself. This power is possessed by a number of DC Comics villains including the Firestorm villain Multiplex (who appeared in the second episode of The Flash TV series) and a Superman villain called The Duplicate Man (who appeared in World's Finest #106).

The worm-like parasite used to control Fiona could be a reference to Mister Mind - a super-intelligent, talking worm who frequently tried to take people over as part of his sinister plans to take over the world. Mister Mind was said to be from a few planets over the years (most frequently Venus) but first appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #26 in August 1943.

Brainiac-5 makes use of the future curse-word "sprock", saying that "We're sprocked!" as he contemplates the problem of how to filter the atmosphere.

One boy at the National City Fair is seen holding a Beebo doll. This is the first indication that Beebo - the popular toy that played a major role in the third season of Legends of Tomorrow - exists on Earth 38.

At one point, Otis tries to say the phrase "Welcome to Otisberg!"  In Superman: The Movie, Otisberg was a small town Otis arranged to have named after himself on Lex Luthor's map of new cities to be built on the new western coastline after he successfully sank California into the ocean.The other cities had names like Costa Del Lex, Luthorville, Lexington, Marina Del Lex and Lex Springs.

The character of Colonel Haley seems to be based on the comic book character of Lieutenant Lauren Haley. First appearing in Wonder Woman #325 in May 1985, she was a minor supporting character who was an Air Force officer whom Wonder Woman saved from being sacrificed to the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca. She may also be related to Walter "Prof" Haley - one of the founding members of the Challengers Of The Unknown.


Technobabble

The exoskeleton containing Kara requires all of its power to focus on preserving her life. Alex fears that using it in a combat situation may cause it to fail.

Brainiac-5 eventually hits on the idea of using trillions of nanobots programmed to filter the Kryptonite from the atmosphere one molecule at a time. In essence, they will not need a giant vacuum cleaner to clean the atmosphere - just trillions of tiny ones.

J'onn can boost his telepathy by using a talisman - an object with emotional weight for the person he is trying to find - like a cell tower amplifying a phone signal. (This suggests that J'onn is clairvoyant in addition to being telepathic.)


Dialogue Triumphs

(J'onn enters into his apartment. He stops suddenly and turns to look at a figure who emerges into view in the living room.)
J'onn: Man, you picked the wrong house.
Manchester Black: Don't think so. Man your age, lives alone? No personal history to be found. Bit dodgy, that. Red flags. So tell me... John Jones... how do you know Fiona?
J'onn: (recognizing the man from the photos he saw before) You're her fiancee.
Manchester: That I am. Luckiest man in the world. Only Fiona.. dropped off the radar. Not like her. And you seem to have spent some time following her about.
J'onn: Fiona's just a friend.
Manchester: Well "friend" - I'll ask you once more.  Where is she?
(Manchester grabs J'onn by the collar of his jacket. J'onn sighs and his eyes glow red.)
J'onn: Today is not the day to push me.
(Manchester grins at this.)
Manchester: Not from around here, are we?
(Manchester lets go of J'onn and pats his back and chest reassuringly as if dusting him off.)
Manchester: Relax, man. Weren't gonna hurt ya. (deepening his voice, teasingly in imitation of J'onn) "Today is not the day to push me."

(Agent Liberty demasks himself after being called a coward.)
Agent Liberty: "Coward in a mask." This mask signifies that it doesn't matter who I am. Who am I? I'm just a small piece of something much bigger.

(Brainiac-5 realizes that he is crying in his frustration at being unable to find a cure for Supergirl. When Lena points it out and just stares at him, he becomes defensive.)
Brainiac-5: What? I'm not a robot! I'm techno-organic. I have feelings. You should be crying too. These are tears of logic!

(Nia is trying to persuade James to give up being Guardian for good.)
Nia: If you go out there again, I have a feeling something bad will happen.
James: Heroes go out there even when they know something bad is going to happen. That's what makes them heroes.

J'onn: How do we reconcile who we are with who we want to be, Alex?
Alex: We forgive ourselves. Pacifism doesn't mean inaction. It just means that you have to learn how to fight without raising a sword.

(Otis is holding a gun to Supergirl's head. Alex has a gun drawn on him. Mercy walks up drawing a gun on Alex.)
Mercy: Why are you protecting her? Why are you protecting any of them? Look at what they do!
Alex: They aren't doing this. You are.
Mercy: People need to be afraid. Even if  it means we have to sell it to them.
(Cut to DEO HQ. Lena is looking at the display monitoring the atmosphere-cleaning nanites.)
Lena: 100%
Brainiac-5: Rerouting power from Life Support. Unlocking suit now.
Otis: Yeah. What she said!  Welcome to Otis-
(Supergirl suddenly reaches up and grabs Otis' gun-hand, squeezing, forcing him to drop the gun and  bringing him to his knees.)
Mercy: No! We're fighting for freedom! From roaches! From-
(Suddenly, two spikes shoot from behind Alex and hit Mercy in the chest. She falls to the ground immediately.)
Otis: No! Mercy!
(Two more spikes hit Otis in the back as he too passes out. Alex turns around and sees the Hellgrammite, who sits up and offers her his wrists.)
Helgrammite: Now they're free.


Dialogue Disasters

President Baker: And on top of that terrible Sunday of incompetence, Supergirl goes on a fun suicide mission!


Continuity

Brainy refers to the events of 310 when he tells the sleeping Kara to tell Streaky he said "hi" if she is in her mind palace.

Mercy Graves kills another DEO agent who was turned to her cause and helped to free several prisoners - Hellgramite (last seen in 102) and Kopy - from a DEO prison for alien criminals, along with the alien worm that created The Parasite in 206.

Manchester Black called Fiona "Fi" for short. She called him "Ches."

J'onn shares his information on Officer Petrocelli from 402 with Manchester Black.

Manchester gets Officer Petrocelli drunk and learns that Mercy Graves is planning an attack on the police station on 4th St. and Columbia.

J'onn uses his telepathy to focus on The Graves Siblings and thinks he hears Fiona's voice calling to him.

Kopy is an alien who can split himself into multiple versions of himself. It is possible he is meant to be the criminal who was part of Non's team in 108 or may be a member of the same species.

Manchester Black is shown to be a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and capable of taking a blow with a police-issue nightstick without flinching.

Kara's exo-skeleton fails after only a few seconds of fighting multiple Kopy clones.

President Baker orders Supergirl to remain at the DEO until he gives the order for her to be released.

Lena teaches Braniac-5 how to handle repressing his emotions by putting his feelings in a box and hiding it inside him.

Brainiac-5 refers to the events of 218 and how Spheerical Industries is now owned by L-Corp.

Agent Liberty conceives on the idea of sending Hellgramite after children in order to truly scare people into being afraid of aliens.

Manchester Black says that he and Fiona used to be part of the same gang of football hooligans. She ran books for the gang.

Manchester Black claims that he had an ability to turn off the switch in your head that makes a person hold back when trying to hurt another person. He stopped brawling after meeting Fiona, however.

Manchester Black said that he suggested Fiona go to the States after their gang found out she was an alien.

Manchester Black and Fiona Byme had matching engagement rings.

Nia tells James not to go out as The Guardian again because she has a feeling something bad will happen if he does. It is implied that she had a prophetic dream, having fallen asleep at her desk and woken up before she did this.

J'onn is able to make contact with Fiona and let Manchester talk to her.

Fiona says that they are using a parasite to use her telepathy to control other aliens. Fiona says she's being held someplace with music and a crowd and she can smell sweets.

Otis and Mercy are killed by The Hellgrammite.

Agent Jensen has second thoughts and disables the technology that is controlling Fiona.

Fiona dies just as Manchester and J'onn rescue her.

Fiona asks Manchester not to be angry at the people who killed her.

J'onn takes away Fiona's pain as she dies.

President Baker sends in a US Army Colonel named Haley to oversee the DEO after Alex disobeys a direct order.

The good news is that James does not face any new charges from the DA's office after going out to help save people at the fairgrounds as Guardian and in fact is told he might be deputized.

The bad news is James finds out he's become a darling of the Earth First movement and is trending on-line as a human hero in blog posts that are ignoring how all the aliens attacking the fair grounds were mind-controlled.

Rhubarb pie is Alex's favorite

Manchester Black is seen buying a large number of guns. He is now wearing a t-shirt with a Union Jack, somewhat similar to his uniform from the comics.

The Supergirl clone is revealed to be have been kept in some kind of vault while the Kryptonite was in the air.

The episode ends with Agent Liberty putting the alien parasite worm inside Agent Jensen's head.


Location

Site B - DEO Desert Facility


The Fridge Factor

Fiona, who I could have sworn was definitely killed off in the first episode, survives just long enough to die in Manchester's arms and fuel his apparent descent into anti-heroism.


The Kryptonite Factor

Honestly, the entire cast has to be thrown into sharp relief for this story to work. Alex loses all her confidence. Brainy loses all sense of self-control. Kara, the biggest goody-two-shoes in the world, is suddenly a rebel who can't follow orders. J'onn loses all confidence in himself and his telepathy seems to be acting more like clairvoyance.


The Bottom Line

Patently ridiculous as a character piece and packed with the worst cliches of hack writing, such as the beloved woman who hangs on just long enough to die in her lover's arms, inspiring his becoming a vigilante. I question them killing off Otis and Mercy so soon after introducing them as a writer, yet as a fan who finds them annoying I'm glad to see them gone. And Manchester Black gets an awesome introduction, made more awesome by the fact that he's practically the only character in this episode who isn't having an identity crisis... which is rather odd as he should be by the episodes end. Ah well - something to look forward to.