Manchester Black pays a visit to Ben Lockwood while Kara and Brainiac 5 help Nia Nal unlock her powers.
Previously on SUPERGIRL…
National City has been at the forefront of the divide between humans and aliens this season, and this episode is likely the tipping point that will send everything into a full-blown conflict. And it all begins with Manchester Black, still seeking vengeance for the death of his soulmate, Fiona, confronting Ben Lockwood at his home.
The grieving ‘Chester plays coy with Lockwood, telling his wife that he and Ben were friends in college and having a chat over tea where he gives Lockwood hints as to who he is and why he’s really there. The trio has a hidden fourth, though, as J’onn J’onzz tries to get inside Black’s head to get him to stop his plan to kill Lockwood. That just seems to make Black angrier. He forces Lockwood to reveal his secret identity to his wife and he takes them to a Children of Liberty hideout, where he plans to kill them.
Manchester’s plans go a bit sideways, though, thanks to Supergirl, Brainiac 5 and Nia Nal, who reveals to Kara that she’s an alien, too. More pressingly, once in a generation, a woman of her race gains the ability of an oneiromancer – someone who can see the future in their dreams. Kara and Brainy help her to hone her abilities and they try to use it to find Agent Liberty – but they just end up being captured by the Children of Liberty. Thankfully, that places them right where they need to be for the final confrontation between Black and Lockwood.
Black dampens Kara’s abilities and douses her in Nth Metal to keep her out of the way of his killing Lockwood, but she doesn’t let strongest element in the known universe stop her from saving the day. In one of the most awesome uses of her superpowers I’ve seen on the show, Kara tries to fly while trapped in the Nth Metal, lifting the WHOLE FACTORY up off the ground and drops it to the earth, shattering her prison.
Kevin Smith, who directed this episode, has been talking about this one moment for a few weeks on his various podcasts, saying it was the most unique use of her flying abilities he’s ever seen. The moment definitely lived up to the hype.
But even with Lockwood in police custody, he’s causing problems for Supergirl. His calls for Supergirl to reveal her true identity – and a sympathetic front page from the shitty Metropolis Inquisitor – leads the new President to direct Supergirl to reveal her identity as an agent of the DEO. When she refuses, he relieves her of her duty.
She’s probably better off without being saddled by a shady government agency. Her cousin never needed one to do good.
While this was another great episode, the first 40-something minutes has nothing on the final minute or so, which takes us to a decimated Earth-90, with dead heroes including Stargirl, The Ray, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Jesse Quick, Captain Cold and a classic-costumed Green Arrow. John Wesley Shipp, dressed in his costume from the 1990s THE FLASH series crawls to a book opened by The Monitor. Everything about that stinger at the end looked amazing, and I am pumped for next week’s crossover!