Supergirl S04E08 Review: Pick A Side

Supergirl, Season 4, Episode 8: Bunker Hill

Significantly better than the previous episode, "Bunker Hill" sort of acts like the mid-season finale for the season since the only other remaining episode left before the winter break is going to be the big crossover. And it's... it's a significantly eventful episode! Manchester, Agent Liberty and our heroes finally clash in a big way, and I do like the little game of cat and mouse we have going on at the beginning of the episode.

We also have the poorly-built-up storyline of Nia Nal, where this episode has her drinking literal gallons of coffee, trying to not sleep because she's suffering from nightmares. Brainiac realizes something is going on, but unlike the cast of Flash and Legends, refuses to tell anyone in the present day what Nia Nal's role in the future is, because at least SOMEONE has the sense to not fuck up the space-time continuum. As their civilian identities, though, Kara and Brainy manage to find out that Nia is an alien from Naltor, and once a generation some members of their species are able to get prophetic dreams... and Brainy lets slip the name "Nura" while talking to Nia, clearly knowing far, far more than he lets on.

Ultimately this is a storyline that feels kind of shoehorned in, because there is absolutely no real reason to hide this revelation until episode 8, and considering Nia Nal's already walking around with a name based on a character from Legion of Super-Heroes, it's completely bizarre why she spent quite literally nearly her entire screentime before this episode just as a funny reporter cubbie. I dunno. The buildup genuinely feels bad, and they can't not have planned this out, right?

But Brainiac helps Nia to work through her weird prophetic dreams, and Kara, Brainy and Nia manages to get themselves "kidnapped" by some Children of Liberty. A Lois Lane joke and a hilarious 'use some smoke to badass-takedown terrorists' scene, they realize that they're in the place that Nia saw a murder happen in her dreams. Which brings this group to intersect with the Manchester storyline.

And in his case, Manchester Black has gone rogue, and after the events of last episode, Supergirl and J'onn find themselves on the hunt for Manchester... although I honestly argue that while Manchester was a gigantic dick last episode, shouldn't their priorities really be on shutting down the actual, active terrorist group first? Like, what Manchester did last episode isn't excusable, but the Children of Liberty have been straight-up murdering and lynching aliens, as well as tried to detonate what the show describes as a nuke. You don't need President Bruce Boxleitner's poll numbers to tell you that.

And, well, Manchester Black ends up tracking the trail of Agent Liberty all the way to Lockwood's house, and there's definitely a sense of dread as Manchester hangs out in Lockwood's house, masquerading as an old friend. And it's clearly chilling, seeing a deranged, grief and revenge driven antihero like Manchester basically pulling a "villain in your house" moment with villain-with-sympathetic-points Lockwood. Lockwood's been making a gigantic ass of himself that buried any chance of him being redeemable since his flashback episode ended, and he certainly deserves what Manchester was planning to do with him... but involving Lockwood's family is definitely a low, low blow.

Mind you, after subterfuge and all the killing, it's hard not to find it at least a little cathartic when Manchester starts throwing Lockwood around his house, revealing everything to poor Lydia Lockwood, that his husband is a terrorist, and demands to be brought to the Agent Liberty suit so he can kill him while wearing the suit. J'onn, meanwhile, keeps interrupting Manchester's crusade of vengeance... and I really felt that this scene and the limitations of J'onn's powers be established a bit more. I dunno. It just feels off.

The confrontation then intersects with the Kara/Brainy/Nia storyline at the Lockwood mill, with Manchester using a combination of moondust grenades and molten Nth-metal to trap Supergirl in place, telling Supergirl to basically pick a side -- either be a "Happy Meal Hero", or to be like Manchester and help string up the villains and "end the Never-Ending Battle". Of course, Supergirl draws the line at killing, and refuses to join Manchester, leading to a fun standoff between Manchester and Lockwod. Nia's intervention stops the murder in her dreams from taking place, and we get a pretty damn badass moment from Supergirl as she delivers the badass "I'm not struggling. I'm flying." line as she flies up while encased in Nth metal, shaking the factory as she uproots it. Bad. Ass.

After that pretty badass moment, though, the two villains are captured. Manchester Black goes quietly (we get a pretty neat scene between J'onn and Manchester later in the prison), but Agent Liberty is just raging about "you know who I am! Who is she?" and it's... I dunno. Agent Liberty has gone from being neatly fleshed out to two-dimensional over the past couple of episodes, although we do get the effect of his arrest -- instead of breaking down the Children of Liberty, the media manages to spin Agent Liberty and Ben Lockwood as a "human rights activist", leading to a chant outside of the prison as he's taken away.

This sort of snowballs into President Baker talking to Supergirl, noting that after Lockwood's challenge, he wants full transparency and Supergirl's secret identity, demanding that she put country first. It's a neat theme in superhero comics that tends to try and balance nationalist hoo-rah and personal privacy, and Supergirl refuses to concede that point for fear of people targeting her loved ones, causing her to fly out of the DEO.

It's an interesting, muted ending to this leg of the season -- the two big threats are captured, but this ends up leading to more of an ideological debate and conflict between our 'good guys'. It hasn't been the smoothest ride, and I do think that they really could've done Manchester and Liberty both more justice, but I dunno... I kinda enjoyed myself. This episode was all right, in any case.  Not perfect, but pretty neat.

And yeah, we get that final scene that's a prequel to Elseworlds, with the Barry Allen Flash played by John Wesley Snipp facing off against the Anti-Monitor with many heroes dead, but that's more of a teaser than part of this episode.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Brainiac name-drops Nura Nal by accident. Nura, of course, is the name of the Legion of Super-Heroes member Dream Girl, who seems to be Nia's descendant of sorts. Naltor, the home planet for Nura, is name-dropped as well.
• The Never-Ending Battle is something that Superman comics often talk about regarding the, well, never-ending battle against crime and evil.
• Lois Lane gets a name-drop! It's been a while. Kara jokingly refers to how Lois almost always gets herself kidnapped when chasing stories. 
• Earth-90 takes its numbering from 1990, the year where John Wesley Snipp's Flash TV show debuted, and it seems to be the universe that show takes place in. 
• We'll save Anti-Monitor for later when we do get to Elseworlds, but among the corpses seen in his rampage include that universe's versions of Stargirl, Hawkgirl, Green Arrow, Firestorm, Captain Cold and the Ray. Among the ones I can recognize, anyway.