Supergirl S4 Ep. 3 Thoughts & Easter Eggs

"Man of Steel"

Just when I was starting to get worried for the new season of Supergirl possibly not delivering anything majorly noteworthy in its first half, we get what is arguably one of the greatest villain centered episodes in the entire Arrowverse franchise. Admittedly, I was pretty mixed on the Agent Liberty character going into this episode being that they never really showed him doing anything particularly exciting as other series have done in the past with their season villain debuts. However, my feelings on the character have completely spiraled into the positive end of the spectrum as this origin story focused episode presents Agent Liberty in a truly compelling fashion.

We've seen villains in the past given episodes dedicated to fleshing out their backstory in other superhero shows, but I've never seen such a structurally masterful execution of storytelling shown since Netflix's Daredevil. They managed to take a villain who is essentially a racist leader of a hate group spreading fear and anger around the world (a character who could've easily been a one-note villain of the week), and made him a compelling antagonist with a somewhat empathetic set up. We see Benjamin Lockwood, a caring family man and history professor who starts off showing sympathy and understanding towards aliens despite his father's more negative views. What's great about seeing the father-son interaction scenes here is that we're given a refreshingly grounded human perspective on how the introduction of aliens have deeply affected people's lives in several ways.

In this case, it's Benjamin getting a reality check eye opener when his father's factory and contract is being threatened by another company operating with a newly introduced alien metal known as Nth metal. There's something bizarrely relatable here about seeing an older generation man complaining about the newly advanced work process threatening his workforce. I've stated it in my previous review, but you have to give the writers on Supergirl credit for managing to take completely sci-fi concepts and integrating it into modern day real world issues. Not only are we seeing a man's company being threatened, but we're also seeing a family's financial state getting thrown down the drain due to what Ben's father is presenting as an "alien problem". It's one of the most profoundly realistic conflicts to see utilized in a villain's origin story on a superhero show considering the current affairs and views existing in the real world.

After things escalate even further when the factory workers start a violent riot against the competing factory's alien workers, Ben is accidentally struck by the alien employee's defense mechanism after attempting to ease the angry mob's rage. What I loved about this scene is that, even after almost getting killed, he still manages to show a sense of understanding towards the alien. This folks is what you call maturity and progression within a franchise's overall quality. In past seasons of the CW DC Universe shows, this one specific incident would've turned a caring and understanding character into a straight forward villain with no deeper or logical explanation. Instead, the writers show that Ben isn't so easily turned even with a terribly written motivation dangling in front of his face as it takes the weight of several future circumstances to do so. This is what makes the character so much more investing in the long run.

Following the riot scene is where my earlier high praise about Agent Liberty's backstory being structurally fantastic comes in. To my delighted surprise, they manage to connect Benjamin's entire villain origins to not just one, but at least 6 major characters on the show. It is Supergirl and the DEO that comes into stop the riot causing some shaky emotions as Ben's father questions the government's protection of the alien employee over the factory workers. Ben is then shown speaking with Lena about L Corp's financially distancing from his family's factory in favor of the new alien metal which leads to his father being forced to shut everything down. In just two scenes, we see how both Lena Luthor, Supergirl, and the DEO had some hand in our season villain's eventual dark turn and they managed to avoid making any of it feel forced.

From this point forward, you can truly see the entire world starting to crumble around this one man simply trying to make ends meet for his family while the adaptation of aliens slowly chips away at his life. In what may be the first major turning point for Benjamin's perspective, and one of my favorite scenes from the episode, he sees an ad for Nth metal being superior to steel during his classroom lecture. This causes him to switch things up on the spot as he begins to then speak about the concept of "progress" encouraging his students to open their eyes to the unseen consequences of such a thing. What's so brilliant about this scene, aside from Sam Witwer's absolutely magnetic and charismatic performance (which I so terribly forgot to highlight before), is that Ben still keeps his composure as a teacher during his off-script lesson. There's no over the top outburst but instead a thought provoking lesson that relates to his personal dilemma.

Unlike what The Flash attempted to do with its Season 4 villain, Supergirl actually manages to perfectly utilize the teacher component of the character in a dramatically impactful manner. With Ben and his family being forced to move due to the factory situation, we get a surprise appearance of the Daximite invasion from Season 2 taking place. Not only do we see ships flying overhead, but J'onn J'onzz himself crashes into the family home fighting off one of the soldiers. It's another naturally and brilliantly woven in link to the series as their battle causes the destruction of Ben's home while also putting the family at risk adding more heat towards his future hatred. It shocks me to say this, but Supergirl actually did a better job at utilizing the superheroes' destructive battles to create its main antagonist than Captain America: Civil War did. How about that?

So we have Supergirl, the DEO, Lena, the Daximite invasion, and even an earlier nod to Astra in the form of a Project Myriad namedrop all building up our villain's story. If that wasn't enough, we even see Ben taking his complaints to James (who recently took over CATCO during that time) attempting to have the news outlet open up more discussions about families being negatively affected by the aliens' arrival on Earth. James' response not being the most encouraging towards Ben's plea causes him to mentally sink down lower and lower all leading up to his firing at the school due to questionable outbursts. Again, I cannot emphasize enough how impressive it is to see a sci-fi superhero series take on a racist individual as its villain and turn them into a dramatically and emotionally investing character.

To have an entire episode dedicated to showing how one man experienced several of the show's climactic events as well as interacting with several of its major characters is an intriguing and bold idea. There's even a connection to Kara where Ben follows an alien student that he suspects caused him his teaching job which results in a heated confrontation with the unidentified superhero. The performances during this episode is some of the best (especially during this scene) as Sam Witwer perfectly plays up Ben as being a normally passive man who is now awkwardly becoming more assertive towards the student until Kara stops him. It's actually a pretty chilling scene when you consider what would've happened if Kara wasn't present at that time.

In another well thought out nod to the franchise, after Ben's first attempts at rallying up a support group doesn't pan too well, the cataclysmic earthquake from the Season 3 finale takes place resulting in Ben witnessing the death of his father. That's now three seasons of sci-fi characters and story events all playing a role in the creation of one human villain which I find absolutely fascinating. One thing leads to another following his father's death and we have a much more assertive Ben rallying up a small but sturdy support group even getting the attention of the woman that fired him from his teacher gig. Another thing to highlight here is how Sam continues to play the charismatic teacher presence but with a new outlet being a motivational speaker. Isn't that something? Our big bad carrying the torch after a string of powerful alien conquerors is a human motivational speaker...and it works!

Without going into too much details here (mainly because I haven't been a fan of these two characters so far), Ben is eventually greeted by the two siblings that we see currently working for him making a proposition to use his speech talents with a more efficient edge. Here's where the Agent Liberty persona comes in with the body armor and advanced tech surrounding him. I do love the added detail that Ben is the one that picks out his mask in his family's old steel factory bringing everything around full circle. Again, the writing in this episode is shockingly impressive considering what we've seen with previous season villains. Ending things off is a cut to the present with the siblings bringing in the DEO agent that broke them out to Ben to which he finds value in the agent's knowledge of the organization. It's not the most climactic ending, but everything leading up to it surely makes this one of the better written episodes of the entire series. 

Here's hoping that the rest of the season can live up to the quality presented here.

Bonus Content

Easter Eggs

1. Hawkman & Hawkwoman Easter Egg

Nth metal is the alien metal that is at the center of this episode's concept of humans advancing and adapting to alien life on Earth. Nth metal in the comics is the metal found on Thanagar, home planet to Hawkman and Hawkwoman. These two have already been established on Earth-1 thanks to Legends of Tomorrow, but one does have to wonder if Supergirl's Earth presents them in a completely different manner.

2. Kryptonite Conflict = Cool New Suit

During the promos for Season 4, we saw teases of Supergirl's new suit not entirely knowing the context behind it...until now. After Agent Liberty's goons smother Earth's atmosphere with Kryptonite particles (which I'm assuming doesn't affect humans and animals), we see a completely obliterated Kara fighting for survival after being barely saved by J'onn. This leads to Lena Luthor coming into the picture encasing the girl of steel in a radiation controlled environment suit. It'll be interesting to see how long our hero carries on through the season in this suit and how it might potentially affect the story moving forward.

3. Agent Liberty Admires Guardian

One of the major highlights of this episode is the way in which the Agent Liberty character connects to other major characters from the series. One of the more easily forgettable, but potentially significant references is Ben's public admiration towards James being outed as Guardian. The fact that he praises James' vigilantism due to him being a human hero as opposed to someone like Supergirl is interesting as it can lead to a possible villain-hero proposition down the line. I can easily see Agent Liberty pulling some political strings to give James the freedom to be Guardian again...at a cost.

4. Luthor Corp Easter Egg

Right before Benjamin confronts Lena about the financial situation between L Corp and his family's factory, we get a quick blink and you'll miss it look at the old Luthor Corp sign before it gets changed to "L Corp". I'm wondering if this was actually a subtle hint for a possible Lex Luthor appearance in the near future.

5. Possible Easter Eggs

Ah yes, the famous CATCO gallery of television screens all pinpointing their own individual stories. Since Season 2, I've always took it upon myself to see if I could dig out any easter eggs. Sometimes I'm successful, but most of the time, the text and images are hard to make out. However, there is a story on one of the screens speaking about colonizing mars as a possibility but that's ironically been a story that I've seen during a previous season. Hmmm. I wonder how J'onn would feel about that possibility if this tiny easily missed news story ends up being a future storyline.

6. Daximite Invasion Extended Edition

As the title of this entry suggests, it is pretty awesome getting to see an extension of Season 2's invasion sequence. I'm always clamoring for live action comic book franchises to directly acknowledge their history of crazy events, so it's nice to see Supergirl doing that in an impactful way here. By the way, whoever that Daximite soldier is needs a damn medal for falling from the skies fighting Martian Manhunter and still giving him a run for his money.

Episode Rating: 9/10