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“Bunker Hill” caps off the first part of Season 4 bringing a climactic battle between Agent Liberty and Manchester Black and we get an origin story of Nia and her journey of discovering her powers. Very exciting!

Nia Nal of Naltor

Nia gets up from watching a classic western movie and goes into another dimension where her dreams take over. She is confronted by disconnected images of a loading hook, a woman screaming for help and Agent Liberty looking like he has a gun trained on her. She is jolted awake to her roommate, watching her, “you sleep weird.” It seems Nia’s roommate is ignoring her instructions to not let her sleep. She goes to work carrying copious amounts of coffee and Kara is now officially worried about her. Nia shrugs it off, tells Kara she had an Agent Liberty nightmare, and goes on to work. Supergirl later shares this nightmare with Alex and Brainy and he reveals that this is very important because of whom Nia is in the grand scheme of time. Alex and Supergirl are pressing him for info but he won’t give it, he just needs to get to her and work with her. Kara goes to Nia’s apartment and Nia starts to tell her story. She is from the planet Naltor and it seems that some of the women have special dreams that are precognitive – they can see into the future. Kara offers to help, Nia accepts, and Brainy appears… “hey, girl.” Bwah! Brainy walks her through the dream where she figures out that she can stop the frightened woman from shaking as badly as she is. She also figures out that this will happen in Collinwood. The three go there and are immediately picked out by the Children of Liberty. Kara tries to find out information about Agent Liberty and gets put in a black van for her trouble. They get kidnapped, which scares Nia but Kara assures her that getting kidnapped as a reporter is a great thing – just ask Lois Lane. Nia is like “who?” and Kara is like “really?” Nia sees their captors coming to hurt them before they do (in her pre-cog mind) and she reacts by using the fired bullet to get out of her cuffs. Kara disappears so Brainy and Nia go investigating around Lockwood Steel, which is where they have been brought, and Nia realizes they are in the place where she was dreaming earlier. She uses *the* nearby loading hook from her dream to take Manchester Black down before he kills Ben’s wife. Supergirl saves Lydia and tells Nia that she’s done a great job. Nia goes to bed that night proud of herself and ready for a great night’s sleep.

Agent Liberty Exposed

Ben Lockwood is on the phone with someone (?) asking them to put Agent Liberty aside because he, Ben, is bringing the kind of publicity they need all on his own. He goes home to find his wife Lydia around the table having a spot o’ tea with Manchester Black. Ben doesn’t know who Manchester is but, as soon as Manchester thanks him for the gift of cutlery for he and his fiancée Fiona, he gets it and is very nervous. Manchester admires a bayonet that was the first thing the Lockwood family forged here in the new land. It was used in the battle of Bunker Hill, you know the one where the Brits are so bloodied that they end up losing the whole war, Ben explains. Manchester outs him as Agent Liberty, which Lydia is not buying until they head down to the basement where the AL suit is housed. Manchester makes Ben put it on so he can die “doing what he loves.” Lydia is not happy at the new revelation and almost gets herself killed in the battle. All the while this is happening J’onn is intervening using the brass knuckles that he and Kara found in Manchester’s apartment to get inside of his mind trying to stop him from carrying out this revenge kill. Manchester chases Ben into the steel factory which has Nth metal production in it. As Supergirl tries to stop Manchester he dust bombs her (?) and she is weakened enough for him to dump a bunch of Nth on her. Nia takes out Manchester with the hook and just as Ben is about to kill Manchester she attempts to fly and free herself from the Nth metal she lifts the entire building and when it comes down it breaks the Nth from her. Lydia is thrown from the second floor balcony. Supergirl saves her and Ben and Manchester are both taken to jail. Now that Ben is outed as Agent Liberty he riles the press into asking whom Supergirl is too. J’onn visits Manchester in jail and they talk about Manchester’s destiny not yet totally given over to the dark side. Lydia is seen alongside the protestors chanting “Liberty” once she sees her husband taken away in handcuffs.

President Shallows

President Baker is yelling at Director Danvers and Col Haley because his approval numbers are down since they haven’t yet caught Agent Liberty. They promise him that he’ll be back in good standing shortly. Once Liberty is taken down the President comes to the DEO and is angered that “Human Rights Advocate” Ben Lockwood has brought a spotlight on Supergirl’s secret identity. The President and Col Haley demand Supergirl’s identity for transparency. Supergirl refuses and the President dismisses Supergirl from the DEO.

Closing Thoughts

So this is the fall finale it turns out. They wrapped up this part of the Agent Liberty storyline with him behind bars – alongside Manchester Black – and Supergirl on the outs with the DEO. As we’ve said again and again Supergirl doesn’t work FOR the DEO so this storyline doesn’t make sense other than the President is under some kind of influence to “un-glasses” Supergirl. Her being “fired” from the DEO means nothing so anywho, we’re also left with protestors camping out at CatCo because they would dare to point out Agent Liberty as an extremist murderer. How dare they! The strength of this episode was Nia’s storyline. She will be a developing hero on the series, complete with her own supersuit (Honeeeeeeeyyyyyyy, where’s my supersuit?). Her ability to start using her precognition to save the day was a huge confidence builder and a real win for her and of course Brainy awing and ooing over her is adorable. Brainy again brings what this episode and, frankly, the season has needed in moments of levity. It was refreshing seeing the unlikely trio traipsing around Collinwood and Kara stupidly engaging the Children of Liberty. I’m at least interested to see whom Ben was asking permission to bench Agent Liberty and to see what will become of Manchester Black. I don’t agree with his methods but I am liking the character very much and David Ajala (along with Nicole Maines) have been welcome additions to the show so far. Until 2019, that only leaves us with Elseworlds. Squeeeee!

Cougar’s Comic Corner

“Elseworlds Finest: Supergirl and Batgirl” by Barbara Kessel, Matt Haley, and Tom Simmons
In this reality, Batgirl is the supreme enforcer of all Gotham. Due to her actions and that of the monitoring “Oracle Eye”, Gotham has been completely sealed off from normal society. An embargo is in place forbidding any Metahumans from entering the city, unless Batgirl permits it. This evening however, is a special occasion. The Justice Society of America and Supergirl arrive in town to escort billionaire philanthropist, Lex Luthor, to Gotham Arena for a special tribute ceremony.
Check it out on Comixology for only $1.99!

Next time on Supergirl!

Season 4, Episode 9, “Elseworlds”
John and Justina (The Green Butterfly) reviewed all we know so far about Elseworlds while we try to dissect the stinger shown in this Supergirl episode. Whew! Get your feedback in by Friday, December 14 at 6:00 eastern to be included in our Golden Spiral Media ClusterCast!

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