Supergirl Episode 407: Rather The Fallen Angel

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Supergirl episode #407, 'Rather The Fallen Angel' was another very good show in this strong season. This season is clearly a referendum on immigration with the villain being a xenophobe and the good guys trying to stop a violent uprising based on hate.

But one thing the show has been doing very well is show how there are shades of gray between the starkness of white and black. Agent Liberty is too far gone now, a murdering extremist. But the events that nudged him down that path were real, showing how he felt like an outcast in his own land. Manchester Black we learn here is also too far gone, attacking humans who disagree with him violently. Neither of these people, politically diametrically opposed, are heroes. But they are the extreme edges.

In the middle are people like Tom, the Children of Liberty member who realizes his error. And James, who was willing to compromise himself to save one person. And Lena who is willing to risk the lives of people for her research. Kara says it clearly at the end of this episode, the duality of people ... some mix of good and bad ... is making it more and more difficult to judge with the lens of simple 'good' and 'bad'. For a show that has worn its political heart on its sleeve in an over-the-top way, this nuanced approach is refreshing.

Agent Liberty was hurt as Ben Lockwood when he lost everything ... but his reactionary stance after was wrong. Manchester Black was hurt when he lost everything ... but his reactionary stance after was wrong. They are two sides of the same coin. But both sides have been scratched up. In essence, these were people who fell, like the fallen angels in the title.

Aside from a few plot conveniences which push the plot forward, the story here and the imagery was all very good. This is probably the strongest season for me in this show so far. On to the details.

We start out with Supergirl, floating in the sky over the city listening. I love that imagery.
She hears about a break in at a fission rod factory and heads down to join Manchester Black confronting members of the Children of Liberty.

Proving once again that she is faster than a speeding bullet, Supergirl stops Black from being shot. The remaining Children are arrested but the fission rods are gone. One member admits this was a two part job. One half was this robbery. The other was stealing a cargo shipment.

Early on we see Manchester's true nature seeping through the cracks as he really begins a beatdown on these men. But he tells Supergirl they need to team up as partners. They can help after all he tracked these men to the robbery before the police did.

Now one thing I need to point out here is that the Children of Liberty are now more akin to a criminal gang than a political movement. Stealing nuclear material? Attacking citizens? Every law enforcement agent should be looking for them and their telltale hoodies and masks.

Last episode ended with James being thrown into a van to be brought before Agent Liberty. We catch up with James, now at an unknown location. Liberty continues to preach his rhetoric of human exceptionalism and how Guardian will be a spokesperson to galvanize his believers. But we see James reach out asking Liberty what happened to bring about this core of anger.

Again, James trying to sway people who can be swayed is a plot for his character I can finally get behind.

Last week, Lena's harunel protocol created an indestructible heart. Shame on me for not putting that symbolism together. She is looking for an unbreakable heart for herself; she has been dealing with so much emotional pain herself, she'd probably love to have an invulnerable 'heart'.

Here we learn about the person who signed up for her human protocol. It is clear early on that we are supposed to compare this subject to Lena as mirror images. When Miss Tessmacher says 'you both have green eyes' it is a clue to us. But everyone has a stake in this. Eve's cousin is dying. This could cure her. Eve is worried about a civil war in the explosive world we live in.

Lena refuses to get personal with this young man, calling him subject 0331, not by name. But we learn his brother died. And we see he has physical scars.

Back at the DEO, Kara is surprised to see Ben Lockwood have his own television show.

And he is ratcheting up the hate. He talks of the missing Children of Liberty who were 'peacefully protesting' and have gone missing. He blames Supergirl, saying she is the potential eradication of the human race.

A bigger platform means bigger lies I guess. Attacking Supergirl seems to be working as we see some 'people on the streets' talking about her badly.

What I do like about this is that we see how charismatic Lockwood is. He picks his words carefully. You can see how he might convince someone.

We then cut to James, now being held against his will. But he has also convinced someone. Tom realizes the methods of the CoL are wrong. He has been inspired by James. He decides to break James out and escape.

Running from his prison, James realizes he is on Shelley Island, a sort of Ellis Island for aliens. There is a monument of a hand holding a torch. There are welcoming films from Supergirl saying power dampeners will keep super-abilities in check.

The escape is foiled and Tom looks like he is going to be killed as an 'Earth traitor' before James speaks up. He'll do anything to keep Tom safe, even giving in to Liberty's demands.

I'll say this whole thing is odd. This is the first time we've heard of this place, shut down since President Marsdin abdicated. An alien processing center from an alien President? You can see how that might be skewed. And does this mean Earth and/or America are destinations for aliens? How long has this been going on? Aliens were an anomaly, hidden in prior seasons. Now we have a processing station. Lastly, a place like this means these aliens are legal immigrants and refugees, having been welcomed officially. This seems to undercut the 'refugee' theme of this season.

And since we never saw this before, when James first ran out and saw the infomercial by Kara, I thought this might be some mock-up by Agent Liberty to show how bad things could be. Could this be an Earth without humans where aliens land like in an airport. It took me a bit to figure out this was real.

Lastly, if power dampening technology exists in this world, why isn't it being used willy nilly by lots of people?

I almost wish the idea of this place was introduced, even by name in an earlier episode. Shelley Island though must be named after Mary Shelley. After all, this whole season is about defining life, human life, and science to improve human life ... all very Frankenstein.

Manchester Black has a lead for the cargo theft hinted at during the earlier robbery. An empty cargo container means something was stolen. Luckily a clue remains, a scrap of label under the container.

I loved the simple conveyance of powers in this scene. Using x-ray vision, Kara sees the scrap. And then, in a moment that reminded me of Baby Kal lifting the truck in the Donner Superman movie, she lifts one end to get it.

But once again we see the anger Black is struggling to contain. He dons brass knuckles and threatens the storage facility manager. Supergirl has to step in to say that they don't hurt innocent people.

Again, that juxtaposition of Black and Liberty is clear.

In fact this whole episode has good use of showing Supergirl's powers, like here she pulls out a burned turkey pot pie from the hot over without oven mitts. I love how Alex refrains from this recooked turkey.

This scene is something of a nice exposition scene between the super-family of Kara, Alex, and J'onn.

Alex says that the missing Children of Liberty have been found; they were beaten, tortured, and shot. It doesn't look like an alien killed them.

Meanwhile, J'onn feels that Manchester Black is a good guy in a ton of pain. He is useful, resourceful. But he is emotionally bereft.

And finally, Brainy says the crate label Kara gave him has traces of Nalcyite, an element with which you can make a precise nuclear explosion. (I love how Brainy also comments on the ink and glue found on the label. It is almost absent-minded professor-ish. Endearing.)

The Lena stuff is also fascinating.

She calls herself Dr. Kieran (we learned this was Lena's middle name earlier on the show). She admits to having chosen this subject because of how he answered a question based on Nagel's spider conundrum. A spider trapped in a bathtub trying to escape the water ... do you kill it, set it free, or leave it alone. This candidate said leave it alone, the only candidate to do so. And that is how Lena thinks. After all, how can they know what the spider wants. It again shows how this person is a reflection of Lena.

This is based on an actual essay by Thomas Nagel, 'Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life'. In this, he removed a spider trapped in a urinal to the floor thinking he had done something good only to find the spider dead exactly where he left it. It shows the dangers of thinking you know what is right.

We then learn that the candidate did lose his older brother. His brother was perfect, nauseatingly so (perhaps a Lex figure)? His brother donated a kidney for this candidate. But the brother died on the table. The brother was trying to be a hero.

This candidate learns the experiment is to cure cancer and give powers. Lena picked him because his spider answer showed he wouldn't want to be a hero if he got powers. She doesn't want that. But he also has some self-hatred, calling himself a coward and cursed. He wouldn't have helped his brother.

I am sure that Lena feels the exact same way about herself. What had been an impersonal scientist/subject relationship has become very personal.

Back on the mainland, Kara takes J'onn's advice and reaches out to Manchester Black as partners. Together they realize that the Nalcyite shipment must have been offloaded on an island and the only one nearby is Shelley.

Black says calling in the DEO is a mistake because the CoL would scatter. Better to sneak in on their own. Supergirl knows about the power dampeners but has a yellow sun grenade on her to combat them. Black inspects it and is impressed.

Never let anyone examine your emergency tech. Unfortunately, this proves true.

Because on the island, the dampened Kara tries to activate the grenade and it doesn't go off. Black removed the battery.

She isn't powerless. But she can barely fly. And the Children of Liberty can hold her down with chains.

Turns out Black has been setting this whole thing up ... being at the fission robbery, planting the label ... all to get Supergirl weakened and available to Agent Liberty.

On the mainland, we see Lockwood crafting his news for the night in which he plans to show that Guardian is a believer in the Children of Liberty and their cause. That is because James has agreed to say what they want him to say on camera while be blows up the Shelley Island monument, all to save his new friend Tom.

On the island, the weakened Supergirl is chained within the torch statue. She sees the Nalcyite bomb there. She is dampened but not powerless. She breaks the chains. In a very Gal Gadot Diana moment, we see her climbing up the concrete wall by digging her fingers into the stone (like when Wonder Woman climbs to get into the Themiscyrian armory).

But she is too far away for her screams to be heard. She sees James arm the bomb.

Again, nice subtle showing of power, even in this less than super state.

Meanwhile, Black is brought before Agent Liberty. His ruse was built on the idea that he believed in their manifesto and wanted to bring it back to the UK. But they know he loved Fiona.

The Agent Liberty he is brought before isn't Lockwood. In a very John Wick moment, Black coldly shoots all those Children around him until he is just left with the phony Agent.

Just prior to hitting the button, James sees Kara's heat vision in the base of the statue. He knows he is being duped. At the same time, Black comes out guns ablazing.

Between James and his buddy Tom throwing punches and Black's uncanny and lethal marksmanship, the Children are routed.

And then, showing he isn't all bad, Black shoots the power dampening pylons, freeing Supergirl so she can toss the bomb into the upper atmosphere. (Nice perspective shot there.)

And then as the bomb explodes akin to fireworks, we get this very patriotic shot, almost like Supergirl near the Statue of Liberty torch on Fourth of July.  The imagery is obvious ... but I don't care. It works!

The whole plot is foiled. James hasn't compromised himself. Supergirl is alive.

As for Lena, earlier we see her tell her painful story. When Lena was 4, she watched her birth mother drown. She didn't cry. She didn't run for help. She just watched. And then she was sent to the Luthors where she has suffered. Perhaps she thinks she is paying for her sin. She calls the subject Adam, again humanizing him. (Would it have been better for him to be Allen? Lena spelled sideways?)

In the end she wants to send Adam home but he demands to take the risk in hopes of helping others, the first selfless thing he'll do. She injects him with the harunel.

Unfortunately, we learn he died 3 minutes later. She did get new information which will help her. But he is dead. Is this a line Lena has crossed? As she said, she 'moved the spider'. She was in the end responsible for Adam's death.

All along I have seen the pieces being moved into place to turn Lena wicked. It is like a slow play of Lockwood's episode as we see the events played out over the long haul. But this is where I think we will see that somehow the main characters will stop her. This will be their ultimate win ... stopping another villain like Agent Liberty from being made.

Or maybe stopping another villain like Manchester Black from forming.

Black now sports a kevlar vest with the Union Jack. And when he is confronted by J'onn over his crimes, Black plays dirty. He sticks J'onn with an empathy amplifier and then feeds the Martian Manhunter all the pain he is feeling, all the sin he has committed. J'onn sees it all, the murder and torture and emotional agony. And amplified, it floors him.

Meanwhile, James and Kara both talk about how you can only know what people show you, not what their hiding. Black is bad ... but he helped her too. James compromised himself but he felt he needed to. He understands Lena. It is here we get that discussion of duality.

If you take a step back, this whole season is built on people who have fallen deep into extremism (like Black and Lockwood) or are struggling to define themselves knowing the human condition is complex (like Lahey, Tom, James, and Lena). My guess is the show realizes that the extremists are lost causes. It is the 'gray' that need to be nudged to the light. Like Tom. And hopefully like Lena.

The show ends with a peek into television night at the Danvers.

There is innocent Brainy, taking notes on the Three Stooges.

In walks the crying J'onn, still rocked by Black's pain. He thinks he failed.

And then we see that Black has new information beaten out of the faux Agent Liberty. He knows the Lockwood is the real Agent.

So this was a good episode focusing on the complexity of belief, on trying to do what you think is right even though the end results are wrong, and about quelling the more base motivations and desires.

One thing that I love about this is that, at least for now, Supergirl has remained above the fray, a pure symbol of hope. While Lockwood might try to besmirch her, her actions are without blemish. She is hope and inspiration.

I am very impressed with this season.

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