Supergirl Season 4 Episode 3 Review: Man of Steel
Lizzy Buczak
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Things are not looking good for the aliens and the DEO with the Kryptonian contamination spreading across planet Earth and putting Supergirl out of commision.
At the start of Supergirl Season 4 Episode 3, Alex poses a question that serves as a catalyst for the rest of the episode: "what kind of person would do something like this."
Well, I'm glad you asked Alex because it led to finally unmasking the Agent of Liberty and establishing his connection to the Graves siblings.
The answer to Alex's question is a person who has exhausted all his or her other options.
In case you haven't picked up on it, there is a lot of resentment from the humans when it comes to aliens living on their planet.
Related: Supergirl Season 4 Episode 2 Review: Fallout
Many have said Supergirl Season 4 has been one-sided and skewed, therefore, Supergirl Season 4 Episode 3 aimed to level the playing field and give us the other side of the story.
To understand the human's plight, and by humans, I'm referring to the ones who claim to have suffered at the hands of the "roaches," it's necessary to go back a few years to when everything started.
Lena: I understand that you're angry, okay. But you can't go down this path. Blaming other people for your problems you will just end up like my brother.
Ben Lockwood: They're not people.
Before he was the Agent of Liberty, Ben Lockwood was a tolerant man who didn't want instill hate in his son.
He was the kind of dude who encouraged his father to work alongside the aliens and defended the workers of the NTH metal factory.
However, slowly but surely, his ideologies began adapting to those of his father's; he began resenting the aliens, he blamed them for the job loss, the loss of property and homes, the inability for human workers to compete against aliens, and so much more.
It's a kind of hatred that's taught, sadly.
As the season's new villain, Ben has a motive, but the execution is slightly yawn-inducing.
He tried to convince everyone around that aliens were to blame for everything going downhill by passing out pamphlets -- yep, he was one that guy -- but in reality, he got himself fired from a teaching job by trying to spread his prejudice to a diverse class filled with aliens.
Related: 14 TV Characters Who Would Make Great Ghosts
Seriously, he didn't even understand what made up an alien because he assumed Kara was human based on her "complexion."
How uninformed are you?
His hatred and his ideologies became more twisted after his father died, so he set out to do more than just "talk talk talk."
He wanted to walk the walk and in his mind, killing aliens seemed like a good way of taking back his America.
Ben Lockwood: You're not an alien, what are you doing here?
Kara: It's karaoke night!
Eventually, that led him to team up with the Graves siblings who planned to expose the President as an alien and kill Supergirl.
There's no denying Sam Witwer did an incredible job showcasing the evolution of your average joe to some self-proclaimed vigilante (and he looked really good doing it), however, the episode wasn't entirely necessary.
It may have shown us how the general public was affected by alien's inhabiting their planet, but couldn't we figure all of that out without wasting a whole episode?
Obviously, humans hold resentment which is why they are trying to take back their planet in the first place.
You can assume that they felt like the attacks, like the Daxamite invasion, would not have happened had it not been for the alien's presence on Earth.
Also, was anyone else cracking up that the only house destroyed in the battle was Lockwood's?
Most of Supergirl Season 4 Episode 3 felt like we were re-hashing everything we already knew to make some kind of unnecessary statement.
I would have found it more useful to find out what happened to Ben's family after he joined the Graves siblings' fight.
Are his wife and son fighting alongside him? Are they horrified by what he's become? Do they even know about any of it?
Lockwood's backstory didn't make me sympathetic to his character nor was it one of redemption either.
Why doesn't CatCo cover the impact of extraterrestrial attacks on your average citizen?
Ben Lockwood
In fact, it revealed some real issues with his character.
Firstly, he managed to lose a sense of himself because he needed someone to blame his problems on.
Second, he turned to violence even though he hated the alleged "violent nature" of aliens.
However, my biggest gripe is that he doesn't have the cajones to spread his message without a mask on.
If you're a man of the people and deem your superpower to be that you are human, why are you dressing up like a machine?
It pains me to say this but Supergirl Season 4 has lost its superhero appeal and its element of fantasy.
When Supergirl fought Reign or when she went head-to-head with Livewire, there was still an element of fun.
It's no longer escapism to a fictional city where a group of badass humans and aliens deals with a situation, it's a realistic portrayal of our times and an indirect commentary on our climate.
Supergirl had to be contained immediately to detoxify otherwise she'd succumb to the atmosphere seeded with kryptonite.
If she's no longer around, where does that leave us?
How does the DEO not have anything in place to prevent such attacks?
How is it possible that Alex has already messed up so massively in her role as DEO director?
Since she took on this new role, she has relied on J'onn several times.
She allowed herself to be blindsided by her own recruit, Jensen, who not only let the Graves siblings escape but also stole the lead dispersal device.
And if their only savior when Supergirl is out-of-commision is Lena Luthor than god or some higher being, help them all.
Hopefully, these new villains have some plan in place because keeping Jensen around simply to "break into the DEO" isn't that promising.
Do you know how many times someone has infiltrated that place without giving it a second thought?
You don't need D-level Jensen to accomplish it.
On the plus side, we got a little bit of Cat Grant which goes a long way.
What did you think of the episode? Did you like Agent of Liberty's backstory?
You can watch Supergirl online and share all your comments below!
Lizzy Buczak was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in June 2021..
