Supergirl Season 4, Episode 8 recap: Dreaming of Liberty

Supergirl this week finds Manchester Black preparing to exact his revenge as Kara attempts to hep Nia with her powers. Here’s our recap of all that happened.

After finding out the identity of Agent Liberty in last week’s Supergirl episode, Manchester Black shows up at Ben Lockwood’s home with the intention of exacting his revenge for the death of his fiance. Manchester sits down to tea with Ben and his wife, all the while making subtly veiled references and threats.

Eventually a fight breaks out between Manchester and Ben and Ben Lockwood’s identity as Agent Liberty is revealed to his wife. Ben is forced to put on the Agent Liberty suit by Manchester and Manchester threatens to kill Ben’s wife but J’onn uses his telepathy to enter Manchester’s mind just in time and incapacitate him.

J’onn refuses to kill him despite Manchester’s goading and while Manchester is incapacitated Ben takes the opportunity to stab him. However, Manchester doesn’t go down so easily and all it seems to have done is make him angrier. Eventually the fight departs from Ben’s home and ends up at a factory once owned by Lockwood Family Steel.

The factory owned by Lockwood Family Steel also happens to be the location Nia has been seeing in her dreams, though she doesn’t realize it yet. Unable to sleep due to her nightmares Nia shows up to work with an excessive amount of caffeine, enough to have Kara worried. Especially after Nia freaks out when she sees Agent Liberty on the TV.

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Kara, being Kara, wants to help Nia with whatever problem she’s having. Brainy inadvertently reveals that he knows of Nia from the future but refuses to tell Alex or Kara why or how. Because you know, time travel rules and all that. Brainy does assure them however that Nia can help them, so Kara heads over to Nia’s apartment and talks her way inside.

As they talk, Nia reveals to Kara that she’s actually an alien and sometimes the women in her family have this power where they can dream the future and it seems to be happening to her too. Unfortunately her dreams are more like nightmares and she can’t control them. Brainy and Kara try to coach Nia through it, and she’s able to make progress and even slow down the dream she’s having which is revealed to be about Ben Lockwood’s wife being somewhere that has construction hooks.

Following clues in Nia’s dreams Brainy, Kara, and Nia head to the town of Collinwood. They don’t find the woman they’re looking for, Ben Lockwood’s wife, but they do find 5 children of Liberty. Brainy tries to distract Nia with lanyards (oh Brainy) while Kara goes to pick a fight with the Children of Liberty, but Nia notices and runs to help which results in all 3 of them getting kidnapped. Kara is going to have to reveal her identity to Nia soon because frankly Brainy is terrible at being subtle and keeping secrets, and Nia not knowing will just get them into more trouble.

The location that Brainy, Nia, and Kara are taken to by their kidnappers happens to be the factory Nia dreamed of which was once owned by Lockwood Family Steel. Nia begins to panic which causes her powers to manifest when the Children of Liberty start to shoot at them. She was able to foresee the shot and so she raises her wrist at just the right moment and the bullets go through her handcuffs and release her as Kara and Brainy pull theirs off and take down the Children of Liberty. It’s nice to see Brainy fight and be reminded that he’s more than just comic relief and was actually a member of the Legion of Superheroes.

When Kara realizes where they are it leads her to the realization that Ben Lockwood might be the real Agent Liberty. She places a call to Alex and Alex hilariously bluffs one of the Children of Liberty in DEO custody into confirming that it’s true.

Kara goes off as Supergirl to find Ben Lockwood and Brainy and Nia walk around the Lockwood Family Steel factory when Nia recognizes it as the location from her dream. They even find the location of the hooks from her dream.

Supergirl steps in just as Manchester is about to kill Ben and she stops him. Manchester however has an ace up his sleeve and uses moondust to injure Supergirl and then traps her in Nth metal, one of the strongest elements in existence.

Ben Lockwood’s wife also shows up at Lockwood Steel with a gun, not the smartest move, and Manchester is poised to shoot at her as Ben tries to run in front to protect his wife. Luckily Nia was prepared thanks to her dreams and remotely moves the large hooks to knock Manchester out.

While Manchester and Ben are fighting, Supergirl is still trapped in Nth metal. She’s unable to break free, but in a show of strength she starts flying while her bottom half is still trapped. The whole building rises and as it slams back down to the ground Supergirl is released. It’s pretty impressive actually and very lucky for Ben Lockwood’s wife, because she ends up falling over the railing towards the floor and Supergirl is able to catch her just in time.

Manchester and Ben are both arrested, however as Ben is being taken away by the police he manages to throw out a parting comment demanding that Supergirl reveal her identity just like his has been revealed. That doesn’t bode well for her.

Ben’s comment about Supergirl’s identity inflamed his followers once more, so much so that the media (apart from CatCo) is twisting the tale into a story of a human right’s activist being unfairly detained. There are chants and protests against his arrest and the story has even reached the president of the United States, who makes a trip to the DEO in person.

The president demands to know Supergirl’s true identity and Alex tries to step in but is unable to help. Kara, knowing she has to keep her secret safe to protect those she loves, refuses to reveal who she is. Kara’s choice has consequences and the president immediately dismisses her from the DEO. Are viewer’s supposed to distrust this new president? Because something seems just a bit off about him. It seems a harsh punishment for someone who has saved the city so many times.

The closing moments of the episode set up the upcoming Elseworlds crossover as we are taken to Earth-90 and we are shown the John Wesley Shipp version of the The Flash. He appears to be hurt and The Monitor approaches and tells The Flash that he failed and they will all perish as The Flash begins to super speed away.

Are you excited for the Elseworlds crossover? Do you think Agent Liberty will be released from prison? Are you intrigued by Nia’s powers? Let us know!

Supergirl airs Sundays at 8pm EST on the CW.