'Supergirl' Recap With Spoilers: "Man of Steel"

"Man of Steel" starts with the DEO in chaos — a Kryptonite detector alert is going off and Alex and Brainiac-5 are trying to reach Kara.

J'onn's trying to approach Agent of Liberty when Alex calls him to inform him that kryptonite has gone airborne in the atmosphere. J'onn races off to try and find Kara. Brainy finds the location of Kara and relays that information to J'onn, who saves her before she hits the ground. He takes her back to the DEO.

They take Kara into the med bay and begin exposing her to yellow sun radiation, in hopes of reversing the effects of kryptonite.

We see a flashback to two years ago of an elderly man upset that the news keeps showing a motivational speech by Supergirl. Much to the dismay of his family, he goes on an anti-alien tangent, comparing them to roaches.

The old man arrives at his work site to see his employees rioting against two alien coworkers. The old man's son tries calming them down and in a fit of nervousness, one of the aliens accidentally shoots the man's son. Alex and Kara soon arrive to stop the riot. The son wakes up and is questioned by Alex about the attack.

Sometime later, the son — Ben Lockwood — tracks down Lena Luthor to talk about potential business opportunities. Lena shoots him down because of his dad's conservative views.

Time fast forwards nearly a year and we see Lockwood giving a lecture about progress to his college class.

Ben arrives at his family home to find his dad was denied a loan that'd save the family business. Ben's brother George calls the aliens roaches and blames the family's misfortunes on aliens. Just as the family starts debating, Rhea's TV speech from last season comes on the television. The family agrees to evacuate their home and as they're in the process of leaving, J'onn crashes into the home while fighting a Daxamite.

J'onn's able to stop the Daxamite and haul them away but it's too late, the Lockwood family house starts on fire.

Ben Lockwood goes to speak with James Olsen and why the paper doesn't adequately cover the fallout from alien attacks. Lockwood is disappointed that victim stories usually get pushed to the back and James cut their conversation short because Lena is calling.

Lockwood is lecturing his class on nativism. Lockwood begins getting upset and starts questioning how American workers are supposed to compete with aliens who are able to fly.

Without a job, Lockwood turns to the streets to hand out anti-alien pamphlets. Lockwood can't reach his dad, so he goes to the factory to find his dad trapped underneath a beam. Lockwood's dad revealed he purposely came to the factory during the attack so that he'd get crushed. Lockwood's father passes away.

At his father's funeral, Lockwood reminds the crowd of a "Never give in" quote by Winston Churchill. Ben notices that Lena is in attendance and he pulls her aside after the service is done. Ben is upset that L-Corp has invented image-inducing technology and he tells Lena that aliens aren't people.

The flashback goes forward ten more months and Lockwood is talking to an anti-alien group on the street. Lockwood notices the dean of NCU getting coffee and he approaches her. The two chat and she reveals that her and her husband have lost their house and have fallen on rough times. Lockwood invites her to his "support group" of anti-alien members.

Walking down the street, Lockwood is approached by a limo with Mercy Graves. Lockwood enters the limo and Mercy explains that they need to work together. She gifts him body armor so that he and his group can carry out better attacks.

Mercy mentions her plans of unveiling the President as an alien. She introduces Lockwood to her driver, who happens to be Otis Graves. Mercy then shows Ben an image of Iona and orders him to kill her.

The timeline forwards to present day and Brainy tells the rest of the team that the yellow sun radiation isn't working. Alex calls in Lena, who brings some L-Corp technology which she reveals they'll need to put Supergirl into until they detox the atmosphere.

Back at the hideout of Lockwood and the Graves', Agent Jensen tells the group he can get them into the DEO.