Supergirl gives Nia Nal a dream showcase
Nicole Maines' powerhouse performance anchors a refreshingly character-driven episode
TV Reviews Supergirl
One of the smartest choices Supergirl made in its elder statesmen years was to add Nia Nal to its ensemble. As Kara grew in confidence, Nia was there to harken back to her more insecure days as a burgeoning reporter and hero, all while bringing her own specific lived experience to the table too. And Nicole Maines very much follows in Melissa Benoist’s footsteps as a performer who’s as adept at comedy as she is moving emotionality. So it makes sense that an episode of Supergirl that puts those two women front and center would emerge as such a compelling hour. Placing Nia and Kara centerstage gives “Nightmare In National City” a sense of focus that some of the other episodes of the season have been missing. And it allows the show to put character-driven storytelling first and totem exposition second, which is definitely my preferred mode.
Best of all, “Nightmare In National City” finally (finally!) follows-up on the Supergirl thread I’ve long been waiting for the series to return to: Nia’s relationship with her older sister Maeve, who last appeared way back in the season four episode “Blood Memory,” where she threw some horrendous transphobic hatred at her little sister after Nia inherited their mother’s dream powers over her. It was a dark moment for a show that often likes to keep things sunny—and it felt even heavier the longer the show left it unresolved. So “Nightmare In National City” smartly turns the weight of all that time into fodder for a complex look at sisterhood and family hurt.
Most importantly, Supergirl doesn’t let Maeve off the hook. When Nia’s quest for the Dream Totem inadvertently leads her to her sister’s door, Maeve tosses off a half-hearted apology for what she said. Yet it’s clear she’s spent the past few years thinking far more about her own pain than the pain she caused Nia. And though Maeve eventually delivers a much more earnest apology by the end of the episode—once she’s finally allowed herself to be impressed by all that Nia can do—Supergirl doesn’t simply grant her immediate redemption. Nia agrees to give Maeve a second (and final) chance, but she also makes it clear that she doesn’t forgive her sister for what she said.
It’s a moment that feels honest about the unfair comprises that trans people often have to make when it comes to complicated family situations. Supergirl lets Nia and Maeve’s semi-healed relationship exist in a grey area that the show doesn’t often embrace. There’s some welcome catharsis—particularly in the standout Dream Realm monologue where Nia finally gets to unleash the full weight of her anger at Maeve, which is another breathtaking performance moment for Maines. Yet that catharsis is balanced by melancholy too, as characterized by the final shot of Nia slumping into Brainy’s arms at the end of her long, complicated day.
That sense of melancholy also exists in Kara’s story, which is about the huge amount of pressure she feels to be all things to all people at all times. While it’s a shame that Kara hasn’t had the strongest overall arc in this final season, “Nightmare In National City” comes close to tying together a whole bunch of her disparate storylines. Though Kara doesn’t directly reference the post-Phantom Zone PTSD she experienced back in “Welcome Back, Kara,” she does explain that ever since she arrived back on Earth and started facing off against Nyxly, she’s felt perpetually one step behind in life.
Between her high-pressure superheroing and her high-pressure job, Kara is experiencing a severe form of burnout. And more so than anything that’s directly referenced in the script, it’s Benoist’s performance that conveys that idea. When Kara discovers that prioritizing saving the city has caused her to miss an important on-air interview with the political heads of Kaznia and Corto Maltese, she’s literally shaking with anxiety. It’s a massive mistake, one that no tossed-off alibi can forgive. And it forces Kara to take stock of what she actually has the time and energy to prioritize. For now, at least, that means quitting CatCo to become a full-time superhero.
Though the question of “Can a superhero have it all?” is one of the oldest in the book, there’s something about the way Supergirl frames Kara’s dilemma that’s very modern. For me at least, the feeling of having a never-ending to do list, not enough hours in the day, and a sense of exhaustion at the thought of waking up to face it all again is deeply relatable. And the way Kara explains that she doesn’t have the luxury of having a bad day is deeply connected to the specifics of her situation as a superhero and the pressure she puts on herself to be a literal savior—which makes it especially fascinating that she chooses to discuss it with William, the one person in her life who doesn’t know the full extent of what she’s talking about.
Indeed, it’s kind of a shame that Nia and Kara’s stories don’t dovetail in some way in this episode, even as they function as parallel tales of the difficulties of being both a superhero and a person. As for the hour’s actual plot, it’s fairly perfunctory. While there’s tons of potential to the story of the Super Friends erecting a massive dome to contain a Nightmare Monster and then facing public pushback for it, that throughline never really gets going because the episode doesn’t have enough screentime to devote to it. (I was also expecting a little more from Kara’s on-air apology.) Outside of the character-driven stuff, Nia and Maeve’s Dream Realm adventure is memorable mostly for the cool production design of the “dream spires.” And I’ll have to wait until next week to properly assess whatever the hell was up with Nyxly’s voice-only version of herself and however Lex is involved in it all. (Good to see you again, though, Jon Cryer!)
Still, character-first and plot-second is the way I prefer my Supergirl. And by that metric, “Nightmare In National City” is a success. Of course, that opinion could always change based on what happens in the final run of episodes. I’m intrigued by the fact that even this close to the end, I still have absolutely no idea what the Supergirl finale is going to land on as its status quo. But with four episodes left, this feels like an appropriate “darkest before the dawn” moment for Kara—and a fitting celebration of Nia too.
Stray observations
- Esme’s drawings of the Super Friends were freakin’ adorable!
- The special effects for Dreamers’ powers are pretty spotty, but my god if Nicole Maines doesn’t sell it with her commitment to Nia’s graceful hand motions.
- I also very much enjoyed how she delivered the line, “My boyfriend, he’s a twelfth-level intellect.”
- David Harewood mentioned on Instagram that while filming the second half of the season he ruptured his Achilles tendon and couldn’t walk, which could explain why J’onn has been so sidelined lately.
- I strongly considered devoting this entire review just to the scene of Brainy in his full-green look, wearing a half-buttoned shirt, and making spinach pancakes. Truly incredible!!
59 Comments
“Taste my genius.”Yeah I found Kara’s dilemma here very touching. We’re all kinda feeling like this as the world insists on trying to return to “normal”.
– Maybe I’ve just not been paying attention, but is this the first time we’ve had the “My name is Kara Zor-El” pre-show speech this season? I wonder if the episode was short 30 seconds and they needed emergency filler.- A bit of brilliance regarding the Totems in this episode. Kara’s dream was to give an awesome interview that would change the world and inspire people, but since the Dream Totem was lost, so was her dream. Said dream was about two nations antagonistic towards each other putting aside their differences to embrace peace, showing the best of humanity. Kara destroyed the Hope Totem, and spends the rest of the episode unable to inspire the masses, causing riots and military intervention. And in the end, Kara had the courage to admit she can’t do it all, quits CatCo to go after Nyxly full time, and attempts to be the Paragon of Hope once again. I do not say this often regarding this show, but good on you, writers.- When they mentioned Kara contacted Cat Grant to get the interview done, I rewound and double checked if Calista Flockhart was in the credits. – I get that Nia wasn’t the focus of the storyline and didn’t have the responsibilities Kara does, but it does seem odd that Andrea would tear into Kara for being absent for so much but not Nia, who’s away just as often.
– I very, very much question the logistics of the Superfriends working so closely with the governor. Does she know where the Super Tower is? Does she know Lena lives there now? I’m assuming that J’onn and Alex have a lot of pull from when they were with the DEO, but still.- OMG, those helicopter CG animations were atrocious. Also, WTF kind of guns were they firing? Because any machine gun an army helicopter has should have torn apart both the portal generator and the squishy humans standing on the ground. And that’s assuming they are firing normal machine gun fire and not using Gatling guns.
– Does Kara quitting CatCo mean no more Andrea?
– I was expecting Lex to eventually come back. I was NOT expecting Otis to join him.
I noticed the intro too, it feels like a chapter heading for these last five episodes. Kind of a “Let’s pull out this chestnut for the final run” type thing.
I think the intro was in the season premiere as well.
I actually went back to check my DVR recording, it didn’t. Maybe the On Demand version had it?
CW broadcast had it on my station.
“I’m assuming that J’onn and Alex have a lot of pull from when they were with the DEO, but still.”Maybe that’s why Alex was talking to the governor as herself and not Sentinel? I thought she was supposed to have a secret identity.
Still don’t understand why Otis gets the “they killed Kenny” treatment but they never brought back Mercy. She could have been much more integral to the show with her connection to Lena, and that was just a waste of Rhona Mitra. Although, given certain recent revelations, maybe Mitra just didn’t want to come back.
+1 that this was unusually well-written for a Supergirl episode.
Funny enough, Twitter despised the episode, calling it sexist.
Also, notification links now go to the specific post again! Yay!
I’m glad we can have actual conversations with people ahead of the finale.afraid to ask about twitter…sexist because it played into the women-can’t-have-it-all trope or is this some incel sexist-against-men thing? I can imagine SG accidentally writing itself into women-can’t-have-it-all, but I think this arc makes sense for Kara in the context of her trauma and the enormous pressure the storylines put her under.
Oh, no, the people calling it sexist were almost entirely made up of SuperCorp shippers.
“SuperCorp”? Is that broader than I’m thinking, or is that just “Kiss her already, Lena!”?
Yea, SuperCorp is the ship name for Kara/Lena. Twitter is fucking gaga over the pairing.
ok, I say this knowing I’m a supercorp shipper, but I kinda get what they mean. Maybe the people on twitter took it a bit too far, but I sort of see their point a bit. I mean, Kal-El can literally have it all, with his reporter job, family, and the whole superhero thing. It just seems like bad writing that Kara hasn’t had the whole balance problem for like the entire show run(exception season 3 beginning eps), but only now she decides to quit her job that she’s passionate about, and a job that used to be part of her storyline. I guess it can be seen as a bit sexist, but mostly just feels like lazy writing on the show’s part.
twitter…sexist because it played into the women-can’t-have-it-all trope
Mostly this one — maybe one or two DoucheBros popping in, but they’re more of the hit&run variety.
“is this the first time we’ve had the ‘My name is Kara Zor-El’ pre-show speech this season?” When I saw that I thought my PVR had recorded the wrong episode, or they had re-aired an episode from a few seasons back. I can’t remember the last time they had this intro.“it does seem odd that Andrea would tear into Kara for being absent for so much but not Nia, who’s away just as often.” Kara is one of Andrea’s star reporters – if she’s absent Andrea will notice. But Nia is portrayed as one of the junior reporters, so if she’s absent Andrea isn’t as likely to notice.“Does Kara quitting CatCo mean no more Andrea?” We’ll still have phone calls between Lena and Andrea where Lena can talk about her feelings.
Considering how often this show goes for easy surface level solutions I was surprised that they had Nia call Maeve out on her shittiness and not forgive her by the end of the episode. I figured they would have her forgive her because all the previous dream stuff made it seem like Nia was feeling guilty for how things ended with Maeve. And that would have been really awful because what Maeve did was really shitty.Well goodbye Catco job, since we hardly see Nia there anymore and William has an excuse to be at the Watchtower now, hopefully we won’t see that much of Andrea’s dumbass for the rest of the show.Yay Lex is back, two fun villains can have fun together now.
I was also pleasantly surprised by how they handled Nia and her sister’s relationship.
They seemed to be giving her a redemption arc, and then… nope, she betrays Nia the first chance she gets. Sometimes people are just assholes and you’re right to cut them out.
I don’t normally say “Yes!” aloud while watching TV. But I did when Nia told off her sister.
I think with the return of the intro, and Kara’s earlier failure with the courage totem, the show is lampshading its signature action set-piece: the Jet Plane Rescue and Water Landing.Why? A) it was awesome. B) Show coming full circle and all that C) Kara’s going to “win” the courage totem challenge by revealing her true identity to the world. Her failure (in the Totem’s opinion – which idk – kind of a judgey take on the totem’s part) back at the Plane Rescue was not revealing her secret identity. I thought she might come out to William tonight. The show is doing the thing now that they were doing for years with Lena: on some level William already knows.
I still have a hard time believing that a show which has gone out of its way to defend Kara having a secret identity (that was the entire point of the 100th episode!) is going to turn around and say “having a secret identity is bad actually”, but it certainly does feel like that’s where they’re headed.
I hope not, that’s a really bad message.
This show gets to be more of itself every week — which I hasten to add is not a good thing. Good on the showrunners letting Nia not let her sister off the hook, but that’s not enough for an entire episode.Kara quitting once again raises the Arrowverse’s biggest problem: How do these people earn money? Who’s paying the rent for J’onn, Alex, and Brainy? How do they buy all that food? Just as with Barry somehow being able to run STAR Labs on a police forensic scientist’s salary (a job he rarely shows up at), we almost never see anyone going to work and earning money. (Even Clark and Lois are somehow surviving on a farm that doesn’t produce anything and a job at a newspaper with a circulation in the dozens and no ad revenue [if we go by the number of dying businesses in Smallville]).
Barry owns STAR Labs, so any patents they have on consumer/commercial goods means he gets the royalties. He legitimately doesn’t need the CSI job anymore.
As for Clark, there are two avenues. One, he gets some money to work with the military. Two, he has an account set aside for Superman so he can license his image out for toys and merchandise and crap. Given that Injustice 2 exists in the Arrowverse, I’m willing to bet both Barry and Clark got paid for that.
J’onn opened up a PI business below the Super Tower, and presumably both Alex and Brainy work for him, but they stopped showing him solve regular cases this season.
J’onn has been alive for centuries. He’s rich like all fictional vampires are rich, compound interest and long term investments. I have no excuses for the rest.
Sure, but he’s been on Earth only since the mid-50s. One suspects, though, that he wouldn’t have the same feelings about squeezing coal into diamonds as Superman, so I guess that could pay the bills.
“How do these people earn money?”I always thought that Superman/Supergirl could survive financially by crushing a piece of coal into a diamond (a la Superman III) – just a big enough one to pay the bills and not destabilize the world’s diamond economy.Sort of like the show Early Edition where Kyle Chandler got tomorrow’s paper today. His friend wanted him to use it to get rich, which he disagreed with. But saving people interfered with his job – I think he eventually got fired – or quit so he could focus full-time on saving people. So he used the paper to make just enough money to pay his bills – not to get rich – so he could focus on saving people.
This was a great episode, and with Kara making difficult choices to prioritize her life it feels like the show is finally dropping hints to its finale, which it hasn’t really been doing so far. It’s really a shame we’re a handful of episodes away from the end, having the Superfriends make controversial tactical decisions and needing to balance government and public support is a really strong concept that could’ve supported the show a few more years. William finally makes sense within the ensemble cast as Kara’s Lois Lane, giving the team a sounding board and grounded outsider perspective. I don’t know if the scenario was intended to be pandemic lockdown commentary, there’s enough allusions to it but the messaging is also quite mixed.Loved Nia’s arc and the show not taking the easy forgiveness route is the correct path. Was Nia always able to manifest her costume that way or is it just because she was in the dream realm?I still don’t know what they’re doing with Andrea, she swings between airhead, out-of-touch boss and nuanced character with legitimate call outs for Kara.Interesting J’onn just randomly shows up in Martian form, did they just have extra effects budget to burn this week?
I think J’onn has been in his Martian form during action sequences for the past few weeks because of the injury Caroline mentions at the end of the review.
Ah that would explain why even that single hop through the force field in a previous episode required a blink-and-miss martian head.
I’m glad The AV Club allowed recaps for the whole season when other final season shows often just get premiere & finale reviews.
Each episode contains one solid plotline surrounded by a bunch of middling ones. Dreamer having to reconcile with her jealous sister to get the Dream Totem was thematically great & showcased complex emotional shifts.
Unfortunately that’s paired with a generic nightmare monster escaping the Dream Realm that wants to eat a nuclear power plant because nuclear energy is somehow analogous to dream energy. They piss off the public by not simply explaining the dome situation. Kara Danvers sucks so much at journalism this season that she quits CatCo. This is really frustrating because they kept teasing the possibility for Kara’s writing to be equally as inspiring as superheroics. New CatCo has been so soulless that her sacrifice feels more like a relief than heartbreaking.
J’onn has no arc this season.
I still can’t believe they couldn’t give J’onn an arc. The focus of this season is the opposite of what I wanted to see for the final season. There should have been more of Kara, Alex and J’onn.
The review says they had to cut back J’onn’s screen time because of David Harewood’s injury.
Everything with Nia was phenomenal. It’s an absolute crime they aren’t developing a Dreamer spinoff show. Kara’s arc I was less sold on because it feels like the show is litigating questions it already answered, and doing so in ways that seem contradictory to what the show’s said the first time around. Maybe my problem is that for as much as I like Nyxly she doesn’t strike me as the greatest test the Superfriends have ever faced. Also, that dome stuff really felt like writers trying to squeeze in a little “of the moment” topicality, and I’m still not sure i’m ready for even vaguely pandemic related references in my superhero stories.
Hearing about Harewood’s injury on top of Ruby Rose’s recent accusations about how toxic and unsafe the Batwoman set was makes me wonder what else was going on in the CW. I feel like Supergirl in particular has to have some behind the scenes stories aside from what we already know.
Harewood’s injury happened off set (he was playing tennis). It’s also the type of injury that can happen even if your being super safe.
According to his IG, Harewood hurt himself playing tennis, not on-set.EDIT: Because I can’t be sure links work on Kinja:
davidcgc – links don’t work on Kinja at all anymore. Just paste the link at the bottom, that’s the only way to do it….
Loved watching Nicole Maines be graceful with those hand motions with the sketchy visual effects.I love Lex, but…enough’s enough.Hopefully, this means we won’t get anymore CatCo scenes because Andrea is WORTHLESS. I kinda expected Kara to reveal herself as Supergirl, though.Poor J’onn; he’s been relegated to the Black Best Friend.
I don’t know. I liked Miss Tessmacher a whole lot more than Nyxly.
To be honest, I thought Andreas was gonna handle Kara’s reporting dilemma the same way the Chief from Action League Now! handled Meltman’s meltdown with delicate diplomacy: “YOU’RE FIRED!!!” ROFL
There was a shout-out to, of all people, Kevin Smith in the scene right after the energy dome is deployed. We see the cut-in-half hot dog truck, but nearby is some kind of bacon food truck. That references an anecdote regarding Kevin Smith’s direction of the “Supergirl Lives” episode (where the heroes go to Maldoria, have no powers under the red sun, etc.). Much of the Maldoria stuff was filmed overnight in a cold, rainy Vancouver quarry, so Kevin Smith arranged for a bacon truck to come to the location and give everybody bacon products. Not sure how much bacon actually was consumed by the health-conscious principal cast, but Smith himself is said to have enjoyed a bacon sandwich with bacon-flavored bread…and extra bacon.
-Something is definitely wrong when Nia’s selfish, transphobic sister’s apology comes off feeling more sincere than Supergirl’s. It’s not even that Maeve’s apology was all that good, just that Supergirl’s sounded like one of those standard “Mistakes were made, but I’m continuing to grow and learn” non-apologies that celebrities so often give. Someone really needs to tell her that no apology seems genuine when you’re standing with your hands planted on your hips like a petulant child.-Hey, you know that huge diplomatic crisis from last week that almost resulted in nuclear war? Well, it was all resolved off screen, so don’t worry your pretty little head about it.-If Kara quitting CatCo means no more Andrea, then I’m all for it.- I have had to close roughly TEN MILLION pop-up ads while typing this comment on my phone, what the fuck is going on, AV Club?
-Damn, watching Nia’s sister in the previouslys is still brutal.-Oh my god, the show actually noticed how bad Kara’s been at her day job.-Awww, Danvers sisters supportiveness time!-They couldn’t have sent J’onn to fight during the interview?-Maeve, “you have to understand” is generally a shit way to lead off an apology.Indeed, it’s kind of a shame that Nia and Kara’s stories don’t dovetail in some way in this episode, even as they function as parallel tales of the difficulties of being both a superhero and a person. As for the hour’s actual plot, it’s fairly perfunctory.I’ve always loved their mentor/mentee relationship, so it could’ve been an especially interesting way to look at the way Nia tries to balance her journalism/heroism too.I also very much enjoyed how she delivered the line, “My boyfriend, he’s a twelfth-level intellect.”YES. +1 clarification that they are back together.
This week’s “character(s) taking an adventure” was Kelly and Esme! I wonder who will be doing so next week?
The Kara-fucking-up-the-interview thing really rang false. She was away for like 90 seconds! And they called off the entire thing? In a show as nutso as this one, that is where I can’t suspend my disbelief, I guess.
Nia is, at this point, the most consistently good part of this show, so I’m not surprised that her story was so good tonight. The Kara story was…fine, but it still hasn’t quite worked for me. Hopefully they stick the landing. At minimum, I’m glad Luthor is back for the home stretch.
Wow, Twitter SUPERGIRL fans hated this episode, saying it betrayed Kara by having her quit CatCo to be Supergirl full-time!Of course, they’re also expecting Kara and Lena to become lesbian lovers in the 31st Century with The Legion of Super-Heroes, so….
Even though we’ve only ever seen the two of them have male romantic interests?
‘Shippers.
I wish I could enjoy this season as much as the reviewer does.
I think it is badly written, the whole “hunt for the totems” has become repetitive and boring and Nyxly slowly starts to loose her villain appeal.
I also don’t like so much focus in the Superfriends stories when we are in the final season of a show called “Supergirl”.
For example I would enjoy much more Nia’s dream adventures and family drama if there weren’t 4 episodes left till the series finale.
So Kara cannot combine her “civilian” life with her superhero one. But did she ever??
“So Kara cannot combine her ‘civilian’ life with her superhero one. But did she ever??”See the previous seasons of this show.
Really hoping Lena gets to be more than Gal In The Chair sometime in these final eps. At least her wardrobe was o point this week.
I kind of appreciate that the show is taking time for Lena to learn her witch powers. After she discovered she was a witch I fully expected that in the very next episode she would be at full strength with her abilities fighting alongside the Superfriends like she had been doing it for years. In reality she should be taking this long to learn how to use magic.This is what they should have done with Kelly/Guardian. I know she has a military background but you don’t go from a civilian to a non-powered superhero overnight. But apparently she can – she decides to become Guardian, she trains with Alex for 1 episode, and then she’s in the field with no issues, when in reality her lack of experience (and powers) would probably have gotten her killed on her first outing.
Almost done
Jeers to the show for including Jon Cryer in the “Special Guest Star” credits at the start of the episode. I understand that actors need to be properly credited, but there is precedent for including them in the end credits, especially when their appearance is (a) supposed to a surprise, and (b) comes at the end of the episode. I spent the entire episode knowing that Lex was going to appear, so when we got to the last scene with Nxly I knew “Oh, this is when Lex will appear” so the scene was robbed of any tension of what would happen.Watching these episodes month after they aired, I knew that Cryer returned for the final episodes, and already suspected that Nxly’s “secret admirer” was probably him. But this was still a missed opportunity at surprising me with his return.
Come on, commenters, you let me down!We have an episode where a giant dome is dropped over (part of) the city, and there are *no* Under The Dome references made?Where was the comment about a lack of a cow being sliced in half? Where was the “CUT MY COW INTO PIECES” comment? Where was the “Classic dome” comment?For shame.