Television 

Five Thoughts on Supergirl‘s “Nightmare in National City”

By | October 20th, 2021
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back all you Supergirl fans! Despite being promised nightmares and a breaking of the formula, all we got was another standard totem hunt episode and one of the most infuriating final minute teasers. I am livid and I should not be. Ugh. Let’s just get started.

And as always, spoilers ahead.

1. Reeves? Seriously? Fuck you.

Maeve, Nia’s sister, is back, having last appeared two seasons ago. Her main role is to be a strained source of information and it’s fine. It’s pretty predictable where her arc was going but it was nice to not have it be entirely antagonistic the entire time OR a complete waste. It shows a willingness to approach the character with a bit of depth and not just write her off as a bigot even as she remained horribly self-centered. There’s not much more to say about her presence here because, really, she’s just a means to an end for Nia’s growth but I should probably address the title of my thought.

Yeah, so, when we first run into Maeve, we find out she’s been hiding under the name M. Reeves. I don’t actually have the kind of animosity towards this choice as the title would imply but if you’re going to name a character as a reference to beloved Superman ‘78 actor Christopher Reeves, could you at least give it to someone who isn’t the embodiment of “that asshole?” It feels kinda rude to someone who was an inspiring person (as opposed to some other former supermen I could mention.)

It’s a minor gripe, ultimately, though maybe she should’ve hid under the name Superboy Prime instead.

2. It’s a Brand New World and I’ll Sleep if I Want To

As I said at the top, I thought we would be in a completely new paradigm now that one of the totems is destroyed, nebulous as the consequences of such an action is, but it seems like my other prediction – we’d completely ignore this development in favor of the mysterious Lex-o-suit Nxyly sports – was spot on. In fact, we got a double-whammy of ignoring the hope totem in that we’re STILL hunting for these g-d forsaken objects. Ugh.

The search for the dream totem takes up the bulk of the episode and every time we deal with the Superfriends’ antics around it, I check out in much the same way I did for Phantom stuff. It’s dull and rote and unremarkable.

The meaty stuff, which I still found pretty OK, was found in Kara’s struggles balancing her superheroing and her reporter job and in Nia’s attempts to not throttle her sister during their journey into the dream world. I was far more invested in seeing when the other shoe would drop on both of these than whether or not they’d beat Nyxly to the dream totem or if the nightmare creature would be removed before the National Guard arrived. Like, anytime there was technobabble, which I’m usually down for? I was on the first sleeper car to Snoozeville by way of Unconscious Central.

3. Too Much Dream Energy is Dangerous

(No, I will not ever get tired of using that clip.)

Let’s talk briefly about Nia’s arc this episode because on the one hand, it’s a natural culmination of the insecurity she’s been feeling all season, but on the other, it’s an arc that’s been so underdeveloped, this is the first time Nia’s really had anything meaningful to do since Nxyly trapped Nia in her apartment weeks ago. I get what the writers were doing here by having her sister, who has all the knowledge but none of the power, emerge again, and I get the need to redeem her in some way by the end, but it all feels too clean and not nearly as meaningful as the show seems to think it is.

To do this, we have to put aside Nia’s sister’s attitudes towards her being trans because I think that aspect adds unnecessary complication to this episode’s goals. It is an important piece of Maeve’s inferiority complex and ego as well as to the strained relationship between Nia and Maeve. However, what’s most important to Nia’s journey in “Nightmare in National City” is the gulf of knowledge between the two, Maeve’s closer relationship to their mother, and the actions she took to deny Nia access to that knowledge. By having Maeve’s denial of Nia’s womanhood hang over them still, even if it’s weirdly brushed over, it distracts from the more salient conflict that stems from Nia’s fears and worries.

Continued below

I think a lot of my feelings of frustration boil down to how …Nia isn’t actually the focal character of her own plot here. Instead, her sister is. Think about it. Nia doesn’t change in any way nor does she learn anything more about herself. Her sister is the one who has revelations, even if some are flawed and other disingenuous, and while Nia gives some killer speeches about second chances despite not having forgiveness, there’s never a conversation about Maeve’s deeply selfish actions, let alone shot composition which reinforces Nia’s uncomfortability in the distance between their knowledge sets.

Instead, the camera lingers on Maeve, showing what she’s thinking and feeling and processing in response to Nia’s powers rather than Nia responding to Maeve’s intentional & unintentional jabs, her understanding of the dreaming, etc. There’s wasted potential here and, like, the pieces are all present but they just aren’t clicking. Maybe it’ll click better in the next couple episodes.

4. Kara and the No Good, Terrible, Very Bad Day

Did anyone else get a weird vibe from this episode that it was poorly critiquing early pandemic responses from governors who didn’t lock down fast enough? I think this is me reading way too far into things but some of the dialog lines felt a little too weird for me to not at least mention it.

More importantly, we’ve gotten a development I never thought would happen but one which, honestly, was a long time coming. Kara has quit her job as a reporter. Yeah! After spending the episode missing appointments, messing up, and generally being a bad employee, though to be fair Rojas continues to be a monumentally terrible boss that the show keeps trying to pretend is anything but, she decides she cannot be both a reporter and Supergirl at the moment.

I really, REALLY wish this had come earlier, not because I don’t like Kara as a reporter but because it adds an extra piece of drama and gives the show a bit more focus. I’ve complained over and over that the show never really sold us on Kara as an ace reporter, telling us that she was over showing us, so taking that out of the equation entirely was a good move. I’m excited to see how that will play out in the final four episodes, though I am not looking forward to WHO else will be in them…

5. Pay No Attention to the Cryer in the Suit

I can’t fucking believe they brought Lex back. Not even being vaporized in the season premiere can keep this man from coming back! Fucking hell. I had a fear, deep in my gut, that he was somehow tied to the suit but I refused to let my mind dwell on it. Why oh WHY must Lex be at the center of all these damn season ending plots?

Perhaps he’ll only be here for one episode. Again, I love Cryer as Lex. I am just tired of how he’s used in the show. Ugh. If you need me, I’ll be pacing and yelling “you’ve gotta be kidding me” for another week.

That about does it for now! What did you all think of the episode? Did I miss something with Nia? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see you all in a week when Lex declares his love for Nyxly, which may or may not happen considering the trailer lied last week about there being a scene of Nyxly on a table shooting pew pew lasers. Until then, stay super y’all.

Best Line of the Night:

Maeve: “Forgive me.”

Nia: “No.”


//TAGS | Supergirl

Elias Rosner

Elias is a lover of stories who, when he isn't writing reviews for Mulitversity, is hiding in the stacks of his library. Co-host of Make Mine Multiversity, a Marvel podcast, after winning the no-prize from the former hosts, co-editor of The Webcomics Weekly, and writer of the Worthy column, he can be found on Twitter (for mostly comics stuff) here and has finally updated his profile photo again.

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