Sunday, September 5, 2021

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 9 - Dream Weaver

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.


Plot

Kelly and Kara team-up, as the social worker encounters an orphaned alien boy who is acting out in foster care because he fears something is wrong with his incarcerated brother. Meanwhile, as Andrea pushes CatCo to delve into the lives of the SuperFriends, Nyxly crashes Nia's dreams and asks her for help.

Influences

Various Superman and Supergirl comics dealing with real world issues, with an emphasis on journalists doing good rather than superheroes punching people.


Goofs

It's a little odd that Kara didn't go to Argo City with her father to witness her parents reuniting. Granting that it is totally within her nature to want to get back to work, surely National City could have done without her for another few days? 

There's no connection to the end of last week's episode and Nia saying Nyxly's name as she woke up. (Come to that, there's no indication anywhere that Kara ever told her friends about Nyxly.)

Orlando getting a full pardon and released on a day's notice seems incredibly unrealistic, even by the standards of Supergirl.

Since when is William an on-site news reporter rather than a writer?

Despite the episode title being a reference to her character, Dreamer barely figures into this episode and her subplot stands apart from everything else.


Performances

Nicole Maines has a great turn here as Dreamer, totally selling Nia's torment.


Artistry

The effects work for the fight between Supergirl and the alien convicts is rather good and the fight choreography better than average.

The direction does an effective job of mimicking a chaotic dream during Dreamer's nightmares sequences.


Super Trivia

The episode title comes from a 1975 song by Gary Wright.

Betty Buckley, who played Patricia Arias in Supergirl Season 3, voices the owl in Dreamer's vision.

At one point, Andrea suggests that William and Kara jump off a bridge and interview whatever Super Friend catches them. This tactic was employed by Lois Lane in the comics go get Superman's attention in some stories.

Andrea also references the Bat-Signal, suggesting they project an S in the sky to get Supergirl's attention.

When Kelly visits Joey, he is seen reading a Captain Carrot comic - a DC Comics' children's series about a super-powered rabbit.


Technobabble

Metalomite are an alien race that have the power to bend metal telekinetically.

Obscurans are an alien race that create a residue that makes things invisible. 

Zeltarian  are an alien race that have the power to generate EMPs.

Dynamorphs are an alien race who have the power to unleash energy blasts.

Toradines are an alien race who have the power to create force fields.

5000 pounds of ammonium nitrate is enough to blow up a 50 story building.

J'onn has the technology to track an Obscuran based on the energy signature of their unique residue. 

Nia says that only Naltorians have the power to enter the dream realm in physical form. Nxyly says 5th dimensional imps can do the same thing.

Naltorian women are unique in their ability to make their dreams manifest in the real world.

Bringing the dead back to life is a serious infraction of universal law, but imps can do it under limited circumstances. Specifically, they can only bring the person back for one day.

J'onn determines that whoever is staging the truck robberies is trying to build a dirty nuke and all they lack is uranium. 


Dialogue Triumphs

Nyxly: Nia. You're back. Thank goodness. I'm sorry our conversation got interrupted by that vicious owl. We were just about to make a deal.
Nia: Thanks. But no thanks.
Nyxly: I don't understand.
Nia: Nyxly... I don't know you. But I do know that imps on the whole are not to be trusted.
Nyxly: How would you like to be judged by your species, Nia? Aren't you a hero on Earth?
Nia: Yes, but...
Nyxly: I can grant your dearest wish, Nia. And you can end this cycle of tormented dreams, and finally see your mum for hours. Don't you want that?
Nia: Of course I do.
Nyxly: Then let's help each other!
(The owl hoots and flies at Nyxly again.)
Nyxly: That monstrous bird. Get out of here! Shoo!
Owl: The wise understand by themselves, Nia. Fools follow the words of others.
Nyxly: Don't listen to that stupid owl.
Nia: Owls will bring to light what is in the dark. They're symbols of truth.
Nyxly: Nonsense. That is a ferocious bird of prey who's looking at us like a pair of tiny little tasty sparrows. She's trying to divide and conquer us, Nia, so that she can devour us for breakfast.
Nia: I don't think owls are that devious. My mother revered them.
Owl: Wisdom lies not in seeing things, but in seeing through them.
Nyxly: Oh, shut up, you ghoul!

Orlando: I begged Social Services for help... but they didn't listen. And who's gonna rent a place to a guy making minimum wage? So, I tried to rob a store. When you're desperate, you'll do anything. In prison, I believed what they said... that the work-release program would be the answer to Joey and me being together again. It turned out to be another lie. Face it, okay? No one wants to help people like me. (looks to his fellow prisoners) People like them.
Supergirl: I'm an alien on this planet, too. I've seen how hard life can be for the people that the system isn't designed for, how that system can fail those less fortunate. But I promise you, if you come with me, I will do everything in my power to make sure your voices are heard.


Continuity


Nia is having reoccurring memories of crows attacking her as she chases her mother, who is accompanied by an owl, in a swamp.

Princess Nyxly appears in Nia's dream after she leaves it.

Kelly and Alex are unbeatable at Charades. 

Kelly has a new social work case involving a 10 year old alien orphan named Joey Davis, whose brother Orlando is in prison. 

Joey's species have the power to generate electromagnetic pulses.

Andrea has a white board with all the publicly known information about all the Super Friends. The only real mistake is her belief that Brainiac-5 is a shape-shifter (presumably based on Brainiac-5's image inducer and human form.) It also notes that Dream's race is not known and she is believed to be half-human., half-alien. 

CatCo Worldwide Media is now #3 on the media tracker ratings, after having been #8 in 608.

Andrea makes reference to the interviews Supergirl and Dreamer have given in the past when they try to shrug out of interviewing their superhero identities.

Andrea sends Nia home after she falls asleep on her feet during their meeting.

Andrea threatens to have William and Kara writing classifieds and obituaries if they can't get her an interview with a Super Friend within the next day.

William once tried to bluff his way into 10 Downing Street to get an interview with the British Prime Minister by disguising himself as a pizza delivery man.

J'onn calls Kara in to help him investigate a series of truck robberies that appear to have been committed by aliens.

Obscurans and Metalomites do not typically work together, due to some long-standing grudge between their races.

The truck thieves have stolen computer mother bowards, motor oil and steel casings in their previous robberies. Their latest robbery stole ammonium nitrate. This leads J'onn and Kara to conclude they are building a bomb. 

Ms. Hochschild runs the foster home for alien children where Joey Davis is currently living.

Joey has reportedly been picking fights, disobeying the staff and misusing his powers over the past few days. Two days earlier, he knocked out power to the entire block.

Joey gets monthly visitation with his brother, who is currently in Van Kul Prison. 

Ms. Hochschild blames Orlando for being a bad influence on Joey and says Joey started acting up after their last visit.

Kelly notices an intelligent girl named Esme while waiting to see Joey.

Ms. Hochschild has all of the children wearing power dampening cuffs. She says it is a necessary safety precaution, though Joey is a special case as his powers can short out the cuffs.

Joey says his brother had dark circles under his eyes, which can happen if they use their powers too often and they can become sick if they use them too much. He also says his brother is part of a work-release program.

Orlando reportedly robbed a store because he and Joey needed the money to find a place to live after their parents died.

Kara is familiar with the work-release program Orlando is part of from a piece she wrote and an interview she did with the warden. However, the program is supposed to be working with a clothing manufacturer, meaning there's no obvious reason Orlando should be using his EMP powers on the job.

Kara agrees to help Kelly investigate it, while Alex and J'onn focus on the truck thefts.

Nyxly confronts Nia in her dream and claims to have gotten stuck in her dreams by accident, but says she can help Nia and that she needs Nia's help. 
 
Nyxly says she was banished from her dimension and an evil man took her powers, saying she couldn't cross back into her world in her weakened state. She still has some magic, however.

Nyxly asks Nia to help her cross into the real world by using her powers, claiming she can bring Nia's mother back to life for one day in exchange for her help.

The owl in Nia's dream attacks Nyxly before Nia can agree to help her.

The warden of Van Kul Prison thanks Kara for her article and says the Second Chances program has been getting more donations and corporate sponsor offers since it came out.

Warden Kote says there have been on incidents of the alien inmates using their powers and that they are constantly monitored while on the job. He promises to look into Orlando's case.

When Kara asks about interviewing Orlando, the warden says all visits have to be approved two weeks in advance. 

Kelly and Kara try to make an appointment, but Kara uses her super speed to access the prison records. She determines that Orlando is already on his way to a new job.

J'onn determines that the rest of the robbery gang consists of a Toradine and a Dynamorph.

Kara overhears one of the guards threatening Orlando when he says he can be forced to steal, but he won't hurt people.

The alien inmates escape after knocking Supergirl and J'onn down with an energy blast and making their van invisibe.

The news reports that the warden is assuming that the inmates kidnapped the guard that was with them.

Kara believes someone infiltrated the Second Chances program to corrupt it and goes to tell Warden Kote what she overheard and saw.

Kelly second guesses her instincts, saying that Orlando was just put in danger because of her trying to exploit her connection to Kara. However, Alex points out that they wouldn't have discovered the connection between the truck thieves and Orlando if it hadn't been for her caring enough to do all she could to help.

Kelly tells Alex about her dream from 607 and how she thought maybe she could protect people even if she couldn't fight the same threats as the rest of the Super Friends.

Warden Kote refuses to believe that his program has been corrupted and begs Kara not to write about this because it will destroy all the good the Second Chances program is doing. He remains convinced that the criminals in this case went bad and that his guard is a hostage.

Nia says that everything she has heard about imps says they are not to be trusted.

Nyxly appears in Nia's dream again. Again, the owl attacks her, but this time it speaks to Nia and says that the wise understand by themselves but fools follow the words of others. 

Nia says that owls are symbols of the truth in dreams, as they bring things to light in the dark. She also says that her mother revered owls.

The owl also says that wisdom lies not in seeing things but seeing through them.

Kara asks William if he can call his CIA contact to get information on Warde Kote. 

Kara butts heads with Andrea over how she should be doing real reporting instead of chasing the Super Friends around trying to get an interview. Andrea rebuts that they need eyeballs to do their jobs.

Kelly comes to check on Joey to find Ms. Hochschild inflicting pain on him through his power-inhibitor band.

Kelly notes that there are security cameras in the building and says she thinks Ms. Hochschild's bosses would be interested in seeing what is going on in her house. Ms. Hochschild says nobody has time to look at everything that is going on and says she's been working the system longer than Kelly has been alive.

William discovers that Warden Cote has a luxury beach house, luxury cars and a secret off-shore account in the Cayman islands which has been getting regular deposits on a regular basis - none of which seem possible on his publicly recorded salary.

William notes that there's little oversight of privately-owned, for-profit prisons in the United States.

William tracked the prison's contracts from Summerlin Industries through two dozen shell companies, eventually ending with an LLC in Panama registered to Cypress Holdings, which is a front for Brun Mannheim's Intergang.

Kelly goes back to the foster house and hacks the security system to get the footage of Ms. Hochschild hurting Joey.

Warden Cote calls the guard and suggests bringing the inmates back, but he says it is too late for that and that as soon as they get the uranium they can kill the inmates and they'll be in the clear.

The guard also confirms that Bruno Manheim was the one paying for a dirty nuke.

J'onn is able to pick up the trail of the inmates searching known Intergang hideouts.

Kara is able to talk the inmates down on trying to fight back.

William does an on-camera interview with Supergirl about the corruption of the Second Chances program, giving Kara a chance to talk about how the programs do good work even if this one was corrupted to exploit at-risk workers.

Warden Cote and his guard are arrested  as a result of William and Kara's tracking their connections to Intergang.

Kara says she thinks Andrea has a point, but that Supergirl can be used to make people hear about the ugly truths they would ignore otherwise.

Kelly watches as Ms. Hochschild is arrested for child abuse.

Esme thanks Kelly for what she did, having figured out she was the one who helped them.

Orlando is given a full pardon and picks Joey up.

Kelly says she wants to be the new Guardian.

Alex gives her James' helmet, which she says she picked up after seeing Kelly use his shield to protect other people during S509.

Alex also says she will start training Kelly to fight the next day.

In her latest dream, Nia agrees to help Nyxly.


Untelevised Adventures

At the same time the events of this episode are occurring, Brainiac-5 is piloting Zor-El to Argo City.

Lena is still looking for information about her birth mother.


The Kryptonite Factor

Nia's decision to help Nyxly comes out of left field.


The Bottom Line

A surprisingly good episode that tackles a real world problem without getting preachy and brings the two halves of Kara's life together in a way that works. Shame the Dreamer subplot seems like it was added into the episode at the last minute and is completely separated from everything else. 

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