In Review: Supergirl (S6 EP 16) Nightmare in National City

Synopsis: In Nightmare in National City.  Kara lands her dream story for Catco but when the city is suddenly attacked by a nightmare monster at the same time as her interview, she is forced to take a serious look at her life and decide if she can continue to live as both Kara and Supergirl. Meanwhile, Dreamer takes charge of obtaining the Dream Totem.

The Story

Since destroying the Hope Totem in last week’s episode. Things have gone somewhat quiet for Kara and the gang and they are enjoying some downtime. However, as Kara is about to do her dream interview with two warring world leaders. Nyxly suddenly gets hold of a super-suit that enhances her powers and uses it to go after the Dream Totem, which inadvertently unleashes a nightmare monster on National City. Of course, this messes up Kara’s plans as she struggles to balance being Supergirl with her interview responsibilities.

Meanwhile, Dream has decided to go after the Dream Totem but needs help from her estranged sister Maeve who believes that she should have been The Dreamer. Indeed, this meeting makes for an awkward family reunion, but the two slowly work things out as they both step into the dream realm in order to obtain the totem. Easier said than done though given that Nyxly has a little extra power at her disposal.

The Acting

Nicole Maines and Hannah James put in a compelling performance as Nia and Maeve Nal. The tension of this relationship has been evident every time we have seen these two characters. But things finally come to a head in this episode and it all thankfully gets resolved. But both these actors do a pretty convincing job of portraying the bickering siblings.

Melissa Benoist and the regular cast all do good work here, but I felt that they had the weaker of the plotlines to work with.

Overall

Nightmare in National City felt kind of average but was capped off with a somewhat predictable cliffhanger, which was pretty much telegraphed to us at the moment that Nyxly puts her new superpowered suit on. The Nightmare monster attacking the city and giving Supergirl and her friends the run around in the city was the least interesting plot point in this episode. It felt tagged on in order to give them something to do.

By far the most interesting storyline was that of Dreamer and her sister finally sorting their issues out. Just a shame and somewhat predictable that it came at the expense of them succeeding in their task. And the twist ending is not so much of a twist than it is predictable.