Nyxly targets the Hope totem, but when she can't pass the trial herself, she decides to force Supergirl to do it for her.
Tropes:
- All Myths Are True: Once more, a totem is revealed to be connected to real life mythology, in this case the "Hand of the Flower" is carved out of the throne that once belonged to Elpis, the Greek Goddess of Hope.
- Big Damn Heroes: Supergirl and her friends stop a nuclear conflict between Corto Maltese and Kaznia in the nick of time.
- Continuity Nod: Supergirl tells J'onn that she has a soft spot for Kaznia, nodding back to what happened in Season 4 with Red Daughter.
- Defiant Captive: William towards Nyxly.
- Distressed Dude: Nyxly kidnaps William in order to force Kara to give her the totem. Luckily, he manages to be of some help during the exchange, knocking Nyxly off her feet.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Esme accidentally mimics J'onn's phasing in front of Alex and Kelly, her new foster mothers, she turns apologetic and withdraws, thinking she's done something wrong, not unlike a kid with a past of parental abuse.
- Godzilla Threshold:
- Kara is reluctant to interfere in the affairs of Kaznia and Corto Maltese, but when they start launching nukes as a result of the influence of the totem, all bets are off. It helps that doing so will help her pass the trial of the Hope totem.
- It's feared that destroying any totem might destroy the associated emotion, but Kara refuses to risk Nyxly even having the chance to assemble all of them. She decides to destroy the Hope totem, deeming it the least problematic emotion to lose under the circumstances.
- Happily Adopted: While there are some bumps along the road, Esme begins settling into life with her new moms, Alex and Kelly.
- Hurl It into the Sun: The nuclear missiles are tossed into the sun after being disarmed, then the Hope totem is disposed of the same way so Nyxly will never be able to complete her plan.
- Internal Reveal: Esme puts together that Kara is Supergirl because she can sense the two have the same powers. She also learns about J'onn being a Martian and the team being superheroes in general.
- It's All My Fault: After Esme gets terrified after using her powers too much and blows up towards Alex, the latter is understandably distraught for pushing her too far.
- Knight Templar: William calls out Nyxly, asking her if she really considers herself to be dealing justice, after all that she did. She responds with a Blunt "Yes".
- Little "No": Nyxly, when Kara destroys the Hope totem.
- Mundane Utility: While explaining her powers to Esme, Supergirl comments that her heat vision comes in handy when making hot chocolate (though she may be joking).
- Mythology Gag:
- Initially rejecting Lena's suggestion to destroy Kaznia and Corto Maltese's nuclear arsenals, Supergirl explains that she is forbidden to interfere in human history.
- Similarly, the plot point of throwing nuclear missiles into the sun comes from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
- Brainy briefly mentions a Winathian with antigravity powers. Winath is the home of Light Lass in Legion Of Superheroes.
- Neutral No Longer: Initially, Kara refuses to get involved into international affairs, as she doesn't want to take away humanity's freedom. But later, she decides to step in and stop a full-blown nuclear conflict between Corto Maltese and Kaznia.
- Never My Fault: When reading an article about her evil deeds, Nyxly has the nerve to blame Supergirl for getting in her way.
- Power Copying: Esme can reproduce the abilities of any alien nearby.
- Power Incontinence: Esme is understandably not able to control her powers very well yet and is afraid of them.
- She's Back: Downplayed, as Mitch is able to produce a device that gives Nyxly her powers back, but only a very limited amount of them.
- Skewed Priorities: Andrea once more shows off her callous side, by being more concerned with getting a photo of Nyxly when the latter walks into CatCo and abducts William.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Supergirl says that she cannot interfere in "human history," this case meaning the peace talks between Kaznia and Corto Maltese. Not that this came up at any point in previous seasons where Supergirl had to go to a foreign nation.
- Tears of Joy: Alex at the end of the episode, over her feelings of being a mother to Esme.
- Too Dumb to Live: Don, the guy who converses briefly with Kara at Catco, tries to intimidate Nyxly with a stapler. Since Nyxly can clearly see what it is (as opposed to Winn holding a stapler like a gun to a bounty hunter's back in Season 2), it works about as well as you'd expect.
- Underestimating Badassery: Nyxly acts this way towards William after she captures him. He gets fed up with this, and proceeds to knock her down while she is using her powers to choke him, and takes away the Courage totem from her.
- Wham Shot: Nyxly is gifted a Lex-O suit by a "secret admirer".
- What the Hell, Hero?: J'onn is not amused when Secretary Brown suggests brainwashing the leaders of Corto Maltese and Kaznia into being cooperative at the peace talks.
