Thanks to her "secret admirer," Nyxly is able to enter the Dream Realm to search for the Dream Totem. She also ends up releasing a large Phantom, which rampages over National City. While Supergirl and the others deal with that, Nia reunites with her sister and enters the Dream Realm to get the Totem before Nyxly does.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: The AI in the suit calls Nyxly "Princess."
- All for Nothing: Both plots end this way. Nyxly gets the Dream Totem and Kara ends up late for the interview.
- All Myths Are True: Once more, a totem is tied to real life history/mythology, in this case the Oracle of Delphi.
- All of Them: Maeve opens a bookcase with books all about the Dream Totem and Dream Realm. Nia asks which one will lead her to the Totem, prompting Maeve to give this response.
- And This Is for...: Nia sends blasts into Nyxly, first saying it was for using her, then for using her friends.
- Artistic License – Military: There is no way the National Guard would ever fly their attack choppers inside city limits like they do here, especially with as many skyscrapers as National City has. Moreover, their machine guns have a laughably slow rate of fire. Even assuming they were using the weakest machine gun a military helicopter would have torn the portal generator (and the squishy humans propping it up) to shreds in seconds.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The giant dream monster.
- Beam-O-War: Nia and Nyxly get into one in the Dream Realm.
- Bilingual Bonus: Maeve's new surname, "Revée", is French for "dream." Doubles as Foreshadowing since it shows that she hasn't fully moved past Nia taking what she perceived to be her role as Dreamer.
- The Bus Came Back: Maeve returns in this episode, as does Lex.
- Continuity Nod:
- Nia mentions that Brainy is wearing his natural green skin full-time to hide his human identity from William.
- Nia's falling out with Maeve is detailed.
- Kara references dealing with Kaznia and Corto Maltese fighting last week.
- Nia references both how Nyxly manipulated her into freeing the imp, and using the Superfriends to further her evil goals.
- Andrea reminds Kara that she's been missing a lot over the past few weeks. Later on, Kara mentions feeling overwhelmed ever since escaping the Phantom Zone.
- Cuteness Overload: Kara, J'onn and Lena are overwhelmed with happiness over Esme's adorable portraits of them.
- Energy Absorption: Nxyly's new suit allows her to absorb Dream Energy in order to open a portal into the Dream Realm.
- Family Disunion: It's revealed that Nia's father tore into Maeve for her remarks in their last appearance, leading to Maeve ostracizing herself from the family.
- Force Field: Lena uses L-Corp satellites to create an energy field around most of National City in order to keep the Phantom from reaching a nearby nuclear power plant.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Alex gives her sister a much needed pep talk when she starts doubting herself.
- Godzilla Threshold: Due to the danger of the dream monster, the Super Friends are forced to put a dome around half the city, causing panic and riots.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Subverted. A hot dog vendor came perilously close to being sliced in half when the energy dome was launched, but luckily she was standing two feet to the side.
- Hijacked by Ganon: In case the previous episode left any doubt, Lex has wormed his way back into Big Bad status.
- I Can't Sense Their Presence: The Phantom's ability to cloak itself also completely masks its energy signature, meaning it is impossible to find until it is drawn to an energy source.
- Immediate Sequel: The episode begins right after the last episode ended, with Nyxly admiring her new armor.
- Invisibility: The giant Phantom turns invisible once cut off from the nuclear plant, forcing the Superfriends to keep the dome active for much longer than they planned.
- Know When to Fold 'Em:
- Nyxly wisely listens to the AI and retreats once Nia overpowers her.
- Kara, unable to properly balance her day job and her work as Supergirl, quits CatCo to focus on Nyxly full time.
- Meaningful Name: Maeve's new surname is Dr. Revée, which means "dream".
- Mythology Gag: Crippen University, where Maeve works, is possibly named after one of two people (or both): Jake Crippen was an inker for DC Comics, while Aaron Crippen was a stunt rigger for both Arrow and Batwoman (2019).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- The Superfriends get this initially for sequestering part of National City without consulting with anyone, pissing off both the government and the citizens.
- The National Guard intervenes right when Supergirl is about to lead the giant Phantom into a portal back into the Dream Realm, not only diverting it away from said portal, but almost inadvertently destroying the generator in the crossfire.
- Opening Narration: It's back after last being used 12 episodes ago in "Lost Souls."
- Peace Conference: Kaznia and Corto Maltese have decided to sign a peace treaty in National City after the events of last episode.
- Pillar of Light: Nia creates one out of Dream Energy to elevate herself and Maeve so they can search for the Totem in the Dream Realm from a bird's eye view.
- Portal Cut: Lena's hasty barrier around the city is shown to have sliced through whatever unfortunate objects happened to be on the edge, such as a food cart and a bike.
- Race Against the Clock:
- The Superfriends have 12 hours to take down the Phantom and take down the energy dome before the Governor calls in the National Guard.
- Kara has to deal with a mob trying to break the dome in less than 30 minutes so she can be on time for her big interview, though she failed.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nia tears one into Maeve over her selfishness in wanting to be the Dreamer at any cost no matter the danger to others, and in abandoning her family and taking their mother's books so that she had to figure out her powers with no guidance. Of course, that's when Nyxly shows up.
- Rejected Apology: Nia towards her sister, twice. Even at the end, when she gives her a second chance, she makes it clear that Maeve's actions were far too hurtful to just be forgiven.
- The Resenter: Maeve is still bitter about not becoming Dreamer and tries to steal the totem for herself. Since her heart isn't pure, it doesn't work.
- The Reveal: The AI inside Nyxly's suit wasn't programmed by Lex. It is Lex.
- Revealing Skill: Kara is reviewing a heavily speeded-up video on her Catco laptop to prepare for an upcoming interview. When William approaches without her noticing and comments on the extreme playback speed, Kara scrambles to pause the video and close up the laptop, then stammers something about being used to "1.5x" playback speed. But we can hear the audio and it would clearly be nonsense to a regular person, so it would seem that Kara was using her super-abilities to follow it. William doesn't press the matter.
- Scotty Time: Alex tells the governor that the team can finish the device to capture the dream creature in 24 hours. She replies, "You have 12."
- Sequel Episode: This episode serves as one for the Season 4 episode "Blood Memory" for the Dreamer subplot.
- Shed the Family Name: Maeve changed her name from Nal to Revée to distance herself from her family.
- Shout-Out: When the energy dome cuts the hot-dog truck in half and the camera pulls back, you can see a bacon truck on the far right. This may be a shout-out to Kevin Smith, who directed the "Supergirl Lives" episode, part of which was shot overnight in cold, rainy weather at a Vancouver quarry. Smith arranged for a bacon truck to come to the location and serve bacon products in an effort to improve the mood of the cast and crew (particularly Melissa Benoist, who was wearing the superhero skirt uniform then).
- The Stinger: Nyxly's gauntlet asks for the Dream Totem. When she hands it over, the energy inside takes the form of Lex, ready to help.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The Superfriends' decision to create an energy dome over National City caused a lot of problems, such as people unable to get to work and being separated from their family members, in addition to the local government being majorly pissed off, enough to threaten to call in the National Guard.
- Kara is called out for her lack of work effort by Andrea, who mentions that she has given her a lot of leeway for leaving work in the middle of the day and coming back from a "trip with Cat Grant" with nothing. Since Andrea has no clue of what is going on, she is technically pointing out the fact that one of her best reporters isn't performing at her best. Because Kara ends up missing several interviews, Andrea has to work hard to reschedule several times.
- Similarly, Kara realizes that she has no real way of doing her job at Catco and saving the world from Nyxly at the same time. This results in her having to quit her job.
- If you act as hurtful as Maeve, you won't be just Easily Forgiven.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Nia feels this way about teaming up with Maeve in the Dream Realm, though the latter doesn't pick up on it until the former can't take it anymore. Maeve eventually reveals it was this for her as well, as she wanted the Totem to give her the Dreamer powers too.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Nia refuses to forgive Maeve for all she did before, but does offer her sister a second chance to rebuild their relationship.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Nia's and Kara's plots are treated with equal importance.
- Voice of the Legion: Nyxly's new armor comes equipped with this, rendered to speak in her voice.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Andrea is not happy with Kara's constant absences.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: When Kara hears that the heads of states are delayed, she takes the opportunity to help her friends against the dream monster, then returns in hopes of being able to do her interview... but by then, they had already arrived and left again.
