Nia is having strange dreams, which is preventing her from sleeping and being useful during the day. Andrea gives her time off while harping on William and Kara to get info on the Superfriends. Kelly, while doing her own social work job, comes to an orphanage for alien children. One of the children, Joey, has an older brother that is having some problems in the Van Kull Correctional Facility Work Release Program. While Kelly suspects something is amiss with the orphanage, Kara investigates Joey's brother, and she and John find that a mysterious criminal group has infiltrated Van Kull and using the alien prisoners' powers to steal parts to make a dangerous bomb.
Tropes:
- Bad Powers, Good People: Joey's entire species has the ability to project EMPs. With the possible exception of crime fighting, it's hard to imagine any legitimate use for such powers.
- Benevolent Boss: When Nia falls asleep at work, Andrea, rather than chew her out, mildly tells her to sleep on her own time... and immediately gives her a mental health day to do so.
- Blatant Lies: Miss Hochschild tries to write off the recording of her child abuse as being fabrications by a hacker.
- Continuity Nod:
- Kara reiterates that Lena's off finding out about her birth mother.
- William uses his CIA contacts to find out Wyatt Kote's offshore bank accounts.
- Deal with the Devil: Despite the alarm bells in her head, Nia accepts Nxylgsptinz's offer to free her if she'll resurrect her mother for 24 hours.
- A Dog Named "Dog": The white owl is simply listed as "Owl" in the credits.
- Dream Weaver: Nxylgsptinz has the power to enter the dream realm, though she claims to be trapped there and needs Nia's help to escape.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Warden Kote seems to be taken aback when he hears that Intergang plans on building a dirty bomb.
- The Ghost: Bruno Mannheim, who gets mentioned as the boss of Intergang, but doesn't physically appear.
- Hollywood Law: In the United States, judges do not have the power to pardon a convicted criminal. This may have been a flub by the character though (e.g. the judge overturned his conviction or ordered an early release).
- Human Aliens: Each and every alien this episode, be it the Metalomite, the Obscuran, the Toradine, the Dynamorph or the Zeltarian.
- Hypocrite: Nxylgsptinz complains when Nia judges her on the basis of being a 5th dimensional Imp, yet she tries to paint owls as evil creatures of prey. Justified in that she is trying to talk Nia into freeing her and the owl knows better, so she's trying to discredit it while presenting herself as trustworthy. She's just not that good at it.
- Idiot Ball: Nxyli says that the owl is an evil predator trying to sow division between herself and Dreamer, and Dreamer flounders in her response. Somehow she never thinks to employ the obvious rebuttal: that same owl was shown earlier in the dream to be her mother's companion.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Lampshaded by William, who states that Andrea is right about using Supergirl to get ratings, since people will listen to her.
- When Nia says the Superfriends don't like giving interviews, Andrea reminds her of Kara's interview with Dreamer in Season 4.
- Mythology Gag: Joey and his older brother Orlando are named after Joe Orlando, former VP of DC Comics and an artist for Supergirl back in the 70's.
- Obviously Evil: Nxylgsptinz isn't exactly subtle about being dangerous to deal with, especially once Owl appears.
- Offstage Villainy: We get a taste of Miss Hochschild's child abuse when she forces Joey's power-dampening cuffs on during an outburst, but whatever Kelly saw when she hacked the video cameras isn't shown to the audience.
- Out of Focus: Despite being what the episode is named after, Nia is strictly a part of the B-Plot, where she runs into Nxylgsptinz.
- The Owl-Knowing One: Inside Nia's dream, a white owl appears and leaves fairly blatant hints that Nxylgsptinz cannot be trusted. Nia eventually decides to not listen to it and destroys it, tempted by Nxylgsptinz's offer.
- Passing the Torch: When Alex tells James (offscreen) that Kelly has decided to become The Guardian, James sends over his old outfit for Kelly to wear.
- Poor Communication Kills: A staple of the Arrowverse. If only Dreamer had mentioned to Kara that Nxyly was showing up in her dreams...
- Released to Elsewhere: Officer Chapman gives the alien prisoners his word that he will let them go, after just talking to Warden Kote about how they will be killed.
- Remember the New Guy?: Warden Wyatt Kote first appears in this episode, but Kara apparently interviewed him before off-screen.
- Shooting Superman: The corrupt prison guards try shooting at both J'onn and Supergirl. It doesn't do them any good.
- Shout-Out: During the "Who am I?" game, Meghan Markle, Dean Martin and Tom Hanks get mentioned.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Supergirl and J'onn show up, take down the corrupt prison guards, and deactivate the captive prisoners' power-dampening cuffs, telling them they'll take them back safely to prison. Being a bunch of desperate criminals, they decide to use their powers to escape instead. If only those power-dampening cuffs had still been in play. Supergirl ends up having to confront them again and talk them down before they manage to collapse the entire building they're in around everyone's heads.
- Wardens Are Evil: Warden Wyatt Kote turns out to be in cahoots with Intergang, forcing the alien prisoners to do robberies.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out exactly what will happen to the other eight kids in the orphanage.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Kara convinces Orlando and the others not to go on the run and trust in the system one more time, appealing to their inner goodness.
