Into The Arrowverse: Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford bid farewell
By Ariba Bhuvad
Pictured (L-R): Nicole Maines as Nia Nal/Dreamer and Roxy Wood as Yvette — Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW
Supergirl Episode 515: “Reality Bytes”
Something the CW — and in this case, the Arrowverse — is incredibly good at is being inclusive. Almost every CW show exemplifies diversity with its characters and stories, and Supergirl is no exception.
This week’s episode is incredibly powerful because it sheds light on a community that comes under scrutiny in our world, as well as on the show. Dreamer, aka Nia Nal, is a member of the trans community (played by trans actress Nicole Maines) and has to face a harsh truth about how others perceive people like her in this episode.
For a majority of this season, Nia has been trying to mend her broken heart following her breakup with Brainy. Her roommate Yvette suggests they go out for a night on the town and meet her boyfriend Angus. She fails to mention that she’s never met Angus in the flesh, as they’ve connected on an app.
It breaks my heart to say the next part of the episode was rough. Yvette gets a text from Angus asking her to meet him in the alley, but it isn’t the encounter Yvette was hoping for. Instead, it was just someone who despised her life choices and wanted Yvette to let Dreamer know how he felt. Unfortunately, he chooses to deliver this message of hatred by beating Yvette to a pulp. Oh, and telling Yvette to let Dreamer know the world does not need a trans superhero, and that if she doesn’t stop, he will keep the attacks on the trans community coming.
Absolutely horrible.
It’s incredibly disheartening and devastating, and it takes a toll on both Yvette and Dreamer. While Yvette tries to erase her online presence, Dreamer grows incredibly frustrated and decides to take matters into her own hands despite Supergirl’s advice to the contrary.
Using the very same app “Angus” did, Dreamer attempts to trick him into coming out, and it works. But before I get into the details of what happens, I’d like to take a moment to give Supergirl a shoutout for doing this story.
Apart from Dreamer’s arc, Kara and William get involved in telling Yvette’s story because crimes against people in the trans community are often misreported or underreported. I appreciate that Supergirl took a beat to acknowledge some of these issues. It’s incredibly important, and I love that the Arrowverse shows don’t shy away from stuff like this.
Anyway, thanks to Brainy, Supergirl is able to track Dreamer down before she kills “Angus” out of anger. We’re used to the obligatory Supergirl inspiring speeches at this point, and as much as Dreamer didn’t want it, she got it anyway. Supergirl promises Dreamer that the trans community will be protected by all of them, and no harm will come to them as long as they are involved.
It’s enough to make Dreamer back off and let Team Supergirl handle the rest. But it’s still a difficult situation to process for Dreamer because she was willing to commit murder, and to make matters worse, she doesn’t have Brainy in her life anymore.
Brainy, get your stuff together and be with Dreamer. What is wrong with you, boy?!
Well, I can’t hate on him too much because he tracks down the hate group that attacked Yvette and hands the information over to the detective.
Kudos to Nicole Maines for an incredible job on this week’s episode. Dreamer is quickly becoming one of my favorite Arrowverse characters!
The other part of this episode dives heavily into Obsidian’s VR, but it felt incredibly convoluted and didn’t take us anywhere in terms of plot development. I think all we really got out of it is that this technology needs to go and is far too dangerous for the general population to use.
The heaviness of the episode lasts all the way through to the final moments, as Alex gets a call from their mother where she reveals their father Jeremiah has passed away.
Ugh, this is unfortunate.