On Supergirl season 5, episode 15, Nia’s friend and roommate, Yvette, is attacked when an anti-trans piece of trash tries to get a message to Dreamer: stop being a hero or he’ll continue attacking the trans community.
Supergirl season 5, episode 15 puts Nia and Alex in the driver’s seat, while Kara takes a much-deserved break. As Nia tries to stop a bigoted man from inflicting more harm to her community, Alex and Kelly dive into the virtual world and discover things about Obsidian North (and for the fans, Leviathan) that cause the entire thing to look a little shady.
Meanwhile, Kara and William have their first (thankfully brief) date, and Kara struggles to understand Nia’s point of view about the attack on Yvette and how to handle the villain. This is such an important episode with two LGBT characters leading the charge, and shines a light on a very critical issue the trans community faces.
‘Supergirl’ season 5, episode 15 review
As I’ve said before and will reiterate, it’s not my place to tell you whether the trans storyline on Supergirl season 5, episode 15 was handled well. I will re-state that Nicole Maines, the portrayer of Nia Nal, had a role in the writers’ room to help tackle the severity of this episode, and according to her interview with Entertainment Weekly, was pleased with the outcome of the writing (though that doesn’t include the editing of the episode in post-production).
From a strictly story point of view (since it’s not my place to say whether it was handled well), I thought the episode was entertaining, emotional, gave light to a major issue, and the virtual world that Alex began to explore was so interesting that I’m actually angry the show has waited far too long (and now it’s too late) before really diving into this. Imagine all of the unique, inventive episodes of Supergirl we could have had, like the one we’re about to see with SuperAlex in one of her virtual reality simulations.
I’d say this is one of the best episodes of Supergirl season 5 by a long shot. The stories were actually interesting, and it’s always wonderful to see Alex get a bigger role (as the second main character of the show) and be the first to really explore with fans what virtual reality is, and what issues it poses within itself and to the world at large.
This is a very telling episode, showcasing every advantage this show has that the writers don’t use, mainly because the three characters they focused on the most (Nia, Alex, and Kelly) are all sidelined in, well, almost every episode and have been all season. If you know you have such a talented cast and these great characters to explore, why waste it?
Nia and Kara
First of all, let’s just take a moment to understand and appreciate how important it is to see anti-trans violence talked about on-screen, and to see the realities of being transgender talked about, especially if you’re also a person of color. It’s rare and needs to occur much more often.
I loved seeing Yvette again on Supergirl season 5, episode 15. I wish it were under better circumstances, and I hope Supergirl doesn’t let her fade away because her friendship with Nia is important, and they both clearly offer so much to each other in terms of friendship, support, and understanding.
Nicole Maines gave a heartbreaking and all-too-real performance as Nia’s emotions began to overwhelm her and she sought to take justice into her own hands. The fact that they let Nia feel, which these heroes don’t get to do very often, was already a plus, but it was also devastating to see her break down at the end with Kara and just let herself begin to recover from everything that had happened.
Alex and virtual Las Vegas
Honestly, Alex’s story on Supergirl season 5, episode 15 was the most exciting Obsidian North/Leviathan plot they’ve had all season. The virtual world has had the potential to be so interesting, and offer so many unique opportunities for storytelling, but they’ve simply done, well, nothing, except have Lena punch Kara and Andrea have an allergic reaction.
It wasn’t so much the story of finding the missing man that interested me in Alex’s role, but just her exploration of the virtual world. Like seeing her greatest hopes and alternate realities of her as SuperAlex (which we’ll, thankfully, get to see explored on the next episode), as a mom, and wait… was that Maggie? Of her life, if her and Maggie hadn’t called it quits?
It’s also wonderful whenever we get the chance to see Alex and Kelly together, or simply Kelly at work at Obsidian North. She clearly is so suspicious of what’s going on with Andrea and the virtual reality lenses, especially seeing that the glitch wasn’t fixed. I wonder if she’s going to be in serious danger as the season winds down.
Alex Danvers deserves to be treated as the important, second leading character of Supergirl that she was in the beginning.
‘Supergirl’ season 5, episode 15 final thoughts
Supergirl season 5, episode 15 is important due solely to the fact that they told a story about a black transgender woman being assaulted and a transgender superhero working to protect her community.
I encourage everyone to look at social media and see what the transgender community thinks of how this episode was handled, about how Nia and Yvette’s stories were handled. Make noise and tell the writers we want to see much more of Nia and important stories like these, with the LGBT characters taking the focus and stepping up.
As for the Obsidian plot, I’m disappointed that it took so long for any sort of action, but happy that it was, at the very least, so interesting. The virtual reality needs to be explored much more, and I really want to see the impact that Leviathan is hoping these lenses have on the general public and what their plan is. With only five episodes left, I can’t believe we still don’t really even know what’s going on.
Supergirl continues Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW!
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