Supergirl Takes on Epidemic of Violence Against Transgender Community, While Kara Suffers Her Own Tragic Loss

Andy Swift
·4 min read

Though Obsidion’s growing threat remained a (virtual) reality on Sunday’s Supergirl, the episode also shifted its spotlight to a very real problem plaguing the transgender community.

The emotional hour began with Nia’s roommate Yvette being attacked behind a club by a transphobic catfish. He even gave Yvette a message to pass along to Dreamer: “The world doesn’t want a trans superhero, so crawl under the rock you came from or I’ll keep attacking people like you.”

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Understandably filled with rage, Nia vowed to track this man down and take him out, despite Supergirl’s urgings not to allow her anger to overpower her humanity.

“Kara, I love you, but do not tell me what I can and cannot do right now,” Nia said. “There is no catching this guy and redeeming him. There is no hope speech that can make this better. My community is vulnerable. This happens more than you can possibly know, and there are guys out there just like this jerk who want to hurt us. They want us to hide and to be afraid to be who we are. They want us to disappear, and it happens every day. He’s not the first, and he won’t be the last. We haven’t exactly been a priority for the cops, so trust me when I say that I am the one protecting this community. Now this bastard is going after my community, trying to erase me? No. This guy is over.”

After giving Kara and the police a few hours to track the guy down, Dreamer took matters into her own hands, using his own catfishing tactics to lure him into a fight. “You show up on the scene tricking dudes into thinking you’re this hot new superhero, the girl next door,” he told her. “But heroes are supposed to be virtuous and honest, and here you are lying.”

“I get it, your fragile ego was shattered,” Dreamer replied, tightening the grip of her energy lasso around his neck. her energy lasso even tighter. “Your sense of self is so shaky that anything outside your narrow world view threatens it.”

Had Supergirl not shown up, Dreamer probably would have killed the guy right there. “You give people hope,” Kara reminded her. “Don’t let them down by stooping to his level.” She also apologized for not opening her eyes to the realities facing the transgender community sooner. “But now we have,” she said, “and now we will all have our eyes open for people like him.”

Dreamer eventually allowed the man to be taken into police custody, leaving him with this chilling warning: “You are going to prison for a long time. And when you get out, I will be watching you. If you come after anyone from my community ever again, I will give you a nightmare you will never wake up from.”

With her powers on the fritz and her heart freshly broken, Nia’s struggles are far from over. But her touching words of encouragement to Yvette give me hope that Dreamer will stand to fight another day: “They want us to be invisible. They want to erase us, so we need to shine even brighter. You are a beautiful woman with a beautiful life, and sharing that life is what will change this world.”

Elsewhere this week…

* Alex journeyed into the virtual world to rescue a man (High School Musical‘s Corbin Bleu!) being tortured by his virtual lover’s jealous husband.

* The episode ended with a tragic reveal, courtesy of Alex and Kara’s mom: Jeremiah (played by Dean Cain as recently as Season 2) is dead. Gasp?

Your thoughts on any of the above? Drop ’em in a comment below.

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