As the final season of CW’s “The Flash” slowly approaches its last lap, fan-favorite characters are brought back into the series to provide their arcs with the gratifying ends they so deserve. Nia Nal, aka the Dreamer, possibly makes her final appearance in the Arrowverse with the episode “Wildest Dreams,” which is the last part of the ongoing interlude chapter of the ninth season of “The Flash,” and the character gets a befitting send off as she realizes her true worth as the generational hero. Previously, viewers also found Mark to be in distress as he processed Frost’s demise and his willingness to turn Khione, a third personality of Caitlin Snow, into the image of his deceased partner. This episode also sheds some light on that storyline as well.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 7 Of ‘The Flash’ Season 9?
The episode begins with Nia Nal, in her Dreamer costume, moving across the Dreamworld in search of something when she gets psychically attacked by jarring, nightmarish visions. She finds herself followed by a dazed-looking mass, and leading them is a mysteriously ominous-looking hooded female figure with glowing eyes. Alerted, Nia starts to power up to confront the figure but finds that her powers have been taken away by the figure. All of a sudden, she meets Iris West, who cryptically talks to her about control and collapses to the ground moments later at the gesture of the hooded figure, presumably dying. Nia holds Iris close and wakes up to the real world, deciding that it is time for her to make a visit to Central City to meet Iris.
Meanwhile, the owner of the news media publication Central City Citizen Media, Iris, works late hours and prepares her article based on the earlier confrontation with the villainous speedster Red Death, which, according to her, is going to be the best work of her career. Allegra shows Iris the headline she made for the article, and unknowingly, she has phrased the exact caption that Iris has previously seen in the roadmap of the future made by Barry in the first episode of this season, the article that will lead to her first Pulitzer win. After brushing off all the predestined shenanigans earlier, Iris isn’t too interested in seeing a similar situation unfold and holds off on publishing the article for the moment. At the STAR labs, Mark daydreams about Khione developing cryokinetic powers like Frost and kissing her when Chester and Khione catch him sleeping on monitor duty. After Khione mentions her wish to venture to the outside world for a change of air, Mark invites her for a day out with him.
Nia visits Iris on the same night, and after initial greetings, Iris asks her the reason for her visit. Nia opines that after honing her dream power manipulation skills and making a successful career as the Dreamer, she wanted to amp herself up to the next level and investigate an ancient source of Naltorian dream energy, which grants her powers. In the process, she visited the dream world and got her powers taken, as was shown at the beginning of the episode. Nia asks for Iris’ help as she senses a connection as Iris was in her dream too, and before she can tell her about the vision of her death, the mysterious hooded woman arrives at the CCCM and transports both of them to Iris’ dream world.
Nia and Iris get transported to CCPD in Iris’ dream, getting dressed as cops. It turns out Iris looked up to Joe West, her father, who was an honorable police detective and wished to become a cop just like him. Nia warns Iris not to get carried away by the allurements of the Dreamworld and that they need to escape from the realm as well. Nia also informs her that she saw her murdered by the hooded figure in the dream she had, and therefore it would be wise for her not to fall into traps in the realm unassumingly. As the duo goes through a doorway in the CCPD, once again, they get entrapped in another of Iris’ dreamscapes, now at the coffee shop Jitters, where Iris used to work before she began her career as a journalist. The duo escapes that dream, and Iris sees an illusion of the future where her employees talk about her Pulitzer win in a demeaning way. Later, as they find themselves trapped in a corridor with the hooded woman blocking their way, Nia tries to assert control and fight with her, but the woman transports both of them to another plane of the Dreamworld.
Barry arrives at CCCN to assist Iris in her late-night shifts and discovers her and Nia lying senseless in the office. He rushes both of them into the STAR labs, where Chester runs biometric tests and claims both of them have their cortical functions isolated, and therefore they can’t be awakened as they are unable to respond to outside stimulations. Barry gets anxious, and with the members of the Legion (the team Nia is a part of) being off-world, he gets desperate to get any outside help he can find. Meanwhile, Mark spends the day with Khione doing everything that might have excited Frost, but a more reserved, nature-loving Khione gets no kick out of those activities. As the duo enters Mark and Frost’s usual hangout place, the O’Shaughnessy bar, it doesn’t take Khione much time to deduce that Mark has been fixated on shaping Khione in Frost’s image. They have a brief altercation, which resulted in Mark’s apology and Khione storming off from the bar.
In the Dreamworld, Iris and Nia discover that if they remain in the realm much longer, they could perish in the real world. Similarly, Barry and Team Flash discover that unless the duo wakes up, they could slip into a coma. Nia speculates that in order to escape, Iris has to open up about what is clouding her mind, and Iris finally confesses that a glimpse of a much simpler life through her dreams allows her to escape from the predestined future she is dealing with. Nia manages to convince her that she shouldn’t try to block out the possibilities in fear of a predestined future, as her efforts through the years, choices, and numerous decisions culminate in the forthcoming events. And in the process, Nia herself realizes that she has been trying too hard to control everything and that she, too, has to learn to let the future take its course.
A doorway appears in front of them, covered in cobwebs—symbolizing the death of Nia’s mother, who died of a spider bite. Nia now realizes that the previous message from Iris that she saw in her dream was not about gaining control—rather, it was about giving up control. As she takes leave from Iris and enters the doorway, she finds herself in a similar scenario to the one she saw in her dreams, and this time the hooded figure reveals herself to be the first Dreamer, the same ancient source of power she was investigating. She grants the powers back to Nia, and both she and Iris wake up in the physical world. As the Flash and Team Flash catch up with the Dreamer, Nia tells them that the surge of newly granted Dream powers has made her exceptionally strong and that she can’t wait to try them out. Cecile is able to sense the presence of the original Dreamer in the STAR labs, but only Nia is able to see her.
A few days later, Team Flash meets up at Cecile’s household, where she has arranged a grand breakfast for the team, and Khione is beyond delighted. Mark pays a visit to Cecile’s house and talks with Khione for one last time, as he has realized that to process his grief, he needs to be away from all the entanglements. Before taking his leave, a tearful Mark mentions that he is sure of Khione’s being special in her own right and asks her to keep exploring her potential. As Mark departs, Khione returns to the team, and in her grief, she manages to turn the entirety of the breakfast into ice. The seventh episode of “The Flash” Season 9 ends with Team Flash giving a tight hug to Khione in order to give her a sense of belongingness.
Thoughts
Another decent interlude episode of the last season of “The Flash” ends with a befitting farewell to some of the fan favorites, in this case, Nia Nal, aka the Dreamer. When Dreamer made her first appearance in the Arrowverse in the fourth season of CW’s “Supergirl,” the character had significant importance as the first transgender superhero to appear on either the small screen or the silver screen. Actress Nicole Maines, a transgender person, and activist herself, shone in the role as she channeled the message against discrimination through the character and became a fan favorite in no time. Therefore, when the “Supergirl” series ended, and the journey of the Dreamer halted abruptly, much to the dismay of the fans, it was apparent that the showrunners would somehow seek to provide the character with some form of closure. With regaining her powers and now in a more amplified form, fans will surely be curious about the new cosmic journeys of the Dreamer. Due to her Naltorian heritage, Nia gained the power of dreams, which Naltorian women obtain once in a generation, thereby making her an essentially generational hero. The impact of the character in superhero TV history was so significant that the character made her first comic-book appearance in the main DC continuity in 2022, as well as in the game Fortnite. It’ll be interesting to see the character crossover with another DC property, the Sandman Universe, in the near future, given that both characters operate in the same field.
