'Supergirl': Nicole Maines Teases Nia's Guilt, Family Conflict Over Dreamer Powers

On tonight's episode of Supergirl, 'Blood Memory', Nia and Kara pay Nia's hometown a visit. For [...]

By Nicole Drum

On tonight's episode of Supergirl, "Blood Memory", Nia and Kara pay Nia's hometown a visit. For Nia, though, the happy trip home for the Harvest Festival is overshadowed by her own unease at the recent development of dream powers, and according to Nicole Maines, that unease is centered in a feeling of guilt.

Maines, who plays Nia on The CW series, recently told ComicBook.com that Nia has some guilt about having developed the dream powers, and there's familial conflict that arises because of those powers.

"I talk about being trans. I don't just transition and then forget about it," Maines said. "It is an important part of my identity, but it's not the only part of my identity. That's what we're doing with Nia. Going to her hometown with Kara this weekend, she talks about that. She's like, "You know, my family, they were great growing up and everything' Living in an alien oasis, it was a very liberal space for her growing up. She felt able to transition."

"But her conflict is also, she has her sister who is, of course, this gender," Maines continued. "As the biological daughter, she assumes that she is going to get the dream powers from their mother."

As Supergirl fans know, though, that is not the case. Nia began exhibiting the powers soon after she arrived in National City, and though she has used them briefly to help in the fight against Agent Liberty, she's been hesitant to embrace them and it turns out her sister, Maeve, is a big part of the reason why.

"Nia has been carrying this guilt around with her, surrounding her dreaming," Maines said. "Where she's been so hesitant to dream and to embrace these powers, because she feels like she has stolen something from her sister by inheriting these powers. It's where there's this tension."

Complicating matters is the close relationship between Nia and Maeve (Hannah James). The sisters are close enough that Maeve has been coming to Nia with her stress and concern over having not yet developed the powers, something that puts Nia in a difficult position.

"Of course, they have a beautiful relationship as sisters," Maines said. "Maeve is coming to her. She's like, 'I haven't gotten the powers. What am I gonna do?' Nia doesn't know how to deal with that, because she doesn't want to break her sister's heart, but she doesn't want to lie to her. It's a tough couple episodes for sisters on Supergirl."

Supergirl airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. "Blood Memory" airs tonight, January 27th.

Additional reporting by Russ Burlingame.

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