Last week on Supergirl, Nyxly gained control of the Courage Totem, passing the gauntlet for it while Supergirl failed. That means it was full steam ahead for the next totem while Supergirl and the Super Friends tried to figure out how to stop the Fifth Dimensional Imp – and while Supergirl remained rattled for apparently not being courageous enough.
This week, Nyxly gets her hands on a totem before Supergirl can intervene, but it sets of a lot of chaos in National City, leaving the Super Friends scrambling for how to protect the city and stop Nyxly at the same time. Need to get caught up on the events of this week’s episode of Supergirl, “Magical Thinking”? We’ve got you covered with our recap below but be warned: there are full spoilers beyond this point.
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The next totem
It’s game night at Kara’s with everyone playing Jenga while waiting for Kara to arrive. She’s been struggling since losing the totem to Nyxly. Lena suggests that she could have something helpful in her mother’s book of spells and Nia tells her that it sounds a lot like magic and her dream powers are similar. Kara then tells Lena that William is going to be embedded with the Super Friends. Kelly also lets the team know that she has an appointment to check on one of the foster kids and Kara starts laughing uncontrollably because Nyxly is happy. Turns out there’s another totem in National City.
Kelly checks in on Esme with her new foster family and it’s going well. Esme makes her a special bracelet.
J’onn brings William to the Tower and starts to show him around. They tell him the ground rules: don’t reveal the Tower location, don’t reveal identities or try to find them out, run stories by them before filing them. Nyxly’s ship then shows up over the city. Turns out, the totem is absurdly easy to get. Nyxly just takes it from a fighter at a match and claims it, but when Supergirl shows up, Nyxly spreads some sort of energy causing everyone to start fighting. It’s turned people depraved.
Totem trouble
The totem is Humanity and Nyxly activating it has impacted a few hundred, making them gleeful to harm each other and cause mayhem. Lena thinks she’s found a spell in her mother’s book that will let them track her. William asks to speak with Supergirl. He wants to tell the public what is going on, report the situation with Nyxly. Supergirl wants him not to because Nyxly doesn’t know that they have magic on their side, too. She then flies off, hearing someone crying out for help. However, Andrea is pressuring William to reveal all now. She’s even hacked his computer. She tells him to come back with what she wants or not at all.
Lena and Nia work on Lena’s magic, specifically trying to get the spell to work but it seems to have backfired as Nia now doesn’t know her directions. Supergirl is suddenly overwhelmed with another of Nyxly’s feelings, compassion. On Mitch’s ship, Nyxly suddenly seems to have a ton of compassion for Mitch. She is excited, thinking that things may be very easy going forward. They get a clue as to where the next totem is, and it’s in the Netherlands.
Casting a spell
William visits Lena and she explains what she’s trying to do with her mother’s spellbook. He compares it to a family recipe book, but Lena explains that even with following the directions she still broke Dreamer.William tells her an anecdote about his own life and how he realized that he was being too technical when he tried to recreate his father’s recipes and that when he started to trust himself, that’s when things began to work. Lena figures out she needs a specific ingredient for a spell that’s at the botanical garden. Supergirl has to take her there and William says he’ll go, too.
Chaos in National City
In National City, things continue to get out of hand. Esme is worried about it, but her foster mom tells her not to worry. As they are walking to their house, though, they’re attacked by a man who can blow fire and Esme responds by blowing fire back at him. It stuns her as well as her foster mother.
At the botanical garden, Lena gets what she needs while William and Supergirl guard her and other innocents. In The Netherlands, Nyxly goes for the next totem. Lena’s spell kicks in just as Nyxly goes to kill the guard, forcing Nyxly to suddenly not be able to kill him but also causing a woman impacted by the depravity in National City to get worse. Turns out, the spell amplifies the potency rather than works as a beacon.
Stopping Nyxly
Nyxly starts to realize that the Humanity Totem itself is the test and she has all of the compassion and empathy of the people in the blast radius. Mitch suggests that there has to be a way to get the Hope Totem without hurting anyone so they can keep going forward. Supergirl is also feeling those feelings so she’s now aware of the Humanity Totem’s unusual gauntlet. Supergirl thinks that if they overwhelm Nyxly by using Lena’s spell again, it would end everything but Lena won’t do it as she sees unleashing that much depravity as wrong.
Lena tells Supergirl that Nyxly reminds her of Lex and that Supergirl will defeat her, too. Lena refuses to cause pain with her magic or deceit so Supergirl’s plan just isn’t it, but she comes around to it. Lena is going to amplify the totem’s power and William is going to write about it with full transparency.
Restoring humanity
Lena starts her spell and things definitely get worse in National City, but the Super Friends work around the city to keep people safe. Nyxly gets even more overwhelmed and tries to concentrate on getting the next totem but struggles as she cares too much and heads back to National City to give people back their Humanity. At Esme’s house, her foster mother keeps her locked out and insists that she protect the family with her fire breathing despite the little girl not understanding it. Fortunately, Guardian and Sentinel show up to save her.
Nyxly returns to National City and releases everyone’s humanity. People are restored to normal, but Nyxly loses the totem. Supergirl retrieves the totem and Nyxly has Mitch fly the ship out of there rather than deal with her. With enough particles left to track one totem, the Super Friends decide to track the Dream Totem as Dreamer might be able to help with that.
William takes a stand
At CatCo, Andrea is pleased with William’s article but wants him to reveal personal information as well as the location of the Tower. William says no and that he will write the stories his way and if she doesn’t like it, he can sell them to The Daily Planet.
Kelly goes to see Esme who is being moved from the foster home. The family doesn’t want her now that they know she has powers. Esme doesn’t think she will ever have a real home. Kelly and Alex look at each other knowingly before taking Esme’s hand. In space, Mitch and Nyxly recoup and plan their next move.
