Those who are fans of CW’s Flash, Arrow, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow are no stranger to crossover episodes. Most TV shows that are within the same universe often have “event” episodes: like when the CSI crew gets a visit from someone from CSI: NY or CSI: Miami. Usually crossover shows exist on the same network. Tonight’s episode of Supergirl was a rare exception because not only did we have a crossover episode for superheroes, but an intra-network crossover episode where CW’s The Flash showed up on Supergirl. Both are within the “Berlanti-verse,” so why not? When Flash was universe-crossing in the Welcome to Earth-2 episode of The Flash a few weeks ago, audiences got a glimpse of Supergirl flying, so we knew this was coming. Did it deliver? You bet it did!
Kara continues to try and win the public’s trust, to her disappointment. They still haven’t forgiven her from the events of the Falling episode, when she came in contact with the Red Kryptonite and basically turned into a “mirror-universe” Supergirl. No matter how hard she tries, it doesn’t seem to be working for her. Meanwhile Siobhan Smythe just discovered that she has “super screaming” superpowers and attempts to exact some well-deserved revenge against Kara and her boss Cat. She first breaks Livewire out of prison at the DEO so that they can team up as “like an evil Taylor Swift Squad,” and take them down. It seems like it’s about to happen, but then we see our favorite Central City speedster.
The Flash enters coming from Earth 1 thinking Kara is just a normal damsel in distress and saves her from being thrown out of a building, but soon enough finds out she’s more than capable of saving herself. After Barry realizes that he’s not on Earth 1, he needs to find a way back. Supergirl says she will help him out, but asks for his help in dealing with Livewire and Smythe (now with her true code name: Silver Banshee with makeup and all), which Barry agrees to help her with.
There are some great Berlanti-verse references. Barry finds out that in Supergirl’s universe, there is no Arrow, no Firestorm, pretty much no one from the CW shows around to help. In this episode it’s Barry who gets to be the elder statesman, providing Kara with some guidance on how to save the day. In past crossovers, it was always Oliver (Green Arrow) who provided the Obi-Wan-like direction for Barry, so it was good to see a role reversal. Barry also played the role of STAR Labs crew (Team Flash) as well, using his technical genius to help him and Kara overcome Silver Banshee’s screaming by developing sonic earplugs, when usually he depended on Cisco and Caitlin for that.
Another interesting tidbit was Jimmy Olsen’s jealousy of Barry. Usually it was Winslow Schott who was jealous of the fact that Jimmy and Kara liked each other. Now Winslow was almost gloating with the fact that Jimmy was jealous of Barry and everything he could do. It’s clear that Barry and Kara had great chemistry, but it didn’t seem like a romantic one. Even towards the end of the episode Barry advised Kara to move forward because even he could see that the two of them liked each other. Towards the end of the episode Kara let’s Jimmy know how she feels about him, but then he and every human in National City are mind-controlled by Kryptonian Non.
The first battle between Supergirl/Flash against Livewire/Silver Banshee did not go well. Flash even tried to do his lightening throwing trick, but all it did was supercharge Livewire. The second battle the group fared better. The great thing about it was that it wasn’t Barry who saved the day, in fact it really wasn’t even Kara who saved the day. Kara’s sacrifice by saving a helicopter from an electricity strike emboldened the people of National City to see that Supergirl was in fact their hero, and they ended up helping save her. Once again Supergirl is a hero in the eyes of her city.
One thing that was interesting was that Silver Banshee was labeled a “metahuman.” In The Flash most metahumans are people who are given powers by chance (like the particle accelerator), not through a curse or anything magical. That’s usually something that’s left for Arrow, which deals more with mysticism. But then again, this is a completely different universe.
Another big question mark is how Barry ended up in this universe. If we are following events of The Flash closely, he didn’t get “lost” last episode. It looks like whatever events that led him to this universe did not yet happen on The Flash, so the timeline is a little out of step. However, the race at the end of the episode was fun!
Cat’s comment about their group being a more diverse cast of a CW show was funny (but not true, Team Flash is quite diverse). So it’s cool that there’s a little tongue-in-cheek between CBS and CW.
One big question is, when will Supergirl appear on a CW show? It’s clear that this formula works, and she would be awesome teaming up with Barry to take on Zoom. In fact, it CBS doesn’t renew Supergirl (it still hasn’t yet!), CW should grab it in an instant! Make a mini Crisis on Infinite Earths event and merge the multiverse and have her be a part of Earth 1. Either way, this was way too fun an episode for them not to cross paths again!
