This week marks the return of the DC CW! After a lengthy Christmas break, our DC superheroes shows return. In the midseason finales, everything seemed to be better for Supergirl. However, on The Flash and Arrow, things were not going so well. Barry learned that his love Iris will die within 6 months. Oliver suffered a major defeat at the hand of Prometheus. Meanwhile on Legends of Tomorrow, the Legion of Doom is on track to obtain the Spear of Destiney, but they have to find Rip, who is finally revealed to be alive and in the 1970s, but he has no recollection as to who he is (evidenced by him being a Hollywood director and he’s speaking in an American accent).
So how did everything in the Arrowverse go? Let’s take a look at this week’s episodes:
Supergirl: “Supergirl Lives”
OK, we need to start a change.org petition: Kevin Smith needs to direct only DC CW TV shows! His late “experimental” feature films have not been so well received. He continues his streak on the small screen directing two episodes of The Flash (which were some of the best episodes of the show). He directed this episode of Supergirl which was also good. He’s surely going to be involved in more DC CW projects, hell, have him direct an episode of Arrow where Onomatopoeia (a character he created while writing for DC comics) appears to take on Oliver and company.
This episode focuses on Kara and Mon-El as they go on an adventure to help a missing teen, and end up discovering an interplanetary slavery ring and eventually captured. The episode begins with Izzy (Kevin Smith’s daughter Harley Quinn Smith) being missing and her mother coming to CatCo for assistance. After refusals from the police, and her boss Snapper not interested because it’s not a big story, Kara decides to investigate for herself. Mon-El decides to tag along since Kara told him about using his powers to make a difference (and not just be selfish). Their investigation leads them to learn about a medical trial that is actually a cover for a slavery ring where humans, and other aliens are kidnapping unsuspecting people for servitude. Kara manages to stop the humans, but when she goes through the portal, the tables are turned.
As Supergirl (and being a Kryptonian), Kara’s superpowers are drawn from the Earth’s yellow sun. The right amount of radiation gives her superhuman abilities. However, on this new planet, she and Mon-El arrive to, it doesn’t have a yellow sun. That planet receives energy from a red sun, which means no superpowers. That doesn’t help at all when you need to fight off aliens trying to enslave you. Much like her cousin, Kara is one who still stands for Truth, Justice, and the American way. She continues to stand up against her new alien masters, even after then overpower her and enslave her. She stands between them and other human (and alien) slaves and has her own “Kunta Kinte” moment where she is repeatedly beaten into submission.
Meanwhile, she has to get rescued. The DEO conjure up a rescue for her on the new planet. However, there are a few hiccups. The planet they are at is toxic to Hank Henshaw (Martian Manhunter), so he cannot use his abilities to mount a rescue. So it’s just up to normal humans to use their ingenuity. Also, Winn is having his first case of shell shock. After helping Guardian out the night before, fight a few criminals, Winn was brutally beaten by one of the criminals. When the DEO finds out where Kara and Mon-El are, he is reluctant to go out in the field, but eventually, develops the courage to go rescue his friend.
Towards the end, Kara motivates her fellow captives to rebel against the slavers just as the DEO arrive to help rescue them. It is revealed that Roulette has been capturing slaves to sell to The Dominators (the bad guys from the 4-night crossover), so we’ll be seeing more of them. As Kara and everyone are escaping, one of the slavers is about to shoot Mon-El, but the Dominator tells them not to kill him, revealing that he’s important to Kara’s enemies. Does this mean that he’s not really a good guy?
The Flash: “Borrowing Problems From The Future”
The midseason premiere of The Flash brilliantly laid out its plans for the rest of the season. Barry has to find a way to save Iris and prevent the future from coming to fruition. It’s almost a reverse of the first and second season finales. Instead of traveling through time to change fate, Barry’s going to just change fate.
The episode begins with Barry being plagued by repeated nightmare related to Iris’ death. Of course, she’s concerned, but is he actually going to tell her that she is going to die in a few months? That would be an awkward conversation, so he lies to her. Before she can really confront him about what’s going on, there’s a fire in Central City that requires The Flash’s attention. Teaming up with Wally (who Barry is now training), they manage to contain the fire. However, when Wally goes to the police station to see Joe, he overhears people clowning him because he’s Kid Flash and not The Flash.
Meanwhile, HR has been trying to make himself useful for the team, so he’s come up with the brilliant idea of turning STAR Labs (which always has the door open anyway) into a museum, that way they can get some much-needed capital. However, HR isn’t particularly good at it. He’s stated a million times that he’s an “ideas man” instead of the one who puts it together. This STAR Labs museum would be his chance to contribute to the group instead of being a pale imitation of his doppelgangers who are smarter. However, with him being an ideas man works this episode as Barry has a conversation with him about theories of preventing the future from happening.
Caitlin I still worrisome over potentially becoming Killer Frost and desperately wants to get rid of her powers. Even though she had the power neutralizing bracelets that Cisco made for her, they are not working as well as she would like. When they run out of power, she gains her powers back. As brilliant as Cisco is, he’s not the world’s smartest researcher on metahumans, and Julian is. Caitlin, wanting to make amends for kidnapping him (and also needing his help) offers him to join Team Flash.
Barry, later on, gets a chance to stop a robbery and tells Wally to continue to shadow him but not get involved. This time, they take on a bank robber with some advanced weaponry who gets the nickname Plunder, because of preference for plundering jewelry. As Barry goes to confront him, he briefly is distracted as he remembers Plunder from a news report he saw when he traveled to the future. In the news report, he had captured Plunder and put him in jail. Barry kind of pauses to let him escape, as a means of changing the future. Wally ends up stopping Plunder, to everyone’s celebration, except Barry. Barry decides he has to come clean about the future and tells Iris about her upcoming death. She took it very well for someone know knows not only is Savitar still alive, but he will stab her in the back in 4 months. Barry vowed he will do everything in his power to keep her alive. Iris told Barry that this is one thing that he can’t keep hidden from the rest of the team. If he is going to save her, he’ll need all the help he can get.
After Barry tells the group, HR gives an interesting presentation of how time works in regards to changing the future using a set of dominoes. Then they decided that they would do what they can to help make sure that Iris doesn’t die at the hands of Savitar. With that, Cisco volunteers to use his Vibe powers so that he and Barry can go to that specific date so that they can get some clues for major events that happen in the future. As they vibe into the future, they pay closer detail to what happened on the news report in addition to Plunder:
“Killer Frost Still AT Large”- Caitlin’s going to turn evil again
“STAR Labs Closes" – So much for the museums opening!
“Music Meister Gets Six-Figure Book Deal” –This is a reference to upcoming musical Flash/Supergirl crossover which fellow Glee alumni Darren Criss will be playing in the crossover.
“City Reeling After Gorilla Attack” –Grodd is back!!
“Joe West Honored at City Hall” –Not sure what that means. Does Joe die also? Or did he do something awesome?
To top it off, Plunder escaped from prison, so they need to place him back in jail. Barry asks for Wally’s help to stop the villain. The logic is, that if Wally stops him, the future is changed as it would be Kid Flash instead of The Flash stopping Plunder. If they change that aspect, they can change the future. Wally manages to stop Plunder and end up a hero. The episode end with the opening of STAR Labs much to everyone’s approval. However, someone comes from an alternate Earth, and they're looking for HR.
Legends of Tomorrow: “Raiders of the Lost Art”
This is by far the most fun of the DC CW this week. The entire episode operated as a giant meta-joke where it not only poked fun at its own show, but also had many Star Wars references and Easter Eggs.
The episode begins with events of the season premiere as Rip Hunter was trying to use the Wave Rider to save New York City from a nuclear bomb. After he puts Rory in stasis, Rip goes to the a secret compartment where he grabs a spear (“The Spear of Destiny” discussed in the winter finale). Rip shuts down Gideon and then goes to the center of the engineering section of Wave Rider and proceeds to touch the core of the timeship, displacing him somewhere in time.
In the present day, the Legends are on the Wave Rider looking for time aberrations to undo when they come across two bikers who were killed in Los Angeles in 1967. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal. However, they were killed by fighting techniques consistent with the League of Assassins. This means that Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk are in that time period and looking for the Spear of Destiny. It’s off to 1967 the Legends go after the “Legion of Doom” as they call them.
In 1967, they arrive in Los Angeles and don’t have any clues as to where to begin. Ironically, they discover a movie titled “Legends” being filmed. Thinking nothing of it, they investigate what they think will be a time waster. However, when they arrive at the film shoot, things look eerily similar. The set looks like from season one of Legends of Tomorrow. The villain also looks similar to season one main villain Vandal Savage. The director even makes a tongue-in-cheek reference to him not being a captivating villain, something that fans of the show have griped with online as well. Of course, then there’s the director, who is none other than Rip Hunter. However, Rip now doesn’t have and English accent, and doesn’t know who the legends are.
Shortly after the Legends arrive to talk with Rip, Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk arrive in search of the Spear of Destiny. There is an intense shootout between the Legends and member of the Legion of Doom which scares off Rip as well as his assistant, George. The Legends later team up with Rip and try to convince him who they are. However, some changes start to happen for a few members. Ray and Nate start to lose their memories. But why?
Turns out that Rip’s assistant, “George” is none other than George Lucas, famed director of Star Wars, and pretty much responsible for the modern day blockbuster. However, with all that commotion, George Lucas no longer wants to remain in film school. This causes a ripple in time so that Star Wars, Indiana Jones, any anything Lucasfilm related never existed. Instead of being responsible for everything we know and love, Lucas ended up an insurance salesman. The aberration caused Ray to not be a scientist, but a regular doctor as he was motivated by Star Wars. The same goes for Nate, who wasn’t an archeologist but instead just a yoga instructor. This helps display the influence that even fiction can have on the everyday person. There ae regular folks who felt inspired after seeing many of Lucas’ film (and things like Star Trek also) and decided to better themselves by learning about science and archeology.
In order to help restore the timeline, they have to convince George Lucas to go back to film school. The rest of the episode is loaded with countless Star Wars and Indiana Jones references. Everything from “Help me, you’re my only hope” to them getting stuck in a closing trash compactor is in the episode. After they convince Lucas to go back to school, their memories are restored (as it Nate’s powers and Rays Atom suit). They manage to defeat Malcolm Merlyn and Damien Darhk in battle, but it’s not before Eobard Thawne arrives to even the score and kidnap Rip. Even though Rip doesn’t remember anything, they are going to torture the information out of him.
Arrow: “Who Are You?”
In the midseason finale, Team Arrow suffered a major defeat. Diggle’s in jail, Mr. Terrific’s husband left him upon finding of his nightly heroics, and Prometheus forced Oliver to kill Felicity’s boyfriend through trickery. However, Laurel Lance (who should be dead) showed up out of nowhere. How did she magically return from the dead? Was it another Flashpoint effect?
Laurel told Oliver and Felicity it was a result of Sara and the Legends managed to create an aberration that did not affect the timestream. Team Arrow is more than excited to have Laurel back as she has been severely missed. However, it was all a ruse. This is not their Laurel, but Laurel from Earth-2, who was an evil metahuman. When we last saw her, she was in the metahuman jail over at STAR Labs in Central City. However, Prometheus entered there and freed her. Once again, they need to put a lock on the doors at STAR Labs. Team Arrow managers to lock her up in their lair (thanks to some of Cisco’s modifications), but Felicity let her escape so that they can track her to Prometheus.
Oliver’s flashbacks bring us back to Russia when he tried to infiltrate the organized crime syndicate. Taken captive and being tortured by them, he is rescued by one of the most unlikeliest characters, Talia Al Ghul. Fans know her from Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight Returns, and now she’s I the Arrowverse. Don’t be surprised when we see her in present day episodes.
Diggle is back in prison, about to do hard time for a crime he didn’t commit. Even though Oliver can’t rescue him as the Green Arrow, but he does have influence as Mayor Queen. He enlists District Attorney Adrian Chase to operate as Diggle’s attorney. Chase knows he’s about to do battle with the federal government, so he uses some legalese to ensure that Diggle remains in Star City by forcing Diggle to punch him in county jail and “charge” him with the crime.
In the meantime, Oliver is having a crisis. Because of his failure with Laurel and his recent setbacks against Prometheus, he needs some absolution. He believes that Earth-2 Laurel despite how evil she is, is someone who can be saved. He just needs to reach her.
Unfortunately, it is all for naught. Earth-2 Laurel manages to betray them and teams up with Prometheus against Team Arrow. However, thanks to Curtis and Felicity’s ingenuity, they manage to nullify Laurel’s sonic scream and they manage to overcome her. Of course, Prometheus escaped to fight another day.
I the aftermath, they know they cannot replace Laurel, however, Oliver thinks that they should honor her and find a new Black Canary. Elsewhere, we are introduced to Tina Boland, a metahuman with sonic powers as well. Is she going to become the new Black Canary?
