Last week remarked the return of our favorite DC CW shows from their mid-season breaks.
When Supergirl returned, Kara not only had to start training Mon-El on how to try and be a superhero, but then she had to deal with an illegal intergalactic slave trade. Taken hostage herself to a planet without a yellow sun, she was as helpless as a normal person and had to resist the old fashioned way. Once again, Kevin Smith should only direct CW television shows!
On The Flash, Barry and the members of Team Flash started to do a reverse Back to the Future to figure out a way to stop Iris from being killed six months from now (at the season finale of course). By changing the course of events from how Barry saw it when he traveled to the future, they are taking the necessary steps to try and stop her murder.
Legends of Tomorrow had the most fun as they had to not only stop members of the Legion of Doom from obtaining the Spear of Destiny in 1970s Hollywood, but that had to convince young film student George Lucas from dropping out to ensure that Star Wars does, in fact, happen. The episode was riddled with various tongue-in-cheek references to Star Wars, and even pokes a little bit of fun at itself.
Arrow had a fake-out from the mid-season finale as the Laurel Lance we saw then was in fact, her Earth-2 counterpart. Laurel Lance from Earth-2 was an evil metahuman who has the power of the sonic scream (instead of Earth-1 Laurel who used a device for her Canary Cry). Evil Laurel was working with Prometheus to take on Team Arrow. After defeating evil Laurel, Oliver decided that they should add a new person to their team worthy of the title, and it just happens that there is a person with those abilities.
So how did everything in the Arrowverse go this week? Let’s take a look at this week’s episodes:
Supergirl: “We Can Be Heroes”
This week on Supergirl, some tensions get resolved. However new ones are born.
The episode begins with Kara continuing her training of Mon-El. He’s still a newbie, making newbie mistakes. As she him trying to train a new superhero for the DEO, James is continuing to master his craft as Guardian. However, after his latest brush with death, Winn convinces him that maybe it’s now time to tell Kara about his superhero activities.
At the same time, M'gann, the White Martian who was pretending to be a Green Martian has continued to sit in her cell at the DEO under Hank Henshaw’s watchful eye, starts to chant “Death, Blood, Beautiful War” over and over. After a while, she runs face-first into the glass door of her cell, breaking it and the passing out. Clearly, something’s wrong with her. Of course, Hank (who’s really J'onn J'onz, Martian Manhunter, and a Green Martian) hates her kind for what they did to the Green Martians and doesn’t really show an ounce of sympathy to her. He has a Rocky 4 attitude (“If she dies, she dies) attitude towards her while she’s in a coma. He could do a mind-meld with her to help save her life, but he refuses.
Meanwhile, Livewire, one of Supergirl’s few (non-alien super powered) rogues manages to escape from prison thanks to an overzealous guard. When Kara hears about this, she wants action taken. Not only is she Supergirl’s true and blue nemesis, but Supergirl seems to also have a fear of her and what she is capable of. After she finds out where Livewire is (attacking the NCPD), she and Mon-El arrive to stop her. However, it really isn’t Livewire, but an imposter with the same powers. Turns out she’s someone surgically altered to have her appearance. The overzealous guard also has the same electricity powers and starts to take on Supergirl. Supergirl instructs Mon-El to help the civilians who are in harm’s way, but when she is in trouble, he leaves them to their own. However, at the last minute, Guardian shows up to save them, and also take an electricity shock at the same time. When Kara goes to help a knocked out Guardian, she removes his helmet to see that he’s really James.
This doesn’t sit well with Kara. Not only is James a vigilante, but also Winn and even her own sister Alex knew about it and didn’t tell her. After she asks her sister and Winn to leave the room, she has a heart to heart with James about his superhero activities. Kara lets James know that she doesn’t approve of his actions saying that he’s flawed. James retorts by saying that her partner Mon-El is also flawed. The conversation ends with Kara telling James to stop, or she will stop him, which he boastfully tells her she’s welcome to try.
Hank finally decided to mind-meld with M'gann to help save her life. Through the mind-meld, he realizes that she is not like the other White Martians that he has seen in his life. In fact, she’s a traitor to the White Martian. Instead of killing an innocent Green Martian child, she murdered her own kind. Hank realizes that he’s been too hard on her and after healing her tells her that he would like for them to be friends.
The real Livewire is being held captive by a mad scientist who wants to use her powers to create his own army of metahuman supersoldiers that have the same powers as her. Both Guardian and Mon-El arrive at the secret location before Kara does. Kara arrives later and teams up with not only them, but the real Livewire to stop the scientists and his metahuman soldiers. Although Kara doesn’t like Livewire, she agrees to look the other way while she escapes if she helps them stop the others.
After the stop the scientist, Kara and James continue their debate. She says he can do whatever he needs to do. She won’t stop him, but she won’t help him. Meanwhile, M'gann is no longer a prisoner at the DEO. However, she tells Hank that the White Martians are coming for her!
The Flash: “Dead or Alive”
The Flash continues this week from the stinger at the end of last week’s episode. A new mystery character appears from Earth-19 and is intend on taking HR back with her. We later learn that Gypsy is a bounty hunter who is there to bring him back to his home universe for violating the crime of interdimensional travel. On Earth-19, you aren’t allowed to travel throughout the multiverse, or there are consequences. The people from Earth-19 found out about his travels, since HR likes broadcasting tales of their adventures, but he makes himself the “hero” of the stories.
Gypsy has the same vibe powers that Cisco has, but she’s much better. In her first encounter with Team Flash not only does she stop Kid Flash dead in his tracks with her vibe powers, but she now has Cisco’s attention. Not only is he interested in her ability to control her powers, but he’s also interested in her. I’ve never seen someone flirt while engaging in battle with an enemy like Cisco. After losing Hawkgirl last year, he deserves as much romance as everyone else on the show. After a brief parlay, Gipsy gives HR 24 hours to get his affair in order before she returns to take him back for his punishment, which is execution. While Cisco and other members of Team Flash aren’t the biggest fans of HR, they agree that he doesn’t deserve death for wanting to get some coffee.
When asking HR why he risked death to travel to Earth-1, HR states that even though he had riches and success on Earth-19, he didn’t feel he was making the impact that he wanted to. Him coming to Earth-1 was a means to try and find himself and make a bigger impact on society. When it comes to turning him over to Gypsy, Cisco has a moment of compassion for the guys he’s been giving a hard time too. He invokes Earth-19’s “Trial By Combat” law (way to Game of Thrones it in there), and now Cisco is going to fight Gypsie. Little does Cisco know, Trial By Combat is to the death. For someone who is a behind the scenes member of Team Flash, Cisco doesn’t have much fighting mileage. It’s up to Team Flash to whip him into shape (and they only have 24 hours)
Meanwhile, Iris goes off on her own adventure. Lest we forget, she’s a journalist, and goes after a dangerous story. She received news about an arms dealer in the city and wanted to investigate. Both Barry and Joe don’t want her willingly going into harm’s way. However, with the knowledge that she has at least six months to live, Iris is feeling a little risky. Much like HR, Iris wants to make an impact, not as Joe’s daughter or Barry’s girlfriend, but as herself. After being rejected by Barry, she enlists her brother Wally for help. She even cites that in Flashpoint they were a brother and sister crime fighting team, why not do it in this reality?
While Cisco I doing his best to train, Barry tries to find Gipsy and detain her, in effect saving both HR and Cisco’s life. However, she gets the drop on him and HR and then takes HR hostage until the Trial By Combat. This upsets Cisco a little as he thinks that Barry doesn’t have any faith in his ability to in the fight. Barry makes the excuse that his mind has been too bothered by Savitar and the possible future. Cisco is now more determined than ever to win the fight for HR.
As Iris goes to the warehouse (with Kid Flash as backup), she does encounter the bad guys. As she even gets a gun pointed at her, she doesn’t back down. She knows she has at least 4 months, so there’s no fear in her eyes. Kid Flash ends up saving her and they take the bad guys down. Joe and Barry are not pleased.
The fight between him and Gypsy was very interesting. It had the right amount of action, flirting between the two, and pretty incredible special effects. There’s even a great Supergirl Easter Egg as the two are fighting across the multiverse and end up fighting in James’s office at CatCo on Supergirl’s Earth. Cisco is pretty outmatched. However Julian had given him some strategic advice that allows him to get the drop on her and win the fight. Instead of killing her as she expected, he tells her that’s not how they do things on Earth-1.
The episode ends with Cisco and HR having a moment where Cisco tells HR that he is, in fact, his friend, which is why he risked his life to save him. He ever references the Harrison Wells (really Eobard Thawne) who even though was evil had an affinity for Cisco. Barry and Wally have a moment as well. Barry knows he isn’t going to be fast enough to save Iris. Even Julian stated that the science doesn’t add up. However, Wally is increasing his speed, he’s faster now than when Barry was when he first got his Speed Force powers. The key to saving her is not going to be Barry, it’s going to be Wally.
Legends of Tomorrow: “The Legion of Doom”
After such a silly, fun episode last week of Legends of Tomorrow, we got a serious episode this week.
The cool thing about this week’s episode is that it did not focus on the Legends. The central players this week were the bad guys, The Legion of Doom. In fact even the intro this week centered on them as the voiceover was coming from Damien Darhk instead of one of the Legends. In fact, it’s actually a while before we see the Legends this episode as we spend some time with the Legion of Doom as they continue their quest for the Spear of Destiny.
One thing that was interesting about this episode was the dynamics of the Legion. It’s clear that they are not friends, as Thawne pretty much bullies Malcolm and Damien most of the time and they function as his lackeys. One thing that Thawne continues to do is disappear after a timer on his watch goes off, much to Malcolm and Damien’s interest.
The main focus was on them torturing Rip Hunter to learn where the Spear might have been. But of course, since Rip’s brain was time-warped, he has no recollection of anything, even his own name. This is going to take some serious legwork. After a few rounds of torture, Damien gets the brilliant idea of ripping out of one Rip’s teeth. Turns out Rip has a failsafe hidden in one of his teeth. On the inside of his recently removed tooth is information about a safety box for a bank in Switzerland in the year 2025. Something important enough to hide on a tooth and then hide in a bank vault in 2025 must be important. The two League of Assassins come up with a plan to head to 2025 and use Rip to go into the bank to retrieve what they believe will be the Spear of Destiny pieces.
Meanwhile, on the Wave Rider, the Legends are also trying to figure out how to both save Rip, and also locate where the other pieces of the Spear of Destiny is. They have the medallion, but no what to learn about what is on it. Stein comes up with the idea of heading to 2017 to talk with a scientist he knows about (his daughter Lily). When he comes clean about what he does and takes her on the Wave Rider, everyone is shocked that he has a daughter, since she is a time aberration.
Lily helps Stein interface Gideon with the medallion and that’s a cause for a celebration. However, the celebration is short lived as Rory makes a comment about her being “synthetic” as they are enjoying some synthetic food and champagne. As Lily talks with Stein about what that means, and he finally tells her the truth that she is a time aberration. It goes about as great as expected as she finds out that she’s not really “real,” even though she lived a full life from her perspective.
Although Damien and Malcolm don’t get to the safe before Rip is unable to get into the vault and they have to shoot their way out with the police, they do eventually get into the vault later on. As they are in the vault with Eobard, they lock themselves in the vault with him to renegotiate their relationship. As Thawne’s watch goes off, so does his fear. He exclaims to them that he needs to get out of the bank, but they won’t budge. They want to know why. Thawne finally fesses up about his situation and why he wants to get the Spear of Destiny.
When Eddie Thawne, Eobard’s great ancestor committed suicide to prevent him from causing more destruction, he erased him from history. As a result, the Legends have no record of him, because he never existed. However, thanks to Barry’s actions in Flashpoint, Eobard was brought back into the timeline. At first, Eobard thought it was a blessing, but it wasn’t without a cost. The Black Flash (Zune after he was killed by the Time Wraiths last year) became the Speed Force’s equivalent of “Death” and has been hunting him ever since. If Eobard uses his speed, the Black Flash will come after him, which is why he’s always on the move. If he gets the Spear of Destiny, he can rewrite reality so that he still exists and the Black Flash will not chase him. Malcolm and Damien strike a bargain with Thawne, if they help him stop the Black Flash then they will all be equal partners. He agrees.
They discover the contents of the vault which was not in fact pieces of the spear, but instead, it was a device that would help Rip restore his memories. This works out to their favor as not only can they find out where Rip held pieces of the spear in history, but they can also program him to be made in their image. The episode ends in the Revolutionary War with Rip (back with his English accent) murdering George Washington. Rip’s now a member of the Legion of Doom.
Arrow: “Second Chances”
After the failure of trying to “save” Laurel Lance from Earth-2, Oliver dedicated that they will find someone worthy of joining the team under the Black Canary mantle that could carry on in her name. Other members of the team have given Oliver lists of promising candidates: all with Special Forces training, who also have good hearts. However, Oliver rejected each of them. It’s clear he needs someone who’s “special” to be able to replace Laurel.
At the same time, we are introduced to Tina Boland, the person we saw last week in the stinger, who is a metahuman who has the sonic scream powers just as Laurel Lance from Earth-2 had over in Central City. In a brief flashback showed how she received her powers. Tina was an undercover cop who was being tortured by the person she was investigating when the STAR Labs explosion went off. As the particle accelerator wave came towards them, she screamed and inherited the sonic scream ability.
Oliver decides to try and track her down and recruit her to join Team Arrow. However, Tina is more of a solo vigilante and politely refuses them. However, Oliver sees the same spark in her that he saw in Laurel and is determined to help her if he cannot bring her into the fold. After he researches her a little bit, he learns who she is and makes a call to the Star City police department (where we see the quickest Flash cameo ever), and learns who she is and deduces that she is on a quest for vengeance (very similar to his own original mission) against the criminal who tortured her. Oliver knows that she will need some allies if she is going to take the fight to them.
Meanwhile, in flashback land, Oliver connects with Talia al Ghul, who has done her homework on him. She knows he’s been on Lian Yu, he’s been working for Argus, and that he hasn’t come home to Star City. She promises to help him make things right with the Bratva as well. After a stunning action sequence, she gives him the best pep talk about unleashing his inner monster back in his home city and fulfills his father’s original vision of “saving the city.” She gives him a hood (the same one he wears when he first arrived back home in season one) and his bow, and we finally have the origin for “the hood.”
Meanwhile, Felicity is working behind the scenes to help Diggle get out of jail. He’s still been in jail framed by the army and is taking the fall for them. Felicity goes back to her hacker roots and navigates the dark web for some information. As she meets a fellow hacker, she is reminded of her college days when she was a hacktivist and after meeting with a young hacker “IRL” that idolized her she gets some information that exonerates Diggle. Something tells me that she is about to go back into hacker mode full time.
Oliver and Wild Dog (with Mr. Perfect providing tech support) help Tina take on her nemesis, who also turned out to be a metahuman whose power induces vertigo. After they defeat him, Oliver tries to convince her not to take revenge, but she’s in the same place Oliver was in season one and she kills him. Later on, she comes to Oliver and agrees to join him and be a part of Team Arrow. Oliver will have to be patient with her. She formally introduces herself to him by her real name (Tina was her undercover name). Her real name is Dinah Drake. Comic book fans know Dinah Drake is the name of the original Black Canary from old school DC comics. Looks like we have a new Black Canary!
