Hey Folks,
This week in the Arrowverse, was pretty good for each of our heroes. On Supergirl, Kara and Mon-El had a falling out once the secret he has tried to keep hidden from her is finally revealed. On The Flash, Barry finds himself in the same predicament that Kara was left with at the end of Supergirl, and the two are in a coma, stuck in a dreamscape where they are living in a musical. On Legends of Tomorrow, the Legends have to protect the spear, so they enlist JRR Tolkien. On Arrow, Oliver is in the hands of Prometheus (Chase Adrian), who wants Oliver to make a special confession. During that time, we are treated to an extra long flashback where Oliver reveals how he took on Kovar in Russia.
So how did everything in the Arrowverse go this week? Let’s take a look at this week’s episodes:
Supergirl: “Star-Crossed”
Last week in the aftermath of the alien immigration, there was a battle cruiser hanging above earth. The two people who seemed to be in charge were geek alums Teri Hatcher and Kevin Sorbo glad that they finally arrived at Earth. This week, we finally know what they were looking for. Kara and Mon-El (along with everyone else in National City) are comfortably watching TV when a transmission interrupts their binge-watching to broadcast a demand for the surrender on Mon-El. Now why would they want him, he’s a nobody, right? Remember that one episode way back when, when the slaver-trading Dominator required that he not be harmed. We knew he had to be of some importance.
At first, Kara takes the ship head on to defend the Earth. However, this ship was well prepared for a Kryptonian, powered by the Yellow Sun. After taking a little a bit of a beating and retreating, Kara regroups at the DEO where Mon-El decides to surrender himself to the possible invaders. As he prepares to teleport to the ship, Kara latches onto him at the last moment and is transported to the ship as well. When they arrive on the ship, Mon-El is reunited with his parents Rhea and Lar-Gand. Turns out, he’s not some low-level assistant to Daxam royalty, he is Daxam royalty. Feeling betrayed like Lisa in Coming to America, Kara doesn’t know what to say to Mon-El. Remember, her people and the people of Krypton don’t naturally like her, and his family is a part of the reason. Their embrace of slavery and ruthlessness is everything Kara despises.
There’s also another problem arising. Winn has been spending a lot of time with his new girlfriend Lyra. When she and he sneak into a museum for a little risky sex, it turns out that the museum was robbed and he’s the only person who shows up in the recorded footage. Of course, her race, cannot be captured by video or photography technology, so he’s been played as a mark by her so that she can carry out a crime. Winn, still infatuated with her digs deeper and realize she has been setting up marks because her brother is being held hostage by local alien criminals. Winn enlists James/Guardian to help her save her brother by attempting to negotiate with the criminals, only for the DEO to get involved and have them arrested.
Mon-El is left with a difficult decision, his parents request him to return to their homeworld so that they can rebuild the Daxum empire. His mother even enlisted Kara to put in a good word for him to do just that. Kara is still frustrated with the lie he’s been telling her since they met and delivers the message. Even after she breaks up with him, he rejects his parents offer and decides to remain on Earth. Kara tells still rejects him and it seems like their new working relationship will be a strained one.
The DEO is escorting a new prisoner, who then easily escapes custody, and hypnotizes Kara, before taking the interdimensional portal machine that Cisco gave Kara way back when. There he transports to Earth-1 in search of The Flash, to be continued……..
The Flash: “Duet”
Hank Henshaw and Mon-El take a comatose Kara to Earth-1 via the dimensional teleporter with the hope that they can help revive her. The escaped prisoner, The Music Meister has used his ability to transport her to some sort of dream world where she’s living in a musical.
Barry and Wally quickly confront the Music Meister as he has shown up to STAR Labs looking for The Flash. Fresh off his perilous agony from within the Speed Force, Wally is unsure of himself, and he knows it, as The Music Meister. He is able to best both Wally and Barry and then puts Barry into the same trance he put Kara in. Barry awakens like he’s in an old-timey musical and he finds Kara singing a solo at aa lounge.
Oh, by the way, this entire episode is a musical, and a fantastic one at that. We knew that Grant Gustin (Barry) and Melissa Benoist (Kara) had singing chops, as they are Glee alumni, as is Darren Criss (the Music Meister). However, I was taken aback by the plethora of other talented voices on this week’s episode. Victor Garber (Martin Stein) from Legends of Tomorrow appears as does John Barrowman (Malcolm Merlyn) and Winn Schott Jeremy Jordan. Carlos Valdes (Cisco) and Jesse L. Martin (Joe West) also lend their voices this week and deliver some stunning songs. Honestly, the Arrowverse should do this once a season. At least evert season there needs to be a crossover episode, and a musical episode as the show was in rare form. Kudos to the songwriters (including Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Rachael Bloom who penned “Superfriends”) as well as the choreography for tonight’s episode.
In the dream world, Barry and Kara were forced to sing at a nightclub for a local gangster. Each of the people in the dream world appeared as those close to them. Barry and Kara had to act out in a musical, but as the Music Meister told them, if they die there, they die in the real world. The dream world was very reminiscent of an old gangster film with Joe West playing one gangster (with husband Martin Stein) and Malcolm Merlyn playing another gangster. In their dream world, their daughter (Iris West) and Son (Mon-El) were in love with each other, and Barry and Kara were caught in the middle of everything.
It was weird for Barry and Kara to see their significant others (who really weren’t as both couples were having relationship issues. However, the gang war escalates. Barry and Kara trying to keep the peace with both sides end up getting shot in the crossfire. The real Mon-El and Iris voluntarily enter the dream world (thanks to Cisco’s Vibe powers) and they both are able to tell their significant others how they really feel. This was what the Music Meister wanted all along. This entire episode was him teaching them a “lesson” about love for each other. Both Kara/Mon-El and Barry/Iris make up with each other and then Kara and company depart back to their Earth.
The episode ends in the most touching way and Barry let’s go of his fear of the future and (this time for real) pops the question to Iris. Pretty much the entire world melted during this scene.
Next week, it’s back to a less musical world as we meet new metahuman Abra Kadabra…
Legends of Tomorrow: “Fellowship of the Spear”
With their current streak of wins against the Legion of Doom, the Legends have most of the pieces of the Spear of Destiny. With no more pieces to get, they now have to get the missing pieces from the Legion and then protect the Spear. Kinda like the “One Ring of Power.” Oh, there will be a lot of Lord of the Rings references in this week’s episode of Legends of Tomorrow.
Rip knows where the Legion is hiding their pieces of the spear. After all, he used to be a member of their team until the Legends manages to deprogram him back to his usual self. Where could they be operating out of that exists out of time, The Vanishing Point of course. The Legends haven’t been to this place since they defeated the shady Time Masters, and when Leonard Snart (Captain Cold) sacrificed himself to save the rest of the team. His partner Rory has had a tough time this season dealing with his friend’s death, and has even been hallucinating and interacting with a ghost version of him. The team manages to pull off a heist and steal the remaining pieces of the spear from under Eobard Thawne’s nose.
Now with all the pieces of the Spear, they have to find a way to destroy it. The Spear will tempt those close to it to use is, just like the Ring of Power. Just like in the “Council of Elrond,” Rory tries to destroy the Spear using brute force. Just like in Fellowship of the Ring, the McGuffin needs to be destroyed by other means. The way to negate the powers of the Spear, is to introduce it to the blood of Jesus Christ as it was the spear that pierced his side at the crucifixion. Rip tells the crew that the crucifixion (or any event with Jesus Christ) is an “off limits” point in time as Jesus was too important to history and no one should tamper with any history based off of him. Nate, ever the historian knows of a legend where some of Jesus’ blood was captured and stored for safe keeping. The one person who is knowledgeable of the legend is none other than famous author, JRR Tolkien.
Both Tolkien and the rumored vial of blood are at the Battle of the Somme (Paris France, 1916, World War One), so the Legends head there to try and “turn the tide.” After bringing Tolkien up to speed (as they did George Lucas), the Legends end up giving him the best dialogue from Lord of the Rings on their current adventure. The Legion of Doom, however, have an ace up the sleeve. They managed to recruit Leonard Snart to the Legion of Doom (before he joined The Legends) when he was a complete “bad guy.” When Snart runs into Rory, Rory is still under the impression that he’s a hallucination and not the real person. In addition to telling Snart The Legends’ plans, Snart also starts playing mind games with him, making Rory doubt him being on the team. After Snart reveals himself to the Legends as they do battle with the Legion of Doom, now the team wants to sideline Rory thinking he may betray them to be with his old partner.
After escaping, the team discovers where the vial is hidden, and it’s hidden on the battlefield. How to separate the soldiers in the middle of World War One from each other so they can obtain the vial? Rip gets on one of the communications devices and gives the same speech that Aragon made in Return of the King when he spoke of “A day may come when the courage of men fails.” It’s just as inspirational as it was in the books and movies, and the battlefield is clear… except for the Legion of Doom. Snart and Damien Darhk take on The Legends and in doing so manage to convert Rory onto the #teambadguys. With that, they manage to steal the spear and destroy the vial. Thawne then speeds into whisks them all away.
Now the Legion has the spear, and they know how to activate it. The episode ends with them using the spear and reality will be pretty much altered. We’ll have to wait until next week to see the new reality.
Arrow: “Kapiushon”
This season Arrow has really found its groove back after last year’s disappointing season. That is mostly in part to the show getting back to its roots, and also have a strong villain who was formidable for Oliver. With the reveal that Prometheus was his District Attorney, Adrian Chase a few weeks ago, the quality of storytelling has really increased. Outside of the bad guys on the Marvel/Netflix shows, Prometheus might just be the best bad guy on a superhero television show.
This week he holds Oliver hostage and continuously tortures Oliver until he will confess. However, he will not tell Oliver what he needs to actually confess for. Oliver must come to that conclusion on his own. Chase continues endless rounds of torture over many days, and even does mind games as he has Evelyn beaten and “killed” to get Oliver to confess. She really was in on it and is very much alive by the end.
This week however, was full of Russian flashbacks. In fact, this week’s episode, the present day gets the back burner as we finally learn of Oliver’s rampage against Russian bag guy Kovar (Dolph Lundgren) during a Bratva power struggle. It’s in this episode that you really see Oliver in his Season One arrow ways, where he was “the hood” and indiscriminately killing. You see the darkness within him as he unleashes it and can see just where the killing machine in Oliver came from.
It’s then when Oliver snaps to the realization and gives Adrian his confession. Oliver LIKES to kill. Him becoming the Green Arrow was not about enacting justice, it was really an excuse for him to enact his dark side and kill people with a purpose. After confessing, Oliver is broken. The icing on the cake is Chase taking a blowtorch to his Bratva tattoo. Oliver is then released and returns to the Arrow Cave to tell his team that he’s done being the Green Arrow.
Next week, Team Arrow now has no leader. Is their quest over? Oliver also will enlist his Bratva compatriots to kill Chase.
