Things are really heating up in the Arrowverse. On Supergirl, Alex is kidnapped and Kara has to race against the clock to prevent her death. Will she let her emotions get the best of her? On The Flash, Barry finally learns who Savitar is, and his world will never be the same. On Arrow, Adrian Chase set off an EMP, which traps Oliver and Felicity in the Arrowcave. They can only rely on each other as well as race against a clock so that they don’t die.
So how did everything in the Arrowverse go this week? Let’s take a look at this week’s episodes:
This weeks’ Supergirl kicks off in a very interesting way. Kara helps stop a group of criminals as they were holding people hostage. Maggie had spent many hours trying to negotiation with them to save the hostages, but Kara comes in a wipes it out without breaking a sweat. This is the first time that Supergirl as a vigilante is brought up. Sure, she works under the authority of the DEO, but that’s just in dealing with alien matters, and all under the radar. However, when she does her heroic to the public, she’s just as bad as anyone on Team Arrow from a certain point of view. Maggie later on even gets into an argument at dinner with Kara saying that criminals have the “Supergirl defense” to get charges dropped and they did not have due process (since she’s not a cop) and also injuries that they can then sue the police department for sanctioning. This starts a little rivalry between the two for the rest of the episode in regards to the idea of just using brute superpowers versus a smart and tactical approach to problem-solving.
The two will need to figure out how to solve a problem, because they gain a huge one. The next day, Kara heads to the DEO but notices that her sister Alex is not there. It seems that no one knows where Alex is, which at first, worries her. She then gets a phone call from a kidnapper. The kidnapper knows that Kara Danvers is Supergirl and has taken Alex hostage. Kara will have to use her powers to break out a criminal named Peter Thompson from jail, or Alex will die.
The first thing the group does is visit this mysterious Peter Thompson to see why his benefactor wants to threaten Alex for his release. Kara, clearly cannot remain objective, (after all, it’s her sister’s life on the line) and almost breaks the desk with her fit as they interrogate him. Peter is completely oblivious to what’s going on, but still, relishes in the thought that he’s the cause for all this trouble. Back at the DEO, the team realizes that Peter has a son, a man named Rick, who went to school with Kara and Alex when they were younger. Knowing who Rick is, Supergirl goes to his childhood home for clues. Little does she know, Rick is there waiting for her.
Throughout the episode, Rick plays the role of Lex Luthor. For every plan that Kara, J’onn, and Maggie try to throw against him, he has already planned for it. J’onn pretends to shapeshift into his father to convince him to let Alex go, but he sees through it. Kara tries to use brute force, and even goes to where she thinks Alex is (thanks to Alex trying to use the circuits at her prison to send out an SOS) but Rick prepared for that as well. Maggie even goes through with trying to break Peter Thompson out of prison… the things we will do for love. However, Kara pleads with Maggie not to break her own code to save her, and use the same logic she chastised Kara for not using. The two instead plead with Peter, and he gives them the location for a warehouse his son might be using and they save Alex before the prison fills up with water.
While all this is going on, Rhea is trying to work an angle with Lena Luthor. After first trying to pass off as an Earthly businesswoman, Lena sees through the ruse. Rhea then simply says that she has an offer for her too big to pass. Will she betray Kara and work with her enemy?
The Flash: “I Know Who You Are”
Killer Frost already knows who Savitar, the God of Speed is. Now we all know as well!
The episode starts off with Barry confronting Savitar where he reveals to the armored speedster that he knows who he really is. Immediately, we flash back 16 hours and get to see how it all unfolded throughout the episode. Joe and is Cecile kick off the episode by going for a quick run. The out of shape Joe is wiped out, while the marathon prepping Cecile feels she needs to shave off her time. As the two relax, she unconsciously tells him that she loves him. We all know that awkwardness of the first time your significant other tells you those three words. Before Joe can even get a chance to respond, his phone rings and he has to leave, leaving it awkward between the two of them.
As he heads to STAR Labs, Barry reveals to the team his findings from traveling to the future. Future Barry told Barry that he has to seek out a woman named Tracy Brand, a scientist who will help Barry stop Savitar, but fours years after he kills Iris. Barry figures that if he can meet her ahead of schedule, perhaps she can figure out how to trap Savitar in the Speed Force earlier than predicted. Barry, HR, and Cisco head to Central City University, where she is a professor. Tracey however, just failed her dissertation as her theories on the Speed Force weren’t taken too kindly by her colleagues. Ready to quit, she meets Team Flash. Of course, Killer Frost arrives just on time in an attempt to try and kill her. Cisco runs into a problem as he still sees Killer Frost as Caitlin Snow, one of her best friends and a few times doesn’t use his powers to stop her, a case of cold feet for Killer Frost.
Lucky for the team, Barry is able to stop her but not before she stabs him in the leg with one of her ice shards. They manage to rescue Tracey and then tell her about future, that her theories are not hogwash, and that she’ll become a famous scientist. They even show her a bio on herself from the future, impressing her. It’s not every day you find out you will actually do something huge in your life, and have the physical evidence that it will happen. At first, it intimidates her. However, HR puts the charm on (I see him and Tracey becoming a couple sometime soon) and she opts to hang with Team Flash.
Joe heads to his house where Cecile confronts him about dodging her calls and texts. Instead of really telling her his feelings, Joe attempts to break off their relationship, citing that they are at two different places. A heartbroken Cecile then leaves in tears. The door immediately knocks with Joe thinking it’s Cecile again. However, it’s Killer Frost holding her hostage delivering an ultimatum. He has to deliver Tracey to her, or Cecile will die.
Team Flash at this point are experts when it comes to dealing with kidnappings, so they come up with a plan for taking on Killer Frost and saving Cecile. At the meetup, however, Killer Frost is more than prepared for this encounter. It’s almost as if she has been warned how it would exactly play out. She places shock bombs where Cisco was hiding. The team, however, is able to overpower her. Cisco takes a sample of Killer Frosts’ blood as well, in the hopes of creating a cure to return her back to Caitlin Snow. Savitar shows up, like he knew it was going to happen and speeds off with Killer Frost.
Later on, Barry, Joe, Iris, and Wally are all hanging glad they averted a crisis. Joe tells them that he told Cecile the truth about everything and he loves her. He tried to break it off to protect her, but honesty is the best weapon. As they are talking, Barry has an ah ha moment and speeds off. This is where we get back to the beginning of the episode. Barry confronts Savitar and tells him he know exactly who he is. The reason Savitar continued to have a one up on Barry, is because he has lived all the events before. It’s because he is Barry! Savitar then comes out of his armor and a badly disfigured Barry Allen from the future faces his younger self.
Now many fans knew that Savitar was going to be either Ronnie or Barry based on Killer Frost’s reaction last week. Comic fans know there are evil versions of Barry. There is the classic “Out of Time” story arc when an older, more evil Barry Allen goes back in time to kill his younger self to repair the Speed Force, so this theory makes sense. Also during the “Invasion!” crossover event on Legends of Tomorrow, the recording from future Barry reveals that 40 years from now Barry will be a different person and warns Rip Hunter and the Legends not to trust him.
So how can you defeat your future self? Next week, the team tries to figure out a way to prevent Barry from forming new memories in “Cause and Effect.”
Arrow: “Underneath”
Last week, Felicity went against Oliver and teamed up with her hacker group Helix to try and stop Adrian Chase. This week, the two are trapped and forced to deal with their falling out.
After Felicity activated the heartbeat monitor Helix gave her, they find out that Chase is actually in the same building as the Arrow Cave. Unfortunately, they find out too late as an EMP goes off, shutting off all electronics, and effectively trapping them in their base. This proves problematic as the Arrow Cave was built to shield them from the outside world with pristine perfection. Without the codes to unlock their fortress, they cannot get out, and air can’t get in. The two are stranded and have to figure out a way to get out before they run out of air. Oh, and remember when Felicity was shot and her spine was severed? Yeah, the EMP stopped the technology Curtis created that allows her to walk. Needless to say, the two are at a disadvantage.
The two still have some issues to work out amongst each other as well. Their main issue is trust. Felicity’s argument is that Oliver has made some dark (and boneheaded) decisions throughout the show that she hasn’t agreed with. No matter what, she still trusted him and went along with them. However, when it’s her turn to make a tough choice for the sake of the mission, Oliver goes against her. This is something Felicity sees as a betrayal. The other hidden thing the two have never resolved relating to trust, is that Oliver never told her about his child when he found out about him, another sign that the two have had long standing trust issues.
As we always are treated to flashbacks on Arrow, instead of going to Lian Yu, or Russia, we go to when Felicity and Oliver were broken up but still working together on Team Arrow. One night (thanks to Curtis’ set up) the two spend an evening alone in the Arrow Cave. One thing led to another, and the two slept together again, proving they still do love each other. However, after the tryst, Felicity still says nothing’s changed as she still has the problem with the son he never told her about.
Meanwhile, Diggle and his wife are dealing with the same problems. Lyla, being the head of ARGUS also headed down a dark path as the director of a clandestine agency, and made some dark choices that Diggle also disagrees with. Both she and Felicity point out to their significant others that they are doing the same thing that the men do, but the men have a problem with it. It sort of a “do as I say, not as I do” type of thing. The two put their differences aside when they realize Oliver and Felicity are in trouble. However, it rears its ugly head when he finds out that ARGUS has stolen the proprietary information on Curtis’ T-Spheres and created their own. Lucky for Oliver and Felicity, the ARGUS T-Spheres work better than the originals and help them try and save their friends. 
While Team Arrow work up top, and Oliver and Felicity work down below, they manage to figure out a way to meet in the middle. Oliver uses an explosive arrow to find a loophole in the blueprints that allows them to escape. Dinah uses acid to melt a malleable piece of steel to ensure they can get in. Oh and the whole place is filling up with methane gas, so the clock’s ticking. They manage to meet in the middle and Oliver and Felicity are rescued. Oliver apologizes to Felicity for his lack of trust and Lyla gives Diggle an audit of everything black op thing ARGUS has done. It seems that both couples are working on regaining their trust with each other. Meanwhile, Chase has found Oliver’s hidden son, another leverage that will be exploited later on!
Next week WWE Star Cody Rhodes returns as Derek Sampson to take on Team Arrow for Adrian Chase.
