Last week in the Arrowverse, some things started to set up for what lies ahead on each show. Other’s just gave us some interesting character development for our heroes (or antiheroes).
Thanks to the breakup between Alex and Maggie on Supergirl, Alex was an emotional wreck. Kara decided that the best way to remedy this was for the two of them to leave National City and head to their hometown of Midvale. There they reminisced about the first time the two of them used their abilities for good to help solve a local crime, giving them just what they needed to get out of their slumps.
Last week on The Flash, Barry continued training Ralph to use his powers for good as a hero. The next Dark Matter metahuman was a Native American activist who took things to an extreme to secure her ancestral artifacts. She could have been seen by some as a hero, if she didn’t kill people while doing it. Ralph realized that being a hero is not just about stopping the bad guy, but also saving lives in the process.
On Legends of Tomorrow, we took a trip to Tinsel Town as Hellen of Troy was time displaced and causing movie studios to fight over her. Not only were the Legends looking for her, but so was Damien Dahrk, who wanted to use her for his own nefarious purposes. As Stein and Jax try to find a way to separate Firestorm, a miscalculation causes them to switch bodies and develop a new appreciation for each other.
Finally, on Arrow, Oliver continues to help Slade Wilson deal with finding his son. After finding that his son has followed in his footsteps and become the leader of The Jackals, a terrorist group, Slade must stop his own son. Slade also finds out that he has another son and he sets out to save both of them from repeating his mistakes.
This week in the Arrowverse, some episodes were a lot of fun, some were very heavy. So how did the Arrowverse go this week?
Supergirl: “Wake Up”
Told you there would be some familiar faces this week, Supergirl gives us back Mon-El.
Remember, there was a spaceship underwater at the beginning of the season? Well, we finally get to see what was going on there. A couple deep sea divers come across it, which alerts the DEO to investigate, especially since it’s been underwater for 12,000 years. After J’onn phases Alex and Kara along with himself through the earth, they are on board the ship. There, they run into a familiar face, her former beau, Mon-El.
Kara is more than happy that Mon-El is back. After all, she’s been moping about losing him pretty much all season. It’s almost a dream come true for her to have him back. However, things seem a little different. Mon-El is being reclusive, sneaky even. The first chance he gets, he tries to sneak into the DEO’s weapons arsenal. After she subdues him and the lock him up in a holding cell, she demands answers. Why is he such a changed person when it’s only been seven months?
That’s when Mon-El tells her it’s been seven years. When he escaped earth because of the atmosphere saturated with trace amounts of lead, he went through a wormhole 400 years into the future. There, L-Corp (no more LexCorp in the future) developed a cure for the Daxamite lead weakness, allowing him to come back to Earth. But that’s not the only difference.
Meanwhile, J’onn’s father Myr’nn has been on Earth since the Mars episode, but he’s been living at the DEO. Winn notices that Myr’nn ask for permission to use the bathroom. It’s very reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption when Red continued to ask for permission to use the bathroom even though he was out of prison. Myr’nn was a prisoner of the White Martians for more than 300 years, so he’s a creature of habit at this point. Winn advises J’onn to take his father off the base so that he can get a taste of freedom. J’onn reassures his father that he’s not a prisoner and he can come and go as he pleases. Myr’nn notices that J’onn is constantly looking at his smartwatch and duty bound to the DEO. He comments that it’s really J’onn who’s a prisoner, a prisoner of the DEO. Upon hearing that, J’onn decides that his father is right and he gets an apartment for the two of them.
Turns out in the seven years, a lot changed for Mon-El. It’s never clearer to Kara when one of the other spaceship pods malfunctions and a poor woman is about to drown in her pod. After Supergirl rescues her, she cradles in Mon-El’s arms. He then introduces her to Kara, as his wife. In the seven years, he’s moved on and gotten married. Kara is once again alone. This time, the knife twists a little deeper in her heart as she thought she had her love back, but thanks to wormholes, he’s even further away from her than he was months ago.
Meanwhile, Samantha goes on her own little adventure. Realizing that she is invulnerable, she goes to her mother’s farm to talk to her about who she really is. Her mother reveals to her that she didn’t technically adopt her as Samantha landed on her farm from outer space. She shows her the spaceship (Kryptonian) and Samantha then takes a piece of the ship off. There, she then goes into the desert, following the object directions. Then out of nowhere, she gets her own “Fortress of Solitude” as the sand erupts to create a base. Once inside, she activates the computer there, a hologram tells her who she is. She’s a Kryptonian of immense power. Sam gets excited thinking she’s like Supergirl, but then finds out that it’s not the case at all. She’s told she will be called “Worldkiller” as she dispenses her “justice” on Earth as “Reign.”
The Flash: “Therefore I Am”
Thanks to the “Council of Wells,” Barry has nailed down who the mysterious “DeVoe” is and finally comes face to face with him. As a result, we get to learn a great deal of our new season-long supervillain.
While Arrow has been the king of flashbacks since the show first started, this week The Flash borrows the format, even the signature editing style of the flashbacks-to-current wipes that have been used in giving us Clifford DeVoe’s backstory. He was a brilliant scientist who wanted to figure out a way to reach his students, who were more interested in looking at their phones than learning what’s needed to be successful in society. Frustrated that he wasn’t reaching the kids, he realized that he needed to expand his mind. Lucky for him, his wife was also a scientist and helped him construct a device to help expand his mind. The only problem, there wasn’t a way to power it up.
Enter: the Particle Accelerator. Both he and his wife new that Harrison Wells’ (really Eobard Thawne) Particle Accelerator could prove disastrous, but it could also power the device needed to expand his mind. There’s a brief moment in the flashback when Season 1 Wells/Thawne interacts with DeVoe at the groundbreaking ceremony and you can tell that he knew that DeVoe will become The Thinker. Another testament to the brilliant acting of Tom Cavanagh as he reminds you how dangerous Wells/Thawne was back then.
DeVoe knew it would cause the shockwave and wore the device on his head preparing to power it, and it worked just how it would. He became infinitely smarter than anyone else on the planet. However, there was a cost. While he was infinitely smarter than he was before, it was causing serious damage to his body. His brain was using more energy than his body could create, effectively killing him.
In the present, Barry and Joe confront DeVoe at his home. But with DeVoe being the smartest man, he already anticipated all things that could happen and set up a trap for Barry. Being the frail old man in the wheelchair, Joe was convinced he wasn’t their guy. Barry was still suspicious and as a result, begins stalking DeVoe. Each time, Barry is looking more paranoid than previously. This causes DeVoe and his wife to open a restraining order on Barry. Barry violates it as he continues investigating, causing him to get suspended from the police.
And even then Barry doesn’t stop. He confronts DeVoe one last time after one of his lectures. There, DeVoe reveals to Barry that he has unlimited intelligence, he knows Barry is The Flash, and there’s nothing he can do to defeat him. This leaves Barry a little defeated. All his enemies before were speedsters, they had physical powers. How can you beat someone who is infinitely smarter than you are? Who knows every move you are going to make? Does Team Flash even have a chance?
Legends of Tomorrow: “Welcome To The Jungle”
Thanks to Damien Dahrk and his daughter’s magic a comatose Sarah has to sit most of the episode out recovering. That doesn’t mean that the Legends can solve another time anachronism without their captain. This time, it’s off to Vietnam in 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War.
The time anachronism this time is a “new god” (good play on the Justice League villain) who is causing both American and Vietnamese soldiers to desert the war in favor of worshipping whoever the god is. The Legends split up. Ray, Amaya, and Zari pose as journalists for the Associated Press investigating what’s going on while Nate and Rory investigate as soldiers. Rory doesn’t want to be in Vietnam at all because he knows that someone from his pasts will be there.
Turns out that person is Rory’s father. Rory only knows him as an abusive man through the eyes of a child. Rory and Nate run into his father. While Nate thinks this will be a “Doctor Phil” moment, Rory doesn’t want anything to do with his old man, and he might even kill him. Of course, when the two interact, they are pretty much the same person. Even their grunting is the same. Slowly but surely, Rory starts to see his old man in a different light. He loves the woman who will become Rory’s mother. He keeps a list of all soldiers he lost under his command. He’s not the same monster that burned his son.
The “New God” the team were investigating turns out to be a time-displaced Gorilla Grodd. You gotta give the Arrowverse its credit. The CGI for Grodd has gotten way better since he was first introduced on The Flash way back when. Now in 1967, Grodd has taken it upon himself to create “world peace” by eliminating humanity and creating World War III. Amaya tries to stop him, but it’s not wise sneaking up on a telepathic metahuman gorilla.
Stein and Jax spend most of the episode in the Wave Rider as they continue to try and figure out a way to separate the two of them so that Stein can go back to his normal life and Jax can be Firestorm by himself. Stein even enlists the help of Isaac Newton and Galileo. See, having a time machine comes in handy. However, when it’s revealed that Grodd wants to kill a visiting LBJ, Jax leaves to go an save the president from a minefield blowing up his military escort. This is the first time that Jax proves to be a hero, and he doesn’t even have to use his Firestorm power. Something tells me that if he and Stein don't get separated, he will still be able to assist the Legends with his engineering skills and his bravery.
Despite Amaya using her totem to show Grodd that she empathizes with him (and offering to take him to a time before humans existed), Grodd decides that he should take control of the Wave Rider and use time travel for his own means. This leads Grodd to telepathically control a just awaken Sarah, who easily overpowers Stein. Luckily for Stein, Isaac Newton sneak attacks Sarah. Grodd then falls off the ship to an exploding field below.
Lucky for Grodd, Damien Dahrk teleported him from 1967 before he can be set ablaze to current times and recruits him into his new “Legion of Doom.”
Arrow: “Thanksgiving”
Oliver keeps trying to have it all. He wants the simple life of being the mayor and taking care of his son. As a result, he passed the reigns of The Green Arrow to his best friend Diggle. Unfortunately for him, the past has a way of catching up to him.
As he is sponsoring a Thanksgiving turkey drive to feed the homeless as well as reveal the new police station, Oliver gets a surprise. Agent Watson shows up during his press conference and reveals that she has a warrant for his arrest. She’s arresting him for all his Green Arrow activities. While it seems like we’ve been down this road before, Agent Watson feels like she has everything she needs and arrests him. What was supposed to be an unveiling of his political activities is instead turned into a perp walk.
Diggle knows that Team Arrow now has to step up more than ever. With news that The Green Arrow is under arrest, that means the criminal element of Star City will think that the city’s up for grabs. He has the team step up in stopping crime, all while the vigilante bill is about to come for a city-wide referendum vote. Black Siren comes back leading some of Cayden James group to rob explosives. Team Arrow is unable to stop her, because Diggle is having problems (even though Curtis gave him some medication) and Team Arrow has to help bail him out while fighting some henchmen.
Turns out Curtis didn’t factor in that Diggle was going through withdrawal from the previous drug he was taking for his arm. Felicity was the only member of Team Arrow to not know about Diggle’s problem. Now with Felicity knowing it, Diggle comes clean with Oliver (fresh out on a high bail Felicity paid with her startup money), who is not too happy that this was kept from him. The two have their first bromance argument in a while. Oliver expresses his disappointment in Diggle, who retorts that he became Green Arrow so Oliver could be with his son, at the expense of Diggle being with his own son.
With Diggle out of commission (and at the risk of a full paralysis), the team doesn’t have a Green Arrow. Knowing that James plans on blowing up a Billy Joel concert (guest starring Billy Joel footage), the team needs a Green Arrow. Oliver breaks his promise to his son and suits up. As the team makes it to the concert, they realize that the police officers are not, in fact, police, but James’s men wearing fake uniforms. This doesn’t look well public perception-wise as they are beating them down. Oliver goes to find the bomb to save everyone.
Turns out, it wasn’t a real bomb. Oliver runs into James who reveals a little of his master plan. James set up the fake bombs because he wants to meet the Green Arrow, who he blames for him losing his son. He’s going to attack the city as a means of revenge. James also releases footage of Team Arrow beating up the (fake) cops, which turns the public against them. Being so close to the referendum, the vote goes against vigilantes. Agent Watson goes back to Washington, warning that the time of vigilantes is over.
Oliver goes back to the hospital to chat with Diggle. The two apologize to each other and make amends, Oliver is told that his sister has awakened (just in time for the next week’s crossover event).
