Last week the CW did a never before 4 episode cross-over event, right before their mid-season finales. In many ways this move was genius because although the storyline varied from the different series’ current plots, it also built up momentum and increased the audience viewers for each show. For example, the viewers who watch Arrow may not usually watch SuperGirl, but this last week they might have, just so that they would know what was going on with the cross-overs. It was also a great opportunity for publicity for their “superhero” series all around, as the actors and actresses that play these roles got a lot of press and media attention when combining their star-power. Although each has their own distinct role and villains to combat, whenever they combine it makes the chemistry that much more amazing. No, they are not The Avengers, or The X-Men, but as far as superhero TV series go, they have definitely built an impressive following. And while it is always risky to do any kind of “alien” theme on prime time television, I actually think they handled it very well. It was the perfect combination of cheesiness and humor with action and intensity—at least for me.
At first I wasn’t sure they could pull it off, because the week started off with an episode of Supergirl, that let’s face it wasn’t really a true “cross-over”. I mean Barry and Cisco do appear in the last 3 minutes of the show to ask for Kara’s help, but before that the episode truly had nothing to do with the real conflict of the cross-over series. It didn’t even include the other shows’ cast-members. Instead the episode focused once again on Alex’s coming out story and on an act of terrorism against Alien-kind, as a device is placed in one of their hang-outs that kills all of the aliens inside. Thankfully Mon-El follows the real Hank Henshaw outside, confused as to who he really is. Even though he gets massively beat up by the real Hank, he is not inside for the full affect of the gas. Although he is still affected and made gravely ill, at least he isn’t killed on impact and there is time to save him.
For me, the introduction of Mon-El (played by Chris Wood), is one of the best new characters of the season. Many know Chris Wood from other CW series, including Containment and the Vampire Diaries, where he played a sadistic, yet oddly likeably villain. Mon-El adds a new element to a team that was getting a little stale and is finally a decent love interest for Kara! There was no chemistry from her co-workers James Olsen or best friend Winn, but finally with Mon-El there seems to be a spark. While the CW writers do take a departure from the traditional character in the comic books (shocker), so far they have done a great job with creating a new multi-dimensional character. Kara gets the chance to be a mentor, for the first time in her life, and although Mon-El starts off as kind of an arrogant rogue, his respect for Kara and his desire to want to be something more do start to change him. Although, this episode focused more on Cadmus and the much-anticipated kiss between Kara and Mon-El—which of course they both have yet to admit happened—Kara’s Earth was not really involved in the Alien crisis facing Barry. The reasons for this I have to believe are that first, Kara’s Earth already has aliens as part of their normal, so not really a big deal, and second, transporting ALL of the other super heroes to her Earth just doesn’t seem plausible or make any sense, and her “team” isn’t really needed with all of the other superheroes.
Therefore, the real “cross-over” action began on Tuesday night with “The Flash”. As the Flash team is still at odds over the Flashpoint conflict, working together has been difficult for them. The friction between Cisco and Barry is palpable, and has been both sad and disarming because our usual humorous and exciting Cisco has been angry and depressed and not himself. The team has just been off. Iris and Joe have wanted to be there for Barry, but between Caitlin’s fear of her new powers, Cisco’s anger and resentment towards Barry for losing his brother, the emergence of Wally’s new powers (or rather the fear Iris and Joe have over him using them), and the absence of the real HR, have the team dynamic askew.
In this episode, Barry takes a detour from the Alien-God Savitar (stay tuned for mid-season finale review), and instead encounters the Dominators. Unlike Kara’s earth, although Barry and Oliver are now used to meta-humans, aliens is not something they have encountered before. And wisely Barry knows that he is no match for this new threat alone and calls upon Oliver and company (not the Disney film), as well as Kara to combat this new force. It is the first time that we get to see the characters from all four series together and how they interact. Oliver’s attitude toward Kara is not surprising and I love that Kara is just as sweet and nice as Barry is because it finally gives him another superhero with his same disposition, only Brandon Routh’s character as the Atom even comes close to this. The episode reveals to the other hero’s the creation of Flashpoint and how their lives have changed, and now it is not just Cisco that is mad at Barry. Oliver is once again the main voice of reason and realizes that it is ridiculous to be upset with Barry but no one is listening. Instead the other heroes head off to face the Dominators without Barry or Oliver and The Arrow and The Flash are left alone.
As Barry continues to berate himself over what he has done in bringing the Dominators here and changing the timeline, Oliver delivers the best advice of the episode when he tells Barry that he is not a god. He reminds him that he watched both his father and mother die as well, and if there was anyway that he could go back and change it, he would. Barry didn’t kill Cisco’s brother or change John’s child. He simply made a choice, and all of us make choices all of the time that affect the timeline and others. While Barry and Oliver deliberate, not surprisingly the other heroes walk into a mind-controlled trap by the Dominators, and are sent to kill Barry and Oliver. The geek squad endeavors to figure out how to sever the mind-control link and I loved watching Felicity work with Cisco. Ultimately the team is reunited and all seems to be well and forgiven as Diggle tells Barry that he doesn’t care what happened, they are with him as a team. Just as they start to come together, suddenly Sara is beamed up to the spaceship, and then one by one the other members of the team are as well. Even with his speed, Barry is unable to save them.
There are some great one-liners in this episode as well. Two of my favorite are when Ray Palmer’s character (Brandon Routh) meets Supergirl and says “She reminds me of my cousin”—very tongue in cheek as Routh played a movie version of Superman before the recent emergence of the role. I also loved when Mick refuses to call Kara anything other than “skirt”, and after the conflict is over he tells her to call him. There is something refreshing about a character that refuses to be politically correct or follow any kind of societal norms.
The only thing that truly bugged me about this episode was how judgemental and hypocritical everyone was towards Barry. Yes he changed the timeline to save his parents. But he did go back and try and fix it and even had to watch his mother die again to do so. And yes their lives are different, but they don’t remember their other lives anyway so what is the big deal? Plus how many of them have made decisions to save their loved ones before that have changed things? Oliver brought Thea back from the dead. Laurel brought Sara back from the dead. Both at incredible costs. And even in this episode we see that Pr. Stein and his brief interaction with his younger self has now given himself a daughter that he didn’t have before. But so what? What is the point of having the ability to make decisions and affect change if we are so scared that things will actually change?
Arrow was the saddest episode for me. In a semi-departure from the normal action characterized with The Arrow, instead this episode was kind of the “It’s a Wonderful Life” for Oliver. This episode was everything that his life could have been. His parents are both alive. Laurel is alive, and they are engaged to be married. His friends and family are all united. But somehow he knows that it is not right. Each of the team members that are transported to the Dominators ship keep having memories of their “real” lives. Oliver sees Laurel die even as he is talking to her. Thea sees her mother die in her mind as she is hugging her. Only as Oliver follows Diggle (the Arrow in this mental game) does he finally start to piece together that this is not right. Interestingly enough it is only the Arrow team members(non-meta) that are taken. True, Ray Palmer and Sara Lance from DC Legends are taken, but remember they were originally Arrow team members. In this mental reality Ray and Felicity are engaged (still weird for me how nicely they ended things in the real world), and Sara and Oliver have never dated. Each hero must fight their greatest threats and villains in order to leave and we see them bring back Slade Wilson, Damian Dhark, Malcolm Merlin for the heroes to fight. The saddest scene is when the fake Laurel begs Oliver not to go. I am still conflicted about how the writers went from having Felicity be the love of Oliver’s life and his fiancée, back to friends and co-workers and all of the sudden Laurel is once again his great love since she has passed? Not sure it is believable that Felicity and Oliver now have no feelings for each other and are just great teammates again, but that is a discussion for another day! They have really made a mess of Oliver’s lovelife.
Also, mysteriously absent in this episode are Firestorm and Supergirl, but since the focus is on Oliver consciously choosing his messy but real existence, it is okay that they are missing because there is no real place for them. The episode ends with a brilliant rescue by DC Legends characters Nate and Amaya sucking up Oliver and company (again not the Disney film) into their time ship and rescuing them from the Dominators, thanks to the information they receive from Felicity and Cisco. They also figure out that the Dominators are headed straight for earth.
Surprisingly, it is the DC Legends episode that seems to have the most action. As the conflict starts to come to an end and the superheroes finally figure out a way to beat the Dominators for good, several things happen. First, Mick, Amaya and Steal head back in time to try and capture one of the original Dominators, but instead they themselves are captured by government agents. Felicity and Cisco travel along because you know, geeks and time travel—come on! But really Cisco wants to go because he wants to get away from Barry. He is still so angry about his brother. It’s really ironic because Cisco and his brother Dante had a complicated relationship at best and in much earlier episodes, Barry actually helps Cisco save Dante from being killed. Felicity and Cisco come to the rescue of our trapped superheroes, and in true classic superhero style they even go back and save the Dominator from the torture of the government. In so doing they change the course of the future and Cisco gets a taste of what it feels like to accidentally change the course of time and see the repercussions, and he begins to have some insight into what Barry must be going through.
In return for saving the Dominators life, now the Dominators say they will leave earth alone if they can simply have Barry Allen. Barry briefly attempts to say there is no discussion and turn himself over before Oliver and the rest of the superheroes absolutely refuse to let him. Everyone plays their part in this final episode. The geek squad comes up with a device that will incapacitate the Dominators, The Flash and Supergirl team up to use their speed to distribute the devices onto all of the aliens. And the rest of the superheroes get to work in an epic rooftop battle (because of course it has to be a rooftop, right??) Oliver gets rescued by Supergirl and has a brief moment of humility, since before he basically asked her to keep her distance.
As far as cross-over events and team-ups go, even in the comic books, there is always a certain amount of humor, ridiculousness, action and emotion and this event is no different. They are able to stay pretty true to the comic book feel of cross-overs and everyone is semi-nonchalant about beating aliens and saving the world. The end of the episode Oliver and Sara finally have a moment—which I was glad of because up until this point their interaction has been limited and considering their history they really needed to acknowledge each other. They have been friends, lovers, teammates, and both of their lives have changed tremendously, but their brief conversation and hug at least acknowledges this.
Even more poignant for me is when Barry tells Oliver they should hang out more often and not just when they are saving the world, to which Oliver responds “But what would we do”, and then the scene pans to the two of them having a drink in a bar. It’s fitting that it should end with the two of them since really it all started with the two of them. They have both gone on and built their own teams, but the mentor/protégé relationship that they have had, has now morphed into friends and equals and is one of the strongest elements of this series.
Now on to the mid-season finales!
