And, we’re back! Supergirl, Arrow, and The Flash returned from their hiatus with exciting new episodes.
Supergirl, Season 4 Episode 14, “Stand and Deliver”
“You have the Elite, I have Super Friends.” This line pretty much sums up this week’s episode which pits Supergirl, Martian Manhunter, Brainey, and Nia against anti-heroes, Manchester Black Minagerie, and a mysterious newcomer, The Hat.
After a couple of weak episodes, this stellar season is back on track. Lots of significant character growth this episode as Supergirl and Alex are able to get back on the same page and J’onn decides to get back into the fight. Ben Lockwood makes moves as the leader of the Children of Liberty both in and outside of the White House. It also looks like Alex will be working with Lena moving forward, as the both don’t entirely trust the government.
Supergirl still has to tow the line when choosing sides with the new anti-heroes involved, so it makes for an interesting story arc. (For example when she has to destroy an anti- hero hijacked laser sattelite that nearly blows up the white house) She even stands up to the alien hating President while Alex stands up to Colonel Haley.The show is finally back on course, and I am prepared for some intense episodes ahead. Supergirl is far and away the top CW hero show right now.
-Rob Crowther IV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrZp62e9AxQ
Arrow, Season 7 Episode 12, ‘Brothers and Sisters’
The second half of this season has been off the rails for a while, but this episode may have confirmed there can be no recovery before season 8. It’s ironic, but I had no idea a show about an archer could feel so impossibly aimless. The episode had so many balls in the air and managed to drop almost every single one.
If “Brothers & Sisters” had a theme, it’s disappointment. Diggle and Lila finally make a play against Dante, but we learn that Dante is a nondescript white man in a suit before he gets away. Felicity spends the episode figuring out how to tell Oliver about her pregnancy and finally does so in the most lopsided and awkward fashion. William and Mia try to find Felicity but not before they take turns talking about how bad Oliver and Felicity were to and for them. It is a double gut punch because we see Oliver calling William’s full voicemail trying to reconnect before William tells us he never heard from them again, and the fact that it is a flash forward means that there is no way that relationship can get better.
On the positive side, Felicity also hatches a plan to kill Diaz after learning he is part of Suicide Squad 2.0, but refuses to go through with it because she’s better than that or she doesn’t want to raise her family in violence or something. Also Oliver goes through a typical “Oliver” sub-arc about learning not to take control and overstep while Emiko learns to let her brother in because he is not his father. It was the sort of rudimentary 42 minute plot that belong in season one but Arrow keeps finding ways to make work even now. It was remedial, but harmless.
But then there’s the elephant in the room.
Regular readers may be expecting some form of exaggerated jumping for joy in response to the long awaited, merciful killing of Ricardo Diaz. But to be honest, this episode was such a mess in nearly every conceivable way, that that development means almost nothing. Even watching the undisputed worst thing about Arrow for the past season and a half burn to death as I have hoped he would meant nothing because this season has no sense of direction. But at least he’s gone, I guess.
The fact that his killer is another mystery box as the end of the season comes closer into view just feels like another exhausting thing to keep track of. I get that this last half a season is probably more of a transitional period than anything else, but at this point I’m just counting the days until the ending.
-Matt Gilbert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qmkMkTYXhY
The Flash, Season 5 Episode 15, ‘King Shark vs, Gorilla Grodd’
This week’s episode of The Flash felt rather like a SyFy film. It certainly has the title for it. To the show’s credit, it was able to advance the subplot of Cisco’s metahuman cure and the ethics therein as it relates to Barry’s character and the show overall. The cure is complete and ready for testing, but Cisco and Caitlin are in need of a volunteer. Simultaneously we are reminded that King Shark both exists and is not an aquatic predator by choice.
The ensuing dual arcs of an unorthodox love story between King Shark and Tanya and Barry using the cure as a weapon stay surprisingly on track and give us some great moments between the respective characters. Seeing King Shark’s human face and meeting his character was a nice surprise, and the scene in which he chooses to return to his terrifying CG form to stop Grodd provided more than enough pathos for the tragic love story angle to work. Where it flies off the rails is in the second half of its title.
Let’s be honest. Everything in this episode is about getting us to the event fight of its opening seconds. No matter how contrived or random or out of character, the show promised a fight and a fight it delivers. Grodd comes completely out of nowhere right in the middle of the episode, but we’re willing to allow it for the fun it provides. The telepathic crown is a bizarre McGuffin that means nothing outside of the King Shark story, and Grodd’s interest in it, though in character, feels poorly thought out and small for his formidable mind.
Still, the titular fight is, as Cisco describes, the stuff of dreams. Moments like this are why we watch The Flash, and if it doesn’t excuse the silliness leading up to its inanity, it at least partially justifies it.
-Matt Gilbert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQx5gJSOheY
