And, we’re back! Supergirl, Arrow, and The Flash returned from their hiatus with exciting new episodes.
Supergirl, Season 4 Episode 15, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
What very much looked like a set up episode for next week, this week’s Supergirl (3/10) turned out to have a fantastic ending. Earlier in the episode Alex is assigned as Ben Lockwood’s personal security, (against her better judgement) Brainey organizes a peaceful protest march for aliens using the hashtag #AmericanAlien, and there is some internal fighting among our newest band of villains, the Elite. Also, lots of really good music this episode!
During the peaceful protest march, Manchester Black and The Hat (who is way too powerful) show up and turn the peaceful protest into a full out brawl. It’s always fun to see the heroes and villains fight, but it was actually really cool to see the interactions between the humans and aliens. Some changing their political views as they would help the aliens that were being attacked by the Children of Liberty. Supergirl even changed some minds in the process as she is constantly towing the line to bring about a peaceful solution to this incredible season long plot.
I thought it might be kinda lame, but James taking pictures of the whole event turned out really cool. There were several images of Aliens and humans helping each other, with signs like “Stand Together” in the background which ended up making a huge impact. This was a brilliant way for James to exercise his power of the press, but unfortunately the episode ends with him getting shot in his office! Next week’s preview shows nothing of James, (Uh Oh) but does feature the debut of John Cryer as the infamous Lex Luthor.
-Rob Crowther IV
Arrow, Season 7 Episode 13, ‘Training Day’
“Training Day” finally delivered on the potential the concept of deputized vigilantes promised for some reason a month ago. The episode played out exactly like one would expect with no surprises or subversions as far as the central arc goes. In that it felt like a classic episode of Arrow that is able to be good for our characters and entertaining without having to pin it all on the season arc even the writers seem to have lost all track of.
The team is feeling some growing pains when it comes to working inside the law. If anything, this episode really highlighted how much crime was an essential part of the Team Arrow MO and they would be powerless without it. First the team tries to bring down a crooked CEO the SCPD way, it doesn’t work. Then they go rogue and try to bring him down the season one way, that doesn’t work either. Surprise! The best way this partnership goes is with a compromise between the two extremes. Creative it is not, and the idea that there are ways to use the Arrow resources while still operating within the confines of the law is some high-powered nonsense. But the idea of Team Arrow being its own separate division within the SCPD has potential for some great conflicts. I only wish this season would stop feeling like it has potential and actually start delivering on it.
There aren’t many episodes left to go, yet the season continues to build up to more things down the line. I am beginning to wonder if season 7 will end similar to 6, with matters unresolved between the heroes and the main villain. If Dante is to be the final big bad of Arrow, taking into account the announcement the series would be ending this fall, I only hope they can improve on the milquetoast nothing he seems to be this season.
In the more important character moments, we learned that Dinah has lost her powers and experiences a crisis of confidence in her role as a vigilante, which Renee thankfully wakes her up from. Oliver and Felicity tell John about the baby, and his reaction is just wonderful. The usual suspects returned to the bunker and we were allowed to finally enjoy the team being back together, officially. Bronze Tiger tells Laurel that Emiko murdered Diaz (thank you, Emiko) and the two antiheroes seem to be heading toward a standoff. We learn in a touching moment that Mia is named after Oliver’s late mother. Finally, William and Mia spend an episode obtaining the means to listen to Felicity’s message to them, which I cannot tell if it is a transparent way to burn through run time on a fetch quest or a clever commentary on the antiquation of technology and the effectiveness of Felicity’s encryption methods.
-Matt Gilbert
The Flash, Season 5 Episode 16, ‘Failure Is An Orphan’
Cicada is dead. Long live Cicada.
This episode was going great until it flew off the rails in its explosive final 10 minutes. There was Eobard Thawne seeing a new element being introduced into a changing timeline. Joe and Cecile discovers the complicity of Dr. Ambrose and confronted her and learned to work together and Iris and Nora got to spend some quality time together after realizing they may not have much time left. There was an excellent reflective period on all of the Flash’s eleventh hour appeals to his villains’ humanity that underlined the difficulty of what they were trying to do. Admittedly, it made no sense going in that Cicada would voluntarily cure himself, and a focal point of the episode was that he had no reason to and even Barry could not convince him.
Then we learned that Cicada’s niece is a meta human and everything changed. The Flash revealed his face to Cicada. Orlin Dwyer’s perspective on metas changed, he was willing to cure himself if it meant curing Grace, and it signaled the most obvious plot twist of the season, possibly the series. Right in the middle of Dwyer being cured and his chest wound being sutured, and just as Team Flash believed their biggest problems were over, a separate, more dangerous Cicada attacked. No prizes for guessing who this new player is, though it clearly raises more than a few questions. The new Cicada beats all of Team Flash singlehandedly, kills Dr. Ambrose and steals back an unconscious Orlin. Their identity is obvious to everyone, given this episode’s big revelation, except the characters affected. But clearly, Grace Dwyer eventually wakes up, has gained powers stronger than her uncle’s, and apparently travels back from the future to save him from the Flash?
The motivation is unclear, but I have concerns. Dwyer was never a strong enough villain to carry the entire season, but this is becoming a soap opera. It feels like the season is about to leave its mostly solid platform and careen into an abyss of setting up a major conflict in its last few episodes. Hopefully Grace can give us a more compelling adversary than her uncle, but based on the admittedly small performance in the closing seconds, I kind of doubt it. It would seem the apple does not fall far from the tree.
-Matt Gilbert
