Welcome to The Pop Break’s weekly round up of all the DCTV that the CW could squeeze into it’s schedule. Follow this space as we track Supergirl, Batwoman, The Flash, and Arrow as this super-powered quartet embark on a collision course to the epic multi-night crossover event: Crisis on Infinite Earths!
Supergirl Season 5 Episode 7: “Tremors”
With only one episode left before it’s effective midseason finale leading into the Crisis event, Supergirl gives Leviathan the opportunity to finally reveal itself, while nearly every major character conflict from the first half of the season comes to a head. It’s a ton to get through, so rather than going through the episode chronologically, let’s break it down by storyline.
Leviathan: This week, Leviathan finally shifts from a shadowy, amorphous international organization into a more concrete threat that will likely occupy our heroes for the remainder of the season. Our team learns this week that it is seemingly led by an ancient alien whose arrival to Earth wiped out the dinosaurs. Originating from a planet not far from Kypton, this alien is known as Rama Khan (Mitch Pileggi, The X-Files). He has the power to manipulate the Earth to his will.
He also appears to be responsible for dozens of natural disasters throughout human history, and he just so happens to have his base of operations in National City, where he is accompanied by Gamemnae (Cara Buono, Stranger Things) who appears to have some ill-defined faculty with “technology.” While Khan plays the central role in this week’s episode, attempting to kill Lena multiple times before being beaten by Supergirl, Gamemnae seems poised to emerge as the true villain, given the prominence of technology as a potential force of good and evil this season.
Alex & Kelly: These two lovebirds are forced to come to grips with a very grounded and real conflict at the heart of their relationship this week, and one Kelly has been trying to avoid most of this season. After Alex is injured in the field, Kelly rushes to her side, only to let her know she isn’t sure she can continue to invest in a romantic partner whose life will always be at risk after her last partner was killed in battle, leaving her traumatized. This problem is handled very empathetically, without Kelly serving Alex a lazy “it’s me or the job” ultimatum. However, it ultimately is resolved by a heartfelt speech by Alex, which while sweet doesn’t actually address the very real trauma Kelly has in her future as she continues to watch her love march off into danger.
J’onn & Mal: After communing with his ghost dad, J’onn realizes that Mal is still alive somewhere in the city, being held captive. He wrestles with whether he should be vulnerable with his brother in the hopes of healing their fraternal divide, even if that means giving Mal an opportunity to kill him, or simply return him to the Phantom Zone. Ultimately, J’onn decides to risk it all and mindmeld with his brother, allowing Mal the ability to see and feel all of the angst and pain we have seen J’onn grapple with around his brother this season. The depths of J’onn pain and regret shock Mal into forgiveness in an excellent scene between David Harewood and Phil LaMarr which would have been the highlight of the episode if not for…
Kara & Lena: This week starts out with Lena realizing the perfect weapon she needs to disperse her “do no harm” tech globally is likely locked away in Superman’s rumored secret weapons vault that we know as the Fortress of Solitude. Since Leviathan is actively attempting to assassinate her for “stealing” the medallion last week, Lena uses this real threat as the foundation of a scheme to manipulate Kara once again. Lena lives up to her Luthor name, pulling off a believably intricate plan to get Kara to admit to the existence of the Fortress and bring her there. Once inside, she helps Kara dispense with Khan before Kara catches her trying to leave with the Myriad device from season one. To the show’s credit, Lena doesn’t try to talk her way out of things.
Instead, she finally reveals the painful truth about the tremendous betrayal she felt due to Kara’s duplicity over hiding her true identity from her for so long and the ways she’s been lying and manipulating Kara ever since she learned the truth. It’s a powerhouse performance from Katie McGrath as she burns it all down while baring her soul to her former best friend. Melissa Benoist more than carries her own as McGrath’s scene partner, devastated by the hurt she’s inflicted upon her friend and speechless as she tries to process Lena’s own betrayal, the potential Lena may do far more harm if she truly has turned heel, and the harsh truth of it all that her own selfishness and poor judgment created this entire mess. As Kara stands temporarily paralyzed by her pain as much as the kyotonite Lena deployed, it seems we are finally entering a new chapter in this relationship, and I for one cannot wait.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg8laqo4e8U
Batwoman Season 1, Episode 7: “Tell Me the Truth”
While Supergirl works in meaningful relationship milestones and emerging big bads as it approaches its midseason finale, Batwoman spent most of its time spinning its wheels this week. The episode primarily centers on what apparently was last week’s cliffhanger: will Sophie tell Kate’s dad, Jacob, the truth about Kate and Batwoman? Sophie feels pretty sure, based on circumstantial evidence that Batwoman is Kate but she has no hard evidence. Kate tries talking Sophie out of her suspicions, but is unsuccessful. This does give us a chance to revisit Kate and Sophie’s time in military school, around the time Kate is kicked out for being gay. However all this material was covered in the pilot, and these flashbacks serve little point, barely fleshing out story we already know. The biggest piece of new information we do get comes in a flashback scene where Jacob convinces Sophie to stay in the closet for the sake of her career.
Meanwhile, Mouse and Alice are killing all of the scientists responsible for the batsuit piercing gun they stole last week. This is now the third episode (out of seven) where this gun has been a macguffin. It’s incredibly uninteresting and significantly limits the scope of the series in a negative way. The point of a hero like Batwoman, and Batman before her, is that she is only human at the end of the day. Building so much plot around her super strong suit and the one weapon that can penetrate it entirely misses the point of the character and what makes her interesting, all in the service of some pretty boring stories.
In any case, Sophie suspects Kate as Batwoman could be in grave danger now that the assassin, The Rifle (Garfield Wilson, The Man in the High Castle) who had been killing gun-related scientists also is apparently now in possession of the gun in question. As such, she finally spills the beans to Jacob, only to be proven wrong when she rushes to the scene to tell Batwoman what she’s done and sees Kate and Batwoman standing side bye side. You see, Kate played a bait and switch on Sophie, placing Kate’s old flame, family friend, and all around badass Julia Pennyworth (Christina Wolfe, The Royals) in the Batwoman suit.
Julia, who is Alfred’s martial arts master daughter and spends most of the episode breathing some life into scenes otherwise weighed down by overly-expository dialogue, is, of course, shot by the gun meant for Kate. However, in a twist, Alice has removed a part of the gun making its impact nonlethal. And in another twist, we learn that Alice, Mouse, and The Rifle are all ACTUALLY working for an unseen bigger big bad of whom Alice is not fond. And in an EVEN BIGGER TWIST Jacob was actually Mouse in disguise all episode…which feels entirely pointless since Jacob is just out of town and now on his way home as the episode ends.
We close with Alice promising a tea party to remember next episode, and none of the big reveals or twists in this week’s episode give me any confidence that they can pull off a satisfying midseason finale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWPz0d_qdjI
The Flash Season 6, Episode 6: “License to Elongate”
Unlike our first two shows, The Flash has two episodes before the big Crisis event, and so this episode spends more time highlighting the B team than moving the season-long plot along. Barry has spent the last few episodes helping Frost and Cisco prepare for life without The Flash, so this week it’s Ralph’s turn. However, in a welcome change of pace, Ralph is the one teaching Barry a few lessons this week as their search for Sue Dearborn (Ralph’s missing person case from the end of last season) quickly turns into a campy send up of James Bond tropes.
Ostensibly, the purpose of this story is to demonstrate that while Ralph can seem silly and inexperienced in Barry’s world, he’s very adept when he’s in his element. Despite being a former police detective and private investigator, the show stretches (no pun intended) to blur the line between PI and international spy. It’s all in the service of some fun gags and to further set up that there appears to be an shadowy international organization using metas as weapons (which I guess is separate from Leviathan, which is doing the same thing over on Supergirl’s Earth). Most of all, it’s here to remind Barry that he’s more than just The Flash. As a super-smart civilian, Barry has plenty to offer all on his own, and if The Flash truly does perish in the Crisis to come, the world will miss Barry Allen as well. This is crystallized in a sweet final moment where The Flash holds a press conference to announce Ralph’s Elongated Man as the city’s new protector, and Ralph and Joe turn it into a ceremony to give Barry Allen, CSI, a Medal of Honor for all his hard work fighting crime…even though he’s hardly ever at work, and, when he is, The Flash always ends up solving his case. BUT IT’S SWEET.
Elsewhere, Nash Wells runs into Allegra, who is excited to learn all about the multiverse and eventually agrees to help him break into The Monitor’s lair to help save The Flash. The story is meant to help flesh out both of these new characters, but it doesn’t get enough room to breathe and doesn’t actually amount to all that much in this episode, aside from officially welcoming Allegra into the fold and hinting at a deeper connection between Wells and some version of Allegra. Also, Chester, the man whose consciousness merged with a black hole way back in episode one, finally awakes from whatever chamber in Star Labs that was helping him recover. He quickly learns he’s been legally declared dead, so he teams up with meta-attorney Cecile to correct the record. For some reason, that happens off screen, and the remainder of their time together is spent with Cecile trying and failing to help Chester ask a girl out only for Chester to help encourage Cecile to commit fully to her new career path. This corner of the show mostly felt like an audition for Chester to fill in for Cisco after he’s killed off in the Crisis. I have seen no spoilers for the Crisis, but it feels like the show is giving us all the clues. I’m calling it now, let’s see if I’m correct.
Oh ya and just in case you forgot this arc’s big bad, Ramsay pops up at the end to try to kill Ralph for some reason…CLIFFHANGER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83wITNwy1JQ
Arrow Season 8, Episode 5: “Prochnost”
With two episodes to go before the start of the Crisis that is meant to claim his life, we pick back up with Oliver trying to teach Mia everything he knows about fighting crime armed only with a quiver of arrows. They seem to be getting along well, and Ollie confides in John that he hopes to “teach [his kids] good without showing them the bad.” It’s a noble goal, but simply uttering that intention into the world assures it will not be able to be honored. Famous last words, etc etc.
Meanwhile, Laurel has been tasked by The Monitor to betray Team Arrow for the greater good. Oliver is attempting to build a weapon to stop The Monitor, convinced he’s actually what will bring on the Crisis, not save them from it. Oliver takes his adult future kids to Russia and brings Laurel along so they can find a component necessary for the device Curtis plans to build back in Star City. The Monitor has asked Laurel to get the component first and bring it to him. Lila, who was revealed to be another agent of The Monitor a few episodes back, meets up with Laurel to make sure she’ll go through with it. For Laurel, betraying Oliver means bringing her Earth back from nothingness, which means she has no choice but to comply. Katie Cassidy does such a great job wrestling with Laurel’s fealty to her Earth and the pride she has in finally being the hero she never believed she could be.
Once inside Russia, Oliver and company meet up with Anatoly (David Nykl, Stargate: Atlantis) one last time. Nykl is always a welcomed presence on the show, and I was happy to see him return for one last time misadventure in Russia. However, he seemed to process the whole “these are my adult children from the future who were sent here by an all powerful, godlike being who we are now trying to kill” news pretty casually. In any case, you will not be shocked to learn that Oliver’s past with the Russian mob rears its head one last time, and Oliver’s misguided attempts to shield his kids from the darker parts of his past ends up lending Mia straight into danger.
Eventually, they get it together, with the Queens creating a diversion so Laurel can nab the component they need. With Mia‘a reverence for the hero she would become in Mia’s future fresh on her mind, Laurel decides to not betray her friends. Instead, she lays a trap for Lila, allowing Oliver and John to see for themselves that she is secretly working for The Monitor. Before she can explain herself, Oliver, John, and Laurel are knocked out by tranquilizer darts from an unseen force, presumably allied with Lila, as credits roll. Now THAT is a real cliffhanger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzpzBRW3GNk
