Since the CW just continues to load itself up with DC comic book shows – Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and now Supergirl – it seemed to just make more sense to recap them all in one fell swoop rather than stretch ourselves thin with the separate shows.
Supergirl 2.16 “Star-Crossed”
Mon-El starts the hour by teasing the musical crossover by asking to watch a musical. Teri Hatcher and straight-to-dvd star Kevin Sorbo show up at National City demanding Mon-El give himself to them or they will destroy everything. Turns out they’re his parents, the king and queen of Daxum, which means Mon-El lied about who he was, he’s actually a prince.
If we’re looking at the episode through the season-long lens of Supergirl confronting Trump rhetoric, I suppose this episode is about confronting the racist family members of those you love. They even have the phrase “Make Daxum Great Again” just to drive it home (but no MDGA hats). But alas, all we really wanted from this episode was to get to the crossover, so a big thanks to Music Meister showing up at the end to get us there.
The Flash 3.17 “Duet”
The best episode of Supergirl in season one was the crossover episode with herself and The Flash. Even after crossover week, it’s hard to blame the CW to want to double dip, but I was extremely doubtful that a musical episode was the thing to do it. A musical episode is something that you do when your show is super washed, when you’ve run out of all ideas and just need a ratings boost for one night. But to be fair, at least they have a bunch of cast members with some sort of singing experience, they have an excuse for wanting to do a musical episode. Grant Gustin, Melissa Benoist and Darren Criss all had stints on Glee. Jesse L. Martin will jump at the chance to play Marvin Gaye at any opportunity. Carlos Valdez actually has pipes. John Barrowman is John Barrowman, Victor Garber is Victor Garber, and Jeremy Jordan is currently doing Newsies on Broadway. Kudos to the producer that took a look around and said “Hey, they can all sing, let’s do a musical episode!”
And you know what? It actually works! Even on a network with Legends of Tomorrow, this episode stands out as quite possibly the most smacked episode of television. It’s definitely the most smacked episode of both shows, but it’s a whole lot of fun. Music Meister transports our two heroes to a shared hallucination where they are trapped in a musical and must sing for their lives. Malcolm, Cisco, Stein, Mon-El, Joe West, Iris and Winn are there as different characters in their shared musical. Quickly, I didn’t know that Stein and Joe West as gay gangster dads was something that was missing from my life.
One thing that was evident in last season’s crossover was how well Gustin and Benoist played off each other, and they continue to rely on that here. I particularly enjoyed the exchange,“It’s not a gender thing, I just want to kick the door in.” and “Superfriend” is a terrific little tune. The episode went the extra step beyond publicity stunt and managed to put forth some character work for our heroes while establishing exciting things for the future. I also like that Martian Manhunter gets properly introduced to Team Flash, he should have a larger role in future crossovers. All this 5th dimension meddling we’ve seen lately could really pan out to something great in the future. Shoutout to this crossover for making the musical episode trope work to their advantage!
Legends of Tomorrow 2.15 “Fellowship of the Spear”
I’m done trying to analyze this show that’s so giddily resistant to any insight, so instead here’s some stupid shit that happened this episode.
– They meet J.R.R. Tolkien.
– They’re trying to find the blood of Christ.
– They go to a WWI battlefield.
– Captain Cold is back, which I’m always okay with become Wentworth Miller is having the time of his life in this role. He’s a member of the Legion of Doom, which is a tight addition!
– I can’t count the amount of references/ripoffs of the Lord of the Rings in this episode.
All joking aside, this was actually a surprisingly strong episode of Legends that really forced the show to move forward. Bringing back Captain Cold is always a smart play, and having Mick defect at the end really shakes things up for the team. Also, the blood of Christ is destroyed! I sincerely hope this means that next week they have to go save Jesus!
Arrow 5.17 “Kapiushon”
Some positive developments this week in Star City, though I still left the episode feeling a little underwhelmed. Chase is torturing Oliver shirtless, which is the only way to torture Oliver on this show. I’m glad this show is returning to its roots of aggressive shirtlessness that it had in seasons 1 and 2. Chase is actually doling out some gnarly punishment, giving Oliver the same deaths that Oliver gave to others back in his killing days – 3 arrows in the chest, water torture. He wants Oliver to tell him his biggest secret like some sort of messed up slumber party.
At least Dolph Lundgren is back in the flashbacks as Kovar. And because everything must be connected, Malcolm Merlyn does business with Kovar in the flashbacks. Also, watching Dolph Lundgren fight the Green Arrow is a huge highlight of my life.
Evelyn Sharp is finally back after being conspicuously absent from every episode – not even a mention! – since her defection from team Arrow. Turns out Chase has been torturing her for who knows how long, and wants Oliver and her to do a battle royale. When nobody is dead, he kills Evelyn. Oliver finally admits that he likes killing, which is a shock to nobody who has ever watched this show. What did actually catch me by surprise was when Evelyn got back up, in on it all with Chase. Oliver walks back into the Arrow cave like a drunk frat boy after a bender, and decides to call it quits on being Green Arrow. I suppose that that’s an interesting development, but let’s be real, we know the show’s not gonna go down that path for long. It’s just hard to get intrigued by a subplot when you already know how it’s going to end.
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