Arrowverse Roundup - Week 17 Review
Some familiar faces returned this week to several shows! They are all shifting to turbo to cross the finish line of the season. There was a new member of the Legends joining the Waverider. There was an old friend who came back to Star City and three speedsters from three different Earths teamed up to stop a bomb! Continue reading to see my thoughts on all that went down and more. There will be spoilers for this week's episodes!
You can see all of this season's reviews right here.
Legends of Tomorrow - Episode 3.13 - "No Country For Old Dads"
Meanwhile, Wally made it to the Waverider with Rip, and most of that time was spent trying to find Ray. Both the Time Bureau and the Legends did. Well, the Time Bureau's director wouldn't give Ava Sharpe the resources to do so, then he died from Grodd. The death of Director Bennett meant Ava Sharpe was now in charge of the Time Bureau, and Rip asked if he could return to work immediately. So he's probably going to pop up in the tail end of the season again.
As far as references go, Upswipes is mentioned again, the official app of the Arrowverse! Darhk was swiping through it, while torturing the creator, and he actually liked "Carrie C" - which was Cupid from Arrow. Who knows if that Easter Egg will pan out to an appearance on Legends but someone that camp will fit right in on the show. The best reference in the episode was Director Bennett on a mission. "I have to stop Alexander Hamilton from seeing Hamilton the musical". That is fun to think about.
It's convenient that Grodd has appeared again since the Legends have a speedster now. What great timing...
Meanwhile, Amaya and Zari meditated to go into "the world between worlds" to find the totem that Nora stole. The way they described it sounded similar to the "pocket dimension" that DeVoe stays in on The Flash. I wonder if there will be a connection there.
The Nora/Ray connection is going to be the most important thing to come out of this episode, as I am convinced that it will be crucial in defeating Darhk, which means stopping Mallus. I can even see Darhk help the Legends defeat Mallus to keep his daughter safe.
But the most intriguing part by far, was Rip realizing that Sara and Ava cared for each other - and then in typical Rip fashion - deleted a file on the Waverider, to keep a secret about Ava from Sara. I have no idea what it could be, other than a descendant of someone we know, but I guess we will find out soon. It was clever of them embedding her into the show, letting her grow on the audience, and the dropping this on us. It felt organic that way.
A lot happened this week, a lot of groundwork was laid for the future, which is rapidly approaching. Legends has been one of the strongest Arrowverse entries this season. I hope that continues all the way to the end.
The Flash - Episode 4.15 - "Enter Flashtime"
I'm going to put this on front street right off the bat: The mishandling of the Wally West character is the biggest mistake the Arrowverse executives have made. They brought him into The Flash with no idea what to do with him. They never had an arc for him, other than wanting to be a speedster. They finally tried to do right by him, by shifting him into Legends (where they now have a chance to redeem themselves with him), only to have him join Legends of Tomorrow on the exact week he's needed on The Flash the most. He would have a lot to do here, but that didn't happen.
Other than that glaring oversight, the episode was actually pretty great. The whole episode only took place over the span of about 15 minutes or so. With the audience joining Barry, Jesse and Jay in "Flashtime", the episode had a different feel to it.
They had planted the seed of Barry being able to bring people into "Flashtime" with him, a few episodes back. It was out of nowhere, but I assumed it was for a reason. I didn't think the reason would be a filler episode though. So this ability has to come up again, in order to use it when it matters. Of course, it "mattered" in the Arrowverse, they prevented a nuclear bomb from going off! But as far as overarching stories go, it did not. So this was just to ingrain it in us further, for use later, I feel.
We did get some character work done though. Wells and Jesse seemed to have mended their relationship, which was broken over Wells wife/Jesse's mother. At first it seemed like Wells was hinting that her death was his fault, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It was just the loss of the love that was so powerful it seems. Either way, they seem to be wrapping up things with Jesse Quick, since Violett Beane has gotten a new gig on CBS.
The other relationship was that of Killer Frost and Caitlin Snow. When Barry brought Frost into "Flashtime" to see if she could freeze the bomb, she was worried about "Caity". It is nice that Frost is okay with Snow sharing the same body and they don't seem to want to destroy each other. In fact, it was such a powerful moment that Caitlin even remembered Frost saying it, and Caitlin never remembers any of what Frost says or does normally.
One more: Jay Garrick. He hinted at the end of the episode that there was another speedster on Earth-3 and that he was going to train "her". I doubt we've heard the last of that, even if it is not until next season.
A character we didn't get hardly any of was Joe West. He was completely absent in last week's episode, and now here, hardly in the episode at all. Barry brought nearly every character into "Flashtime". The only one he didn't was Joe, which is very strange. Joe and Barry's relationship are the heart of the show, more than Iris and Barry in some ways. To not have Joe help Barry through this was misguided. The only reason I can think of (besides actor availability if Jesse L. Martin was off filming something else) is that it would lessen the impact of the great talk he had with Iris. Other than that, I'm stumped.
The episode ended with the mysterious woman in Jitters again. We've seen her a few times before. There are a ton of theories as to who she is. My favorite is that she is a descendant of Barry and Iris - a speedster from the future who is back to fix a wrong. But we shall see in due time.
I like when a formulaic show tries something new. Most of the time, the results are pretty positive. For a filler episode, this one wasn't bad. I just hope we can back down to some DeVoe business now.
Black Lightning - Episode 1.07 - "Equinox: The Book of Fate"
This episode ended with a bang! Black Lightning is not messing around! If there was an any doubt that all the CW supehero shows should be twelve to thirteen episodes, look no further than it's newest one.
It was great pulling back a layer on Peter Gambi this week. He seems to be friendly with Lady Eve. Even doing things her way. I do believe his intentions are solely to benefit the Pierce family, but it is getting messy. He even killed Joey Toledo in order to get Jefferson off the trail of Tobias. One could misconstrue that as hindering Jefferson, and protecting Tobias. That dynamic is really interesting, and one I didn't think would be when the show started.
The show is pretty heavy at nearly every turn, but that makes the moments of levity all the better. One in particular this episode, when Jennifer suspected there was something wrong between Anissa and Jefferson was quite fun to witness.
Speaking of, I'm glad the will he/won't he of Jefferson training Anissa didn't last long, because we all knew he would. It has always seemed like the show is going to shift to make Anissa at the forefront, with Jefferson taking a supporting role, and this is a step in that direction.
Jefferson finally got his chance against Tobias. It didn't pan out, and Tobias's sister got killed instead. That will probably slow Jefferson down, but speed Tobias up. The majority of the season is over now, so this will make the tail end interesting.
With Jefferson now in charge of training of Anissa, and with the death of Tobias's sister on his hands, he should slow down and take a step back and reevaluate the situation. He can still become victorious, but not on his current path.
Tobias had Lady Eve killed, and did it with lightning guns to frame Black Lightning. I have no idea how lightning guns exist, but you'd think that would be a tool for Jefferson to use; or maybe one of his daughters later on. I don't want them to just gloss over that technology like that exists, and expect the audience just to accept it.
With Anissa having powers, it actually made Lynn more accepting of Jefferson. She'll want him to go out there now, to protect their daughter who will most definitely be out there anyway. Freeland is under the protection of two Pierces now. It should be fun to see how that plays out going forward.
Arrow - Episode 6.15 - "Doppelgänger"
Arrow dug deep in its Arsenal this week. Get it? Because Roy's back! I'm glad it wasn't just for one episode because he didn't have much to do. He was more a catalyst for some Diaz stuff, and what seems like the beginning of the end of Thea's journey.
The show is making it seem like Thea is prepped to leave. When Roy leaves again, and he will, maybe Thea will go with him. Or maybe she will become the next Ra's Al Ghul, because it seems that is still a thing. I had kind of forgotten that thread, but it seems to back with a vengeance. That was an awesome cliffhanger.
Meanwhile, Earth-2 Laurel (Laurel2) is now pretending to be the original Laurel. It seemed like Laurel2 made a step in the right direction, helping them recover Roy. But the text from Diaz after suggests otherwise. All we have is doubt. She could be playing either side. We'll find out eventually, of course, but not before being convinced she's on both teams.
Star City has a dirty cop problem. That isn't new, and it is actually a problem they fixed last year. But these things seem to happen over and over. "Cut the head off of the snake" and all that.
The stories seem to be converging to an end game. Season 7 hasn't been announced yet. What if it won't be?
Diggle wants the hood back. Oliver isn't ready to give it back to him yet. I'm prepared for the showing ending with Oliver either dying or stepping down/retiring and leaving (maybe back to Lian-Yu permanently) and Diggle takes the hood for the future. Whether that is at the end of this season or a few seasons from now is yet to be seen, but I can see it going that way.
They need to do better with Diggle's dialogue though. Him saying "There's that Queen temper" in response to Thea was tone deaf as could be. He's never said that about Ollie, and Thea is always level headed, except for this one time. I'm surprised they didn't have Diggle say "It must be that time of the month". It was that stupid.
Diaz seems to know everything about Team Arrow though. I'm liking the villain dynamic this season. The defeat will take a lot of ingenuity.
Anatoly is a wild card here though. He definitely seems to be on Team Diaz, but I don't know how long that will last. Team Diaz and Anti-Oliver are not the same thing. I can see him being a wrench in one way or another.
It was nice to see Thea suited up again, and hopefully we can see Roy suited up next week. It looks like we're getting a lot of the League and Ra's Al Ghul stuff then too. It is always nice to check in with them every now and then.
What was your favorite part of the Arrowverse this week?
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