This week turned out to be a pretty great one for all three shows. The Flash brought back the Reverse-Flash for a timey-wimey tale, Arrow gave us another solid Diggle-centric episode, and Legends of Tomorrow's pilot ended on a strong and improved note.
The Flash: "The Reverse-Flash Returns" (Season 2, Episode 11)
There was a lot going on in this episode, even with something as seemingly big as the return of Eobard Thawne. Luckily, most of it worked rather well.
It seems to me that the writers have no idea how time travel stuff works. I get that they've been trying to create their own rules, and that's great, but they have to make sense. For example, I felt that the explanation as to how on earth Reverse-Flash showed up again didn't make sense. Harry explains that, even though Eobard was written out of existence, the Eobard in this episode is from earlier on in his timeline and this is his "origin story." This is how he finds out what time period the Flash is from and how he knows about STAR Labs, Cisco, Caitlin and Wells, leading up to him killing Barry's mother,taking over Wells' life, building/blowing up the particle accelerator, training Barry, and then getting booted out of existence. It's a fine and dandy explanation except for one glaring problem. HE WAS WRITTEN OUT OF EXISTENCE. There should be no "past version" of him. At all. It's the same issue I had with this season's premiere. Eobard never existing should completely alter everything about the show. Instead, it's just something that happened and time goes on. It feels like a cop-out, like the writers don't want to mix things up big time, so they just move on and act like that wasn't a big deal. And that's called being a lazy writer. End rant.
Minus that glaring plot hole, the Reverse-Flash's presence made things a whole lot more interesting, ruffling the feathers of our main heroes. And Matt Letscher, though he only appeared in a few scenes last season as Reverse-Flash, gives a fine performance, though it definitely lacks the gravity Tom Cavanagh brought. I liked the idea that Barry ends up having to help Eobard return to his own time, setting off the events of Season 1.
The other plotlines this week managed to be compelling, even with their limited screentimes. Iris forgiving Francine ended up being pretty emotional, as were her conversations with an embittered Wally.
Elsewhere, Barry and Patty's crumbling relationship continued to bring the feels. I liked how Patty was finally able to out two and two together and figure out Barry was the Flash on her own. Their scene on the train as the episode ended was pretty heartbreaking, but I don't think things are completely through for these two.
Other Thoughts:
- So Earth-1 Jay is a guy named Hunter Zolomon, who's apparently Zoom in the comics. Things are going to get very interesting with Jay, finally.
- Cisco gets the Vibe-glasses. Sweet!
Rating: 7.9/10 slurps of coffee
Next week, Barry goes up against some tar and a car...
Arrow: "A.W.O.L." (Season 4, Episode 11)
The episodes of Arrow that focus on Diggle are among the best ones the show has offered, and "AWOL" is no exception.
We got a lot more insight into the John/Andy dynamic, which was getting close to being overdue. I mean, Andy's been in that cell for what, 2 months? It was cool seeing John and Andy working together and trusting each other again after being at odds with each other in previous episodes. The last scene with Andy meeting Sara (as in John and Lyla's daughter) was a nice way to signal that the brotherly bond between the two is close to being reforged.
The flashbacks this week were also Diggle-centric, showcasing the Diggle brothers' time in Afghanistan. These were also pretty great, and Baron Reiter's appearance was cool, but didn't do too much to further the story in the current Oliver flashbacks.
A good chunk of the episode was also dedicated to exploring how Felicity's dealing with being confined to a wheelchair. Emily Bett Rickards gave a great performance, playing both regular Felicity and the drug-induced hallucination of Goth Felicity. Felicity's struggle seemed natural for anyone who'd just been through a similar ordeal, and gave us some context as to why she decided to drop her Goth persona.
Oliver and Felicity's scene together at the end was nice, as was Oliver's promise to find a way to help her in a world with metahumans, time travel, reincarnating hawk people, and Lazarus Pits.
My biggest gripe about this week's episode has to be Amanda Waller's death. It was unexpected, yes, but the only reason it was done was so that there'd only be one on-screen version of the character when Suicide Squad comes out. However, her death should shake things up for ARGUS, John and Lyla down the road.
Other Thoughts:
- I liked the reference back to Barry's time jump from December's crossover. I'm looking forward to seeing in what other ways it will affect poor Oliver.
- Felicity's codename is Overwatch because "Oracle was taken." Nice.
- The brawl in the ARGUS was pretty sweet, huh?
- I'd love to see a visual effects breakdown of how they did the Felicity/Felicity scenes.
Rating: 9.0/10 good speeches
Next week, the team goes up against The Calculator, and Roy returns!
Legends of Tomorrow: "Pilot, Part 2" (Season 1, Episode 2)
Yep. The second part of the Legends of Tomorrow greatly made up for the first, and made me wonder why the CW didn't initially air them back to back.
The ball gets rolling almost immediately, with the team infiltrating a weapons auction being hosted by the man himself, Vandal Savage. Inevitably, a huge fight breaks out, meaning we get to see all the characters, minus Rip, teaming up and kicking butt. Yes, it's glorious.Unfortunately, a part of Ray's Atom suit falls into Savage's hands, and the team must scramble to get it back before he can use it for his dastardly plans.
The interactions between these characters continues to be the strongest part of Legends. This week, Sara teamed up with Jax and Stein to track down Stein's younger self, who has a device which can help them find that missing bit of Ray's suit. Meanwhile, Ray joined Snart and Rory on a mission to steal a dagger which Carter and Kendra can use to kill Savage. Both storylines were oodles of fun to watch play out, mostly because of the character development, but they also reminded us of the huge potential this show has.
The stuff with Carter and Kendra felt a bit melodramatic. The two aren't as well developed as the rest of the Flash/Arrow veterans, and their "romance" just isn't buyable. Some of the exposition Carter delivers sounded cheesy, and Falk Hentschall's wooden-ish performance in that scene didn't help.
But guess what? There was another big battle scene at the episode's climax. Yes, it was also glorious.
A big shock came for me when they killed off Carter. I really wasn't expecting a main character to die this early in the series. His death felt right for the series moving forward, though. Now Kendra has no one to hold her hand on her journey, and it allows her to interact with the rest of the cast rather than just Carter all the time.
Other Thoughts:
- Was anyone else getting Back to the Future vibes from Stein's dilemma?
- Neal McDonaugh! You had, like, 1 minute of screentime! How do you keep stealing every episode/show you're in?!
- Sara created a new meaning for the phrase "bong hit," amirite?
- I loved Stein's "bad guy" moment at the beginning of the episode as the team tried to get into the auction. Dude's pretty intimidating when he needs to be.
Rating: 8.7/10 alarm clocks
Next week, more 1975 escapades...
Noah
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