It was a pretty fun week for all three shows. The Flash was the weak point, giving us some good character development but an unnecessary villain. A lot happened in Arrow, and I mean a lot, and Legends of Tomorrow was just a hoot.
The Flash: "Fast Lane" (Season 2, Episode 12)
"Fast Lane" was a good episode with some much-needed character development for Wally and Harry, but the meta-of-the-week, Tar Pit, was so terrible it really dampened my enjoyment of the episode.
Let's talk about Tar Pit. The episode's opening shows a guy being dropped in a vat of tar and, yep, the particle accelerator explodes. The writers really need to think of new ways someone could get powers, because constantly revisiting the night of the explosion is starting to get kind of annoying. Anyways, in 2016, our tar-dunked fiend finally emerges, and is looking for revenge against the men who threw him into the vat. Ooo. Sounds cool. Is it? Nope. Tar Pit only exists in this episode to cause Wally to crash and to cause that piece of glass to stab Iris. Other than that, he's useless. Worse, his defeat is the most anti-climactic thing I've probably ever seen. Tar Pit transforms into this horribly cartoonish-looking tar monster, then Joe just throws a bomb thing at him and he explodes. That's it. Seriously. Pfft. Did we even need a meta this week? I think if we had done away with Mr. Tar-Pit, we would have had a much better episode.
The West family drama this week was quite strong, focusing on Iris' efforts to put an end to Wally's drag racing exploits. I really like Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally. He's not exceptional, but it looks as though he's natural and comfortable in the role and gives some subtle emotion when it's needed. His monologue about why he enjoys drag racing so much was a nice insight into his past and his childhood with Francine.
But the real standout character this week was Harry. His scenes were by far the most intriguing, and I liked how we got to see him struggle with deciding between helping his new friends or betraying them to save his daughter. The moment where he basically declares his intentions to Barry? Loved it. Harry's situation was a relatable one, one with no clear and easy solution. The episode ending with the team choosing to help Harry instead of letting Zoom kill him was great , and I'm super excited to finally pay a visit to Earth-2 next week.
Other Thoughts:
- As much as I'm finding the particle accelerator explosion openings to be annoying, I also really want someone to edit all of them together. That'd be kind of cool.
- The speed reading joke was pretty funny, especially Wells constantly saying "Stop that."
- The shard of glass hurtling towards Iris probably wasn't "inspired" by Spider-Man 2 at all.
- As much as I felt bad for Harry, seeing Joe beat him up and throw him in the pipeline was badass.
Rating: 8.3/10 metahuman apps
Next week, Earth-2! Killer Frost! Deathstorm! Aaaggh! HYPE.
Arrow: "Unchained" (Season 4, Episode 12)
"Unchained," for a intents and purposes, shouldn't have been as good as it was. I mean, there was so much going on! The return of not just Roy, but also Nyssa, Tatsu and Shado. There was the battle against Calculator, Thea's struggle with the effects of the Lazarus Pit, Felicity's presentation thingy, Nyssa's quest for the lotus, Calculator being revealed as Felicity's dad. It should have been a trainwreck of an episode, but it somehow managed to work and be a really fun episode.
I don't want to spend too much time going through every single thing, but I'll go over the three main plotlines.
Seeing Roy back was cool, and I'm sure he was given more to do this week than he did in most of Season 3. His parkour pursuit with Oliver was kind of cheesy, though. Roy's fake death last season has been uncovered by the Calculator, a hacker who plans to destroy a city with a web nuke? Also cheesy. The revelation that he's Felicity's dad was expected, but very, very well-executed. During the climax, Felicity and Calculator diss each other over the phone with disguised voices, then they see each other at Felicity's press conference and they have no idea that the other is the person they were verbally abusing the other night. It's going to be really awesome seeing how Papa Smoak's return affects Felicity and her mother, and how/when Felicity finds out about his criminal activities.
Meanwhile, Thea fell ill due to not indulging in her bloodlust for a long time. This let the writers explore Oliver's tendency to blame himself for, like, everything and feel the need to fix things for other people. Thea making Oliver notice this was a surprising dash of character development for a character who I thought was pretty much fully developed. Thea's final(?) farewell to Roy was pretty emotional, as was their declaration of love for each other. The episode ends with Thea in a coma and Nyssa offering Oliver a way to save her.
Speaking of Nyssa, let's talk about what she was up to. After a cool prison break/fight scene, Nyssa goes on a quest for a lotus thingy, which is now guarded by Tatsu. Their sword fight was great because it was very low-key. Previously, the fight scenes have been rather hyperactive in camera movements and choreography, but with this sword fight, we saw it in from different angles, but the camera stayed still, and the actresses weren't all over the place, allowing us to actually see what was happening. Nyssa retrieves the lotus and then offers it to Oliver. The lotus can reverse the effects of the Lazarus Pit, and Nyssa will give it to Oliver only if he kills...Malcolm Merlyn. Dun dun! duuuuun! This is an interesting because, one, Oliver finally saw eye to eye with Malcolm this week, two, Malcolm's such an unpredictable character that I don't know whether he'd try to save his own skin or sacrifice himself for his daughter and, three, if the lotus reverses the effects of the Pit, would Thea be dead again? Hmmm...
Other Thoughts:
- Look, Shado returning was a neat surprise, but I hope this is the last time they pull a "Shado's alive! Psych!" fakeout on us.
- The flashbacks are slowing down again! Come on, people!
- I love how the writers are playing the "Who's in the grave?" game. Last week, I thought it'd be Diggle, this week it looks like it could be Thea, and I'm becoming convinced that the "he" Oliver mentions isn't Darhk. Who can it be now?
Rating: 9.0/10 web nukes
Next week, it's Oliver vs Malcolm! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday!
Legends of Tomorrow: "Blood Ties" (Season 1, Episode 3)
Legends of Tomorrow is really starting to become the show I wanted it to be, because this episode was so much fun.
The best part was, without a doubt, the scenes with Rip and Sara. Their dynamic was awesome, and I definitely sensed a great bond had been forged between the two. It was also just a complete hoot seeing them slow-mo walk to funky 70's music into Savage's bank, and then see them sneak around and pretend like they were drunk in Savage's mansion. Individually, the two struggled with personal matters. It turns out that Rip tried to kill Savage at one point, but hesitated and failed, and Sara was struggling with that bloodlust thing. I hope that someone on Flash gets some bloodlust so we can have a blood-lust trifecta of shows (But seriously, if I earned a dime every time someone's spoken the word "bloddlust" on either Arrow or Legends, I'd have a good jar of dimes).
While Sara and Rip were occupied, the rest of the crew kept busy. Snart and Rory convinced Jax to fly them to Central City so Snart could steal a valuable emerald. But instead of keeping it for later, Snart visited his childhood home so he could give it to his father, who went to prison for attempting to steal it. This allowed us to see a previously unseen side of Snart, the vulnerable side, especially when he encountered his younger self. Unfortunately, Snart's efforts were in vain, as his father still went to prison for trying to sell the emerald.
Meanwhile, Stein and Ray were charged with helping the wounded Kendra, who had shards of the dagger making their way tho her heart. This was the weakest plotline this week because it was just a bit too predictable. Seeing Ray shrink down and fly through Kendra's bloodstream was very cool and reminded me of Ant-Man, but then Ray has to go through some personal turmoil and Stein has to give him a pep talk and then Ray's okay again and he saves Kendra. Whooptee-doo. Stein pretending to remember teaching Ray, then revealing he still didn't was fun though.
Other Thoughts:
- Poor Rip. His quest to stop Savage from killing his family is what causes Savage to kill his family. Shucks, man.
- Nick Fury: "They needed the push." - Stein: "You needed the push." STEIN IS NICK FURY FONCIRMED!
Rating: 8.9/10 knives
Next wee, the crew heads to 80's Russia and Rip gets an intervention.
Noah
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