This week, The Flash finally visited Earth-2, Arrow shook things up for the League of Assassins, and Legends of Tomorrow was a tad cluttered, but ended on a strong note.
The Flash: "Welcome to Earth-2" (Season 2, Episode 13)
"Welcome to Earth-2" was a whack of fun, but not much else. Don't get me wrong, I freakin' loved the ride this episode takes you on, but like Harry advises Barry, we needed to stat focused on the mission.
The definite highlight of the episode for me was seeing so many alternate versions of characters from Earth-1, the best ones being the ones who were completely different from the characters we know and love/hate. The most obvious ones were Caitlin and Ronnie, known on Earth-2 as the criminals Killer Frost and Deathstorm, and both Caitlin Panabaker and Robbie Amell seemed as though they were having a blast playing evil versions of their characters. Michael Rowe returned as Deadshot, except on Earth-2 he's a cop who sucks at shooting instead of a mercenary marksman. Lawton's return was one I was not expecting, especially since he's only appeared on Arrow and it seemed the CW couldn't use the character anymore because of Suicide Squad, so his appearance here was a welcome surprise. But the best Earth-2 counterpart was Reverb, Cisco's doppelganger. Carlos Valdes rocked playing an evil version of Cisco, and it's a shame he died because I would've loved to see more of him in next week's episode.
But, to me, the episode's time on Earth-2 only focused on Barry getting comfortable with with his counterpart's way of life and not, you know, helping Harry save his daughter and getting back to Earth-1 in 48 hours. Maybe Harry's plea to Barry to not get attached to Earth-2 Iris and Joe was the show being self-aware about that, I don't know.
The Earth-1 storyline felt distracting. I'm very happy to see Jay in action, but he only gets one action scene and is quickly taken out by Geomancer, who also wasn't very impressive. These gripes are ones I can overlook though, because in an episode primarily about our heroes visiting Earth-2, anything that happens on Earth-1 was inevitably going to be sidelined big time.
Other Thoughts:
- Spotted 2046 Oliver and Jonah Hex in the wormhole. Supergirl too. Leave it to The Flash to foreshadow things from different shows.
- I kinda wish Wentworth Miller wasn't so busy with Legends of Tomorrow so that we could actually see Mayor Snart.
- Seeing all these Flash Earth-2 counterparts makes me really hope we see some Arrow ones too at some point (Obviously not Oliver's because, you know, he's dead).
- Barry and Cisco's reaction to Earth-2 Henry Hewitt. Priceless.
- Zoom's not a well-developed villain right now, but dang he's terrifying.
Rating: 8.4/10 Cloud City Vaderings
Next week, Harry and Cisco team up with Earth-2 Barry, Iris and Caitlin to rescue Barry and Jessie...
Arrow: "Sins of the Father" (Season 4, Episode 13)
Picking up immediately after "Unchained," "Sins of the Father" sees Oliver grapple with the decision to kill or not kill Malcolm while a League civil war erupts in the streets of Star City. Thematically, "Sins of the Father" was a very strong episode of Arrow, focusing on fathers (duh) and whether or not a person can truly change. But even with an unexpected ending, this ended up being a mediocre episode.
Katrina Law and John Barrowman, the "Captain America" and "Iron Man" of this civil war, if you will, were both great this week. Barrowman especially shined in his intense conversation with Oliver towards the episode's climax. Also, Charlotte Ross was surprisingly great in her small appearance.
The story felt repetitive, as if the first half of the episode was written, then copied and pasted again to make it fill an hour block. We start with Oliver trying to convince Malcolm to meet with Nyssa in order to save Thea. That goes to heck, so then Oliver must try to convince Malcolm to meet with Nyssa in order to save Thea. No, you didn't read the same line twice.
The action was the not good kind of Arrow action. That street fight was fantastic, with its high stakes and intense setting, but the confrontation between Malcolm and Nyssa's forces earlier in the episode, and even Oliver and Malcolm's duel, felt quite lackluster.
The Felicity side of the story was a lot stronger. I liked how Felicity's dad outed himself as the Calculator very early on, leaving his daughter with plenty to chew on for the rest of the episode. Her struggle with wanting to trust her dad but knowing she can't tied very well into the themes of the episode. I hope Calculator's arrest doesn't prevent him from visiting Star City again in the future.
And boy, that ending. With Damien now aware of Oliver's son, could this mean William's the one in the grave? Dang, this show's writers like playing this game!
Other Thoughts:
- Lance lets Oliver and Diggle into a crime scene IN FULL VIEW OF A CROWD OF PEOPLE. You're smarter than this, Quentin!
- So if John Barrowman's lost a hand in a swordfight, does that mean David Tennant's going to find it and keep it? #DoctorWhoReferenceHaHaHa
- What took Frodo a year took Nyssa 5 seconds.
Rating: 7.4/10 data-stealing box things
Next week, 'splosions and stuff. I don't really know what next week is all about...
Legends of Tomorrow: "White Knights" (Season 1, Episode 4)
"White Knights" carried on with Legends' light and adventurous tone, but felt a bit cluttered, leaving a storyline or two feeling underdeveloped.
After a disastrous, but successful, break-in at the Pentagon, the crew travels to Russia at the height of the Cold War to sabotage Savage's secret project there. While Ray and Snart cozy up to Valentina Vostok, one of the doctors on the project, Kendra and Sara beat each other up, Stein and Jax verbally beat each other up, and Rip is visited by his Time Master mentor.
The scenes with Kendra and Sara's sword therapy were cool and the two characters and actresses work well together. But it was so limited i its screentime that it didn't really amount to anything. The same can kind of be said for Stein and Jax's feud, which came out of nowhere. Obviously the two are still getting used to each other as their superhero partner, but it seemed like they were getting along pretty well in earlier episodes. Now. all of a sudden, there's some friction between them? Their confrontation was great, though, and Victor Garber and Franz Drameh were both fantastic.
Another stroyline which possibly led nowhere was Rip's encounter with Zaman Druce, his mentor. The decision Rip had to make was a thought-provoking one, but it's seemingly wrapped up halfway through the episode, and isn't brought up again anytime afterwards. I say "seemingly" because it could be picked up again next week or in a future episode, because this shouldn't be the last we see of Druce or Kronus.
The stuff with Vostok was a lot of fun. The pairing of Ray and Snart is one of the best on the show. There's a mutual respect mixed with a despising of each other's entire being. Snart easily sweeping Vostok off her feet when Ray failed is a generic trope, but it works well here. Also, Snart snatching people's wallets to Ray's disapproval was oh so amusing.
The climax of the episode was the best of the series so far. It was thrilling, with Stein and the matrix, Ray and Snart's confrontation with Vostok, Rory beating up people. It was a blast, and ended with Ray, Rory and Stein being shipped to a Russian gulag.
Other Thoughts:
- Heatwave, though he didn't do too much,got the best moments. Arm wrestling a Pentagon guard. Nonchalantly declaring "I hate nature." Classic Mick.
- Goodness, the Doctor Who parallels keep coming. The tension between Rip and the Time Masters definitely echoed the Doctor and the Time Lords, and those translator pills gave me some serious TARDIS translation matrix vibes.
- Ah, and there's "bloodlust" word drop no. 147...
- There were more "cold" jokes made by Snart this week than you can shoot a cold gun at.
- I'm secretly hoping the gulag Ray, Rory and Stein are being sent to ends up being the same one we saw in early Arrow Season 2. You know, the one Deadshot was in? Yeah, that one! That would be cool.
Rating: 8.0/10 wallets
Next week, the remaining crew members must break out their friends...
Noah
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