This was basically movie-homage week for the three shows. The Flash took every opportunity it could to reference Jaws, the cast of Arrow reenacted Taken, and the Legends of Tomorrow crew visited the Mad Max version of Star City.
The Flash: "King Shark" (Season 2, Episode 15)
I really liked how "King Shark" picked up immediately after last week's episode, showing the team's reaction to Jay's apparent murder. With Caitlin completely depressed and Barry and Cisco taking in who and what they saw in Earth-2, it would've been foolish if this episode glossed over these and made the episode all about King Shark. Thankfully, that didn't happen. In fact, I found the scenes that dealt with the repercussions of last week's events to be better than anything this week that featured King Shark.
When King Shark first appeared earlier this season, it was a fun little cameo. I don't think the way he looked was as fantastic as people said, and that carries over to this episode. A lot of the shots of King Shark looked very cool, like him jumping out of the water in slow-motion. but most of the other shots looked as though they were pulled from the inevitable Sharknado movie with shark-human hybrids.
The Diggles also showed up this week, but were underused. It's always great to see Dig interact with the cast of The Flash since he's such a more grounded character and The Flash as a show is, well, not. His constant amazement/annoyance with Barry's speed never gets old, and John's pep talk to Barry was a great moment.. That being said, I felt John and Lyla's appearances this week were done just for the sake of crossover. Great see them, but I feel like if they hadn't appeared, the episode's events would've played out the same way as they did.
Like I mentioned before, the best scenes this week were the ones that dealt with what happened last week. Cisco fearing Caitlin was on the road to becoming Killer Frost seemed exactly like the thing for him and the audience to be thinking about, and their moment at the end of the episode saw Caitlin reassure him she wasn't going to turn evil, but I still couldn't help but feel that promise was a bit foreboding, hmm? Meanwhile, Barry's inner turmoil about how everything with Zoom and Jay's death were basically his fault led to some great emotional moments. Rather than him realizing those weren't his fault, he owns up to them and declares that they aren't done with Zoom, which I thought was an awesome way to wrap up Barry's arc this week.
Other Thoughts:
- Alright, let's deal with the elephant in the room. The reveal that Zoom was Hunter Zolomon felt a bit underwhelming. It would've been more of a shock if we hadn't been introduced to him a few weeks back, but I'm really looking forward to the explanation for how Hunter got speed and found himself on Earth-2. Let's hope the explanation's satisfying, too.
- The Wally drama seemed as though it belonged in a different episode, and it felt a bit derivative of Wally dramas past. His reaction to King Shark's attack was pretty hilarious, though.
- But seriously, HOW DID NO ONE SEE OR HEAR KING SHARK COMING TO BUST OPEN THE ALLEN'S ROOF?! HE'S A 20-FOOT SHARK MAN!!
- Hey, Jess. Stop complaining. At least you're, I don't know, ALIVE.
Rating: 8.4/10 Kool-Aid men
Next time, Barry faces off against a female speedster named Trajectory in an episode called, um, "Trajectory."
Arrow: "Taken" (Season 4, Episode 15)
Now, that's more like it.
After the near-catastrophe that was "Code of Silence," Arrow delivered a riveting, emotional episode that I would consider one of the best of this season so far.
First, let's talk about Vixen. I haven't gotten around to watching the Vixen animated series, but I might now because I really liked her in this. She had the best lines ("Don't you dare tell Barry about this!") and some fun action, though the animal spirit effects looked a bit out-of-place in Arrow. And, unlike the Diggles in this week's Flash, Vixen played a pivotal role in the events of the episode. Without her, things would've been a lot harder for Team Arrow. So you can now consider me a fan of yours, Ms. Vixen.
The William bombshell made things very tense between Oliver and, not just Felicity, but the whole team. I especially liked Laurel's emotional reaction to the news, and Diggle telling Oliver he should've made a better effort at being a part of William's life.
But the best moments of "Taken," in my opinion, came towards the end of the episode. First, there was the intense confrontation between Thea and Malcolm where the two essentially disowned each other. Both Willa Holland and John Barrowman were on fire in that scene. And then there was Oliver's emotional time-capsule messages to William. Stephen Amell rocked that scene so much it tugged at my heartstrings, and my heartstrings aren't easily tugged by a TV show. But the momentum that was building as the episode ended was shattered by Felicity. She's breaking off the engagement with Oliver when, *gasp*, she begins to walk. It was just so hoakey, and made hoakier by the way she instantly just walks out of the room. I mean, really? If I lost my ability to walk, than regained it, I'd totally celebrate with whoever I was with, love em' or hate em', because, you know, I can freakin' walk again! But nope, Felicity just walks right out. No tears, no smiles, no hugs. Just walks out. But, hey , this the CW, so I should be used to such melodrama.
Other Thoughts:
- With Darhk now powerless and seemingly imprisoned, I'm really looking forward to seeing what role he will play in the remaining episodes of the season.
- So, is the whole mayoral campaign plotline done and over with? Something tells me no because, if it were, that whole storyline would feel a bit pointless to me.
Rating: 9.0/10 Flash action figures
Next time, it looks like Cupid's back? Oh boy...
Legends of Tomorrow: "Star City 2046" (Season 1, Episode 6)
I was super excited for this episode. Future Star City? A new Deathstroke? Goatee'd Oliver? Count me in. "Star City 2046" turned out fine, but I wish this would've been a multi-part story like previous episodes.
In 2046, Star City is now an eternally on fire haven for criminals after Grant Wilson, son of Slade, invaded the city with another army of masked men. Oliver's friends and family have perished, he's disappeared, and now a new Green Arrow, Connor Hawke, cleans up crime.
Learning about what happened to the city was some dark-ish fun, especially for long-time Arrow fans like me. The way Star City looked seemed a bit generic. I mean, does there always have to be an overabundance of fire? If it looked a lot more like the Star City we see on Arrow, seeing a crime-ridden version of it would've been a lot more interesting. I thought the twist that Hawke was really John Diggle Jr was a cool one, and Hawke himself turned out to be a very likable and capable character. Grant Wilson turned out to be a really cool and well-acted villain, and pseudo-return of Deathstroke makes me hope he's making a comeback to Arrow some time soon. I wish future Oliver had a bigger role, as it would've made his comeback as the Arrow more natural. We just didn't get enough time with him that I could believe he would hop back into action after a very quick pep talk from Sara.
The episode needed more room to breathe, as things happened a bit too conveniently and quickly, like Ollie's comeback. I wanted to learn more about Connor and Grant, see Oliver in action a lot more, and see the other crew members besides Sara and Rip interact with Oliver.
Snart and Rory's side story, however, was excellent. Even though they're "bad guys," seeing their partnership/friendship shattered is a bit sad. The hints that Snart's moral compass has been messed around with because of his time with Rip and the others were oh so fascinating. I'm happy that this conflict wasn't resolved by the end of the episode, and it looks like it will play a huge part next week.
What wasn't fascinating or interesting was the Ray/Jax/Kendra subplot. It's a CW show, so love triangles are probably contractually mandatory, even if it doesn't work. And yeah, here it just doesn't work. It was all really immature, and I could see footprints all over it from shows that had tread over it hundreds of times before. The stuff with Jax and Stein's psychic connection was golden, though, and it's great seeing Kendra interact with the crew. I'm sure this love triangle will rear its ugly head a lot more down the road, so let's hop it maybe improves as the series goes on.
Other Thoughts:
In 2046, Star City is now an eternally on fire haven for criminals after Grant Wilson, son of Slade, invaded the city with another army of masked men. Oliver's friends and family have perished, he's disappeared, and now a new Green Arrow, Connor Hawke, cleans up crime.
Learning about what happened to the city was some dark-ish fun, especially for long-time Arrow fans like me. The way Star City looked seemed a bit generic. I mean, does there always have to be an overabundance of fire? If it looked a lot more like the Star City we see on Arrow, seeing a crime-ridden version of it would've been a lot more interesting. I thought the twist that Hawke was really John Diggle Jr was a cool one, and Hawke himself turned out to be a very likable and capable character. Grant Wilson turned out to be a really cool and well-acted villain, and pseudo-return of Deathstroke makes me hope he's making a comeback to Arrow some time soon. I wish future Oliver had a bigger role, as it would've made his comeback as the Arrow more natural. We just didn't get enough time with him that I could believe he would hop back into action after a very quick pep talk from Sara.
The episode needed more room to breathe, as things happened a bit too conveniently and quickly, like Ollie's comeback. I wanted to learn more about Connor and Grant, see Oliver in action a lot more, and see the other crew members besides Sara and Rip interact with Oliver.
Snart and Rory's side story, however, was excellent. Even though they're "bad guys," seeing their partnership/friendship shattered is a bit sad. The hints that Snart's moral compass has been messed around with because of his time with Rip and the others were oh so fascinating. I'm happy that this conflict wasn't resolved by the end of the episode, and it looks like it will play a huge part next week.
What wasn't fascinating or interesting was the Ray/Jax/Kendra subplot. It's a CW show, so love triangles are probably contractually mandatory, even if it doesn't work. And yeah, here it just doesn't work. It was all really immature, and I could see footprints all over it from shows that had tread over it hundreds of times before. The stuff with Jax and Stein's psychic connection was golden, though, and it's great seeing Kendra interact with the crew. I'm sure this love triangle will rear its ugly head a lot more down the road, so let's hop it maybe improves as the series goes on.
Other Thoughts:
- Star City is also in an apparent eternal night phase.
- So Oliver and Connor take down Grant but don't kill him or take him prisoner. Lousy vigilantes, them.
- Kinda found the old Oliver makeup an bit fake-looking.
- It''ll be interesting to see if the uprising mentioned will be seen or foreshadowed down the line in Arrow. Just find any way or reason to bring back Manu Bennett, okay?
Rating: 8.2/10 robo-arms
Next week, the crew gets attacked by time pirates, and it looks like Rory will be the big villain of the episode...
Noah
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