This Week in the Arrowverse: Oct 24th - 27th (REVIEW)
written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)
This past week in the Arrowverse… the mysterious alien escapes the D.E.O. on Supergirl, Mirror Master and Top finally make their appearance on The Flash, the new team faces some serious trials and tribulations on Arrow, and the Legends of Tomorrow end up in feudal Japan.
The supposed Kryptonian wakes from his coma, attacks Kara and escapes. With President Olivia Marsdin, played by former Wonder Woman Lynda Carter, visiting National City to sign an act recognizing aliens as citizens with rights… the mysterious Kryptonian is the first one Kara blames when the President is attacked by what appears to be globes of fire.
Another character from the comics makes her appearance with Maggie Sawyer, a detective investigating the attack, aiding Alex in her hunt for a suspect. There’s some heavy commentary to be had with how the humans view aliens as second class citizens, so much that the President’s monumental decision to give them rights can be seen as somewhat controversial. To help find a perp, Maggie takes Alex to a divey bar with a host of extraterrestrial patrons.
Winn is able to track down our mystery man, who turns out not to be from Krypton but rather Daxam, a sister planet. Daxamites have a very negative opinion of Kryptonians with zero love loss on Krypton’s side. Refusing to work with the Daxamite and honestly believing that he was responsible for the attack on the President. If there was a lesson to be learned her, what with the President’s act and with how Kara treats their Daxamite prisoner, it’d have to be a lesson in letting go of prejudices.
JLA villain Scorch is reimagined as an alien here, when the President is attacked again, Kara now sees that it was Scorch and not the Daxamite who attacked President Marsdin. The combined forces of Supergirl, Alex, and Maggie make short work of Scorch and Kara releases the Daxamite… admitting she was wrong. It’s a week of comic book reveals with yet another member of the Super-family making his debut. The rogue Daxamite introduces himself as Mon-El, in the comics he primarily acted as a part of Superman’s story (back when he was Superboy) during the Silver Age Superboy stories.
Not everything ends up sunshine and rainbows this week, despite being more of an ally to Kara, Lena Luthor is developing tech to detect aliens who live among humans. Though Lena does intend this tech for the best possible intentions, she is still a Luthor and it seems like the distrust of aliens doesn’t fall too far from the tree. As for Daxam, Kara comes clean with Mon-El about what became of Daxam. When Krypton exploded, Daxam was decimated in the process; even though the planet still stands… there is no life left there. Despite their differing views of the other, both Kara and Mon-El end up having alot more in common than expected… perhaps this could be a new budding romance for Kara?
The most exciting bit that week though was introducing yet another comic book hero. J’onn decided to visit the alien bar and encounters another survivor of Mars… M’gann M’orzz… a Green Martian who fans of the amazing and short lived animated series Young Justice will recognize as Miss Martian.
Jaunting across to the city of metas and speedsters, The Flash introduces two more members of the Rogues. Now, the Rogues have never truly been explored on The Flash. Despite members of the Rogues making appearances… unfortunately there never was a moment where all the Rogues were together in one room. With Leonard Snart biting the bullet last season on Legends of Tomorrow and Mick Rory playing more like a roguish hero these days, it’s sad to admit that maybe we may never get to see the Rogues in all their glory.
But back to the episode; Grey Damon makes his debut as Mirror Master with Ashley Rickards portraying a female version of Top. Via flashbacks, it was shown that Mirror Master and Top received their powers the night of the Particle Accelerator explosion. Wentworth Miller also reprises his role as Leonard Snart, before going meta Mirror Master and Top were working with Snart… of course this Leonard Snart not being the fully developed Captain Cold we saw later on… he was ready to kill the pair, so of course when the duo are reunited three years later, they had a bone to pick with Snart.
Romantic entanglements seemed to play second fiddle to the super powered goodness this week. Barry find being kissy-kissy with Iris slightly awkward when Joe is around… Joe shares that feeling, Wally and Jesse are developing a cute little sidekick romance on their end, and of course the supervillain couple of Mirror Master and Top hope to take out the Flash. While humorous at times, it did feel awkward for me. I mean, Barry is dating Iris and he still lives at home with Joe… the home he was raised in… the family house… where he lives with his Not-Dad and is now dating his Not-Sister. Yeah, it was weird…
As for the STAR Labs crew, Harry realizes that Team Flash needs a Harrison Wells. But with Harry hoping to return to Earth 2, he sends out a test into the multiverse to find another Harrison Wells who doesn’t have the same attachments to his home world as he does. Can we note how great Tom Cavanaugh is? How many Harry’s can we get in one room? Maybe they can start a team?
The episode does pick up when Barry and Jesse decide to tangle with Mirror Master and Top. Speed turns out to not be enough and Barry is trapped in a mirror. This turns out to be a trial by fire experience for the young Jesse Quick, realizing that Barry was caught off guard when he saved the inexperienced speedster from a fall. The takeaway from Barry being caught in the Mirror World was when Team Science tries to get Barry out by freezing the glass with tech borrowed from Captain Cold and Barry’s ability to vibrate through objects. It’s here that Caitlin decides to go Killer Frost, freezing the mirror from a blindside… freeing Barry. Left with more questions though, Barry and Jesse still need to tangle with the love struck supervillains. Bringing back (well kinda) Leonard Snart, they use holograms to trick the duo into thinking Snart was back in business. The distraction proves to be enough to take down both Mirror Master and Top.
Not much really happened of note here, despite showing off Caitlin’s icy demeanor and introducing a new Harrison Wells (he calls himself HR Wells) the repercussions are still yet to be felt.
In the doom and gloom of Star City, the new recruits begin running missions after successfully halting the Stardust trade. I get what they are trying to accomplish, but the new recruits haven’t clicked for me yet. Wild Dog screws up yet again when despite Oliver’s instructions he decides to go off-book… nearly letting one of Tobias Church’s men escape. On the upside though, Evelyn Sharp is officially being called Artemis now. With Miss Martian appearing on Supergirl, Wally West on The Flash and now Artemis… we are a little bit closer to seeing a pseudo-Young Justice in the Arrowverse.
The main goal of this episode though is to break Diggle out of prison. Something Oliver decides to do alone, leaving Star City in the hands of his Deputy Mayor Quentin Lance and his new recruits. On top of Oliver’s absence, Rory faces dealing with the reality that Felicity is partly responsible for his whole world literally going up in flames. I was glad to see that Ragman doesn’t blame her, but instead find he can’t work with her since just looking at her is a reminder of what he lost.
The battle is faced on two fronts here; Lyla and Oliver are attempting to free Digg and Tobias Church plans an assault on the Anti-Crime Unit. It was a bit hard to follow this week, with so much action happening on two fronts.
On the prison break front, Oliver channels his inner Solid Snake as he tries to sneak through a prison full of military police armed to the teeth. Digg is still pulling his “this is my redemption” schtick even as Oliver casually pops up with a “Hi John” in his cell. Back at Star City, Tobias Church is set to lay siege to the ACU headquarters… with his man inside being interrogated by the DA and no Green Arrow in sight, the new team realizes they have to do something. Ragman thankfully jumps back into the fold after Felicity appeals to both of their needs to find a way to move on. Reluctantly, Felicity agrees to let the team fly sans Ollie and lets them go with a “do not die” for good measure.
The prison break goes off without much problem, Digg’s extraction looked like something out of a movie and upon being reunited with Lyla… she pulls the best line of the entire episode, “If you wanted to make your own decisions, you shouldn’t have gotten married.” Savage… and kinda sweet. Here’s hoping we get Spartan back soon enough. The attack on the ACU doesn’t exactly go as planned, while the team was able to save the officers… when Mister Terrific is gravely wounded, Wild Dog decides to go toe-to-toe with Tobias Church. While this saves Curtis, the remaining team members are forced to retreat… leaving Rene to eventually get KO’d and taken away by Church.
The flashbacks weren’t as memorable this week, with the majority of it being the third and final test for Oliver to join the Bratva. A matter of trust is what solidifies Ollie’s new role.
As for our time-travelling Legends, the effects of Ray Palmer’s super serum take effect… in a sense making Nate Heywood into a meta-human with the ability to transform his skin into steel. Last episode, it was revealed why Rex Tyler vanished before delivering his entire message to the Legends. Shortly after foiling their plans, Eobard Thawne goes out of his way to kill Rex. With his dying words being “time-traveller,” Amaya believes one of the Legends (specifically Mick) is to blame. Stowing away on the Waverider, she goes room to room… until she eventually tussles with Mick, but then getting knocked out by the now super-powered Nate.
Most of the episode takes place in Feudal Japan, after making (some) amends, Sara offers to help Amaya track down Rex’s killer. While Ray trains Nate to use his newfound power. One clumsy happenchance later, and the duo is sucked out of the Waverider and sent to Feudal Japan. Luckily, Ray was in his Atom suit and Nate can now turn into walking/talking metal.
While in Japan, Ray and Nate are separated and while Nate is saved by a kind woman and taken to her village… Ray is instead taken prisoner by the Shogunate and has his armor taken from him.
Back on the Waverider, Amaya is further suspicious of Mick and while Sara does admit Mick is far from being a boyscout… he is a member of the team and someone they can rely on. One bitI would like to focus on is how awesome the Mick Rory character is in the Arrowverse. While his turn from Flash Rogue to anti-hero member of the Legends may come to the chagrin of comic purists, I feel that Mick’s character has taken such a positive turn. He’s gone from the bumbling pyromaniac thug to a charismatic anti-hero who seems wiser beyond what he shows on the outside. Perhaps some of this can be summed up in his turn as Chronos last season (spoilers) but beyond that story bit, Mick has evolved into one of the most compelling characters on Legends.
When the young woman who saved Nate is revealed to be promised to marry the Shogun, Nate takes it upon himself to defend her while the rest of the Legends search for Ray. Back on the ship, Jax and Martin are investigating a secret room they were not aware of. After Gideon diagnoses one additional compartment on the Waverider, the Firestorm duo take it upon themselves to go exploring. What they find is a secret armory with a message from future Barry Allen to Rip Hunter. While we never get the full gist of the message, it’s revealed that the content of it was something Rip promised to keep secret from his team, and one that Barry was explicit about keeping secret.
Back in Japan, the village braces for a battle while the Legends devise a plan to defend it from the Shogun’s forces. Hands down one of the most exciting parts of the episode with each individual battle being all kinds of exciting. Sara and Amaya team up against a whole battalion of Samurai, Ray and Nate face off against a Shogun in Ray’s Atom suit, and Mick goes toe-to-toe with a group of ninjas. All kinds of awesome packed into a few epic minutes.
As the episode closes, we learn that the family the Legends saved is one who later greatly affects the Arrowverse… Jax and Martin have a bold new secret… Amaya and Mick make up, kinda… and in an effort to stop the Shogun, Ray is forced to destroy his Atom suit.
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All in all, this week was a decent week of Arrowverse television. While there were alot of reveals on all shows, honestly most of the week felt lackluster compared to Legends. So obviously, this week I am calling Legends of Tomorrow my favorite episode of the week. The shift to feudal Japan, further fleshing out the Mick Rory character, and an episode that was both exciting and charming at the same time. Legends has been on a roll as of late, I just hope they keep the ball rolling.
