This Week in the Arrowverse: Nov 7th - 10th (REVIEW)
written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)
A shorter week for the Arrowverse this time, but just by a little bit. No new episode of The Flash, but instead we get a group of armed militants with alien tech on Supergirl, Prometheus finally appearing before the team on Arrow, and the Legends go retro to stop Damien Darhk in the 80s on Legends of Tomorrow.
First off in the National City stories, civil unrest grows as humans are forced to become accustomed to aliens on their planet. After the formation of the President’s Alien Amnesty Act, not all citizens are all for the green and spooky to roam amongst man. Kara is further pushed whengroup of militants cause all manner of trouble, armed with alien tech capable of dropping the Girl of Steel in one shot. This episode further gives James the birth of his purpose, as having watched his best-friend and former love interest both jump head first into danger… he entertains the idea of going the vigilante route himself.
As for the non-superheroing, Kara goes all in with helping Mon-El acclimate himself to his new life. Armed with a trendy pair of (fake) glasses, Mon-El starts working at Cat Co as an assistant. The funniest part of this episode lies in how clueless Mon-El is. Clearly the guy isn’t used to assimilating to his human-like life. Having trysts in the store room with James Olsen’s assistant to working hard at hardly working make for much of how Mon-El acclimates to it. This doesn’t go overly well with Kara but the girl’s got bigger fish to fry.
Continuing on the human front, Alex entertains some new and surprising feelings. It’s obvious that as of late, the lovely Maggie Sawyer has caught Alex’s attention. Despite never really being clear with her sexual preference, evidence has always pointed to Alex Danvers being straight. So when she notices these new romantic feelings, it confuses her… going so far as deny it to Maggie’s face when she asks her.
The action did end up feeling light this episode, Supergirl is exciting when she faces insurmountable super powered foes that can pose a very real threat to her. These dudes are just guys with powered up alien tech (courtesy of Cadmus of course). Lena Luthor is hosting a party and she explicitly invites Kara AND Supergirl to the event. Supergirl, because the extra muscle wouldn’t hurt, and Kara because I genuinely feel that Lena does care about her. Despite Lena’s feelings towards aliens, something like a Diet Lex or Lex Zero type, I don’t feel like she is a villain… that role is reserved for the mysterious head of Cadmus.
At the party, Lena creates a device that neutralizes the weapons… saves the day… and overall prove that she invited Supergirl mostly to draw the men to her party. Mon-El realizes he can’t just be like Kara and Kara surprisingly agrees. Winn and James work on eventually creating a suit for James and Alex opens up with Maggie about her feelings. A nice little bow on an otherwise action-lite episode… that is until the big reveal.
Our mysterious Cadmus head reveals herself to be the mother of Lex and Lena Luthor… guess you really can’t trust a Luthor when you wear red and blue tights.
After the murder of Tobias Church, Prometheus ramps up on his killings. Targeting seemingly ordinary people with zero ties to each other. When the next two bodies are a house wife and simple cab driver, Team Arrow is stumped with why Prometheus is targeting these people. It isn’t until the Team delves into the crazy they discover that the names of his current victims are anagrams to people The Arrow targeted when he first started his crusade, names from the list.
As callbacks to previous seasons go, this reaches the furthest. Don’t get me wrong though, I am loving that they are channeling just what made the series so entertaining in the first couple seasons. When the team discovers that Oliver wasn’t nearly as saintly as he makes himself out to be… on top of the lack of trust in the recruits both Ollie and Digg exhibit (behind the guise of keeping them safe), it creates a clear rift… much more for Evelyn who felt cheated that Oliver would preach how killing Ruvé Darhk would be a mistake, despite playing judge/jury/executioner in his rookie years.
As for the flashbacks, Oliver continues his hunt for Konstantin Kovar when after a drive by attack on a Bratva bar leaves Ollie asking questions… Anatoly briefs Oliver on a plan set in motion to bomb one of Kovar’s new casinos. This doesn’t go over as planned when instead he’s captured by Kovar’s men, prepped to meet the mysterious crime lord played by none other than the incomparable Dolph Lundgren. I see shades of Ivan Drogo in this role, something arguably awesome in its own right.
As for the troubles on the Mayoral front, Thea confronts Lance when she discovers that he’s still drinking. Further explaining why he’s so hard to get ahold of and never around when they need him. Quentin just outright says he’s a drunk despite Thea promising that she doesn’t want to give up on him.
The rise of Prometheus sows some serious fears in the people of Star City. After the team breaks up a riot at a night market with random men shooting into the night, claiming to have seen Prometheus, the team discovers that Prometheus has six possible targets… forcing the team to split up. The winner of Prometheus and his throwing star chicken dinner is the man Evelyn was tailing, a subway transit driver. After fighting off Prometheus and Artemis getting a few good licks in, Ollie saves the day and forces the mysterious man to fly the coop.
It’s a week of reveals, when a blacked out Quentin Lance wakes up with one of the throwing stars Prometheus uses and and a similar wound to the one Artemis inflicted on Prometheus during their fight. Could Quentin really be the mysterious dark archer?
As Arrow leaves me on a cliff hanger, Legends of Tomorrow gives us a more fun romp with the Legends chasing Damien Darhk to the Cold War era 1980s.
With the historic treaty between the US and Russia hanging in the balance, Damien Darhk being there poses no warm and fuzzies for the team. With tensions high, they decide to infiltrate the White House to figure out exactly what Darhk wants. To make matters more difficult, young Martin Stein is also present, creating yet again another moment for the Elder Stein to school his younger self on what really should be important.
With only whispers of what Eobard wants with Darhk, there still isn’t much of an explanation of why Damien Darhk is looking for all these ancient artifacts. Placed on the backburner almost intentionally, so obviously it feels like these artifacts will indeed play a major role in the coming months.
The whole episode revolves around what Damien Darhk is doing in Washington. Though he was appointed to the President’s committee, the Legends feel that his presence spells something much darker. Of course the headstrong young Marty Stein gets wrapped up in all this, going so far to even track down Darhk in a hope to further his academic career. This doesn’t go over well when the young Stein discovers that Darhk has been meeting with Russians and is introduced to the business end of a blade. Luckily, the presence of the Waverider makes patching him up a bit easier, but the biggest bit they needed to patch was his priorities. When the elder Stein realized that despite this being Clarissa (his wife’s) birthday, the younger Stein had spent it by large avoiding her in lieu of his work. While not as powerful as the Civil War era themes of the last episode, a message of love is always needed when the world feels like it’s burning around you.
Ray joins Mick as part of the episode’s more comedic players. In pure comedy gold, the two play off each other so well. Ray is the overeager optomist while Mick is more cynical about being there, proclaiming “I hate the 80’s” when “I Just Died in Your Arms” by Cutting Crew is played on the radio.
After destroying the Atom suit, Ray has faced a serious crisis of identity. After getting shit on by both Sara and Amaya about how he is just a rich guy in a suit, Ray has struggled with this all season. When Mick seemingly gives him a purpose again, presenting Snart’s cold gun to Ray… at least for this episode’s runtime we get Captain Cold and Heatwave back… kinda. Furthering Mick’s character development, he opens up to Ray about how he never should have forced him to be more like Snart. Clearly he still isn’t over his friend’s death.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I am so freaking glad Mick Rory is on Legends. While I do miss a more traditional Heatwave and honestly we may never see the true Central City Rogues take on the Scarlet Speedster again… honestly as Mick Rory of the Legends, he is far more than what I could have ever imagined him to be.
I’m not totally clear and maybe i missed something in the last couple episodes, but something feels like its changed when it comes to Sara and her revenge. When we first jumped back in the Waverider, Sara was ready to execute Darhk before he can murder Laurel. Here, it felt like she had the chance to do that but instead mocks him. Sara outlines that she knows Darhk’s fate. That his mission will fail and he will never fully achieve the goals of his HIVE. This could be seen as a bit of a mistake, but as far as good television goes… it further pushes the story. When Darhk questions Eobard about his fate, the roguish speedster invites him into his time ship and what I presume sends him to a different timeline.
--
Overall, despite being a shorter week… once again the most consistent show was Legends of Tomorrow. Mick Rory stealing the show yet again and playing out as the team’s de-facto MVP. I’m psyched for the coming Invasion and can’t wait to see what the Arrowverse will do with a four show crossover. One more week of regular Arrowverse goodness and we’ll be on like Donkey Kong.
