Almost finale time…
Oh yeah, did everyone hear that Supergirl will be hitting CW for its next season. It’s beginning to look like a ‘D’ should be in front of that channel name.
The Flash 2.21 – the Runaway Dinosaur
All hail Jesus Barry, our new lord and savior!
Well I guess there’s some debate over how technically dead he was.
I can’t figure it out. This is an episode that had everything on paper I should enjoy. Introspection… character journeys… heck it even had Liv’s old zombie boyfriend Drake from iZombie return to the show… as a zombie so even the 2nd best meta joke ever (1st best is the council of rivendale gag in the Martian). But it all left me, ‘meh.’
The show painted the story as “Barry needs to [something about] his mom.” I think they meant to say “accept her death” but what was it, really? Or why? His nonacceptance of her death was pushing him to be a hero – is that bad? What were the instances of his feelings towards his mom leading to him making mistakes? Giving up his speed to Wally? Should heroes let innocent civilians die? Not even the Speed Force seems to mean that. Besides that moment was far more a result of a foolish inability to plan than anything related to feelings towards his mother. There seems to be schizophrenia in media nowadays where the heroes are heroic because they never give up – but they give up the memories of their dead loved ones. It’s one of those things, I didn’t want it blatant or every episode to have Barry go “I miss mommy” but they needed SOMETHING this season to at least show what his problem really was. I mean Wally had a better done arc with his mother and father and he isn’t even a full protagonist yet (not saying Barry should have been estranged from his father over his mother, but it would have at least established a clearer arc). Heck having the Speed Force talk to him about losing Ronnie (from the beginning of the season) would have been more fitting, but then they’d have to have more of the season be him display more reluctance at being a hero.
Objectively, I’ll agree this episode is about a final grade of A, but for me personally it was a C-. I mean just compare it to the one minute scene with the phone on Earth 2 conveyed everything this episode was trying to better and more concise. But be sure to explain how I’m wrong. Maybe I missed some things elsewhere in the season that is supposed to make this all work.
Legends of Tomorrow 1.15 – Destiny
So… how come Snart had to hold the safety down instead of freezing Mick’s hand in place, chopping it free, then having Gideon rebuild the rest? I mean, sure it’s no picnic getting your arm frozen and chopped off, but it would be preferable to dying. And while I could see Ray or some of the others not wanting to do it, Heatwave seemed just crazy enough to go along with that plan. Heck if they were planning this, why not leave Snart without the hand he lost in “Left Behind” (1.9) since now he’s dead (and given the cast list, probably to return via time duplicate)? Just saying that the heroes need lasting scars to make their journey and arc more meaningful.
Still his final words (and the actor’s delivery) was solidly done.
So the revelation is also that the Thanagarians are, in fact, in the Arrow-verse universe. First, this confirms that aliens do exist in that universe (though no apparent confirmation on Kryptonians or Martians) which leaves Green Lantern still in the air for joining either this universe or Supergirl’s. For those curious, that would be the alien race that the SPACE versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl are from. Which will probably result in things getting more complicated for the Legend versions if the show decides to run more with that.
Again, this was a week I was very torn. If there’s anything I can say about LoT, it’s that it’s trying to do TOO much all at once. Well, I should save it for the season in review, but the Time Masters going down now just seems almost too easy. So, again, objectively speaking, this episode was an A- on the scale the show has set, but for me… about a B-. I will definitely have to talk more about this one when the season review is posted.