A Final Trip to 'Lian Yu' - Arrow S5 Finale

Yikes! "Lian Yu" was intense!

And no fooling, this was one of the best episodes Arrow has ever done, let alone one of the top for season five.

In fact, season five is one of this show's top seasons, harkening back to its strong foundations in season one. And speaking of season one, "Lian Yu" features the cameo returns of Malcolm Merlyn, Slade Wilson, and Moira Queen to Arrow.

Spoilers beyond the fold.

I actually missed a couple of reviews over the past few weeks, due to being involved in a car accident, so I apologize (I actually had people ask me on Facebook about the missing reviews). At this point, I'm not going to backtrack. Suffice to say that Adrian Chase has continued being the super genius bastard that he's always been, and that Team Arrow has never been able to keep up with him. In the previous episode before this one, Chase has, one by one, abducted the members of Team Arrow, as well as William, Oliver's son (and his mother, as we discover in this episode).

Thus, Oliver is in a bit of a pickle. Malcolm Merlyn also showed up in the Arrowcave last episode to offer help in getting Thea back. And Oliver ended up calling in another ally: Nyssa, his "wife." The sparks flew immediately between Nyssa and Malcolm as they growled at each other, and their verbal sparring continues in "Lian Yu" and it is great. Once on the island, Oliver picks up a couple more unlikely allies.

Awww YISSSS!

Happy to report that Slade Wilson was absolutely amazing (and that despite weeks of trolling fans about how he wasn't involved in this episode at all, Manu Bennett was indeed back and in awesome form). With the mirakuru cleared out of his system, Slade is sane again, and remembers everything he did under the influence. He wonders why Oliver didn't kill him for the execution of Moira Queen, and he's especially surprised when Oliver not only lets him out of ARGUS prison AND provides him with his gear, but also hands over a flash drive with information containing the whereabouts of Slade's missing son. You can almost see Slade softening, especially with the last.

Not gonna lie, Slade and Oliver fighting together again was a thrill I hadn't realized I was missing so very much.

This is a scene I didn't know I needed...

The other baddie Oliver picks up is Captain Boomerang, which he needn't have bothered, since the jackass turns on them almost instantly. Apparently Chase and his goons got to Boomerang first, but we don't learn that until Oliver rushes into an ambush and Boomerang pulls a gun on him. Slade appears to betray Oliver in that moment as well, but actually, he just proceeds to kick Boomerang's ass. Thankfully, Evelyn also gets her ass kicked in this scene, and put into a cage. And because Oliver is a much better person than I am, he promises to come back for Evelyn when Chase has been dealt with. Personally, I'd just leave the wench to rot on Lian Yu.

In other news, Ollicity is back on again!

Oliver sends Felicity, Curtis, Thea, and Samantha back towards the plane along with Malcolm as the pilot. The idea is that he wants to get the weaker members--Felicity and Samantha--safely off the island, and of course he wants his sister out of the line of fire. Despite Malcolm being Malcolm, he's certainly proven time and again that he will do whatever it takes to keep Thea safe, so I suppose he's trustworthy enough for this mission. Of course, the reunion between father and daughter is less than warm. Once again, John Barrowman and Willa Holland have fabulous chemistry together. They argue back and forth up until the moment there's a click and Thea freezes in place.

Yeah, how did everyone forget that Lian Yu is riddled with those stupid mines?

In a strangely heartbreaking scene, Malcolm shoves Thea off the mine and takes her place, and then tells them all to run away because Boomerang and some thugs are approaching.

Yeah, Malcolm freaking Merlyn sacrificed his life for Team Arrow (well, really for his daughter, of course). We see the explosion in the distance from Thea's point of view.

It's worth noting that while this is the comics genre and no one ever really stays dead, John Barrowman has thanked his fans for a wonderful five years. It sounds pretty final to me.

Oliver takes Slade and Nyssa to an old Chinese temple thing that's never been shown before in previous flashbacks of the island. Apparently that's where the rest of Team Arrow is being held. The three of them split up, with Nyssa going off on her own, and instantly Slade betrays Oliver and gives him up to Black Siren. But don't despair! It was all planned! Oliver wanted to get captured, because it gave him access to Dinah, and he gives her the collar that Curtis made for her that lets her focus her canary cry. It also allows her to break their chains.

Love me some lady assassins, NGL

What follows is a pretty awesome fight. We get treated to some beautiful fight choreography, starting first with an all-too-short fight sequence between Nyssa and her sister Thalia. Truly, if I have any complaint at all about this episode, or even this season, it's that we didn't get more of an explanation on why Thalia turns on her old student Oliver (yeah yeah, he killed my estranged father yadda yadda), and why Nyssa and Thalia seem to hate each other. I truly wish we'd had more development of the relationship between the sisters. There's some decent dialogue to that effect here, but still... I was left wanting so much more. These are two genuinely badass assassin ladies, and I am ALL about the assassin ladies of the world getting more screen time.

There's also a much larger fighter scene where everyone is fighting everyone: Dinah and Laurel have a canary face-off, Diggle gets to punch stuff, Slade and Nyssa fight more thugs, and ultimately, Oliver and Adrian face-off in their own apparent final battle. Once again, the fight choreography was phenomenal. Bonus points for Quentin getting the opportunity to knock Black Siren in the back of the head. And triple bonus points for Quentin insisting that Dinah be called the Black Canary.

It's worth noting that this giant fight scene in particular beautifully juxtaposes scenes with a flashback of the fight on Lian Yu between Oliver and Dolph Lundgren's Russian thug, just before Oliver's boat back to Star City is supposed to arrive. We keep switching back and forth between the flashback fight and the current fight, and instead of being jarring, this actually really works for the episode.

This is bad, right?

Ultimately, where in the flashback Oliver ends up breaking Kovar's neck and rushing off to catch his boat, Oliver has the chance to end Adrian's life once and for all, and he chooses not to. Which is a good thing because that's about when Felicity calls him and lets him know that the island is covered in c4 that is set to explode on a dead man's switch. If Adrian dies, the island gets blown up.

Nothing is ever easy for Oliver Queen. Nothing. Adrian won't tell him where William is, and he even suggests that he killed the boy, just to try to get Oliver to kill him (and thus everyone) too.

Ultimately, Adrian ends up escaping (because of course he does), and Oliver sends everyone to rejoin the rest of the team while he runs after Adrian. The team finds out pretty quickly that they are hosed, though, because Adrian sabotaged the plane, so it isn't going anywhere.

That freaking smirk! Josh Segarra, you are so good at making us hate you!

William is on the boat of course, and Adrian has one final card to play. Kill Chase, OR Chase will kill Oliver's son. Of course this was Adrian's plan all along: make Oliver make the impossible choice between his entire team or Oliver's son.

Jerk.

Okay, time for this jerk to die. Srsly. 

Oliver almost had his cake and eat it too. He manages a trick shot of an arrow that hits Adrian's foot and makes him let go of William, so Oliver grabs the boy. But our hero is not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, not to mention the fact he was in the process of freaking out about his son. So he fails to shove William behind him and then smack Adrian upside the head and knock him out, which would have been the obvious solution. Instead, he stands there shouting at Chase, while Chase plays his final final ace.

It's like the 4th of July up in here...

OMG the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers! Who will live? Who will die? Is Oliver a single dad now?

Unfortunately, some of the suspense was killed by the recent announcement that Dinah and Rene are still series regulars in season six. Thanks, CW! Also, the showrunners have explicitly stated that Thea Queen will not be killed off, ever. So there's three right there that you know survived!

Still, in my opinion, the combination of excellent writing, amazing acting (Stephen Amell has come so far since season one, he was brilliant here), and gorgeous fight choreography, really made this the CW's best superhero finale this year, hands down. And really, looking back on the whole season, despite a few duds here and there, Arrow had the overall best season period this year.

We won't know until October how anyone on Team Arrow survives (if you want my opinion, Slade saves all or most of them by taking them underground to the ARGUS bunker). I have my doubts that Samantha, William's mother, survives. But even if she does, William now knows that his dad is the freaking Green Arrow, so there's that to look forward to next season.

I'm also loving the return of gruff, cool Slade Wilson as an ally of Oliver's. I kind of really hated him in season two when he was basically the villain out of Days of Our Lives (like literally, in a suit with an eyepatch), and Manu Bennett is on record as saying he didn't care for the way Slade was written in season two either. I expect that Slade will disappear to find his own son, but that we can expect him back for cameos. I like the idea of a somewhat enigmatic antihero Slade Wilson at large.

Besides Nyssa and Thalia not having enough screentime together, my only complaint is that Moira Queen didn't have as much screentime either as I would have liked. But Susanna Thompson was still heartbreaking and fabulous as Oliver's mother when she receives that phone call from him as he is leaving the island. I love her so much.

I almost quit watching Arrow after the trainwreck that was season four, but I'm glad I stuck with it. The showrunners and writers really stepped it up a notch, and it was worth it.

What did you think of the finale? Let us know in the comments!

See you in the fall, everyone!


Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

Staggering across the "Finish Line," - The Flash Season Three Finale

Whew! I don't know about you guys, but after this season of The Flash, I am exhausted! I feel like I ran a marathon and I'm just now staggering across the "Finish Line," which not incidentally, is the name of the season three finale.

So let's wrap up The Flash, and now that you've seen the finale (or read about it here), also be sure to head on over to check me out as I step up on my soapbox about superheroes never getting a happy ending, and how that trope kills the marginalized.

But first... the finale.

Spoilers beyond the fold.

"Finish Line" doesn't leave us guessing on the fate of Iris West for long. I'll be honest: while I didn't really think they would kill her off, there was a part of me that had my doubts. Call it the cynic in me, because as I noted in my soapbox piece, the trope about superheroes never getting a happy ending usually results in women and people of color being killed off. Iris is both of these, so she was in danger of falling into the trap of this trope.

Thankfully, the Berlantiverse may have learned from the fan rage after Arrow killed off Katie Cassidy's Canary last season. As we learn immediately, HR used his Earth-19 face magic thingie to turn himself into Iris. We actually see a flashback of him using the piece of Savitar's armor to find the secret lair, turn himself into Iris and Iris into himself, and then Savitar recapturing "Iris." So when Savitar gets stabby, he's actually stabbing HR.

No, HR. You are not a coward.

HR has not, by any means, been my favorite Wells. But I admit to feeling sadness at his fate, if only because he proved that he loved this team and that he had a hero's heart all along, even though he scanned as a coward for a good part of the season. However, I am perfectly ready for Tom Cavanagh to come back next season as an all new Wells. Or maybe just return to Harry from Earth-2, since it appears Harry will be sticking around for a bit after this episode. Also, I'd like to point out that this sort of falls into that whole annoying "no happy endings allowed!" trope I'm going on about today. HR and Tracy had just fallen in love, so it seems kind of crappy to rip them apart.

But anyway, Savitar prevents Killer Frost from killing Cisco, because he needs Cisco to go all sciencey and modify the speedforce cannon. Back at base, Barry remembers that Leonard Snart told him that the key to defeating Savitar once and for all is for Barry to not stoop to Savitar's level and to always remain the hero. Thus, Barry calls for Savitar to meet up with him, and offers him the chance to be saved from the impending time anomaly that will result in Savitar's being erased from existence, since HR effectively managed to change the course of time by saving Iris.

Yeah baby, caress my burns...

Despite apparently being touched by Iris' kindness, Savitar/Evil!Barry doesn't really buy into it. This scene is notable only for the fact that Devoe, aka The Thinker, is name dropped for the second time this season. So, definitely the big bad for season 4. Thank Dog it's not another speedster!

Also of note here, Julian appears after being absent for a while, and reveals that he and Caitlin's mom developed a gene therapy cure to bring Caitlin back for good as the non-meta she's always wanted to be. This was actually the moment that I knew we wouldn't be getting human Caitlin back and that we were most likely looking at Frost (aka, the metahuman that isn't evil like Killer Frost). I'm actually quite happy about this, because I never accepted the narrative that Caitlin was incapable of both being a hero and a metahuman. The idea that cold powers make you cold inside is silly.

Guys! I made a thing!

Anyway, Savitar knows that time is catching up with him, so he makes Cisco modify the speedforce canon to do some major pseudo-science technobabble-laced nonsense. Something about splitting Savitar into an infinite number of himself, so that he can exist in every moment in time and truly be a god, and truly be above time anomalies and other such banal concerns. Whatever. I can't believe Evil!Barry fell for the idea that Cisco might actually help him do something like that.  When Savitar uses the speedforce canon, it instead somehow pops Jay Garrick out of the speedforce prison, along with more technobabble nonsense about how that happened. Reversing polarities on something or other is a Star Trek thing, guys! Get your own technobabble!

Also of note: Gypsy showed up to save Cisco's life, because he somehow vibed his distressed across the multiverse. They make a cute couple, not gonna lie.

After Garrick pops out of the prison, what follows is a pretty awesome CGI sequence that suggests the CW has been investing money in this show. Savitar getting chased by Barry, Wally, and Jay is a really cool sequence, and one of the most enjoyable parts of the episode. It was over way too quickly.

No foolin', one of the coolest fight scenes I've seen on this show, ever

When this chase is over, Barry and Savitar face off, and Barry has had it! He, much like the audience, is sick of it all. He does a really cool move where he races and phases into the Savitar armor, shoving Evil!Barry right out of it. The armor actually changes color, and if you want my opinion, it looks a lot more menacing when Good!Barry is in it. Also, cooler.

I'm not actually sure how the hell this happened, but it was super cool. 

Barry ultimately shatters the armor and lets his evil remnant live, because the time anomaly is about to finally catch up and erase him anyway. Evil!Barry knows his time is up, so he makes one last push to get his vengeance: his bumrushes Barry, who like an idiot had his back turned.

Then the show's real hero shows up.

That's right, bitches. The real badass has been hidden in plain sight the whoooole time

Iris, honey, if you could do this all along, why the hell haven't you been your own hero?

Not gonna lie, it was really satisfying for Iris to be the one to save Barry, for once. Interestingly, they don't bother with any emotional fallout for Iris, considering she just shot a version of him in the back. Back at the apartment after he's just delivered their save-the-date notices, Barry asks her if she's okay with what she just did. Iris says she's sure it will hit her later. But for the moment, she's totally fine. She has zero angst about killing, despite the fact that Barry has wrestled with this moral question time and again for all three seasons.

For just a glimmering moment in time, we had a version of Iris that wasn't a helpless victim. It was nice, and I really want to see more of it. I have always lamented that the really badass version of her is the cop Iris on Earth-2, and she seemed to embody that doppelganger here. Can we keep her? Please?

Happily, not only did a black woman not get fridged for a white man's journey through mainpain (a rare occurrence, to be sure), but she was also given the opportunity to be a hero.

Caitlin has become someone else... something else (#sorrynotsorry)

Caitlin has decided not to use Julian's gene therapy to become non-meta. She gives it back to him, and says that she needs time to figure out who she is now. For the moment, she has exited off of Team Flash, but I doubt she will be gone for long. Like I said earlier, I'm pretty giddy about having Frost now, so I'm looking forward to her return.

So, all's well that ends well, right?

Oh, sweet summer child.

Of course not! This here is a superhero story, and remember... superheroes can never be happy! There are no happy endings! Thus, when Iris and Barry are trying to settle down and think about wedding stuff, the speedforce erupts into Central City, because the forced expelling of Jay Garrick out of the speedforce prison means there's an imbalance in the Force, or something. No one took Jay's place, so the gaping hole means the speedforce is going to wreck Central City in return.

Barry accepts his fate: he created this problem when he created Flashpoint, so now he must pay the price. Of course, that means Iris pays the price as well.

I'm not cryin', you're... oh hell, fine, I'm cryin'

The romantic in me cried, but the rest of me was pretty angry. Once again, trumped-up drama is used to deny a happy ending. Never mind Barry, none of this is fair to Iris, who apparently must also pay the price for Barry's boneheaded decisions.

I mean, I know, and you know, and everyone knows, that Grant Gustin is way too popular to be exited off this show. So look for Barry to come back in episode one of season four, or episode two TOPS. I would be really surprised if they dragged this on any further than that.

But until then, Kid Flash, Harry Wells, Cisco, Joe, Iris, and possibly Tracy will have to be the Team Flash that keeps Central City in one piece.

A Mark Twain quote seems particularly appropriate for HR

Thanks for sticking with Critical Writ for your Arrowverse reviews, and tune in tomorrow for Arrow season five's finale. Iris West wasn't fridged, so here's hoping Felicity Smoak won't be either.

See you in the fall for The Flash's return.


Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

Cause & Effect - The Flash Recap & Review

Almost as if The Flash crew reads my reviews, "Cause and Effect" immediately answers the gripe I had in my review of last week's trainwreck reveal of future Flash being Savitar.

I'm getting serious whiplash from the constant good/bad quality change of these episodes. I kind of really hated last week's episode, mostly because of the reveal, but then "Cause and Effect" ended up strangely satisfying for an episode that seemed to be mostly intended as filler before we hit the final two.

Spoilers beyond the fold

As I noted above, my gripe with the Savitar reveal is almost instantly dealt with as this episode opens right where we left off last week: Barry is confronting his future self. But as it turns out, Savitar explains exactly who he is, and he's not our Barry. Turns out he's the only surviving time remnant of a group of remnants future Barry pulls together to stop Savitar. All but the one dies, but because it's a time remnant, supposedly Iris and Joe and Cisco and everyone rejects it because it's not the real Barry. Left alone and angry and in pain, the time remnant would eventually become Savitar, as it realizes that gods don't feel pain, so clearly the answer is to become a god.

There's a lot of Back to the Future style explanations by Cisco and Barry to try to explain to the other characters--and the audience--how a future time remnant becomes Savitar and then goes back in time to make himself a Hindu god, etc etc. Whatever, the point is that, as with "The Once and Future Flash" episode a couple of weeks ago, "Cause and Effect" is just making the point that Barry becomes dark and angry if he doesn't have the loving support of his friends and family. The Flash is nothing without his team, and without their love to sustain him, he becomes not just emo and broody, but eventually outright evil.

So I don't have to be upset anymore, I guess, because my Barry, the one I have loved for the past three seasons, doesn't murder Iris. Can Nazi Cap be a time remnant too?

Anyway, in this episode, Cisco comes with a truly hair-brained idea to try to keep Savitar from knowing all their moves. See, Savitar knows everything they do now, because he has all of Barry's memories, so anytime they do anything, Savitar knows it. Cisco conceives of an idea to temporarily block Barry's ability to remember things going forward, just so they stop feeding Savitar information.

Raise your hand if you think this sounds like a terrible idea.

This is a terrible plan: The Team Flash Story. #TheFlash

— Kayti Burt (@kaytiburt) May 10, 2017

It's a terrible idea. Cisco isn't the brain specialist of Team Flash, Caitlin is. With her gone, of course this plan goes completely awry. Barry loses all of his memories. He doesn't even know his own name, let alone that he's engaged to Iris or that he's even The Flash. Inexplicably, the team doesn't even tell him he has superpowers.

What have we done?

This is actually a pretty adorable episode. Grant Gustin gets to stretch his Barry personification a bit here, as he plays an innocent and sweet and super happy Barry who doesn't even remember that his parents were murdered. He is childlike in his joy, but of course his lack of memory also poses some hilarious problems for the team. (and that moment when Wally tells Barry that they are brothers, and Barry looks down at his own hand to check his skin color).

One of the other effects of Barry losing his memories is that Savitar also loses his memories completely, so Killer Frost shows up at STAR Labs because she knows what these idiots have done, and she tells them they shouldn't have messed with Barry's brain without Caitlin around. Truth.

Anyway, Killer Frost ends up helping them get Barry's memories back in working order. During the time she's at STAR Labs, Cisco attempts to bring Caitlin back with some pleasant memories, but it doesn't seem to work. As she's leaving, though, it appears that there is an internal fight going on inside Killer Frost between her and Caitlin, judging by the changing eye colors.

I am still making this decent episode look good. 

While it was nice to see Iris had, you know, actual lines in this episode, and she was in more scenes, as usual, The Flash is completely under-using her. And as usual again, she ultimately serves to be emotional support for Barry. In this episode, she spends her time with Innocent Barry, and later on suggests that maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing for him to remain this way, because he's so happy and unburdened. Later, when he gets his memories back, she still has to support him emotionally. Meh. That would be fine, if she was allowed to do other stuff too.

There's a subplot with Tracy trying to figure out the Savitar trap, and ultimately she finishes building it with HR's "help." There's a budding romance here, too, which I don't mind terribly, because it's made HR much more endearing than he has been for most of this season.

NGL, kinda loving her Ghostbusters look here. 

 I'm sure we won't have Tracy around after this season, which is a shame, because she's actually quite delightful and quirky, and of course she is a super intelligent scientist that Team Flash could really use more of. I'm not sure if HR is going to stick around for next season, but if he does, I hope that means we see more of Tracy as a recurring character as well.

The episode ends with Tracy stating that her Savitar trap needs a major power source, and the last scene of the episode shows a thing that for some reason, King Shark is guarding. So I guess we know what's going on next week!

Overall, a cute and enjoyable episode that while being mostly filler in the larger story, did serve to move along character development and open up the possibility of bringing Caitlin to her senses.

There are just two episodes to go before the season ends. Tell us what you think of this and of the coming finale!

The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

"Duet" Hits the Right Notes - The Flash & Supergirl Crossover

That sound you heard last night was probably the sound of me squeeing in absolute delight for a solid hour of television.

Also, possibly, it was the sound of the tremendous amount of musical talent that you might not have realized exists in the Berlantiverse. And maybe even the sound of tap-dancing. Because, you guys, there was tap-dancing in this episode!!!!

Spoilers over the fold.

As with the previous crossover episode this season which involved all four Berlantiverse shows, it's probably worth noting right off the bat that the plot of "Duet" was very simple, and if really want to be critical, kind of silly. Music Meister, who appears at the end of Monday's Supergirl episode and "whammies" Kara unconscious, shows up on Earth-1 and whammies Barry as well. Later, Music Meister tells both our intrepid heroes that he's just there to teach them a lesson, and oh yeah, don't die in the dream world because you'll die in the real world too.

The "lesson" for Kara and Barry to learn is about love, which, if you're not interested in the silly romantically-contrived drama this season, may cause you to roll your eyes. Certainly I hit The Flash hard for it's CW-soap-opera-esque decision to play the "will they/won't they" game, with an honorable mention going to Supergirl for the same predictable melodrama between Kara and Mon-El. I will say that at the very least, Supergirl didn't drag the drama on for very long. We all knew the melodrama was going to happen, but it didn't happen until this past Monday's episode, wherein Kara discovers that Mon-El has been lying to her about his real identity as Prince of Daxam all this time, so she decides she simply can't be with him, or have anything to do with him. Meanwhile, Barry decided last week that he couldn't be with Iris because reasons, and that was after she had called off the engagement the week before that, because reasons.

I would be remiss if I didn't link to a post (again) at the Fandomentals blog about the problematic nature of the Mon-El and Kara romance. It's worth a read for sure.

Okay, so what all of the criticism out of the way, let's get real here about musical episodes. Unless you're Glee, the only reason to have a musical episode is a) because the fans would love it, and b) because it's fun, and c) because if your cast has the talent, it would be wasteful not to. Sometimes it doesn't work out (looking at you, Grey's Anatomy), but sometimes it goes down in history as being one of the most memorable things about a show (full confession: I still sometimes play the soundtrack to "Once More With Feeling," the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, in my car).

Considering all the musical talent present in at least some members of every Berlantiverse cast, maybe the real surprise is that a musical crossover didn't happen sooner. Either way, and despite the simplistic nature of the plot, "Duet" delivered in a big way. It was visually gorgeous, between all the costumes and hair, and of course it was such a pleasure to hear the pipes on some of these actors, in all their full glory.

Costuming and hair, especially for Iris and Kara, were on-point here!

So basically, Music Meister traps Kara and Barry in a dream world where they are in fact in a musical, and they don't have their super powers. They have to play along with the plot and see it through to its conclusion if they want to get out. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Mon-El and J'onn crossover into Earth-1 to seek the help of Team Flash, bringing an unconscious Kara with them.

There is a little bit of action out in the real world, as J'onn, Kid Flash, and Vibe team up to capture Music Meister. There's a small sideplot involving Kid Flash being freaked out now about the superheroing thing after Savitar messed with his head, and Music Meister even taunts him about being scared, but ultimately, bolstered by his teammates, Wally gets it together.

The real action is happening in the dreamworld, of course. We start with Barry entering the dreamworld just as Kara is pulling off a beautiful number on stage at a nightclub set in the roaring 20s. Music Meister appears to tell them how the game is played, and there is another musical number that features Carlos Valdes (Cisco) and Jeremy Jordan (Winn) and Music Meister himself (Darren Criss).

I did not know this, but Jeremy Jordan (Winn) is a young broadway star. The hell is he doing playing the dork on Supergirl?

Then you've got the actual stage legends in the form of Jesse L. Martin (Joe West) and Victor Garber (Martin Stein on Legends of Tomorrow), who play the two dads of Iris' in-dream character Millie. Yes that's right, The Flash just slipped in a gay romance we didn't even know we freaking needed, but we so totally do. Anyway, Martin and Garber belt out "More I Cannot Wish You" from Guys and Dolls, along with the third stage legend in this episode, John Barrowman, who plays the rival father and gangster.

I accept this new head cannon

Millie, aka Iris, is secretly in love with the son of the night club owner, and that son is played by Mon-El. So yeah, we had Iris West and Mon-El in love, and neither Barry nor Kara were very happy about it. But they had to move the romance plot forward if they want to get out of this West Side Story knock-off.

Guys. GUYS. There's a tap-dance sequence, which Grant Gustin freaking nails. I was sitting on my couch literally squeeeing with sheer joy. This sequence featured Barry and Kara singing a silly Rachel Bloom (of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) piece called "Super Friends," and it was super fabulous.

Photo credit: Vanity Fair/CW

Ultimately, when Barrowman, Martin, and Garber get into a gangster shootout because they don't want their kids dating, Barry and Kara get caught in it and get shot, despite Music Meister's warning that they can't die in the dream world. Prodded along by Music Meister, Iris and Mon-El have to go save their sweeties by vibing into the dream world and giving the kiss of true love. I swear to God I'm not making this up.

Hokey as hell? Yes! All the yes! But it was so... joyful. 

The lesson Kara and Barry learn has something to do with love and forgiveness (I told you the plot was kind of thin). Music Meister, who apparently has channeled all of us in being sick of the will they/won't they, is pleased that they seem to be in love again, and so his job is done.

I mean, it remains to be seen how Kara and Mon-El will fix things, although Kara was probably on the right track when she threatened to geologically drop a mountain on him if he ever lied to her again. But Barry and Iris have fully resolved their differences here, because at the end of this episode, we get one final musical number, this time in the real world. Barry serenades Iris with a beautiful piece written by La La Land's Benj Pasek and Justin Paul called "Runnin' Home To You" as he presents her with the engagement ring once more.

If you're not into romance or musicals, the final scene was probably way too sugary-sweet for your tastes, and the rest of the musical numbers probably annoyed you. But then again, maybe not. My husband is no fan of musicals (how did I marry this man, when I adore them?), but he wasn't greatly bothered by this episode. It will probably never be his favorite episode, but it didn't cause him to leave the room.

But if you're like me, and you love musicals and think that Kara and Barry are the most adorable superheroes ever, then this episode will probably make you as happy as it made me. Because while it did nothing to move the Savitar plot, or any of the other story arcs in The Flash this season, "Duet" was nothing but sheer, golden joy. I walked away from it feeling happy and delighted, a feeling I remember from watching The Flash back in season one. After a dark season two, and an even darker season three, it's nice to know that this cast and these writers can re-capture it... once more with feeling.

The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

Steven Universe Recap - S04E11-15

Before we start, I'd like to take a moment and applaud the sheer level of incompetence displayed by Cartoon Network. Accidentally releasing a spoiler-filled promo or airing two episodes in other countries before their US release date is one thing, of that kind best described as "shit happens." But leaking the entire five episode event marking Steven Universe's 2017 return is reaching never before seen heights of idiocy. I swear, if I didn't see a member of the Trump's cabinet accidentally tweet not one, but two confidential passwords, I'd probably start to find the "CN wants to cancel Steven Universe to make space for stuff like Teen Titans Go" more plausible. Just... stop screwing up, Cartoon Network. Jesus.

And now we bring you your usual Steven Universe recap.

(Spoilers beyond this point.)

Plagued by weird dreams of a pink palanquin, Steven is anxious to find out answers about Pink Diamond (allegedly killed by his mother), but is unable to break the Crystal Gems' silence. Eventually he comes to blows with Garnet and ends up recruiting help from Greg in order to get to Korea. That's where the pink palanquin from his dreams, according to Buddy's journal, was when we first saw it, and is located. And that's where we meet Blue Diamond.

Voiced by an Irish singer/songwriter/musician Lisa Hannigan, Blue has been in mourning over Pink Diamond since her death, millennia ago. The two were definitely in a very close relationship, so she devoted a lot of care to securing everything connected to Pink. And that's why Steven and Greg find her near the palanquin, crying over the near destruction of Earth (unaware that the Cluster is contained and nothing is being blown up). It's unclear if she and Pink Diamond were closer to each other than the other Diamonds. On the surface level, Yellow (who returns towards the end of this set of episodes) seems more collected. But the end of her song "What's the Use of Feeling" reveals her calm is only surface-deep. In the final verses, that veneer cracks, giving a glimpse of grief likely as deep as Blue's. That puts her determination for Earth to be destroyed in Cluster's "birth" in a different perspective; at first, it seemed like she was a conquer bent on destroying the place she was defeated at. Now, it seems like someone in mourning, who wants nothing to do with anything connected to their deceased loved one and especially with the place they died.

(It also suggests the Diamonds might be in a polyamorous relationship, but this will have to wait until White Diamond finally appears.)

Out of grief, Yellow wants Earth destroyed, and Blue wants to preserve as much as she can before the planet is destroyed. So when she accidentally meets Greg, who empathizes with her feelings, she kidnaps him, to save the (as she assumes) only human capable of understanding her from the literal earth-shattering event.

Terrified Steven runs back to the Crystal Gems and together they travel by Ruby ship to Blue Diamond's destination, the Zoo. This place is a deep-space structure, resembling a space station, where Pink Diamond kept humans that caught her eye. What follows is a fun, science-fiction adventure that reveals not only the Diamonds' depths, but also what happened to Quartz soldiers from Earth Kindergartens, other than Jasper and our Amethyst. Basically, Blue took them under her wing and put them on guard duty in the Zoo; an equivalent to putting your deceased loved one's things and putting them in one spot, a shrine devoted to their memory. Unfortunately for them, she put one of her entourage, Holly Blue Agate (voiced by Christine Pedi), in charge, who is an overbearing, bureaucratic dictator.

The payoff of that reveal comes when Steven helps Greg out of the enclosure where descendants of Pink Diamond's pet humans live in ignorant bliss. To infiltrate the Zoo, the Gems have to pretend to be a part of Blue Diamond's court, with Amethyst shape-shifted into a body resembling what her full-grown form would look like. She's eventually found out by other Quartzes, but not, as you might suspect, brought to the Zoo's overseer. The Amethysts from Prime Kindergarten and Jaspers from Beta Kindergarten are overjoyed to find a sister they never knew existed, and our Amethyst has a family, people who are just like her.

After the daring rescue that the Quartzes do absolutely nothing about (instead excited to see Holly beaten), the Gems return home. The mystery of Pink Diamond's death remains unsolved for now, and Yellow Diamond is definitely working on something involving Earth. But for now, all is well.

On a more technical side, this was the most well-crafted of Stevenbombs. Those five episode events are done when Cartoon Network feels like it, as opposed to when it makes the most sense plot-wise. That's why only two of them thus far formed any sort of arc—the first and season finales. And even then their opening episodes were unrelated to the rest of the bunch, and the first one only worked by pushing a couple of episodes into season 2. The other either had a very loose structure (the Sardonyx one) or were five unconnected episodes, loosely put together. This, on the other hand, was a very clear story arc, with a five part structure, an opening and an end. This suggests the Crewniverse and CN were more closely working together, which led to a positive outcome. Hopefully future events will be crafted as well.

But for now, we're finally back to weekly releases, at least for a while. We're starting with the episode showing the effects of Connie, Lapis and Peridot taking on the role of defenders of Earth in the main group's absence. I'll see you then.

Dominik Zine is a nerdy demisexual lad from northeastern Poland and is generally found in a comfy chair with a book in hand.

Steven Universe Recap - S04E08-10 - "Gem Harvest" + "Three Gems and a Baby"

I may be late, but ain't nothing gonna stop me from covering Steven Universe episodes. Thus, we're going to go over last year's final two episodes, before the show's (probably) temporary return on January 30.

(Spoilers beyond this point.)

S04E08-09 - Gem Harvest

Ones of the reasons I was late in reviewing this episode (which affected the following one) was uncertainty in how to cover it. When it comes down to it, it's a regular Steven Universe story, only twice the usual length. Peridot and Lapis are living the dream in the barn, and are even trying their hand at farming (which may or may not be a jab at last summer's ridiculous "lesbian farmers" incident). Their shenanigans are interrupted by the arrival of an interloper: Andy DeMayo, Greg's cousin and Steven's uncle. The barn turns out to be DeMayo family property that Greg just decided to allow the Gems to use (speaking of which—not cool, Greg). Andy is understandably pissed, especially since Greg pretty much cut ties with him and the rest of the family. It's up to Steven and the Crystal Gems to win him over.

The reason I struggled to tackle "Gem Harvest" has little to do with the actual episode, and more with its timing. The general plot is not out of the ordinary for the show—reaching out to someone, finding out what ails them and helping them through it; if not entirely fixing it, then at least making it more bearable for a while. The reason Andy lashes out at Greg and the Gems isn't the barn: it's his inability to deal with change in familial relations (and in general) and abandonment issues. Nothing out of the ordinary for the show, or any other seasonal special.

But boy, did it come out at the wrong time. By which I mean—right after that election. I'm actually curious how the show's target audience reacted to the episode, because I and a few others whose thoughts I read did not take it well. Andy's rants against aliens (a term used against immigrants and their children), Greg not being married and other complaints; we've had the displeasure of witnessing similar for most of the year. And that made empathy towards him all the harder, even though he was right to feel the way he did.

In time, I'm certain "Gem Harvest" will be looked upon as a regular Steven Universe episode, and will be all the better for it. There's a lot to like about it: the animation is as good as usual, there are a number of great moments (for instance Pearl's "let's all marry each other" and the Gems' table conversation). There are also a few details from Greg's history, like his last name (Universe did sound a little too cool for a real name). It's already more tolerable just a couple of months after its release, but we could use a little more time.

S04E10 - Three Gems and a Baby

This one, on the other hand, is pretty un-problematic: another one of Greg's "once per season" stories from before the start of the show. This time, we get a tale from Steven's infancy and the Gems' early attempts at understanding him.

This is a very Gem-focused episode, as all three are still dealing with the idea of Rose’s passing and Steven’s birth, and they all process it in different ways. Amethyst has trouble differentiating the two and most of the time still calls him “Rose,” needing to be reminded by Garnet that those are two different individuals. And when Steven’s gem begins to glow, she assumes he really is Rose still, only for some reason still shapeshifting as a baby.

Pearl is still grieving for her lost heart (obviously) and takes the same occurrence as a sign Rose is trapped in the baby and wants to get out. And as a result (in what seems to be the start of a streak of Pearl willing to go to extremes to achieve something she feels has to happen), she’s seriously pondering killing him to free her love—only barely stopping out of respect for Rose’s dying wish.

Garnet seemingly takes it best, trusting in her future vision, but while she gets the closest by assuming Steven’s a fusion (because he is in a small way), even she only barely starts grasping the idea of him as an individual. She’s in a better place than the other two, though. In the end, it’s a fun, if occasionally dark, blast from the past, showing us how Gems—as completely alien beings—started grasping how to treat and understand Steven.

And that's it for now. We'll be back in early February to cover the new Stevenbomb: five episodes spread across four days (January 30 will have 2 episodes). After that, who knows? Maybe we'll get another Summer of Steven in 2017? In any case, I'll see you then.

Dominik Zine is a nerdy demisexual lad from northeastern Poland and is generally found in a comfy chair with a book in hand.

Star Wars Rebels Recap - S03E07-08 - "Imperial Supercommandos" + "Iron Squadron"

It’s been eight episodes since the start of the season (seven, if you consider the premiere a single episode), and it’s pretty clear what the producers have building for this half of the season. They’ve been crafting a bigger Rebellion, increasing its numbers by gathering more and more allies. Now, after "Imperial Supercomandos" and "Iron Squadron", the unified resistance against Empire got even bigger.

(Spoilers beyond this point.)

Our primary focus for the two episodes are Ezra, Sabine and Ghost’s astromech droid Chopper, though the second episode features the rest of the crew more heavily. In "Imperial Supercommandos" the trio assist Fenn Rau, the leader of the Protectors of the Concord Dawn turned prisoner of the Rebels, in investigating a sudden loss of contact with his people. First introduced in the second season, Protectors were a Mandalorian (Star Wars’s "proud warrior race people") faction controlling a crucial hyperjump spot the Rebellion needed to find their new base planet. Their position and skill were so good, the Empire bribed them to keep anyone from passing near Concord Dawn. But the Imperials, being who they are, always want to take full control over everything. That’s what Fenn and the Rebels find out upon reaching his base — which they find completely destroyed. The Protectors were wiped out by other Mandalorians, ones openly and completely allied with the Empire, led by Gar Saxon. More importantly, they are of House Vizsla, Sabine’s people — in fact, her defection to the Empire is the primary reason for that alliance.

The episode definitely is setting up Sabine’s future subplot, especially with the mention of her mother, and her burgeoning rivalry with Gar over House Vizsla. It’ll be exciting to see more of it — as exciting as the episode’s action sequences. Generally speaking, the ground level fights in Rebels are not the show’s most spectacularly choreographed ones, unless they involve Force users. This time, we have Mandalorian aerial combat with jetpacks, and it’s a sight to benhold; dynamic, creative, and thrilling. It’s a damn shame we won’t see it for a while, after Sabine’s jetpack gets destroyed by the end. Sigh.

The next episode, "Iron Squadron", introduces a new group, the titular squadron. Under the impressive name hides a trio of teenagers and an astromech, fighting the Empire in a cargo ship in such a bad shape, it makes the Millennium Falcon look like a Star Destroyer. The group’s leader is Mart, revealed to be the thought dead nephew of the Rebel fleet leader, Commander Sato.

Mart and his friends start out — there’s no other way to put this — annoying as hell. They’re basically a trio of Ezras from the first season, thinking themselves a big thorn in the Empire’s side when they barely made an impact. In fact, after Thrawne sends a light cruiser to mop up any resistance in their system, they’d be dead. Thankfully, the Ghost arrives and with the help of first Sabine, Ezra and Chopper — and later the entire crew and Sato’s cruiser — everyone manages to get out safely.

The episode helps develop the thus far very static character of Commander Sato. Sato spent the entirety of last season and the previous episodes this season as the authority figure to the Ghost crew, as someone to send them on missions and react to some of their more insane plans. "Iron Squadron" gives him some depth; a brother lost to the Empire, a nephew thought lost, and what sounds like a history with Grand Admiral Thrawn. The last one especially looks like it’ll be important in future episodes.

Finally, the episode shows how far Ezra’s come since the start of the show. By contrasting him with the teen members of the Iron Squadron, we can appreciate his development. Especially after his short speech, during which he attempts to convince them to leave with the Ghost. The words "How we choose to fight is just as important as what we fight for" sound like something Hera and Kanan would say to him in the earlier episodes. The kid, and the show, have come a long and satisfying way.

And now, an announcement: as of next week, I will be leaving the coverage of the show in more competent hands. As much as I love the show and the Star Wars universe, I’m not an expert in it, which I think could be felt in the previous posts. Thus, I leave in the Stephanie Maynard’s hands, and can’t wait to read her reviews. I’ll see you in other recaps.

Dominik Zine is a nerdy demisexual lad from northeastern Poland and is generally found in a comfy chair with a book in hand.

Westworld Recap - S01E05 - "Contrapasso"

Contrapasso is a punishment described in Dante’s Inferno, incurred in the 8th circle of Hell, where the heads of the condemned are twisted around to face their back, preventing them from moving forward where they wish to go, forcing them to walk backward instead. Westworld is a series rich with allegories sprinkled throughout, and the concept of hell is one that can be keenly felt in most of the character arcs at play in S01E05 ‘Contrapasso.’

(Spoilers beyond this point)
























In particular, the conversation between Robert, The Man in Black, and Teddy seems to be an overt parallel to God, Satan, and Man.

The Man in Black, on his quest to find the labyrinth (some kind of hidden easter egg in the game of Westworld) stumbles across Teddy, who had been left to die in the wilderness. The Man in Black believes in providence, and seeing a larger role for Teddy in his quest, cooly opts to sacrifice Lawrence to keep Teddy alive. Teddy is a kind and moral hero by programming and wouldn’t normally align himself with the Man in Black, so he lies to Teddy, and tells him they’re on a quest to save Dolores from Wyatt. For Teddy, ‘Dolores’ seems to be the magic word.

As Robert and the Man in Black parley and trade jabs, Teddy is out of his element. He can’t understand what they’re talking about; in fact, he’s programmed to tune most of it out, and spends the scene looking lost and forlorn. Robert has no particular feelings towards Teddy, other than perhaps a passing pity, leaving him with a reset/recalibrate command disguised as an afterthought of a blessing. “Mr. Flood, we must look back and smile at perils past, mustn’t we?”



The Man in Black regards Teddy as little more than a utilitarian pet, bouncing ideas off him he knows he can’t comprehend, “You know why you exist, Teddy? The world out there, the one you'll never see, was one of plenty. A fat, soft teat people cling to their entire life. Every need taken care of except one: purpose, meaning,” which dovetails with Robert’s personal story about the family pet greyhound. While Robert still finds the greyhound's pursuit of a cat to be the most beautiful thing he ever saw, the saddest moment was yet to come. When the dog horrified everyone by tearing the cat apart, the dog was left confused, having chased felt decoys all its life, and now left with nothing more to chase, no longer with a purpose.

Perhaps that is why Robert, god of Westworld, created his park: to grant its guests something to quest after, like the Man in Black. Yet considering how most guests use the park to hurt others or degrade themselves, one might be reminded of the thought experiment which posits that suffering is an integral part of the human experience. That if misery were largely absent, we would miss it and ultimately tear ourselves back down. Indeed, Westworld seems to be a new hell, created to mete out pain as pleasure. Only in this hell, the robotic hosts are the condemned and the humans are the demons. Calling back Peter’s omen to Dolores in S01E01 ‘The Original,’ “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

Fortunately, Peter’s words of warning stuck with Dolores and were passed on to Maeve, who are very quickly becoming self-aware and are effectively changing the rules of an infernal game they never asked to be pawns in.



Maeve begins piecing together her unauthorized recollections of Westworld’s hazard suit technicians. At the end of S01E04 ‘Dissonance Theory,’ she learned from Hector that sacred native lore referred to them as "the man who walks between worlds. They were sent from hell to oversee our world.” This is a remarkably astute observation from the Native Hosts (can we get some excellent Native characters in Season 2, please?), but it’s perhaps safe to assume the idea was purposely programmed in as an explanation, as they did with the concept of dreams and nightmares.

Ultimately, at the end of the episode, Maeve uses her trick to wake herself up, to visit the real world (what she thinks is a dream as she’s been told, or hell as she’s seen with its dark corridors and bloody bodies, or something else entirely) and demand a chat with Felix, the “butcher” who aspires to be a technician. Interesting side note: his co-worker insinuates that Felix has a fixed role, by birth even, as he makes a snark about how a “personality test should have weeded you out in the embryo.” Is the real world outside of the park engaged in eugenics? I can’t wait to see where this new thread leads!



Dolores is on a similar journey, but rather than being as astute and direct as Maeve, Dolores is assailed by strange voices and hallucinations of a kind. A voice in her head, tells her to “find me,” and another time, it’s Robert’s voice who orders her to sleep. Soon, he’s interrogating her, asking if she’s had strange dreams encouraging her to leave her “modest, little loop.” He asks, in a curiously-stated way, “Do you remember who I used to be?” and when she says she doesn’t, asks if she remembers her creator, Arnold. Robert insists that Arnold still exists, deep within her mind, “perfectly preserved.”

According to Robert, the voice telling her to find him is Arnold’s, but despite Robert’s questions, Dolores is able to keep secret the voice and her efforts to break free from her loop. Her journey with Will and Logan is working. Her ability to kill a fly, then her attacker, has evolved further, allowing her to kill Will’s attackers with uncanny efficiency. “You said people come here to change the story of their lives. I imagined a story where I didn’t have to be the damsel.” Brilliant.



Lastly, as our heroes are on their way to escape their loops, twist their heads back into place, and start walking forward, Elsie, the behavior technician, has discovered an antenna for a satellite uplink inside the body of the host she tracked down with Ashley. Elsie believes someone is transmitting confidential park data to someone on the outside! Dolores also saw the same antenna in her own arm during a hallucination; are these the decades old machinations of Arnold or something else entirely?

Adrian Martinez is a graphic designer, comic book letterer, hobbyist writer, and all-around geek living in New York City.

Star Wars Rebels Recap - S03E06 - "The Last Battle"

Like I mentioned last week, I may not have watched the entirety of Clone Wars, but I dabbled. Thanks to that, I knew the importance of Rebels reintroducing Captain Rex, a major clone character from its predecessor. Sadly after around the midpoint of last season, he started falling to the sidelines, reappearing only once in a while. Thankfully, "The Last Battle" returns him to the fold, with a whole episode devoted to him.

(Spoilers beyond this point.)

The Ghost is on a salvage run, seeking resources for the Rebellion. To cover more ground, they split up: Hera and Sabine take the ship to a fuel station, while the rest remains on an old Separatist outpost to search for weapons and ships. They find some, and a still active Separatist battle droid battalion, unaware of the end of the Clone Wars. Once their leader, the hyper-intelligent tactical droid General Kamali, realizes the war is over, he decides to use his captives to prove once and for all who would win the conflict.

It’s actually nice to see the droids again; the prequels are, for the most part, justly maligned, but they’re still a part of the Star Wars canon. Yet, a few connections aside, it often feels like they and the original trilogy are two separate parts of the canon. So it’s nice to see the return of the droids and, once the Empire enters the arena (forcing everyone to work together), to watch them interact with Stormtroopers. For a while, it feels like it’s all part of the same Galaxy. And the episode doubles down on it, providing us with one last Clone Wars — the previous series in miniature.

It also finally uses Rex to his full extent, with his droid counterpart, Kalani. Both are veterans of the same conflict and both want to prove once for all who would’ve won. But Kalani never stopped fighting, unaware until now that the war ended, and focused on analyzing from the data he had how the conflict would end. Rex, on the other hand, has it worse. While able to avoid following Order 66, Rex was still discarded by the Empire that took the Republic’s place; a being built and programmed for war, trying to find his own identity. His muscle memory is intact, but psychologically, he’s all over the place, practically living through a PTSD flashback. It’s a bit of a shame we never get to delve deeper, but it is a 20-minute episode of a show aimed at kids, so it’s somewhat understandable.

The episode ends with both sides working together to survive an Imperial attack force, and with Kalani’s droids leaving the Ghost crew on somewhat friendly terms. It’s a pleasant ending, I only wish the execution was better, as it hinges on Ezra being able to deduce from very limited information he had that the Emperor manipulated both the Republic and the Separatist in his goal to create the Empire. It’s very flimsy, and it all seems to be in the service of crediting him with "ending the Clone Wars." Still, it’s a minor flaw in an otherwise terrific episode.

The show is taking a break this week, so there won’t be a new recap next week. The next episode after the break is "Imperial Supercommandos." I’ll see you then.

Dominik Zine is a nerdy demisexual lad from northeastern Poland and is generally found in a comfy chair with a book in hand.