A less involved TV rundown
So we’ve got a short version this week, but here goes.
The Flash 3x16
Am I supposed to have no idea what’s going on in Barry’s head, because I really have no freaking clue. This episode should have been a chance to get inside his head, but it utterly failed at that (also fails next to last week’s Legends and it’s not like that was an in depth look at Rip’s mind). All it did was reaffirm that Barry’s an asshole who never has to make any tough choices or deal with any real consequences, and the Speed Force I guess knows that but wants it to be that way. That said, I still think this was a better Speed Force ep than last season’s as this was moderately less boring than that one.
I do wish that at least Snart had been the real person because there’s no reason it couldn’t have been an echo of the real Snart (although I maintain Ronnie is probably also lost somewhere in the multi-verse). Plus, Snart died because he let himself get attached to the Legends, and maybe part of the reason he let himself get sucked in in the first place was because of Barry, but the way it was said here was way too much Barry-worship.
Jesse’s stuff was okay, would have been better with more focus, but it wasn’t terrible. Well, except the fact that this is the first time any of them have had the obvious thought that ‘armor must mean there’s something fleshy underneath;’ all of HR’s “brilliant” deductions are the most obvious things ever, which could work in theory as all the Flash characters are so hyper-intelligent that they could be written as missing obvious things, but they’re not actually written that way except when HR needs to seem useful. Also, I don’t really understand Jesse’s choice in the end, Earth 2 doesn’t have its Flash right now either and that doesn’t appear to bother her, so why Earth 3?
Legends of Tomorrow 2x14
Another episode I quite liked, even if I have no idea how this gets resolved in-universe into the Apollo 13 story we all know. Actually I have a few practical concerns; like I still don’t know if Heyward Sr. has powers, because if he didn’t he’d be the only JSA member who didn’t (maybe...did Rex have powers or not?) and also then where did Amaya get off early on acting like Ray couldn’t be a hero without powers? And isn’t this the Thawne that Barry pulled from the time stream before his mom died thus creating Flashpoint, and if so how does he remember being ThWells and working with the Star Labs crew?
Also I’m a little unclear why they couldn’t hang out in space repairing the Waverider for a bit before going back to Earth; I know Jax was on the ground, but Rip has to know how to fix the ship himself, he taught Jax (or at least crated the plan by which Jax taught himself). And if I have one real complaint about the episode it’s that Rip didn’t really get to do anything; sure I love fussy and fidgety Rip constantly finding that Sara’s better at this than he is, but he could have at least flown the ship, experience has to count for something. I get that it’s there to lead up to him having to accept in the end that he doesn’t have a defined place anymore, and I see story value in not giving him any sign that he’s necessary; it just didn’t quite jell for me that there wasn’t anything he was a better choice for.
That said, I really want to squee over the Rip/Sara stuff this episode. A lot about their last scene, because that was super awesome and incredibly shippy; but like to the point where I kind of don’t need to comment on it because it’s so blatantly great for my shipping tastes. But there’s a smaller moment I was to acknowledge during Stein’s distraction where they’re basically replaying the type of scene from last season but with their positions reversed, where Sara is standing mid frame in the captain’s spot with Rip perched at her side. Last season I spent way more time obsessing over Sara and Rip’s (semi-)professional relationship than I did shipping them, and those feelings still come up. I also kind of would have appreciated seeing them play out the ‘I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself, I’m sacrificing myself’ conversation they were clearly aiming for but didn’t quite get to have. But the ending scene came with a lot of ‘why exactly aren’t we making out right now?’ subtext, and I love it all.
Weirdly I think I have less to say on this one than the last few, so much less pain going on; though also no trying to work out how I feel about a man making out with a computer program (which I noticed was in the opening montage). Except that Gideon is still calling Sara ‘Captain’ all the time in this one, so I guess everybody thinks Sara should be in charge.
Arrow 5x16
This ended up being mostly a setup episode, and I guess that’s okay, but I don’t know that it gives me a ton to say until I see more of this play out. I will say that the writer really wanted to be clever with this one, mostly I mean for the getting info from a bullet-ridden laptop line which made me laugh every bit as much as the writer probably hoped it would; though the “it’s not a bat” line was pretty good too. On the other hand...was it being Talia al-Gul supposed to be a surprise for us, because it really wasn’t; the door even said demon apparently, I assumed that was how they found this place. I do really hope Oliver told the rest of the team (or at least Digg and Felicity) who Talia is, so they can call in Nyssa; I do just want to see her but I will also continue craving explaining Oliver’s assassin lesbian wife (they share an ex-girlfriend) to the new recruits until we finally get it.
I’m pretty sure this season ends with Felicity either in jail or on the run/in hiding, because this is not going in a good direction. And I suppose there’s something fitting in having Digg in trouble at the start and Felicity in trouble at the end. My main point is I don’t see this ending well, whether or not it’s connected with the Prometheus plot or not (which...how have I never considered until literally this moment; Pandora and Prometheus, I was just seeing Pandora was bad because it’s fucking called Pandora, but it’s all Greek mythology here isn’t it?). Because Adrian (and amusedly Talia) are not stupid, they must know where Oliver’s heart really lies, and if you want to prove that he corrupts everyone around him in a way that will really torture him, it’s Felicity. Not that I have any idea how Pandora could be connected to Prometheus, it seems like a pretty big operation to have been set up just for this, but I’m not putting it past the writers at all.
The Flash 3x16
Am I supposed to have no idea what’s going on in Barry’s head, because I really have no freaking clue. This episode should have been a chance to get inside his head, but it utterly failed at that (also fails next to last week’s Legends and it’s not like that was an in depth look at Rip’s mind). All it did was reaffirm that Barry’s an asshole who never has to make any tough choices or deal with any real consequences, and the Speed Force I guess knows that but wants it to be that way. That said, I still think this was a better Speed Force ep than last season’s as this was moderately less boring than that one.
I do wish that at least Snart had been the real person because there’s no reason it couldn’t have been an echo of the real Snart (although I maintain Ronnie is probably also lost somewhere in the multi-verse). Plus, Snart died because he let himself get attached to the Legends, and maybe part of the reason he let himself get sucked in in the first place was because of Barry, but the way it was said here was way too much Barry-worship.
Jesse’s stuff was okay, would have been better with more focus, but it wasn’t terrible. Well, except the fact that this is the first time any of them have had the obvious thought that ‘armor must mean there’s something fleshy underneath;’ all of HR’s “brilliant” deductions are the most obvious things ever, which could work in theory as all the Flash characters are so hyper-intelligent that they could be written as missing obvious things, but they’re not actually written that way except when HR needs to seem useful. Also, I don’t really understand Jesse’s choice in the end, Earth 2 doesn’t have its Flash right now either and that doesn’t appear to bother her, so why Earth 3?
Legends of Tomorrow 2x14
Another episode I quite liked, even if I have no idea how this gets resolved in-universe into the Apollo 13 story we all know. Actually I have a few practical concerns; like I still don’t know if Heyward Sr. has powers, because if he didn’t he’d be the only JSA member who didn’t (maybe...did Rex have powers or not?) and also then where did Amaya get off early on acting like Ray couldn’t be a hero without powers? And isn’t this the Thawne that Barry pulled from the time stream before his mom died thus creating Flashpoint, and if so how does he remember being ThWells and working with the Star Labs crew?
Also I’m a little unclear why they couldn’t hang out in space repairing the Waverider for a bit before going back to Earth; I know Jax was on the ground, but Rip has to know how to fix the ship himself, he taught Jax (or at least crated the plan by which Jax taught himself). And if I have one real complaint about the episode it’s that Rip didn’t really get to do anything; sure I love fussy and fidgety Rip constantly finding that Sara’s better at this than he is, but he could have at least flown the ship, experience has to count for something. I get that it’s there to lead up to him having to accept in the end that he doesn’t have a defined place anymore, and I see story value in not giving him any sign that he’s necessary; it just didn’t quite jell for me that there wasn’t anything he was a better choice for.
That said, I really want to squee over the Rip/Sara stuff this episode. A lot about their last scene, because that was super awesome and incredibly shippy; but like to the point where I kind of don’t need to comment on it because it’s so blatantly great for my shipping tastes. But there’s a smaller moment I was to acknowledge during Stein’s distraction where they’re basically replaying the type of scene from last season but with their positions reversed, where Sara is standing mid frame in the captain’s spot with Rip perched at her side. Last season I spent way more time obsessing over Sara and Rip’s (semi-)professional relationship than I did shipping them, and those feelings still come up. I also kind of would have appreciated seeing them play out the ‘I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself, I’m sacrificing myself’ conversation they were clearly aiming for but didn’t quite get to have. But the ending scene came with a lot of ‘why exactly aren’t we making out right now?’ subtext, and I love it all.
Weirdly I think I have less to say on this one than the last few, so much less pain going on; though also no trying to work out how I feel about a man making out with a computer program (which I noticed was in the opening montage). Except that Gideon is still calling Sara ‘Captain’ all the time in this one, so I guess everybody thinks Sara should be in charge.
Arrow 5x16
This ended up being mostly a setup episode, and I guess that’s okay, but I don’t know that it gives me a ton to say until I see more of this play out. I will say that the writer really wanted to be clever with this one, mostly I mean for the getting info from a bullet-ridden laptop line which made me laugh every bit as much as the writer probably hoped it would; though the “it’s not a bat” line was pretty good too. On the other hand...was it being Talia al-Gul supposed to be a surprise for us, because it really wasn’t; the door even said demon apparently, I assumed that was how they found this place. I do really hope Oliver told the rest of the team (or at least Digg and Felicity) who Talia is, so they can call in Nyssa; I do just want to see her but I will also continue craving explaining Oliver’s assassin lesbian wife (they share an ex-girlfriend) to the new recruits until we finally get it.
I’m pretty sure this season ends with Felicity either in jail or on the run/in hiding, because this is not going in a good direction. And I suppose there’s something fitting in having Digg in trouble at the start and Felicity in trouble at the end. My main point is I don’t see this ending well, whether or not it’s connected with the Prometheus plot or not (which...how have I never considered until literally this moment; Pandora and Prometheus, I was just seeing Pandora was bad because it’s fucking called Pandora, but it’s all Greek mythology here isn’t it?). Because Adrian (and amusedly Talia) are not stupid, they must know where Oliver’s heart really lies, and if you want to prove that he corrupts everyone around him in a way that will really torture him, it’s Felicity. Not that I have any idea how Pandora could be connected to Prometheus, it seems like a pretty big operation to have been set up just for this, but I’m not putting it past the writers at all.