Mega post for "Elseworlds" crossover
I'm a little sad that this year's crossover was less integrated than last year's. Instead of the Super Friends Power Hour, they went back to having each part be a somewhat regular episode of each show with some very special guest stars. Though, my understanding is that the scheduling from "Crisis on Earth-X" nearly broke everyone, so I get that the producers would want to make things a little easier this time.
With that being said, "Elseworlds" was still pretty crazy and a whole lot of fun.
- It's funny how The Flash is always the show that kicks off things. So much so, that they rearranged the schedule to accommodate this. I don't see any reason why Barry and Co. have to encounter the problem first. Maybe they just have more experience with weird and kooky occurrences? I suppose Ollie waking up as Barry is funnier than seeing Barry realizing he's Ollie, so why not start there? Plus, you get a line from Ollie automatically assuming that Barry screwed up the timeline again. :-D
When they first started releasing photos of Ollie as The Flash and Barry as the Green Arrow, I had hoped they were setting up a classic Elseworlds scenario: a different origin story. I thought maybe that Ollie never got on the Queen's Gambit and thus was not on Lian Yu and then that led to him getting struck by lightning. As for Barry, he took up archery and vigilantism to get justice for his father who was wrongly imprisoned. Instead, we got a Freaky Friday/Quantum Leap scenario; Barry and Ollie just swapped lives instead of bodies or minds. I felt a little gypped, but then they started deconstructing the tropes on The Flash and Arrow and it was magnificent. So maybe in-jokes.
But then the whole thing led to Earth-38 and the Kent farm and, oh my god, things got even more meta. They had the freakin' theme song from Smallville playing over the establishing shot of the Kent farm. The same damn Kent farm location as Smallville!!! I nearly died laughing. Actually, it made sense to have the same location. It's a nice little wink to a past show and there were many of those peppered through the entire crossover. And we also got to meet Earth-38 Lois Lane! Her scenes were pretty short, but I like what I've seen so far. She's got a bit of Margot Kidder's Lois in her along with Dana Delany's Lois from the Bruce Timm Superman cartoon. People forget that the cartoon is the one that started with Lois calling Clark "Smallville". I do hope they bring back Lois, and Clark, for future episodes of Supergirl. I mean, why else would they introduce her if they don't plan to bring her back?
Since this is the first episode, there's mostly just set up for the Monitor and John Dee, so the main threat of the episode is none other than... AMAZO. Of course you would have the power absorbing robot in the episode with all of the superheroes together. Though, I'm a little concerned that A.R.G.U.S. built a robot to track down metas and to duplicate their powers. In the future, A.R.G.U.S. runs a totalitarian state and I have to wonder if this was a step towards that. Hmm, now that AMAZO is destroyed, maybe the future is changed... Definitely something for Legends of Tomorrow to follow up. But anyway... I thought maybe they would use Kryptonite to defend AMAZO, but shutting him down made sense, too. I don't get how AMAZO duplicated Kara and Clark's powers, since they're not metas, but whatever. We got Ollie using his newfound speed in fun ways and Barry got to utter the infamous "You have failed this city" line.
My only complaint with this part is how it felt like Kara was just along for the ride. The whole crisis of the crossover revolves around Barry and Ollie's predicament. Kara should be integral to the plot, not an afterthought.
Random: The episode missed out on the golden opportunity of having Ollie as Barry narrate the opening voice over. It would have been hilarious. Finally, they revealed that the cells in the Pipeline have toilets. I laughed when Ollie called the Pipeline Barry's secret prison. The callback to the first crossover was a nice touch, but obviously with the boys' roles reversed. I love that Lois went to Argo with Clark and that she wants to write an article about it, even if it makes no sense why Lois Lane went with Superman to the remains of his home planet. I also liked that Kara and Clark decamped to the Kent farm to talk about the changes in their respective lives. That scene felt very much like a scene that would have happened on Supergirl regardless. A slight flourish of the John Williams' Superman theme when Clark ripped open his shirt to reveal the S shield was great, as was the "A friend" line. Like I said, so many references. Since when can Ollie draw? That was a very detailed sketch he did. Good thing Wayne Tower is such a prominent landmark in Gotham.
And, oh yeah, the episode ended on a tease of Batwoman. They already have theme music for her if her show gets off the ground.
- Speaking of, the detour to Gotham did not feel all that natural to the plot, but who cares! Batwoman!!! I don't know if her show is a sure thing or not, but they definitely laid a lot of the groundwork here. Bruce/Batman has been gone for 3 years, Gotham is a hell hole, and Wayne Enterprises is pretty much non-existent. Kate, Bruce's cousin in this version, is left behind to look after everything. Solid start. Having Bruce be absent makes sense. You can't have him showing up and taking away the focus from Kate. And with Gotham being the pits, it gives Kate plenty to do. The show seems to tease that Lucius Fox is around, since Kate mentions an R&D guy who's still in the building. And perhaps Alfred is around as well?
Batman's Rogues Gallery is certainly around, though most of them seemed to be locked up at Arkham. Penguin, The Riddler, Poison Ivy, Clayface, and possibly Mr. Freeze and Scarecrow. No Joker or Harley Quinn, but I assume they are off limits. Whatever the case, it does give a potential Batwoman show the opportunity to come up with new villains, which would be nice. Kate needs her own Rogues Gallery.
Anyway, back to the crossover. There's a weird line from Ollie about how no one talks about Gotham because of it's rampant crime and poverty was totally there to try to justify why no one before this has even mentioned Gotham. And then there was the whole about Batman being real or a myth. That came out of nowhere, too. It would have been nice if they had seeded Gotham and Batman a bit before the crossover (one reference to Bruce Wayne by Ollie doesn't count). Like, have quick mentions of either one when they have the 52 newsreader come up. It's not hard to add a little something to the scrolling news thing at the bottom of the screen (or maybe there have been mentions and I just wasn't paying attention). It's so great that Ollie thinks Batman is a myth because if he's real, then the guy is totally copying the Green Arrow. :-D
There was a little bit of the ongoing stuff between Ollie and Felicity, but thankfully, it's kept to a minimum, and not just because this is like the millionth time that Ollie and Felicity have been on the rocks. More crossover antics, less relationship stuff. Also nice is how they didn't try to shoehorn in the rest of the Arrow cast which is what they kind of did in the second hour of "Invasion!".
Extended Arkham fight was fun, but you know you're in for a good fight scene when James Bamford is the director. I don't quite get why Ollie hallucinates Reverse Flash and Barry sees Malcolm Merlyn, but I guess it furthers the whole subplot of Ollie and Barry gaining a better perspective on each other's lives. And hey, surprise John Barrowman! Actually, I wasn't surprised to see John Barrowman. If you follow his Instagram, he had posted photos while in Vancouver, and gee, why would he be in Vancouver if not to film some Arrowverse stuff.
Random: I'm glad Arrow went all the way and had Barry as Ollie doing the opening narration. They even filmed new scenes just for it. Guys, they had the Shakespeare head that hid the button to the Batcave from 1966 Batman in the episode. Random Nora Fries at Arkham played by Stephen Amell's wife. Strange that Nora is locked up at Arkham as well. Where is Victor? The continued debate on whether the body swap was a Freaky Friday or a Quantum Leap made me giggle. I'm surprised no one proposed to call it a "Freaky Leap". On Earth-90, Diggle is a freakin' Green Lantern!! That hospital that stood in for Arkham has been used a lot in Vancouver productions. Hell, Arrow has filmed there before; Thea had a very memorable elevator fight there. So great that they went to Chicago to film the Gotham scenes. Vancouver does not have a downtown sprawling enough that could stand in for Gotham. Makes me wonder where the Batwoman show will film. If they want to keep production in Canada for the tax credits, the best option would be Toronto. 1990 Flash and confirmation that he is the same Flash from the TV show! I hope we get to see more of him. They made the suit and all, so why not just some more use out of it.
I do wish that John Wesley Shipp's appearance had been more than a cameo. He just shows up, delivers some exposition, and then the Monitor waves his hand and sends him away. But the Monitor does drop some very important information in that scene: there's a Crisis coming. A Crisis is not a good thing in the DC world.
- And, oh my god, they're doing it! They're doing "Crisis on Infinite Earths" next year!!!!
(Sorry, this trumps everything else in the episode, but I will talk about that in a second...)
I wonder if this means that they're going to finally smush together all of the shows into one universe. It's always a bummer that Kara is on another Earth. They need extraordinary circumstances for her to join the party. But if they do do a Crisis and reboot the multiverse, then they can have her on Earth-1 and she can have fun team-ups with Kate. It's also a perfect opportunity to retire any characters. Notably, Barry and Kara died during "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Though, Ollie seems to have re-written their fates, so one assumes they're safe. Ollie on the other hand... Well, Arrow has been on a while now. Maybe it's time for a new brooding hero to step in. Ooh, they could roll in Black Lightning as well if they wanted.
Hmm, I wonder if that's the reason this crossover was less elaborate. They're pulling the crazy schedule shenanigans for an even more epic crossover. Please include the Legends. Poor guys missed out this time (though for very good reasons). It would also be an excellent opportunity to have John Wesley Shipp back. Hell, have other actors from past DC shows, too (Tom Welling and Justin Hartley come to mind). As for the big threat that's coming, it's probably the Anti-Monitor. Or it's Superboy-Prime. ;-)
I felt like this part wasn't as great as the others. Part 1 had body swapping antics. Part 2 had Batwoman. This part... Sure, Deegan becomes Superman and we get a Superman vs Superman fight and we see alt versions of most of the characters, but it lacked the same oomph. And poor Supergirl. Your cast was the one to get shoehorned in this time and Kara gets absolutely nothing to do. There was that subplot with Alt!Alex, but that was the only part that made it clear that we were in the Supergirl hour. Interesting to note that Alex and James do exist on Earth-1. I think when the big MacGuffin of the crossover is a book, it's hard to do big action-y things. It's not very dynamic when your Big Bad is reading from an enormous tome. Also, why didn't Deegan just wipe out Barry and Ollie from existence? That would be the ultimate way to win the day. And why is Clark the only one strong enough to read the book? Lame.
So, did Ollie make a deal with the Monitor to save Barry and Kara? The dialogue seems to imply that Ollie knows his time is up. Or did Ollie propose that they destroy the book and let fate go whichever way? The arrow he uses on the book did look a bit different. I don't think it was the Kryptonite arrow; the arrow head looked blue. I guess we'll find out in the next crossover. Man, that's a long time from now. Of note: on The Flash, they established that the year of the Crisis is 2024. It appears to have moved up 5 years. I like to think that Nora's time travelling has changed the timeline.
Random: Barry and Kara running/flying fast enough around the Earth to slow down time made no sense what so ever, but hey, if it was good enough for the first Superman movie, why not borrow the idea? What is the hammer thing Lois used? It's not Thor's hammer (though that would be an epic crossover). I thought Lois and Clark were already married, but I guess not. Nice little moment to have in the Supergirl hour. Clark crushed a coal into a diamond! What was Lois wearing? Is is meant to reference the dress Margot Kidder wore in the first Superman movie? But it's funny that Clark was just barbecuing in Fortress of Solitude. I'm bummed they have to have another reason for Clark not to be around, but wanting his baby to be born on Argo is a really good reason. I wished someone had made a joke about how Brainy and Cisco have similar hairstyles. Fist bump for Barry and Kara! The .gif of the scene can join their high five from "Invasion!". Who is the guy in the mask at the end of the episode, the one talking to Deegan? The gold mask doesn't ring a bell, but it seems to be important.
The whole "good guys are evil and bad guys are good" switch felt really familiar for a bit I couldn't place why. Then I remembered that Legends of Tomorrow had an entire finale that revolved around re-writing reality. The Legion of Doom re-wrote reality so they were in charge and the Legends were depowered or their lackies. They even had one character whose history couldn't be re-written (Rip) and was simply locked up so they were out of the way. No wonder the Legends didn't take part; this stuff is old hat to them. ;-)
It only seems fair to discuss Legends of Tomorrow's winter finale as well.
- B Team to the rescue! I suppose LoT had a crossover, it was just with themselves. This episode could have easily been a weird, huge mess, but the writers managed to make it work. What helps to justify all of this wackiness is a very simple act: Constantine wants to save the man he loves. His motives come from a place of loss. He doesn't travel back on his own timeline for frivolous reasons. Seflish, yes, but it's with the best of intentions. And a kiss, between two men, saves the day. :-)
While Charlie does her best to fix things, it's Zari who steers Constantine true. She's tried to hack history, too, so she understands. Even when Zari's a cat, she's still there for Constantine. Oh my god, when cat!Zari placed a comforting paw on Constantine's arm, I laughed so hard. Leave it to LoT to have something so ridiculous paired with something poignant. You do get a sense that Zari and Constantine have bonded a bit since "Dancing Queen", so it will be interesting to see their friendship from this point on. Actually, what I really want to see is them playing D&D with Ray.
As for the rest of the episode, it was insane in the best kind of way. Ray's very meta line the annual crossover. Custodians of the Chronology! Sirens of Space-Time! Puppet Legends!!!! Not many shows can get away with having their characters as puppets. Nice to see LoT carrying on the bizarre tradition. Oh, and Ava got to say "timey-wimey", which made me smile. I don't know anything about Neron, the demon that's after Constantine, but I assume he'll be the Big Bad for the season. I don't know how they're going to top the Mallus-Beebo fight from last season.
Well, that's it for the DC-CW for the year. I do believe that Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow won't be back until April. :-( But a lot to look forward to in 2019.
With that being said, "Elseworlds" was still pretty crazy and a whole lot of fun.
- It's funny how The Flash is always the show that kicks off things. So much so, that they rearranged the schedule to accommodate this. I don't see any reason why Barry and Co. have to encounter the problem first. Maybe they just have more experience with weird and kooky occurrences? I suppose Ollie waking up as Barry is funnier than seeing Barry realizing he's Ollie, so why not start there? Plus, you get a line from Ollie automatically assuming that Barry screwed up the timeline again. :-D
When they first started releasing photos of Ollie as The Flash and Barry as the Green Arrow, I had hoped they were setting up a classic Elseworlds scenario: a different origin story. I thought maybe that Ollie never got on the Queen's Gambit and thus was not on Lian Yu and then that led to him getting struck by lightning. As for Barry, he took up archery and vigilantism to get justice for his father who was wrongly imprisoned. Instead, we got a Freaky Friday/Quantum Leap scenario; Barry and Ollie just swapped lives instead of bodies or minds. I felt a little gypped, but then they started deconstructing the tropes on The Flash and Arrow and it was magnificent. So maybe in-jokes.
But then the whole thing led to Earth-38 and the Kent farm and, oh my god, things got even more meta. They had the freakin' theme song from Smallville playing over the establishing shot of the Kent farm. The same damn Kent farm location as Smallville!!! I nearly died laughing. Actually, it made sense to have the same location. It's a nice little wink to a past show and there were many of those peppered through the entire crossover. And we also got to meet Earth-38 Lois Lane! Her scenes were pretty short, but I like what I've seen so far. She's got a bit of Margot Kidder's Lois in her along with Dana Delany's Lois from the Bruce Timm Superman cartoon. People forget that the cartoon is the one that started with Lois calling Clark "Smallville". I do hope they bring back Lois, and Clark, for future episodes of Supergirl. I mean, why else would they introduce her if they don't plan to bring her back?
Since this is the first episode, there's mostly just set up for the Monitor and John Dee, so the main threat of the episode is none other than... AMAZO. Of course you would have the power absorbing robot in the episode with all of the superheroes together. Though, I'm a little concerned that A.R.G.U.S. built a robot to track down metas and to duplicate their powers. In the future, A.R.G.U.S. runs a totalitarian state and I have to wonder if this was a step towards that. Hmm, now that AMAZO is destroyed, maybe the future is changed... Definitely something for Legends of Tomorrow to follow up. But anyway... I thought maybe they would use Kryptonite to defend AMAZO, but shutting him down made sense, too. I don't get how AMAZO duplicated Kara and Clark's powers, since they're not metas, but whatever. We got Ollie using his newfound speed in fun ways and Barry got to utter the infamous "You have failed this city" line.
My only complaint with this part is how it felt like Kara was just along for the ride. The whole crisis of the crossover revolves around Barry and Ollie's predicament. Kara should be integral to the plot, not an afterthought.
Random: The episode missed out on the golden opportunity of having Ollie as Barry narrate the opening voice over. It would have been hilarious. Finally, they revealed that the cells in the Pipeline have toilets. I laughed when Ollie called the Pipeline Barry's secret prison. The callback to the first crossover was a nice touch, but obviously with the boys' roles reversed. I love that Lois went to Argo with Clark and that she wants to write an article about it, even if it makes no sense why Lois Lane went with Superman to the remains of his home planet. I also liked that Kara and Clark decamped to the Kent farm to talk about the changes in their respective lives. That scene felt very much like a scene that would have happened on Supergirl regardless. A slight flourish of the John Williams' Superman theme when Clark ripped open his shirt to reveal the S shield was great, as was the "A friend" line. Like I said, so many references. Since when can Ollie draw? That was a very detailed sketch he did. Good thing Wayne Tower is such a prominent landmark in Gotham.
And, oh yeah, the episode ended on a tease of Batwoman. They already have theme music for her if her show gets off the ground.
- Speaking of, the detour to Gotham did not feel all that natural to the plot, but who cares! Batwoman!!! I don't know if her show is a sure thing or not, but they definitely laid a lot of the groundwork here. Bruce/Batman has been gone for 3 years, Gotham is a hell hole, and Wayne Enterprises is pretty much non-existent. Kate, Bruce's cousin in this version, is left behind to look after everything. Solid start. Having Bruce be absent makes sense. You can't have him showing up and taking away the focus from Kate. And with Gotham being the pits, it gives Kate plenty to do. The show seems to tease that Lucius Fox is around, since Kate mentions an R&D guy who's still in the building. And perhaps Alfred is around as well?
Batman's Rogues Gallery is certainly around, though most of them seemed to be locked up at Arkham. Penguin, The Riddler, Poison Ivy, Clayface, and possibly Mr. Freeze and Scarecrow. No Joker or Harley Quinn, but I assume they are off limits. Whatever the case, it does give a potential Batwoman show the opportunity to come up with new villains, which would be nice. Kate needs her own Rogues Gallery.
Anyway, back to the crossover. There's a weird line from Ollie about how no one talks about Gotham because of it's rampant crime and poverty was totally there to try to justify why no one before this has even mentioned Gotham. And then there was the whole about Batman being real or a myth. That came out of nowhere, too. It would have been nice if they had seeded Gotham and Batman a bit before the crossover (one reference to Bruce Wayne by Ollie doesn't count). Like, have quick mentions of either one when they have the 52 newsreader come up. It's not hard to add a little something to the scrolling news thing at the bottom of the screen (or maybe there have been mentions and I just wasn't paying attention). It's so great that Ollie thinks Batman is a myth because if he's real, then the guy is totally copying the Green Arrow. :-D
There was a little bit of the ongoing stuff between Ollie and Felicity, but thankfully, it's kept to a minimum, and not just because this is like the millionth time that Ollie and Felicity have been on the rocks. More crossover antics, less relationship stuff. Also nice is how they didn't try to shoehorn in the rest of the Arrow cast which is what they kind of did in the second hour of "Invasion!".
Extended Arkham fight was fun, but you know you're in for a good fight scene when James Bamford is the director. I don't quite get why Ollie hallucinates Reverse Flash and Barry sees Malcolm Merlyn, but I guess it furthers the whole subplot of Ollie and Barry gaining a better perspective on each other's lives. And hey, surprise John Barrowman! Actually, I wasn't surprised to see John Barrowman. If you follow his Instagram, he had posted photos while in Vancouver, and gee, why would he be in Vancouver if not to film some Arrowverse stuff.
Random: I'm glad Arrow went all the way and had Barry as Ollie doing the opening narration. They even filmed new scenes just for it. Guys, they had the Shakespeare head that hid the button to the Batcave from 1966 Batman in the episode. Random Nora Fries at Arkham played by Stephen Amell's wife. Strange that Nora is locked up at Arkham as well. Where is Victor? The continued debate on whether the body swap was a Freaky Friday or a Quantum Leap made me giggle. I'm surprised no one proposed to call it a "Freaky Leap". On Earth-90, Diggle is a freakin' Green Lantern!! That hospital that stood in for Arkham has been used a lot in Vancouver productions. Hell, Arrow has filmed there before; Thea had a very memorable elevator fight there. So great that they went to Chicago to film the Gotham scenes. Vancouver does not have a downtown sprawling enough that could stand in for Gotham. Makes me wonder where the Batwoman show will film. If they want to keep production in Canada for the tax credits, the best option would be Toronto. 1990 Flash and confirmation that he is the same Flash from the TV show! I hope we get to see more of him. They made the suit and all, so why not just some more use out of it.
I do wish that John Wesley Shipp's appearance had been more than a cameo. He just shows up, delivers some exposition, and then the Monitor waves his hand and sends him away. But the Monitor does drop some very important information in that scene: there's a Crisis coming. A Crisis is not a good thing in the DC world.
- And, oh my god, they're doing it! They're doing "Crisis on Infinite Earths" next year!!!!
(Sorry, this trumps everything else in the episode, but I will talk about that in a second...)
I wonder if this means that they're going to finally smush together all of the shows into one universe. It's always a bummer that Kara is on another Earth. They need extraordinary circumstances for her to join the party. But if they do do a Crisis and reboot the multiverse, then they can have her on Earth-1 and she can have fun team-ups with Kate. It's also a perfect opportunity to retire any characters. Notably, Barry and Kara died during "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Though, Ollie seems to have re-written their fates, so one assumes they're safe. Ollie on the other hand... Well, Arrow has been on a while now. Maybe it's time for a new brooding hero to step in. Ooh, they could roll in Black Lightning as well if they wanted.
Hmm, I wonder if that's the reason this crossover was less elaborate. They're pulling the crazy schedule shenanigans for an even more epic crossover. Please include the Legends. Poor guys missed out this time (though for very good reasons). It would also be an excellent opportunity to have John Wesley Shipp back. Hell, have other actors from past DC shows, too (Tom Welling and Justin Hartley come to mind). As for the big threat that's coming, it's probably the Anti-Monitor. Or it's Superboy-Prime. ;-)
I felt like this part wasn't as great as the others. Part 1 had body swapping antics. Part 2 had Batwoman. This part... Sure, Deegan becomes Superman and we get a Superman vs Superman fight and we see alt versions of most of the characters, but it lacked the same oomph. And poor Supergirl. Your cast was the one to get shoehorned in this time and Kara gets absolutely nothing to do. There was that subplot with Alt!Alex, but that was the only part that made it clear that we were in the Supergirl hour. Interesting to note that Alex and James do exist on Earth-1. I think when the big MacGuffin of the crossover is a book, it's hard to do big action-y things. It's not very dynamic when your Big Bad is reading from an enormous tome. Also, why didn't Deegan just wipe out Barry and Ollie from existence? That would be the ultimate way to win the day. And why is Clark the only one strong enough to read the book? Lame.
So, did Ollie make a deal with the Monitor to save Barry and Kara? The dialogue seems to imply that Ollie knows his time is up. Or did Ollie propose that they destroy the book and let fate go whichever way? The arrow he uses on the book did look a bit different. I don't think it was the Kryptonite arrow; the arrow head looked blue. I guess we'll find out in the next crossover. Man, that's a long time from now. Of note: on The Flash, they established that the year of the Crisis is 2024. It appears to have moved up 5 years. I like to think that Nora's time travelling has changed the timeline.
Random: Barry and Kara running/flying fast enough around the Earth to slow down time made no sense what so ever, but hey, if it was good enough for the first Superman movie, why not borrow the idea? What is the hammer thing Lois used? It's not Thor's hammer (though that would be an epic crossover). I thought Lois and Clark were already married, but I guess not. Nice little moment to have in the Supergirl hour. Clark crushed a coal into a diamond! What was Lois wearing? Is is meant to reference the dress Margot Kidder wore in the first Superman movie? But it's funny that Clark was just barbecuing in Fortress of Solitude. I'm bummed they have to have another reason for Clark not to be around, but wanting his baby to be born on Argo is a really good reason. I wished someone had made a joke about how Brainy and Cisco have similar hairstyles. Fist bump for Barry and Kara! The .gif of the scene can join their high five from "Invasion!". Who is the guy in the mask at the end of the episode, the one talking to Deegan? The gold mask doesn't ring a bell, but it seems to be important.
The whole "good guys are evil and bad guys are good" switch felt really familiar for a bit I couldn't place why. Then I remembered that Legends of Tomorrow had an entire finale that revolved around re-writing reality. The Legion of Doom re-wrote reality so they were in charge and the Legends were depowered or their lackies. They even had one character whose history couldn't be re-written (Rip) and was simply locked up so they were out of the way. No wonder the Legends didn't take part; this stuff is old hat to them. ;-)
It only seems fair to discuss Legends of Tomorrow's winter finale as well.
- B Team to the rescue! I suppose LoT had a crossover, it was just with themselves. This episode could have easily been a weird, huge mess, but the writers managed to make it work. What helps to justify all of this wackiness is a very simple act: Constantine wants to save the man he loves. His motives come from a place of loss. He doesn't travel back on his own timeline for frivolous reasons. Seflish, yes, but it's with the best of intentions. And a kiss, between two men, saves the day. :-)
While Charlie does her best to fix things, it's Zari who steers Constantine true. She's tried to hack history, too, so she understands. Even when Zari's a cat, she's still there for Constantine. Oh my god, when cat!Zari placed a comforting paw on Constantine's arm, I laughed so hard. Leave it to LoT to have something so ridiculous paired with something poignant. You do get a sense that Zari and Constantine have bonded a bit since "Dancing Queen", so it will be interesting to see their friendship from this point on. Actually, what I really want to see is them playing D&D with Ray.
As for the rest of the episode, it was insane in the best kind of way. Ray's very meta line the annual crossover. Custodians of the Chronology! Sirens of Space-Time! Puppet Legends!!!! Not many shows can get away with having their characters as puppets. Nice to see LoT carrying on the bizarre tradition. Oh, and Ava got to say "timey-wimey", which made me smile. I don't know anything about Neron, the demon that's after Constantine, but I assume he'll be the Big Bad for the season. I don't know how they're going to top the Mallus-Beebo fight from last season.
Well, that's it for the DC-CW for the year. I do believe that Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow won't be back until April. :-( But a lot to look forward to in 2019.