DC Recap Round-Up 3, Week 16: Faces/Off!

30 May

Welcome back! We got another full week of recaps to do here, with The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, and Batwoman! So let’s get to it…

“Death of the Speed Force”

Wally West returns to Central City, both to see his family and to relay some troubling news: something is off with the Speed Force. Barry’s been noticing the same problem for the last few episodes, so he and Wally reach out to contact the Speed Force to find out what is going on, and the news is truly grave. Thanks to Barry getting that energy boost from Oliver Queen/Green Arrow/The Spectre back in Crisis, it infected the Speed Force to where it’s dying! And with no way to fix this problem, it does die, leaving our speedsters with not much energy in reserves to use before they run out of speed forever. So yeah, Barry screwed up again.

And this couldn’t have happened at a worse time, when a new version of The Turtle shows up, and she speed ages her victims to death. But our speedster duo manage to defeat Turtle 2.0 and are left to wonder how long they have left as speedsters now that the energy source they tapped into is gone (but the answer to that may come from the late time-wiped Nora’s future diary…). Speaking of time running out, Nash’s weird experiences with those dead Wells takes a terrifying turn when Eobard Thawne takes control of his body, and almost kills Cisco! Oh yeah, Cisco’s back too, and it’s only because Thawne can’t tap into his speed powers is why he’s still alive. Eventually though, if Team Flash doesn’t solve this problem, their greatest nemesis may return, destroying Nash in the process!

THE FLASH: where a guy has to relive his mom dying over and over and OVER AGAIN!

–Oh yeah, and Kamilla, upon figuring out Iris is not really Iris but Mirror Iris, gets shot with that mirror gun Mirror Iris has, and gets vanished. Or dead. Either way, being shot with a mirror gun is not good.

–Cisco is back from his travels, and has been to Atlantis! Yeah, that’s on Earth Prime now!

–Mirror Iris is kind of okay with Barry gradually losing his speed (probably to finish whatever nefarious plan her creator is up to in that mirror universe), but that makes Joe suspicious as to what’s happening with his daughter.

–Nothing on the Ralph/Sue end of things this episode, but since it seems to be running towards Black Hole like everything else, I’m sure it won’t be long before we check in on that.

–“Oh, I see, I’m crashing your party.”

“The Bodyguard”

Supergirl gets put in a rather awkward place this week, having to shadow Andrea Rojas on behalf of Lex Luthor after she’s threatened by some anti-technology terrorist. Doing a unwilling favor for Lex is one thing, but having to watch over Andrea while she’s prepping to launch the new Obsidian VR program is another. There’s also the added wrinkle of Lex actually wanting to let this terrorist roam around scaring Andrea so he can get cozy with her secret benefactors, Leviathan. But at least Kara has Alex and J’onn searching for our elusive terrorist.

That terrorist is the wife of a man who abused the beta testing of Obsidian’s VR and killed himself, and it’s Kara who talks her down from killing Andrea. So Lex manages to get what he wants to destroy Leviathan, while at the same time ingratiating himself to Leviathan’s agent to help promote Obsidian Platinum. As for the other Luthor, Lena experiments with her mind control tech in a jail, which goes…not so well. Oh, and Kara is going on a date with William, which, yawn.

The most well-adjusted couple on the show? I think so.

–Alex is adjusting to being unemployed rather well, considering. The guy with her job, Brainy, isn’t having it any better, having to do Lex’s bidding while trying to help her friends catch the terrorist.

–So the Non Nocere program is causing violent behavior as opposed to calming. Pretty sure that a big fail on that test run, Lena.

–So Andrea still has that creepy necklace from earlier in the season pre-Crisis.

–“Rejection never looked so good and was so cool about it.”

–“I haven’t been deluded a day in my life.” Sure, Lex, we believe you.

“Mr. Parker’s Cul-De-Sac”

Ray and Nora think it’s time to take the plunge and get married, but as is the case with many things the Legends do, there’s a snag, and that snag is a revived by Astra old enemy of theirs, Damien Darhk! In order to appease Damien long enough to know what to do with him, Nora tries to hide her nuptials to Ray and pass off Constantine as the lucky suitor! This leads to a comedy of errors that keeps getting worse until Damien finally puts together who his daughter is really getting married to, and goes all angry and all kinds of evil magic! But thanks to a little girl wishing our heroes into an old children’s educational program (yeah, it’s a long story there), Damien realizes the error of his ways and is all cool with his daughter’s new beau.

So, Ray and Nora get hitched at Constantine’s mansion, and after Damien gives Ray some advice about maybe leaving the Legends, it’s a happy ending. Okay, there is the slight thing of Sara wanting Damien dead for him murdering her sister Laurel, but Damien lets her know he’s not going to be staying on Earth long, because he used the whole Encore deal with Astra’s to see his daughter one more time instead of killing the Legends as he agreed to in Astra’s bargain. And so, Damien kills himself with that hell sword the team got last episode, and it’s a happy ending NOW, right? Well, Ray is probably going to leave the Legends, so, not really.

Sometimes, you can “hug it out”, even with mass murderers who happen to be your dad.

–So Mick learns that little hook-up he had at that class reunion has created a problem, mainly a daughter that is trolling his writing alter-ego! He takes it as well as you would think…

–We got our most veteran Legends really contemplating their futures, with Ray getting married and considering leaving, Mick discovering he’s a dad (and then wiping their memory of his visit), and Sara getting offered a job in Star City. Ominous.

–Charlie is not the biggest fan of recreating the Loom of Fate, enough space that she sabotages John’s search for the missing pieces. But, sending him to Antarctica? Not cool.

–You know you got a stacked episode when a brief excursion into a Mr. Rogers-esque show is just a brief excursion for everyone to deal with their issues. Sometimes, like in Sara and Ava’s case, by becoming puppets.

–“Nobody gets laid after six courses.”

–“Dad, I’m not a child! You can’t kill my friends anymore!”

–“Why don’t we travel to the Land of Make “Em Ups with Gary the Unspeakable Train Abomination?”

–“I thought my parents were weird, but these people are truly deranged!”

“The Book of War, Chapter Two: Freedom Isn’t Free”

Gravedigger coming to Freeland with his Markovian army to claim all the metas for his army is bad news, but that he now has the power of multiple metas in him is even worse. So worse that the ASA is planning to abandon Freeland in its time of need, and maybe annihilate it for good measure. Just to make things more personal, we learn a startling connection to Jefferson and Gravedigger: the latter is the former’s great uncle, which explains why Jefferson has been a relatively stable meta all this time. So, Jefferson and family have to gather all their forces to save Freeland from great uncle Gravedigger, and that’s easier said than done.

But before that, Anissa decides to tie the knot with Grace and put together an impromptu wedding ceremony before things start going to crap. Too bad Jennifer, fearing her family will be no match for Gravedigger since she’s been told to stay on the sidelines, goes off to face Gravedigger herself, and the results are…what you would expect. Gravedigger almost kills Jennifer, using her power to destroy that ASA defensive shield around Freeland, and really pisses off Black Lightning. We got ourselves a season finale title bout next time!

Ding ding ding! Time for the main event!

–Good news: Tobias is not Jefferson’s cousin. Questionable news: not sure you can inherit meta genes from great-uncles.

–Brandon takes Dr. Jace hostage and takes her to his place. He still wants to know about what happened to his parents. Shaking his own place up doesn’t help.

–Khalil is kicked out of the driver’s seat of his head by Painkiller, who still has that directive to kill the Pierce family. So we got another problem there.

–LaLa really wants to take care of Tobias, but learns like we already know that he’s been stranded in Markovia. I wonder how Tobias is doing, anyway?

–Lady Eve wants back on that Shadow Board she’s so fond of, so much so, she probably just gave up the location of that ASA briefcase and who has it now (that would be Gambi) to Odell.

–“No matter what they’ve done to incur my wrath, no matter how many of them there are, I make sure each and every one of my opponent receives a proper burial. That is assuming there’s enough of them to bury.” Practical guy, Gravedigger is.

“Grinning From Ear To Ear”

Batwoman has another serial killer baddie to take down this episode, and this one has a very familiar name. Her name is Duala Dent, niece of former Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent, and like ol’ Harvey, she’s really cracked in the head.She taken her need to disfigure herself and put it to horrible use, disfiguring celebrity debutantes who have had plastic surgery. And Duala’s own surgery has a connection to not only the debutants who went under the knife but to everything else going on in the world of Batwoman: the doctor connecting them all is Dr. Cartwright!

Of course Alice wants to find out what Cartwright did to Mouse, and through some therapy (the kind you get by holding a therapist hostage), is finally able to confront her longtime abuser. And she does that by going to see him wearing Duala’s sliced off face (that she gave Alice!) and taking him prisoner! While Kate has faceless Duala taken in, Alice wants answers to where Mouse is, and boy, does she get them. Mouse is back at the old family house, getting a constant stream of fear gas made by the Scarecrow!

Sometimes you find gold in dumpster diving. Good on Alice.

–The comic connection Duala has is that she basically runs around at one point called The Joker’s Daughter!

–Like a lot of episode titles this season, this references Alice In Wonderland, but one this case, is a description of the Cheshire Cat’s smile.

–So That little kiss Sophie has with Batwoman becomes an issue for a bit, until they both decide not to pursue it any further and after Sophie’s visiting mom kinda shuns her lifestyle. Tough break, Soph.

–Mary pretty much hints she knows who Kate is, but is cool with her revealing that to her in due time.

–Jacob looks into the case involving the guy locked up for the killing of Luke’s dad, and finds a few roadblocks. I smell “conspiracy”.

–“Batsources, okay?”

NEXT TIME: Nash must be saved from being taken over by the spirit of Eobard Thawne in The Flash, Kara helps Nia deal with a hate crime that hits close to home on Supergirl, Shakespearian hijinks ensue as we say goodbye to a Legend on Legends of Tomorrow, our heroes face Gravedigger and his army to save Freeland from destruction in the season finale of Black Lightning, and more secrets about Alice’s past get revealed with disastrous consequences on Batwoman!