NerdLush

Welcome back! I know I say we have a full deck of recaps a lot, but we have a FULL deck of recaps here. We got The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, AND Batwoman! And we got at least two more recap posts like this coming up. Everyone’s here, so let’s get to it…

“Grodd Friended Me”

Barry hasn’t had the easiest time adjusting to this post-Crisis world, and things aren’t made any easier when he passes out, only to find himself in a cage! He figures out he’s not really imprisoned except in his mind by Gorilla Grodd, but what is surprising is why Grodd has brought him into this dreamscape. Grodd has been humbled by all this Crisis stuff and wants to just go home to Gorilla City and live a life of peace. It takes a while for Barry to look past all those encounters with his nemesis to realize Grodd is telling the truth. Of course, they have to work together to escape this dreamscape quickly, or they both will die in it when it collapses!

While Barry and Grodd do escape by literally doing a Firestorm and merging to fight a gatekeeper in Solovar, get separated before leaving the dreamscape, and Grodd gets paroled to Gorilla City (for real!), other stuff happened too. Mirror Iris is getting info on Carver for Eva, who we learn is not quite the innocent victim of this mirror universe accident she claims she is. Then there’s Nash, who inadvertently reveals he is connected to Allegra in an alternate universe type way (like father-daughter connected), before seeing more versions of Wells tormenting him. Among them, a warning of one coming for them all…Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash himself! Oh no!

#DammitBarry did you go and merge yourself with a super gorilla?

–So we have another moment of Barry dealing with the post-Crisis world, besides of course, the train tracks that shouldn’t be where they should be and that Team Flash did something horrible to Pied Piper that Barry just doesn’t know about. He can’t find his parents’ graves, but he does eventually get an answer to where they are thanks to Chester.

–Yes, Chester and Kamilla are basically helping Barry and Caitlin/Frost in holding the fort down for Team Flash. They are helpful enough, especially in dealing the old (new) Pied Piper.

–Does Grodd have a parole officer? Does he have to get a job in Gorilla City? I have questions.

–Wait, back up: STAR Labs has a janitor? Security sucks, but no, they can afford someone to clean the place?

–“Ralph is your life coach?”

“It’s A Super Life”

Mr. Mxyzptlk is back, but is in a surprisingly helpful mood this time around, offering Kara the opportunity to fix her greatest error: her relationship with Lena Luthor! He proposes to show her what things would be like if she told Lena the truth about her, and maybe find a suitable timeline to make permanent from there. The problem is, like Barry Allen might attest to, messing with time creates its own set of problems, and her attempts to let Lena in in various points throughout their history leads to their own horrible consequences for the SuperFam. When Kara thinks it better Lena never was her friend, Kara and Mxyzptlk end up trapped in a dark reality where Lena has gone straight up evil!

Eventually Mxyzptlk is able to get Kara back to the proper timeline (with some help from some superfriends), and it’s clear that messing with the timeline will not fix this problem. So Kara does confront Lena, and gives her that friend talk we all have had, which goes like this: “you may be my friend, but I’m not gonna protect you anymore if your mind control plan goes evil and I have to bring you in”, or something to that effect. So all in all, it was a rather reflective 100th episode of Supergirl, and things seem to be looking up for Kara. Heck, Alex and J’onn got to spend this whole episode in paintball wars, so it’s good times all around!

Yeah, a good amount of season three was pretty embarrassing, so let’s just pass that.

–So we have a few cameos for this special episode, such as Mon-El, Reign/Samantha and Coville from season 3, plus Ben Lockwood/Agent Liberty and Otis from season 4. Mxyzptlk is really the only reappearance where the actor has been replaced, and rather well in this case, with Thomas Lennon as Mxy.

–Its fun to see how bad all these timelines eventually go, like Supergirl getting killed by kryptonite poisoning, Mon-El and Reign killing each other, ALL her SuperFam being killed, and eventually the darkest timeline, where Lena is never saved by Supergirl, and gets a kryptonite heart for her trouble by her mom! Yikes!

–Mxyzptlk basically has fifth dimensional Netflix to keep track of where the timeline is.

–The second half of this episode might be an excuse to have some action, but hey, it works out as fun to watch the darkest timeline SuperFam fights a lot of familiar faces, like Reign and evil Brainy.

–“You’re awful! I was just agreeing with you. I would never say that.”

–“This is all exposition, sooo much exposition.”

–“I can’t believe I was fooled by a pair of glasses.”

“Mortal Khan-Bat”

While Sara is handling some affairs in Star City (curious what’s going on there…), our newest Encore is causing trouble for our Legends in 1990’s Hong Kong: Genghis Khan! Khan wants to restart his empire, and it will involve killing Prince Charles with his army and their…scooters? Maybe not the best plan in retrospect, but our team does manage to get the drop on Khan and stop his plan. They also get a demon sword that could be useful in the near future against the Encores, so that’s a plus.

John Constantine, on the other hand, is spending his time dying from terminal cancer, thanks to Astra’s little machinations with his fate. He does try to use all kinds of magic tricks to prolong his life, but to little avail. So he manages to contact Astra and promise that if his life is prolonged, he can bring Astra’s mother back to life, but how can he do that? Charlie is revealed to be one of the Greek Fates (Clotho for you history buffs), who weaved a loom that could control fate itself, but she spread it across the multiverse to keep her sister Fates from using it for evil. Well, guess who wants to use it to bring Astra’s mom back and guess who else wants to retrieve the pieces for evil purposes? Oh, Charlie, you got problems.

The wrath of (Genghis) Khan.

–Sara Lance herself, Caity Lotz, directed this episode, which explains why she hasn’t been in this or the last episode all that much.

–We get a lot of John Woo movie references this week, or at least not as super bloody as those movies.

–This show is often so nuts, little details like John getting a deathbed pep talk from the dog head on top of a cane doesn’t seem all that crazy. Also, we still got Marie Antoinette’s severed head on board.

–So Behrad and Charlie had a fling or two?

–Mick is babysitting Prince Charles, which is the extent of his time this week.

–“We had sex, and it was mediocre! Get over it!”

–“Can I be your flower boy?” “Oh, that’s very sweet, Gary. Odd, but very sweet.”

–“I can’t believe I was about to leave my bloody house to you!”

“The Book of War, Chapter One: Homecoming”

We’re at the last story arc of the season, and the Pierce family and friends are all back from their Markovian trip to home sweet Freeland (well, everyone but Tobias, but we’ll get to that). BUT we still have the same old problems that we’ve had this season to worry about, like the ASA occupation and those invading Markovians, led by Gravedigger. And who is Gravedigger, exactly? Well that’s the big mystery, isn’t it?

And for everyone else in Black Lightning’s orbit, things are going…well, about the same, which is still a lot of drama. The Pierces are planning to take on Gravedigger when he arrives to take the stable metas in Freeland for his personal army, and that invasion is taking its toll already. The Purdy are forced to run to Freeland to safety, and Gambi finally gets the ASA briefcase as a peace offering from…Lady Eve (more on how she gets that from Lala later)? And what is in that briefcase is all the ASA’s knowledge of the meta genome, like how the very first metahuman creation program in World War II created the first metahuman…Gravedigger! And even worse, the U.S. is responsible for the Markovian metahuman program! And what’s worse, Lynn’s formula for meta powers was left behind in Markovia, so guess who has access to all those metahuman abilities now? Oh crap.

Just another dinner at the Pierces, where mom is a recovering junkie, one daughter had her brainwashed boyfriend back, another daughter think she’s found “the one”, and dad has saved the multiverse. Just a normal dinner.

–So Tobias got ditched in Markovia, which I’m sure is not a decision anyone will regret in the future (or at least the rest of this season, anyway…).

–Lady Eve lets Lala know who’s really in charge, but offers a trade-off: fixing the control over him in exchange for getting that ASA briefcase he has.

–Khalil still has all that Painkiller stuff to worry about, and knowing if Painkiller comes back in control that Jennifer and the Pierces are probably dead, that leads to a moment where he’s not in control of himself and almost kills Jennifer. So of course, he decides to get distance between him and the Pierces.

–Gambi is taking some down time to torture Lady Eve’s henchpeople, like sending a message to her after carving a goon’s eye out. That should be effective a statement.

–So Brandon kept his mom’s ashes in a necklace for when he got the chance to kill Dr. Jace, but he leaves them stuck in her shoulder? Doesn’t he want them back?

–“Well, I witnessed the erasing of multiple universes. And I helped save the universe that we all live in now, so, you know, I just had that… little tidbit.“ “Oh, come on, Dad. Why do you always gotta one-up us?”

“Drink Me”

Things aren’t quite okay after last episode’s big traumatic turn, with Alt-Beth basically being passed off as dead Beth (of course we all know, Alice is very much alive and not happy she was basically given up on by Kate). But there are more pressing concerns for Batwoman to deal with, like someone taking blood from rich socialites like a vampire! Well it’s not a real vampire, but a woman with a condition that requires regular blood transfusions to survive, but is still a problem when our villain of the week goes after Mary! Even worse, this was instigated by Alice in an attempt to get back into Kate’s good graces! Hell, Alice even offers up her own blood to save a light on blood Mary as extra garnish for her plan!

Of course, Kate figures out Alice’s horrible scheme, and is realizing that maybe she did make the right decision last episode in letting Alice die. While Kate learns this, Sophie finds herself taking time away from the Crows once Jacob is released from jail and starts questioning her helping Batwoman in her vigilante stuff. She ends up contacting Batwoman about how things are going, and…they both kiss! You think she might figure out who Batwoman is after that?

Really? Sophie can’t tell? For reals?

–So Mary finally starts putting the pieces together that Kate is Batwoman.

–Kate’s bar, The Hold Up, is open for business! Hey, it works as a way to find our vampire woman.

–Alice is looking for Mouse and is finally focusing on Dr. Campbell (who we all know is actually Mouse’s dad in disguise) as who took him.

–“Nocturna? Was Night-Bite taken?”

–“So maybe these perceived flu-like symptoms are a manifestation of the guilt you feel for choosing Beth over Alice, and even though Alice miraculously survived, you drew a line in the sand that you can’t erase, forever altering the dynamic between you and your twin.” Ummmmm, maybe, Mary?

–“Please don’t say ‘blood drive’.”

NEXT TIME: Wally West returns with a warning about the Speed Force on The Flash, Kara must protect Andrea Rojas from an assassin on Supergirl, a date night goes wrong thanks to an Encore on Legends of Tomorrow, we learn the secret origin of Gravedigger as he makes his way to Freeland on Black Lightning, and Kate hunts a criminal who mutilates attractive women on Batwoman!

Tags: Alex Danvers, Alice, Anissa, Astra, ATOM, Ava Sharp, Barry Allen, Batwoman, Beth Kane, Black Lightning, Brainiac, Brainiac-5, Brandon Routh, Caitlin Snow, Caity Lotz, Candice Patton, Carlos Valdes, Charlie, Chyler Leigh, Cisco, Comics, Constantine, Courtney Ford, Cress Williams, Danielle Panabaker, David Harewood, DC, DCU, Dominic Purcell, Dreamer, FanGirl Squee, Flash, Gambi, Gamby, Gary, Geekery, Gideon, Gorilla Grodd, Grant Gustin, Harrison Wells, Hartley Sawyer, Heatwave, Iris West, J'onn J'onzz, Jacob Kane, Jefferson Pierce, Jeremy Jordan, Jesse L. Martin, Jesse Rath, Joe West, John Constantine, Kara Danvers, Kara El, Kate Kane, Katie McGrath, Khalil, Killer Frost, Krondon, Legends of Tomorrow, Lena Luthor, LoT, Luke Fox, Martian Manhunter, Mary Hamilton, Matt Ryan, Melissa Benoist, Metahumans, Mick Rory, Mxyzptlk, Nate Heywood, Nia Nal, Nick Zano, Nicole Maines, Ralph Dibney, Ray Palmer, Reviews, Ruby Rose, Sara Lance, Steel, Stewart, Supergirl, Television, The Flash, Tobias Whale, Tom Cavanaugh, Waverider, White Canary, Winn Schott, Zari