Jessie Robertson reviews the eighth episode of The Flash season 3…
Roll Call!
If you caught last year’s superhero sized team up, you have an idea of what to expect this year: don’t come looking for deep plot, or paced action; come for the jokes and the action. If there’s one thing last year’s crossover nailed, it’s the humor and character interaction; they got it right again with ‘Invasion!’, which I tuned in last night for Supergirl just to see how it begins and it’s only mentioned in the last 30 seconds (which was replayed on tonight’s Flash). So, night one was a complete bust. Night two wastes no time at all and shows us the crashed alien ship containing the threat (The Dominators, sans their ugly comic book purple robes) then Barry bringing together all of the heroes under one roof (including Supergirl, who is from another Earth according to our Arrow-verse Earth).
When you see how many actual actors are gathered together from this large superhero family, it feels overwhelming, like massively; Caitlin even remarks when Professor Stein asks her to accompany him to his home “I’m not really needed.” This crossover starts like every other comic book crossover ever – with the heroes fighting each other! We don’t actually get to see it, unfortunately, but you have to question the wisdom of Oliver wanting to test his team..(sorry, Barry’s team), over and over again against a Kryptonian when they should probably save their energy for the aliens who kidnapped the President. Flash brings its new ritual of teammates lying each other to the whole group as Future Barry’s message intercepted by Stein & Jax earlier in Legends’ season is put on display and trust is immediately thrown out the window for the group as a whole. I don’t even want to comment on all the historical blunders Team Legends has made so I snickered loudly when Sara tried to be all parental on Barry for changing the timeline.
The in-fighting continues in the most action packed sequence of the night when all the heroes (sans Barry & Oliver) are put under mind control by the Dominators in a trap they walked right into, guided by Supergirl’s naivety. I dug so much of the big broad action of Supergirl season one and loved seeing it put to more good use here in this episode. By night’s end, the mind control had been reversed and the team set back right, for now….
With so many characters, I applaud Flash for still trying to shoe-horn in storylines we already had going, like Family West trying to keep Wally from growing into a speedster, with Iris playing Mom and Joe playing older brother who can’t get enough of little brother’s hijinks; it’s a weird dynamic but these actors are set in these characters skins and it feels so genuine and real. We get some of Professor Stein experiencing his own Flashpoint reverberations and more of grumpy Cisco boo-hooing Barry about the timeline change. As far as notable characters getting some time to shine, I loved Diggle! Barry being a speedster already freaks him out but after seeing the Waverider land and Supergirl show up, he’s officially lost his mind with this stuff. It’s too good. Oliver was also very strong tonight; his boot camp training methods aside, he showed some strong character by deferring leadership to Barry and also giving him the right talk when he needed it most; his most effective speech in a while recounting his parents brutal deaths and ending with the line of “You’re not a god, Barry.” Heat Wave got the longest exchange with Kara, in a scene that seemed like it was left in the episode at the last minute, which her conversation ending sigh was exactly my reaction.
8/10- While it’s a blast to see this whole universe of heroes The CW has built up in one place, this was obviously part one of a three part mission and played exactly like it would; it would seem part three will have the most bang for our buck
Other Notes:
– I love how Thea just jumps out of retirement because, well, “it’s aliens”
– “Don’t Call me B.A.” HR just loves his acronyms
– We get our obligatory “Stephen Amell, sorry , Oliver Queen is so hot” line from Iris this time; yes, it’s obvious, no need to continually point it out. Maybe I’m the wrong audience for that line…
– Speaking of crushes, it’s awesome when Sara gets a bit turned on by how awesome Supergirl is
See ya tomorrow night for part 3!
Jessie Robertson
Originally published November 30, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
