Spoilers Arrow - Season 5

Ah, is this the re-sync break they have to take so everything lines up again for the event then...

 

^ No, it's Thanksgiving in the U.S. and a lot of people travel the day before, on Wednesday, hence no Arrow or Legends of Tomorrow. They accounted for this and the election when planning the 4-night crossover.

 

The 100th episode of Arrow airs tonight and it sounds like they plan to use the Dominators/Invasion storyline as a springboard to celebrate that fact.

Mild spoilers... Arrow boss previews Matrix-esque 100th episode

 

I normally don't watch Arrow and this episode reminded me why probably the most annoying cast of characters I've seen in a long time. Makes one appreciate the Flash cast a whole lot more

And even before "it all was in my head episodes" were tired like they are now they were the least interesting and least compelling standalone story type there was even when fresh and new


This had to have been the weakest part of the crossover thus far--and yes that includes the 20 second tacked on cliffhanger of Supergirl

And if the Legends are supposed to preserve history not sure why they didn't stop Barry's aberration with flashpoint and why they are getting involved with the dominator a since to them this should be part of recorded history and not an aberration triggered by a rogue time traveler

 

I presume the team just never tracked down the source of Flashpoint since they have been busy chasing the after effects right? Ray Palmer hinted on Flash that the Legend's adventures in season 2 is down to Flashpoint and all the time quakes are a direct result of that (especially the whole Thawne issue). This would mean Dominator is an aberration and they learn't of it at the same time as Barry Allen did. I think the Legends will have something to do with Flash fixing the damage done to the timeline.

I was hoping for a little more Dominators vs. Justice League (that's what the group is in this DC TV Verse) though as the episode went on I realised this was Arrow's 100th episode and there were some nice touches to celebrate that. Nice to see Wave Rider make the save though I thought the sub plot with Cyber Woman was pointless and not needed at all. Also very nice of the big bad aliens to have their prisoners NOT under guard or build a system that tells you when they break out of your virtual prison world. The Wave Rider is superior tech right? surley it could take on the mothership pretty easily in a direct assault?

Also I am kind of hoping Reverse Flash appears in Legends tomorrow because am sure he doesn't want the Dominator to take over the planet and screw his plan (whatever that maybe). Also it would be cool to see Thawne & Barry team up for once.

 

I enjoyed the real world bits a lot, seeing Cisco and Team arrow together was great. Watch Dog was a moron, but that wasn't new. That said, the Flash/Supergirl team up fight that had Watch Dog involved against the cyborg woman was short but cool.

As for the alien matrix stuff, I've never liked Dream/Matrix style stories, so that part of this episode was boring and forgettable. I mean, it was nice to see some of the old characters, the big hero/villain fight was cool and the escape from the ship was done well, but all the matrix stuff could have been cut and it wouldn't effect the crossover or even the episode at all. When I inevitably rewatch the crossover, I'll probably just skip past all the dream world stuff.

 

That was a very "Arrow" take on the crossover. Flash gives us alternate universes and Arrow give us a long alternate flashback.

Nice of those aliens to dress them all in sneakers in case they need to travel.

The final five minutes were cool, though.

 

When this show started as a relatively grounded crime drama about a hooded vigilante taking on corporate corruption, I'm sure no one imagined that four and a half years later, its 100th episode would climax with the heroes engaged in an outer-space dogfight with alien invaders. This was at once a celebration of the show's history and something completely outside the show's narrative at the same time, which is weird. But it's also just so very comic-booky.

I was wondering why the Dominators only took Arrow characters (current or former), but the explanation that they were only taking unpowered humans made sense. But then, why didn't they take Mick?

I agree with the above comment that the battle with the "Cyberwoman" was a rather gratuitous and contrived way to give Flash and Supergirl something to do. And Rene came around from "all superpowers are evil" to "It's good there are guys like you to help the world" awfully quickly.

 

After a couple of episodes where I feel like the writers were hit with the "idiot stick", we get this episode, which encapsulated everything that has been awesome about the show since its inception 100 episodes ago while also furthering the overall "Invasion" storyline involving the Dominators and delivering up a non-Superman Family riff on "For the Man Who Has Everything", all at the same time.

The episode also reminded me of the excellent BONES Season 4 finale, "The End in the Beginning", in terms of showing us familiar characters in slightly unfamiliar roles, and it was great getting to see Katie Cassidy and Susannah Thompson again. The inclusion of Malcolm Merlyn both in his civilian life and in the guise of the Dark Archer was fun, and I liked that we also got to see a bit of a preview of what to expect on Legends with the Legion of Doom courtesy of a return appearance from Damien Darhk.

Outside of the show's riff on FtMwHE, I really liked the inclusion of the new Team Arrow recruits who are on the side of right (which thankfully meant no Artemis) and their interactions with Flash and Supergirl. I was especially intrigued by and got a kick out of Wild Dog's mistrust of Flash and Supergirl, which offered up some new and interesting insight into his character.

The one thing I was confused about was the absence of Mick since he's not a Metahuman and I thought we'd seen him get taken as well, but I did get a kick out of Cisco getting in both a dig at him and a simultaneous lampshading of the fact that his last name is the same as Ragman's first name.

All in all, this was a really great way to both pay homage to Arrow's legacy and the milestone of it reaching 100 episodes and simultaneously further the crossover storyline involving the Dominators, and is also my favorite episode of Arrow - as a series - so far, so kudos to Marc Guggenheim and the rest of the show's writers and producers for that.

 

Yep, Mick just sort of dropped off the radar completely. I half expected Patrick Duffy to show up in that opening scene.

 

When Oliver was surprised by the sight of the Hood showing up to save him from a mugger, I was reminded more of Batman: The Animated Series's "Perchance to Dream."

I'd say it didn't really further the Dominator storyline that much; it mostly just put it on hold, though we did get a few developments at the end -- the mothership is coming and they're preparing a weapon of some kind. But that's not much for a whole episode to reveal.

 

I'm sensing a recurring theme with this cross-over: everything to do with the characters bouncing off each other is awesome and a lot of fun.
Anything to do with the actual plot...really kind of naff and stupid. I mean did the President not get vaporised? Should that not be something people would be at least talking about perhaps instead of chasing after crazy cyborg person who we've never heard about and will probably never see again?

Small gripe, but I think Supergirl & Flash constantly striking poses and swaggering around is starting to get just a little too silly for me.

And yeah, did Mick just bugger off down the pub in this episode and nobody noticed?

Well from a real-world perspective, Supergirl already did the black mercy thing and Barry had Flashpoint, so it would just be going back over old ground.

Beat me to it. I had exactly the same impression. Though by the end, there was definitely a FtMWHE vibe to it. Specifically this scene.

 

No kidding. I was about to say something like that.

Probably. It's Mick.

 

There were many aspects of that episode that felt melodramatic to me. I understand it was Arrow celebrating its 100th episode but there was a part of me that understood people's frustrations with Supergirl not really being a part of the crossover on Monday.

In terms of the crossover stuff, I didn't understand the Flash and Supergirl stuff at all, and dare I say Supergirl seemed out of character. What was with the poses and the quirky looks like she's been on this earth all her life. Yes she's invincible but did we leave Kara in national city and brought a Supergirl imposter to the arrowverse?

I did like the stuff at the end explaining the dominators but this four night crossover is feeling light on plot. It almost feels like this crossover should be a prologue to an epic two hour long made for TV movie. At least we found out more about them but they really feel secondary to this group geeking towards one another.

I will say though that the end of the hallucination with Oliver saying goodbye to Laurel made me choke up even if I don't know any of the backstory. I think I am going to make Arrow a 2017 thing. Heck maybe I can be just as annoyed with Felicity as everyone else.

 

She's behaving the same way Barry did when he crossed over. I guess they have such a good rapport with each other that a certain cockiness comes out.

 

Perhaps it's too cutesy for my taste and considering we now have 2 straight episodes of it, it might be bordering on overkill.

 

Yeah I have to say so far this crossover isn't doing a whole lot for me. I understand there are budget considerations and it's probably not an easy thing to write with all the characters involved, but the story still feels awfully clunky and thrown together, with too much attention being on each show's standard angst and melodrama instead of on the actual team-up and the huge alien threat they should all be focusing on. Not to mention all the scenes taking place in one boring warehouse or another.

I frankly found the previous crossovers involving Flash/Arrow and Flash/Supergirl to be a whole lot more thrilling and fun (in fact come to think of it, I think I probably enjoyed this week's standalone Supergirl ep more).

 

I know it's not going to happen but I would love to see Kara being sent back home and having a scene with Alex on Legends tomorrow night. I think there needs to be somthing between the two, unless the timing between earths is different and she's only been gone for like 5 minutes.

 

1. The can go back in time and stick a mine field down that will not detonate till after the go back in time...

2. Gideon should have been able to scan the future and see the shape of the invasion, or the plan used to see the invasion.

3. transport the current Dominator fleet into the centre mass of the Thanagarian Invasion fleet due later in 200 years.