What I Watched:
Supergirl S2.E8 "Medusa" The Flash S3.E8 "Invasion!" Arrow S5.E8 "Invasion!" Legends of Tomorrow S2.E7 "Invasion!"
What I Saw:
Starting off with Supergirl.
So while there was technically a crossover in this episode, it didn't really happen until the end, and the rest was just a normal episode of the show. However, in this episode it basically set up what the main struggle will be for the rest of the series, which is the fight against Cadmus. The systemic discrimination Cadmus has against aliens can be considered a parallel on real world discrimination today. A bar where aliens gather was bombed with a gas that only kills aliens and leaves humans alone. Mon-El gets a small whiff of the gas and is infected.
This leads to that old existential question of "if I only had one day left to live what would I want to do with it." (As a side note, a really funny movie that has this premise is 30 Minutes or Less). Mon-El decides to confess his feelings for Kara in a state of delirium, but once he was cured he backtracked and played it off as if he didn't remember. Kara also held back what she feels for him, because if she did then it would be real and that's too scary. Of course later in the season they will learn to get over it, but it can't happen too fast despite how obvious it is. The rest of the episode was stopping Cadmus from unleashing the alien bomb onto the city with the help of Lena Luthor. Then, at literally the last minute of the show we get Barry and Cisco breaching into the universe in her apartment, with a funny Cisco joke.
This leads to that old existential question of "if I only had one day left to live what would I want to do with it." (As a side note, a really funny movie that has this premise is 30 Minutes or Less). Mon-El decides to confess his feelings for Kara in a state of delirium, but once he was cured he backtracked and played it off as if he didn't remember. Kara also held back what she feels for him, because if she did then it would be real and that's too scary. Of course later in the season they will learn to get over it, but it can't happen too fast despite how obvious it is. The rest of the episode was stopping Cadmus from unleashing the alien bomb onto the city with the help of Lena Luthor. Then, at literally the last minute of the show we get Barry and Cisco breaching into the universe in her apartment, with a funny Cisco joke.
Now on to The Flash!
This is where the crossover really starts, and almost annoyingly. The episode starts off with the exact same scene we saw at the end of Supergirl, so I felt like I was tricked into watching the previous episode. In any case, in this episode it focused on how Barry's mistake of creating Flashpoint effected everyone else in the Arrowverse. Everyone on Earth 1 finds out how their lives were effected after Cisco overhears Jefferson and Dr. Stein play the message from Future Barry about some terrible consequences that arose after he changed the timeline. He even finds out that the article from the future which talks about the Flash disappearing is no longer written by Iris (more on that the next Flash episode).
Everyone else gets really mad at Barry because of what happened to them, with Cisco's brother being dead, Caitlyn fighting off becoming Killer Frost, Sara's sister being dead and not being able to change it, John having his daughter turn into a son, and who knows what else. They all turn their back on Barry, who was trying out becoming a leader since it was him that spotted the invasion. Oliver was the only one to stay by him, on the grounds of what he has learned from his own experience in being a hero and a leader: the decisions they make will sometimes lead to bad consequences, and they just have to live with those consequences. The scene was really well done, as you guys may see for yourself.
Everything we do is a choice, and each choice has a consequence which we may not even be aware of. So all we can do I see be more conscious of the types of choices we are making, because others may be effected. Even though they are heroes, they are only human.
At the end of the episode, all the heroes are saved from a mind control device from the two progenitors of the Arrowverse (Green Arrow and Flash), until Green Arrow, Thea, Sara, and Ray all get abducted by the aliens, where it then leads into...
They end up having to make the tough decision between staying in a fantasy with everyone they care about, or going back into the harsh reality where nothing but struggle and pain awaits. Everyone but Thea chooses to go for reality, which I thought was interesting. It did fit with her arch for the season though, as she is just tired of having to keep up with fighting one bad guy after another, and nearly losing her humanity in the process.
The abductees escape from their virtual prison, as well as their physical one a la Independence Day, and return to Earth to resume their resistance against the invasion. The lesson of the episode: no matter how good the fantasy, being able to have real choices and consequences is the only thing that has any meaning.
After they are back in the present, Cisco vibes the alien he saved and learns that the aliens felt threatened by metahumans. It turns out that after witnessing the power of metahumans while being rescued, it felt something needed to be done to keep Earth's power in check. Naturally the solution they came up with was to conduct a preemptive strike with a bomb that targets only metas.
Stein goes through something similar as he realizes he accidentally convinced his younger self to have a kid with his wife. Stein struggles to come to terms with a stranger acting like they are family, even though in that timeline they really are.
Cisco realized how easy it is to mess up the timeline once you are actually able to travel in time. This causes him to rethink how hard he has been on Barry for making Flashpoint, and decides to forgive him. Plus it was hard to talk shit when Barry's mistake may have cost Cisco his brother, but his own mistake ended up causing an alien invasion and almost led to the death of every metahuman on Earth.
As for Stein, he had to come to accept that even though he never planned to have a daughter (and let's face it, the majority of parents never plan to anyways), she was there now and he had to decide whether to consider her an aberration or consider her a person. That gets addressed in the next episode.
Oh yeah, and to counter the alien invasion all the heroes come together and come up with a plan to save the day.
Everything we do is a choice, and each choice has a consequence which we may not even be aware of. So all we can do I see be more conscious of the types of choices we are making, because others may be effected. Even though they are heroes, they are only human.
At the end of the episode, all the heroes are saved from a mind control device from the two progenitors of the Arrowverse (Green Arrow and Flash), until Green Arrow, Thea, Sara, and Ray all get abducted by the aliens, where it then leads into...
...Arrow!
This was Arrow's 100th episode, so there were a lot of cameos or shoutouts to past characters, especially season 1. The premise of the episode was similar to Supergirls episode earlier this season "For the girl who has everything" (which is based off of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon episode "For the man who has everything;" if you haven;t seen the cartoon I highly recommend it along with Young Justice) where the characters are taken into a dream world where the Queens Gambit sinking never happened. Oliver never ended up on the island and never became the hardboiled badass he is today. All of the loved ones of those who were abducted were still alive, including Mr. & Mrs. Queen, Laurel (who Oliver was marrying later that day), and basically everyone else who died. Trouble looms in the form of Slade, Merlyn, and other League members crashing the wedding once the abductees start remembering who they really are.They end up having to make the tough decision between staying in a fantasy with everyone they care about, or going back into the harsh reality where nothing but struggle and pain awaits. Everyone but Thea chooses to go for reality, which I thought was interesting. It did fit with her arch for the season though, as she is just tired of having to keep up with fighting one bad guy after another, and nearly losing her humanity in the process.
The abductees escape from their virtual prison, as well as their physical one a la Independence Day, and return to Earth to resume their resistance against the invasion. The lesson of the episode: no matter how good the fantasy, being able to have real choices and consequences is the only thing that has any meaning.
And then wrapping things up with Legends of Tomorrow.
Here is when Cisco finally learns what it's like to be Barry. Being unable to resist the opportunity to time travel, Cisco and Felicity join some of the crew on the Wave Rider to the 1950's when the aliens first sent a reconnaissance force. They go back to interrogate one of the aliens to find out why they are targeting Earth all of a sudden. They get captured by men in black government types, along with the alien. The men in black torture the alien, and Cisco insists on rescuing the alien as they make their own escape.After they are back in the present, Cisco vibes the alien he saved and learns that the aliens felt threatened by metahumans. It turns out that after witnessing the power of metahumans while being rescued, it felt something needed to be done to keep Earth's power in check. Naturally the solution they came up with was to conduct a preemptive strike with a bomb that targets only metas.
Stein goes through something similar as he realizes he accidentally convinced his younger self to have a kid with his wife. Stein struggles to come to terms with a stranger acting like they are family, even though in that timeline they really are.
Cisco realized how easy it is to mess up the timeline once you are actually able to travel in time. This causes him to rethink how hard he has been on Barry for making Flashpoint, and decides to forgive him. Plus it was hard to talk shit when Barry's mistake may have cost Cisco his brother, but his own mistake ended up causing an alien invasion and almost led to the death of every metahuman on Earth.
As for Stein, he had to come to accept that even though he never planned to have a daughter (and let's face it, the majority of parents never plan to anyways), she was there now and he had to decide whether to consider her an aberration or consider her a person. That gets addressed in the next episode.
Oh yeah, and to counter the alien invasion all the heroes come together and come up with a plan to save the day.
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