The Flash #38 - A Review

Trapped in the bowels of Iron Heights prison within a secret sanctuary The Rogues established, The Flash finds himself at the mercy of Captain Cold. Worse yet, Kid Flash is running into a deadly trap that Snart has set for the assassin Copperhead, who is fighting him for control of Central City's underworld. Thankfully, The Flash may have more friends than he suspects... yet more enemies than he knows.


Scott Kollins - who had a legendary run on The Flash alongside writer Geoff Johns - returns for an issue and it really is like old times. While Kollin's style, which is light on inks and sketchy in spots, may be an acquired taste for some, I personally find it a perfect match for the story at hand. Paired with the colors of Hi-Fi, Kollins' kinetic artwork looks fantastic.


Joshua Williamson's script brings the story to a thrilling and suitable conclusion, which raises more mysteries as well as what might be something of a plot hole. Still, I am content to let Williamson set the pace, having been faked out before by his skillful writing. On a side note, Flash fans would do well to check out this week's Batgirl And the Birds of Prey, which makes use of a plot point dropped in this issue's end.

The Final Analysis: 8 out of 10.

The Flash #37 - A Review

There's a new crime boss in Central City and his war with the usurper Copperhead is running The Flash ragged. Barry Allen is busy too, following the trail of a murderer in Iron Heights Prison while trying to stay under the radar of Warden Wolfe and Captain Singh. Unfortunately, an old enemy is about to stop The Flash cold...


Scott McDaniel takes over the art duties for this issue and it's hard to think of an artist better suited for The Flash. McDaniel's work on Nightwing is still fondly remembered, due to his kinetic style which showed every step of Dick Grayson in motion as he executed his acrobatic maneuvers. One would think that would work just as well in depicting Barry Allen in motion.

Unfortunately, McDaniel's work here is far from his best. Many panels appear sloppy and slap-dash and McDaniel's sense of storytelling seems to have left him. Far too many panels are cluttered and the heavy inks of Mick Gray cause some of the details to be lost in the tight quarters. Not even Hi-Fi's fantastic colors can save the book's visuals.

It's a shame because Joshua Williamson's writing continues to be the best aspect of the book. Hopefully Williamson will find an artist who can match him in quality soon. I may soon get tired of suffering through mediocre artwork for the sake of a good story.

The Final Analysis: 5 out of 10. Great story. Cluttered artwork.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 22 - Infantino Street

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

With only twenty-four hours to go until Iris's death at the hands of Savitar, Barry is more desperate than ever. He has an idea on where to get a power source for Tracy Brand's Speed Force Bazooka but it will require the expertise of a master thief to acquire, leading Barry to seek out the help of Captain Cold. Meanwhile, Vibe gears up for his own fateful battle with Killer Frost.


Influences

The Flash: Terminal Velocity


Goofs

The last episode ended with Barry seeming to have some idea about where to find a power source for the Speed Force Bazooka and a teaser shot of King Shark with some alien technology. This episode starts with Barry completely clueless about what they will do until Cisco detects the alien technology in ARGUS using STAR Labs satellite.

Barry thinks to have where Iris is being hidden kept secret from him so Savitar won't know it but doesn't think about how Savitar will know all about his plan to build the Speed Force Bazooka four years early?

Where the heck is Julian Albert while all this is going on?


Performances

Grant Gustin is genuinely terrifying as Savitar.

Wentworth Miller steals the show as Leonard Snart, as per usual.


Artistry

The cold-open, set to Aurora's 'Murder Song', is a brilliant scene on every level. Direction. Cinematography. The non-verbal acting. Everything fits together perfectly.

However briefly, it's always a treat to hear Jesse L. Martin sing.


Flash Facts

The episode title - and the name of the street where Barry saw Iris die when he traveled to the future -  is a nod to artist Carmine Infantino, who co-created Barry Allen and drew a number of classic Flash comics, including The Flash Of Two Worlds story where Jay Garrick and Barry Allen first teamed up. He also co-created the character of Doctor Alchemy.


Barry makes a reference to the movie Taken, when he describes Snart as having "a particular set of skills."

One of the cells Snart and Barry pass in the ARGUS high-security wing is labeled with the name Cheetah. This is presumably a reference to a DC Comics super-villain best known for her rivalry with Wonder Woman. Given the close proximity of Gorilla Grodd and other bestial villains, it seems likely that this is the Barbara Ann Minerva incarnation of The Cheetah.

The third Cheetah - and the incarnation best known to modern audiences - is Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva, who first appeared in Wonder Woman #7 (August 1987). An ambitious and selfish woman, Dr, Minerva was an archaeologist who became magically cursed. Details differ as to what god did the cursing depending on whether one goes by the pre-Crisis, New 52 or Rebirth origins but the end result is the same regardless. Dr. Minerva was trapped in the form of a were-cheetah. This version of the Cheetah had super-speed and super-strength of a level high enough to go toe-to-toe in a fight with Wonder Woman.


Technobabble

During the Dominator Invasion, ARGUS acquired a piece of technology from the ship that crashed in Central City.

ARGUS headquarters is covered with meta-human power dampeners. These will prevent Barry from just running in and out of ARGUS to steal the Dominator technology.

Additionally, ARGUS HQ is equipped with surveillance cameras, eye-scanners palm-print scanners, heat-sensors and laser-sensors. Cisco notes this is just what he was able to find out about the first floor of the building.

ARGUS HQ uses key cards, retinal scanners and a verbal password to let people past the front desk. Not even the director is exempt from this requirement. Cisco makes a fake key card and contact lenses to get bast the scanner.

Barry uses HR's personal transmogrifier to make himself look like Lyla Michaels.

The alien technology is kept in an ARGUS cell behind a 25-ton door that can withstand a 30-megaton nuclear blast. Additionally, the door is protected The Montgomery 3000 - an advanced lock that is not only bomb-proof but also requires the voice-prints of three different people reciting three different passcodes. According to Cisco the whole system cost 10 million dollars to build.

Most sharks are cold-blooded. Some, like the Great White Shark (which is what King Shark is, in part) are partially warm-blooded or endotherms. This means that sufficiently cold temperatures (i.e. anything below 53.6 degrees Fahrenheit) can make a shark fall asleep.

The Philosopher's Stone is made of calcified Speed Force energy.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Lyla Michaels has agreed to meet with Barry and Cisco but requires they explain what they need.)
Cisco: Soooo... we're building a cannon.
Barry: Right!
Cisco: Bazooka... thing. It's a sort of trap.
Barry: In order to turn it on, we need something to power it. Something extremely powerful and regenerative.
Lyla: Okay...
Cisco: Yeah, so, I tasked our satellite to look for anything that might have our specific power requirements. And - wouldn't you know it? We found something that has exactly what we need. (laughs exaggeratedly) And it's right there in that building! Crazy, huh?!
Lyla: I really don't think you should be spying on me, Cisco.
Cisco: (smile fading) Is it spying if we're friends?

Barry: I wanna recruit you for a mission.
Snart: I'm already helping a bunch of idiot do-gooders. Sorry. I'm up to my fuzzy hood in teamwork.
Barry: (cheerfully) Would it help if I said please?
Snart: No. And you already have a bunch of superhero types in your life. Why ask me?
Barry: Well, you have a... particular set of skills.
Snart: (nodding) Great movie. Last time we tried to be buddy-buddy it didn't work out so well. For you. Why trust me now?
(There is a long pause as Barry bites his lip.)
Snart: Spit it out, or I'm going to step onto that ship and pretend like this conversation never happened.
Barry: (hesitating a moment longer)  Iris.
Snart: Oy! The girlfriend.
Barry: Fiancee.
Snart: Mazel Tov. What about her?
Barry: If you don't help me, she's going to die.
Snart: True love. That's your pitch?
Barry: (shrugs) It's all I've got.
Snart: And I assume saving your girlfriend requires us doing something... less than lawful?
Barry: We need to break into ARGUS and steal an alien power source.
Snart: The Flash? A thief?
(Snart looks to one side and waves his hand as if "weighing" the option.)
Snart: That's my kind of mission. One condition: My rules.
Barry: Your rules.

(Killer Frost watches Savitar repairing his armor.)
Killer Frost: Pretty badass. Very god-like.
Savitar: (scoffs) Well... "dress for the job you want."

(Killer Frost questions if Savitar is ready to kill Iris at the appointed time.)
Savitar: Well, it's either her or me. If she doesn't die, I'm never born.
Killer Frost: Right. But... behind that pretty little face of yours, you still remember everything that Barry does. So you remember growing up with Iris? Falling in love with her? Kising her? You sure you're ready to end her life?
(Savitar stands, slowly and deliberately, looking Killer Frost right in the eyes.)
Savitar: What I remember... is being created as a disposable life. Something to be thrown away when Barry Allen was done with me. He didn't care about me. Why should I care about his love?

Snart: There are only four rules you need to remember. Make the plan. Execute the plan. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Throw away the plan.

(Barry has just knocked out two ARGUS guards.)
Snart: My, my, my. Getting rather violent in your young age?
Barry: Yeah, what were you doing?!
(Snart shrugs his wrists and holds up the handcuffs that were binding him a second ago.)
Snart: Magic.

(Barry and Snart have reached a cell in the high-security wing of ARGUS. They can see the technology through a window in the door. Barry gets on the radio as Snart moves to look at the lock.)
Barry: Hey - uh, so... we found it.
(Cut to STAR Labs. Cisco and HR are listening on the comms.)
HR: Jack! Pot!
Barry: (over the radio) But there seems to be some kind of signal interference at the end of the hall and the lock is The Montgomery 3000.
Cisco: (sighing) The Montgomery 3000!
HR: Is that bad?
Cisco: Well, we're looking at a 25-ton door that can withstand a 30-megaton nuclear blast. And aside from being completely bomb-proof, The Montgomery 3000 can only be unlocked by a voice-recognition system, necessitating three different passcodes from three different people. And as if that weren't already enough, the thing costs ten million dollars to build!
(Cut back to ARGUS HQ where Barry looks crestfallen... until he hears a click behind him. He turns and we see Snart standing by the now open lock panel, smirking.)
Snart: 37 seconds. I must be out of practice.
Barry: (To Cisco) Well... ARGUS should ask for their money back.

(As Barry and Snart enter the fog-shrouded room holding the alien technology, Barry jumps as he hears King Shark growl before remembering that the beast-man is asleep.)
Snart: Reminds me of 'Jaws'. They didn't show the shark because they couldn't afford to make it look good.

Barry: Tell me, Snart. Did you think I had it in me? To leave you behind?
Snart: I wasn't sure. Always known you had the potential to be as ruthless as they come. Your history made sure of that, same as mine. Who knows? Maybe that's why we get along? You see the good in me. I see the bad in you.
Barry: Maybe.
Snart: Piece of advice. Stop trying to beat Savitar at his own game. Your goodness is your strength. And call me sentimental, but The Flash should remain a hero.
Barry: (offer a hand) Take care of yourself, Snart.
Snart: (taking the hand and shaking it) No strings on me.
(Barry runs off as Snart turns and walks to The Waverider, shaking his head.)
Snart: (confused) No strings on me?


Continuity

Infantino Street was identified as the site of Iris's murder in 309.

Cisco is seen reviewing a text from Felicity Smoak, reporting that she can't think of a power source for the Speed Force Bazooka that will work either.

Iris makes a video for Barry while he's out getting her caviar.

Lyla Michaels from Arrow makes an appearance, telling Barry and Cisco they can't borrow the power source Cisco detected.

Lyla refers to the Dominator ship crashing in Central City in 308.

ARGUS HQ is said to be more secure than The Pentagon.

Captain Cold refers to the events of 123, saying that the last time he and The Flash teamed up it didn't end well for Barry.

Wally takes himself, Joe and Iris to Harry Wells' lab at STAR Labs on Earth Two.

Barry is competent enough as a fighter to take on two ARGUS agents at once and knock them unconscious without using his powers.

Captain Cold is capable enough as an escape artist to slip out of a pair of handcuffs.

Iris and Barry switched rooms when they were 16 so that Iris would have a window she could sneak out of past curfew.

Joe once stopped the family from eating out for a month so that he would have the money to go on a cruise with a bunch of famous blues singers without the kids.

Joe used to sing Junior Walker's 'What Does It Take' to Iris when she was younger.

Iris gives Joe her engagement ring for safe-keeping.

While going through the ultra-secure wing of ARGUS, Barry and Snart pass the cells of Grodd, Cheetah and Cupid. Barry guesses this is where Waller kept her Suicide Squad agents.

Barry refers to the events of 314 and how he captured Grodd.

Cupid - the murderous Green Arrow fan-girl - was last seen in A514 but was being held in Iron Heights Prison. It was mentioned in A416 that she was released from custody in exchange for her services rendered to the Suicide Squad during A317. Presumably she was sent to Iron Heights instead of ARGUS since Amanda Waller was no longer around to make use of her at that point.

King Shark was last seen in 215.

Captain Cold is a big fan of Shark Week and has a surprising amount of information on sharks committed to memory.

The Waverider was equipped with Cable TV.

HR asks Tracy Brand to join Team Flash on a permanent basis.

Snart refers to the events of L109  where he lost a hand while fighting Chronos, after seeing King Shark's hand removed by a door slamming down on its arm.

King Shark has the power of near-instantaneous regeneration.


Snart's last words in the episode - "No strings on me" - are a reference to his final words before his death in L115.

Savitar breaks Wally West's knee.

Savitar is able to resist the effects of The Speed Force Bazooka since - after escaping from the trap in the first place - he made sure he'd never be able to be trapped by the same energy again. He does this by using The Philosopher's stone, which he originally acquired after Barry threw it into The Speed Force.

As the episode ends, it appears that Savitar was successful in killing Iris and that Killer Frost has injured Cisco, if not outright killed him.


Locations

A forest in Siberia -1892.
Earth Two - STAR Labs.
Star City - ARGUS HQ.


Untelevised Adventures

At some point during their first year together, The Legends had a mission in Siberia in 1892. This is where Barry retrieves Captain Cold. We don't know precisely when this took place in the timeline of that series, but - based on Snart's reference to having lost a hand like King Shark - it took place sometime after the events of L109.


The Fridge Factor

It's worth mentioning again that Iris had no role in the second half of this season apart from being The Girl Hostage.


The Bottom Line

I'll say this for Infantino Street - I genuinely have no idea what will happen next week. I can give it credit for surprising me if nothing else. Unfortunately, the emotional center of the episode - Iris' death - still fails to feel as heavy as it should. The best bits of the episode, unsurprisingly, involve Wentworth Miller playing it cool against an agitated Grant Gustin. It really drives home how this show might be better if it had focused more on utilizing The Rogues in a capacity like in the comics rather than focusing on big over-riding arcs focused upon a single criminal mastermind. But that's neither here nor there. I admire the craft and the art that went into the episode even if I fail to feel much in the way of emotional catharsis regarding it.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 17 - Aruba

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

With Amaya dead, Snart alive, Stein having forgotten who he is and The Spear of Destiny destroyed, all of reality is in risk of falling apart under the weight of too many paradoxes. In order to save everything that is, The remaining Legends must break the cardinal rule of time travel and risk an encounter with their past selves in order to destroy The Spear of Destiny before The Legion of Doom creates Doomworld.


Influences

The film Back To The Future 2 (heroes fighting to recover an artifact to prevent a dark alternate timeline from coming into being), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (time-travelers have to help their past selves while avoiding being spotted), The Wizard of Oz (the movie is playing the "There's no place like home...." line during the vision Sara has about resurrecting Laurel, the whole idea of a heroine having her power taken away so she can return to a normal life, Amaya's Ruby Slippers), Men In Black (the memory-erasing light guns return) and countless Doctor Who episodes, particularly the writings of Steve Moffat, where the usual rules regarding time travel are broken to a create a farcical atmosphere.


Goofs

Why is Damien Darhk hanging around STAR Labs? Thawne should be just as likely to kill him as The Legends if pushed, given Darhk and the rest of The Legion of Doom betrayed him.

The prop heart that Thawne rips out of Ray Palmer's chest looks incredibly fake and plastic.

Why do the time quakes not start until the two Rip Hunters see each other?  All the other time duplicates were already in the room together.

Why don't the dozens of Thawnes bull-rush Past Sara before she can activate The Spear? Why do they waste time picking off everyone else first?

When did Past Sara learn the phrase to activate The Spear of Destiny? (Presumably Future Nate taught it to everyone before they tried to escape the Past Waverider?)

Katie Cassidy still cannot emote worth a damn.

The CGI for Thawne's death is incredibly cheap looking.


Performances

Once again, Caity Lotz is the episode MVP. Most of the episode's power moments require her to do most of the heavy lifting, including a magical little scene where Sara has a long talk with herself. It almost makes the sudden revival of the "Sara is dark and broken" subplot from Season 3 of Arrow tolerable. Almost. Still, the fact that the material works half as well as it does is a credit to Lotz's talent as an actress. It only falls apart when Lotz is forced to act for two opposite the Botox-faced Katie Cassidy.


Artistry

The effects work to have the various past and future incarnations of The Legends interact is rather brilliant.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Instead of the usual opening narration, the episode opens with a montage of Season Two highlights, set to the song Time Has Come Today by The Chambers Brothers.


Technobabble

Ray and Jax assumed that The Waverider was broadcasting using a quantum frequency. That would only be possible if the quad band antenna array was in alignment.

The current team of Legends - Jax, Mick, Sara, Rip, Ray and Nate - will cease to exist once The Spear of Destiny is destroyed, since they never would have existed if The Legion of Doom hadn't have stolen The Spear and created Doomworld.

A time quake is the result of two versions of an individual from different times interacting with one another.

A time storm is a paradox, much stronger than a time quake, which results when two versions of an individual attempt to time travel together,

The memory-erasing guns are used to erase Merlyn, Snart and Darhk's memories of what happened.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Rip looks out the pilot's window of The Waverider at a dome-like object from which light pours from the bottom.)
Rip: Gideon? What is that? Is that another ship?
Gideon: Negative. It appears to be... a desk lamp.
(Comprehension dawns on Rip's face as he realizes what's happened. We see a long shot of the shrunken Waverider hovering above the main desk in the middle of STAR Labs.)
Rip: (quietly) Oh, bollocks. (regular voice) Right! Engage our cloak and plot a course!
Gideon: Heading, Captain?
Rip: The nearest open window.

(The Legends have just made radio contact with Rip.)
Ray: Rip?
Rip: Yes, Doctor Palmer. I've homed in on your location.
Jax: Well, haul ass over here and come pick us up!
Rip: There may be one  small problem with that.
(The shrunken Waverider hovers into the rest of the team's view.)

(Darhk is strangling both Jax and Ray with his magic telekinesis as the shrunken Waverider flies into the room and circles around to face him.)
Rip: Gideon, fire!  Fire everything!
(The Waverider begins firing its lasers into Darhk's chest. Unfortunately, at this size, it is less than effective.)
Darhk: Awww... isn't that adorable?  Is that the best you've got?
(Mick enters the room from behind an oblivious Darhk.)
Mick: How about this?
(Mick pistol-whips Darhk across the back of the head with his flame gun, knocking him out cold.)

(Ray picks up the vial holding Christ's blood.)
Ray: Well... that was easier the second time around.
(There is a streak of red-lighting as Thawne appears, vial in hand.)
Thawne: I knew you idiots would come back from 2017. Apart from being incredibly stupid, you are just -so- predictable!
Ray: (powering up his lasers): Give me back the vial!
(Thawne squeezes his hand and the vial breaks.)
Thawne: (deadpan) What vial?
Sara: (over radio) Ray! Ray, get out of there, now!
Thawne: You know, my allies keep giving me the same, simple piece of advice?
(Another streak of red-lightning and one metallic clang later, Ray Palmer is standing there with a hole in his chest plate.  Thawne is standing where he was.. clutching a still beating heart. Without a word, Ray falls backwards as Thawne lets the heart fall to the ground. He looks down at Ray's corpse.)
Thawne: They were right. I should have done that ages ago.

Mick: Never stolen anything from myself before. Could be interesting.

Mick: Not for nothing, but Aruba would have been a better option.

(Thawne runs into the tent where Darhk and Snart are talking. With him is a confused-looking Merlyn, who glances around, momentarily terrified as he finds himself somewhere else.)
Thawne: Gentlemen.
Merlyn: What the hell is going on here?!
Darhk: That's what I was going to ask. Aren't you supposed to be searching for The Kalabros Manuscript?
Merlyn: (testily) I was.
Thawne: And I found him. And I brought him here. We no longer need The Manuscript. We have a different problem. The Legends are here.
Snart: We know. I just punched Mick.
Thawne: Not -those- Legends. And I'm not your Eobard. I'm from the future.
Darhk: (bored) Yeah, what else is new?
Thawne: (sighs in annoyance) Okay. I mean -your- future. One where have The Spear of Destiny and The Legends from -that- future are here now too.
Merlyn: Wait - there's two sets of Legends?
Snart: (annoyed) When do I get to rob a bank?
Thawne: Just deal with them!
(Thawne turns and takes a step to the tent exit.)
Darhk: Where do you think you're going?!
Thawne: To get backup.
(Thawne disappears in a streak of red lightning. The sudden rush of wind hits Darkh like a punch to the gut, forcing him to spit-take his drink.)
Darhk: I hate it when he does that.

(Past Sara has just ordered Past Ray to deal with her "fake" self over the radio.)
Past Ray: Sorry, Sara.
Future Sara; For what?
Past Ray: Listening to you.
(Past Ray punches Future Sara and throws her to Past Rip as Past Mick tries to punch Future Jax.)
Future Jax: Woah! Big dude! Chill out, bro! We're not impostors!
Tolkien: This is madness! What has come over you people?!
Future Sara; If you would -
(Future Sara ducks under Past Ray's punch, which hits Past Rip.)
Future Sara: - just -
(Futura Sara grabs Past Ray's arm and punches him in the stomach.)
Future Sara: - let me-
(Future Sara punches Ray in the face, knocking him down.)
Future Sara:  - explain!
Past Sara: (over radio) If fake me is anything like real me, Ray's going to need some help.

Future Rip: We are not The Legion. Believe it or not, we are actually future iterations of yourselves who have traveled back in time to prevent some form of calamity.
Past Sara: I don't believe it! Why would Rip Hunter violate the First Rule of Time Travel?
Future Rip: I'm asking myself the very same question.
(The door at the far end of the room opens as Past Rip enters the room. He looks at his future self as they both speak in unison.)
Both Rips: Oh bollocks.
(There is a great rumbling that shakes the ship.)
Past Jax: What the hell was that?!
Future Rip: It's a time quake.
Past Rip: The result of us interacting with ourselves.
Future Nate: Well, that wasn't so bad.
Future Rip: Yeah. Give it time.

Past Sara: Whose bright idea was it to do the one thing that could jeopardize all of time?!
Futura Sara: Yours.
Future Mick: (To his past self) What the hell are you starring at?
Past Mick: Just imagining what you'd look like without teeth.
Both Saras: Knock if off, Rory!
Past Stein: I can't believe that even we would do anything so foolish, unless something went terribly wrong the first time we were here.
Past Ray: Uh - I can't help but notice...
Past Amaya: ... not all of us came back with you.
Past Nate: What happens to us in the future?
(There is a long pause as the future Legends just look at each other.)
Future Mick: (chuckling) Well... (points to Ray) Dead. (points to Amaya) Dead. (points to Stein) Good as dead.

Past Sara: In the future you're from, The Legion gets The Spear?
Future Sara: ... yes.
Past Sara: So this is my fault?
Future Sara: It was more of a... team effort, really.
Past Sara: Can I ask you a question? Do you wish you would have used it?
Future Sara: (without hesitating) No.
Past Sara: But you could have stopped all of this!  I mean, you could have erased The Legion of Doom from existence. You could have kept your team alive!
Future Sara: You know why I... we... can't use it. The Spear... it draws on our desires. Our weaknesses. Our hatred...
Past Sara: Our darkness. We're not strong enough to wield it.
Future Sara: The Spear is a weapon. And you know what we do with weapons.

Future Nate: (To Past Nate) I want you to do the things I wish I would have done instead of the things I wish I would have said. You want to know why? Because there's nothing - nothing worse than looking back at your life with regret.

Future Sara: Everybody clear on the plan?
Past Sara: Run like hell. Try not to die.
Future Sara: (To the Future Legends) What about you guys? You ready?
Future Jax: Other than the fact that I can't Firestorm and Nate can't Steel?
Future Nate: You bet your sweet ass we're ready.

(Darhk and Merlyn are firing at The Legends with their futuristic guns. Suddenly, they both seem to run out of power.)
Darhk: Damn it.
Merlyn: Damien, I think we should go back to basics.
Darhk: Yeah, you're right. Killing's gotten so gosh darn impersonal lately.
(Merlyn draws his bow as Darhk draws his sword.)

(Future Mick overpowers Darkh and pins him over a barricade. He puts his heat gun to Darhk's chest as we hear the familiar sound of Snart's cold gun powering up.)
Snart: Let him go, Mick.
Future Mick: I'm not listening to you anymore.
Snart: C'mon! Is that any way to talk to your old partner?
Future Mick: I don't have a partner. I have a team.

Past Ray: I can't believe we made it.
Future Sara: Don't jinx it.
(Suddenly, red lightning appears on the horizon and surrounds them.)
Past Jax: Awww! He jinxed it!
Past Mick: I hate that guy.
(Suddenly, Future Rip goes flying, falling to the ground, apparently punched dead.)
Thawne: Not that guy. These guys!
(Thawne stands before The Legends but the red lightning continues to dance around them, as more and more Reverse Flashes stop until there's a few dozen surrounding them.)
Thawne: You traveled back in time to help yourselves? I figured I could do the same. You know, it's true what they say - if you want something done right, you really have to do it yourself.

Future Sara: You did it.
Past Sara: You would have done the same.
(Future Sara looks down as her body begins to fade into smoke. She looks up at Past Sara and smiles.)
Future Sara: Remember - Legends never die.
(There is a moment of quiet as the team gather themselves up.)
Nate: Really?  Goonies?
Amaya: What's a Goonie?

(Snart and Mick walk into a warehouse.)
Snart: Should have done this in France, Mick. Could've saved us both a lot of time.
Mick: I didn't bring you here to kill you, Leonard.
Snart: So what are we doing here?
Mick: This is where Thawne recruited you for The Legion. I'm going to wipe your memory and put you on the right path.
Snart: You mean the path where I join up with some Brit twit and die trying to save the world?
Mick: No. You die trying to save your friends.
Snart: Still a death sentence.
Mick: You know what your punishment is, Leonard? You end up being a better man. And so do I.
Snart: (scoffs) Better? You mean softer.
Mick: No. I mean better.

Sara: Stay out of trouble.
Rip: What? Without you lot? I think that will actually be quiet easy.

Sara: Guys? I think we broke Time.
(Everyone looks out the windshield of The Waverider. The skyline of 2017 Los Angeles is made up of varying styles of building. Perhaps more worryingly, a pack of raptors are converging on the crashed ship...)


Dialogue Disasters

The whole of the scene with Laurel and Sara when Sara uses The Spear.


Continuity

Sara had no idea that Nate and Amaya had begun developing romantic feelings for each other.

Thawne used Ray Palmer's ATOM suit to shrink Rip Hunter and The Waverider.

Thawne kept Ray's suit in another lab in the Central City STAR Labs complex.

The team return to the setting of 215.

Future Ray dies after a confrontation with Thawne, where Thawne destroys the vial of Christ's blood before it was destroyed originally.

Future Jax dies taking an arrow shot by Merlyn to save Past Stein.

Jax has apparently been training with Sara, proving capable enough in a fight, to snatch an arrow from Merlyn's quiver, stab him in the leg with it, grab Merlyn's bow from him while he's stunned and smack him in the head with it.

Future Rory is killed after being shot in the back by Snart, impaled on an icicle.

Future Nate is killed by Darhk, stabbed from behind with a sword.

Future Rip is killed by one of the Reverse Flashes.

Future Sara fades out of existence after Past Sara uses The Spear of Destiny to depower itself.

Malcolm Merlyn is returned to his crummy Star City apartment in 2017 and has his memory erased.

Leonard Snart is returned to where he was pulled in 2014 Central City and has his memory erased.

Damien Darhk is returned to where Thawne first approached him in 1987 Miami and has his memory erased.

We see the ruby slippers that Nate gave Amaya in 211.

Amaya decides not to return back to 1942 yet, deciding that if she has a destiny, it will wait for her.

Amaya and Nate officially become a couple.

Rip decides to leave The Waverider, taking The Jumpship to go his own way. He tells Sara he has nothing left to teach her about being the Captain of a Time-ship.


Location

Central City - 2017.
A battlefield near the Somme River in North-Central Framce - 1916
Central City - 2014.
Miami - 1987
Los Angels - 2017


The Fridge Factor

Sara's sudden crisis of faith in this episode regarding there being too much darkness inside of her to use The Spear of Destiny drudges up one of Arrow's most annoyingly stupid plot beats (i.e. the idea that Sara had a natural darkness inside her while Laurel had a light). Every bit of character development Sara had over the past season of this show, growing confident as a hero and a leader as she took over the team, is aborted so that Sara can fall back into the role of the emo whiner who isn't worthy of happiness or love that was forced upon her to justify her removal from Arrow at the end of Season Two.

What makes this even worse is that the universe (or whoever is speaking to Sara in Laurel's form) agrees with her assessment that there's no light in her and that she's a broken bird.

The crowning touch?  Sara can't use the spear until a man tells her that he believes in her.


The Bottom Line

Ignore the fifth segment and it's a solid episode. One might have a spirited debate as to which is more painful - Katie Cassidy's under-acting or Matt Letscher's over-acting. I opt for the former since Matt Letscher is at least amusing when he goes over the top and when you're having to boss around the likes of John Barrowman, Neal McDonough and Wentworth Miller you have to go big or go home. As is, this episode would be perfect if it weren't for their need to tear down Sara Lance in Act 2 to make Act 3 work. Still, the matter seems to be settled once and for all and we can look forward to more of Captain Canary kicking ass and taking names in Season Three.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 16 - Doomworld

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

With The Spear of Destiny in the hands of The Legion of Doom, reality has been rewritten and The Legends have never existed! Still, success has not eased tensions within The Legion of Doom's membership. Shockingly, the fate of The Legends and all of reality may rest on the broad shoulders of Mick Rory, who has never found it easy to be a hero...


Influences

Countless science-fiction stories involving restoring a timeline that has been changed.


Goofs

While the question of Mick's trustworthiness is debatable, why in the name of Odin's ravens would you leave the guy you don't trust unattended, in the home of one of your teammates with his mother upstairs making sandwiches, after telling said untrustworthy person that you don't trust him?! Even ignoring the potential danger to Mrs. Heywood, what's to stop said untrustworthy person from going off and doing something untrustworthy?


Performances

Emily Bett Rickards has a fun cameo as an alternate version of Felicity Smoak who dons a costume in the wake of the rest of all of Team Arrow (save perhaps Mister Terrific) dying.

Honestly, the whole ensemble is on fire to such a degree it's hard to pick anyone out as the best.


Artistry

The script for this episode is strong, filled with lots of witty dialogue and the perfect balance of drama, action and comedy.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

The episode opens with a new narration by Eobard Thawne.

At one point Snart says that he and Rory could be tossed in Iron Heights Prison and plot an escape for old time's sake. This is a clever nod to the show Prison Break, which Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell starred in before being cast in The Flash.

The STAR Labs reactor building in which Jax and Stein are working on Thawne's secret project resembles the domed-base of The Legion of Doom from the classic Challenge Of The Superfriends cartoons.

Nate remarks that Ray's pet rat looks like an Indiana as Ray and Rory argue about his name. This is a nod to the Indiana Jones movies, where we find out that Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr's nickname came from the dog that he had growing up.


Technobabble

Among Eobard Thawne's many scientific accomplishments in the new reality are figuring out cold fusion, saving the polar bear, fixing global warming and making desalination sustainable. 

Nate Heywood calls the inconsistencies in reality that he discovered "scars". He theorizes that when reality was rewritten, his subconscious picked up on the inconsistencies in the new reality whenever he saw something that conflicted with his memories of the old reality.

Ray borrowed a set of dipole magnets from STAR Labs in Star City.

Ray constructed an energy gun which he calls a Transreality Multiplexer. It targets irregularities in the hippocampus, acting like a Ctrl-Z for memories (i.e. like an undo command on a computer). In short, it can restore the memories of people who had their minds altered by reality changing.

Nate notes that Ray's random impulse to work on such a device was the result of a scar prompting Ray to try and create something to fix reality despite his completely lack of training and resources in the new reality.

Gideon spent the last year working on new algorithms to redirect power from the the idle quadrants of The Waverider. This, in theory, could allow them to boost the power of Rip's distress signal.

Jax says that the reactor Stein is building will burn 1,000 times hotter than the sun once it was fully operational. Depending on if he was referring to the surface temperature or the core temperature, this means the reactor would burn somewhere from 58,000 degrees Kelvin to 150 million degrees Kelvin.


Dialogue Triumphs

Eobard Thawne: (voice-over) My name is Eobard Thawne. With the help of Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory, I have obtained The Spear of Destiny - an ancient artifact with the power to rewrite reality itself. And we have. It's a brave new world!

Amaya: The mayor would like a word... Miss Smoak.
Felicity: (in a deep, gravely voice like what Oliver Queen uses as Green Arrow) Then maybe he should have come down here himself instead of sending The Bimbo Brigade.

Merlyn: You keep ignoring my requests for a meeting.
Thawne: Because there's no reason for one. Our partnership is ended! You got what you wanted. Your wife and your son are both alive and in good spirits. Your daughter Thea adores you! Nyssa Al Ghul is trapped in a miserable, closeted life in the middle of Ohio. And - hey - you can even clap again! What more could you possibly want?!
Merlyn: How about The Spear of Destiny? There are still some things in this world I would like to see changed...
Thawne: How many times do I have to tell you this, Malcolm? The Spear is safest in my hands. Besides, I'm the only one who knows how to use it.
Merlyn: That's because you destroyed The Kalabros Manuscript!
Thawne: Well, it's not my fault you don't retain information like I do! Speedster brains are handy that way.

(Snart and Rory exit a diamond exchange. A guard comes running at them. Rory shoots a fire blast the guard barely ducks away from.)
Snart: Cool it, Mick. We already got what we came for.
Rory: Just heating things up.
(A team of police officers run up as they round the corner.)
Cop: Don't move! Both of you on the ground!
(Rory draws his gun and aims it at the cops. Snart holds back.)
Cop: Mr. Snart! Sorry. Sir. We didn't realize it was you. Carry on.
(Rory looks confused as Snart just smiles and the police put their guns away and break ranks, leaving Snart and Rory a clear path to walk away.)
Rory: What the hell's going on? No roasting pigs?
Snart: No need. We're home free, buddy.  It's good to be the king.
Rory: No getaway? No chase?
Snart: You want a chase, I can arrange a chase. Even get us tossed in Iron Heights and we can plan an escape, just like old times. How does that sound?
Rory: Boring!
Snart: Well, we can hit up the Central City Bank. They've got a fancy new vault I've been dying to crack...
Rory: What's the point? You own the bank and half the city!
Snart: You mean we own half the city, Mick. We're partners, remember?
(Snart reaches for his phone, which has begun vibrating while he was talking. He glances at it and his smile fades.)
Snart: Hmmm... Seems our next score will have to wait. Thawne is... summoning us.
Rory: Since when do we get summoned?
Snart: Since the man agreed not to erase you and your friends from existence.

Nate: You saved my life?! Why?!
Rory: ... because I'm an idiot.

Nate: This is crazier than any of my crazy theories! You're trying to tell me a group called (making air quotes) "The Legion of Doom" used something called the (making air quotes) "Spear of Destiny" to rewrite reality? Who even names something The Legion of Doom?!
Rory: You did.
Nate: Me?! (scoffs) Now, you only remember the old reality because you're part of The Legion?
Rory: I'm not part of anything. I just made a terrible mistake.

(Nate gets up off the floor after being zapped with the Transreality Multiplexer. His face is oddly calm as he turns around, looks at Mick Rory and then punches him.)
Nate: You son of a bitch!
(Rory grabs his jaw, not knocked back but stunned by how hard the punch was as he looks at the Transreality Multiplexer and then to a completely stunned Ray Palmer.)
Rory: It works!

(Rory zaps Ray with the Transreality Multiplexer. After a second, Ray looks at Rory, becomes enraged and punches him.)
Ray: You!
Rory: (rubbing his jaw) I deserved that.
Ray: Damn straight you did!
Rory: Hey! If it wasn't for me, you'd all be dead!
Nate: Yeah, Mick. Thanks a lot! You trapped each of us in our own personal hell.
Ray: Do you have any idea how many toilets I've cleaned?!  So many!
(Sara and Amaya enter the room.)
Nate: Amaya?
Ray: Sara?
Rory: Hey, dumbasses? They have no clue who you are. They work for Damien Darhk.
(Without a word, Sara withdraws her escrima sticks and Amaya pulls her guns.)

(Sara is shot with the Transreality Multiplexer. She is shaken for a moment and then walks over to Mick Rory before punching him.)
Rory: One more person hits me, I'm gonna punch back!

Ray: I can only imagine how those psychopaths are torturing Rip.
(Cut to Rip, passed out on the floor under a table in the galley of The Waverider, where an ornate, clock-themed, multi-layer cake stands. He is quite clearly drunk.)
Rip: Gideon!  I've discovered the missing ingredient for my recipe! (takes a swig from the bottle he is clutching) Rum!
(Rip tries to put the bottle on the table and succeeds only in dropping it on the floor. He shrugs at this in momentary confusion.) 
Rip: And speaking of which, I'm gonna need you to fabricate me another bottle of it! Ooooh! And some nachoes!

Snart: When your minions bring Mick back, I want to arrange a meeting with Thawne. And when I say "arrange a meeting", I mean -
Merlyn: - one between Thawne and his maker?
Darhk: Cute. A little mustache-twirly for my taste.

(Damien Darhk lifts Sara off the ground with his telekinesis.)
Darhk: I'm going to miss you, Ms. Lance. Having you around to attend to my every whim was too enticing to pass up. Plus it's so hard to find good help these days!
Snart; (sarcastically) Really? Now's the time for a bad guy monologue?

(As Sara escapes with a now unbrainwashed Amaya, all thanks to Damien Darhk deciding to gloat and have Amaya kill Sara instead of just killing Sara himself.)
Snart: Damien? What did I tell you?
Merlyn: (mock-cheerful) For what it's worth, I thought it was a very good bad guy monologue.
(Darhk just simmers in impotent rage.)

(Thawne has just run into the reactor room where The Legends were trying - and failing - to restore Stein's memory.)
Thawne: Well. It looks like you losers managed to remember who you are.
(A flash of red lightning later and Thawne is standing on the other side of the room, holding The Spear of Destiny.)
Thawne: I should have wiped you from existence when I had the chance! Do you have any idea how infuriating it is... to know that Merlyn was right?!

(Darhk and Nate are struggling over The Spear Of Destiny. Thawne wakes up at that moment and they both see his eyes open. There is a moment of silent agreement as Darhk releases the spear and Nate swings, somehow catching Thawne as he's charging them. Thawne goes flying across the room and into a rack of chemicals. Darhk and Nate both laugh in delight and almost high-five before they remember "Oh yeah - you're on the other team.")
Darhk: Perhaps not.
(The two resume fighting.)

Snart: Mick! Hand it over! Like a good boy.
Rory: You mean a good dog. That's all I am to you. An attack dog.
Snart: Now, that's not true. Sure, we both know you're not the sharpest tool in the shed. But that's why we're partners! Remember?
Rory: You're right. I'm not a genius.
(Rory starts to walk toward Snart... then slides The Spear of Destiny along the floor behind him to Amaya.)
Rory: But I'm no one's dog, Leonard. Not anymore.
Snart: Well... I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Rory (to Amaya) Undo this mess.
(Amaya takes up The Spear and begins to chant. Suddenly, she freezes up - literally as a cold blast takes her in the chest and Snart approaches her.)
Snart: I am sorry about your friend, Mick. I know you loved her pieces.
(Snart taps Amaya on the shoulder and she shatters completely. Everyone else stands in shock, except for Rory, who draws his flame gun and stares down Snart. After a few seconds though, he lowers his gun and turns away, walking for the exit.)
Snart: Well, if you want something done right...
Darhk: Well done, Leonard.
Sara: (To Snart) You bastard! (To the rest of the Legion) I'll kill you all!
(Thawne suddenly appears behind Snart.)
Thawne:  Actually, I believe that's my line...


Continuity

In the new reality, Damien Darhk is Mayor of Star City.

Sara and Amaya work for Damien Darhk as his enforcers.

In the new reality, Felicty Smoak - her hair now dyed black - is a vigilante fighting against Damien Darhk. We never find out her code-name but she has a purple costume with a mask, similar to the one worn by The Huntress, and is armed with two of Mister Terrific's T-Spheres.

Darhk has a collection of masks from vigilantes he has defeated. The collection includes the masks of Ragman, Black Canary, Wild Dog, Vigilante, Green Arrow, The Flash and Spartan. He adds the mask worn by Felicity Smoak.

In the new reality, Eobard Thawne runs STAR Labs.

Thawne has The Black Flash trapped in a cell in the main lab of STAR Labs.

In the new reality, Rebecca Merlyn and Tommy Merlyn are still alive. Thea Queen is now a loving and devoted daughter of Malcolm Merlyn. Nyssa Al Ghul is trapped in a miserable, closeted life somewhere in Ohio and his severed hand has been restored.

Thawne destroyed the Kalabros Manuscript, ensuring that he's the only person who now knows how to use The Spear of Destiny. He's also holding onto it... despite Merlyn's objections.

In the new reality, Jefferson Jackson and Martin Stein are employees at STAR Labs with Jax acting as Stein's manager.

In the new reality, Snart and Rory have returned to a life of crime. This time, however, the cops allow them to get away with anything.

From Rip's perspective, a year has passed since The Spear of Destiny was used. He has spent that time in hiding, perfecting his baking skills with Gideon, unaware if any of the rest of The Legends are alive or not.

In the new reality, Dr. Martin Stein still has a wife and daughter.

In the new reality, Ray Palmer is a janitor at the STAR Labs Reactor site.

In the new reality, Donald Trump is President of the United States and good friends with Eobard Thawne.

In the new reality, Nate Heywood has become a crazed conspiracy theorist with a blog that only his mother reads, who goes to Eobard Thawne with his theory that reality was rewritten.

The video game that Ray is playing when Nate and Rory find him seems to be based on Ray's actions during the Invasion! storyline. We see a meter on the screen that says "Dwarf Star Energy" and the character is blasting aliens called Dominators who look like the alien invaders from Invasion.

In the new reality Axel - the rat that Ray gave Rory as a pet in 211 - is a test animal at STAR Labs that Ray liberated for use in his own experiments. In this reality, Ray named him Tesla.

Snart implanted a GPS inside of Mick Rory.

The first thing Damien Darhk did in the new reality was reacquire his magic powers.

Damien says that he was told that he killed Laurel Lance in the original reality but that future never came to be for him. He did, however, kill Laurel Lance again in the new reality.

Ray Palmer has a gluten allergy or, at least, prefers gluten-free bread.

Rory recognizes what Aramaic sounds like because he enjoyed The Passion of The Christ.

Snart kills Amaya before she can finishing using The Spear of Destiny.

Thawne uses his reactor to destroy The Spear of Destiny. He then lets everyone - including his treacherous teammates - go free, since it's more satisfying for him to know that they failed to stop him and have to live out the rest of their lives in the reality he created.

As the episode closes, Martin Stein still hasn't had his memories of the original timeline restored.

Sara declares that their only chance now is going back in time to 1916 and stopping The Legion of Doom from getting the complete Spear of Destiny in the first place.

It is revealed that The Waverider has been shrunk and is disguised as a model on the desk in the main lab area of STAR Labs. Rip Hunter and Gideon have apparently been trapped inside it for the last year.


Location

Star City - 2017.
Central City - 2017.


The Bottom Line

Fantastic. Just fantastic.

Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2, Episode 15 - Fellowship Of The Spear

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

After retrieving the other half of The Spear of Destiny from The Legion of Doom's hideout in what remains of The Vanishing Point, The Legends travel to WWI. It is here that they team with a young soldier named John Tolkien to find the means to destroy The Spear. The power of The Spear speaks to them all, however, and they must contend with The Legion's latest recruit... Leonard Snart!


Influences

The Lord of The Rings (plot involving heroes seeking to destroy a magic artifact that risks corrupting them, secret writing is revealed when the artifact is exposed to fire, and numerous other nods to the original books by Tolkien and the Peter Jackson films based upon them), Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (the scene of the team searching an old church for clues to locate a holy relic) and The DaVinci Code (idea of ancient conspiracy built around Jesus Christ and The Crusades).



Goofs

The show uses an establishing shot of The Amiens Catherdal to identify the church where Gawain was buried. In the show, Tolkien says it was built in the 1600s. The real world Amiens Cathedral dates back to the 13th Century and is the oldest Gothic cathedral in France. (Then again, the building is also identified as The Amenis Church so it could be an entirely different one..)


Performances

Dominic Purcell gets a fantastic turn here. After being the comic relief for so many episodes, he gets a chance to display some genuine pathos here as we see his fear at not being quite right in the head after he starts seeing Snart again. Then there's his internal conflict that Snart is right about how his teammates will never view him as anything but a dog to be kept on a leash.


Artistry

The battle sequences do a good job of capturing the horrors of trench warfare.


Trivia Of Tomorrow

Rather than the usual opening narration, this episode opens immediately with a "Previously on Legends of Tomorrow" announcement before showing clips from previous episodes.

The book which Nate refers to - The Burden Of The Purest Heart - Sir Gawain's Secret Treasure by J. R. R. Tolkien - is not a real one. Tolkien did produce what many consider the definitive translation of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight.

As depicted in this episode, Tolkien did serve as a Second Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers during The Battle Of The Somme.

Nate describes The Battle of Somme as one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history. It was definitely the largest battle on the Western Front of World War I, with over one million men wounded or killed on both sides of the conflict.

As depicted in this episode, Tolkien suffered repeated health problems while enlisted and was frequently removed from the front lines. Eventually he was declared unfit for fighting. Despite this, he maintained his rank after being demobilized in 1920.

As depicted in this episode, Tolkien did not enjoy military life. Even ignoring his continual ill health in the trenches, he preferred the life of an academic and it's quite likely he would have avoided joining the army had the social stigma for young men avoiding volunteering been so great at the time. Indeed, he delayed volunteering until after he had earned his degree - presumably in the hopes that the war would be over before his graduation date.

The Spear of Destiny is said to glow in the presence of Jesus' blood. This is similar to how, in The Lord of The Rings, some Elven blades would glow blue when orcs and goblins were nearby.

The Spear of Destiny urges people around it to use it. This is similar to how The One Ring in The Lord of The Rings attempted to tempt people around it.

The Spear of Destiny can only be destroyed by The Blood of Jesus Christ - the same substance that empowered it. This is similar to how, in The Lord of The Rings, only the fires of Mount Doom - which were used to forge The One Ring - could destroy The One Ring.

A secret message is revealed when The Spear of Destiny is set on fire. The One Ring from Lord of The Rings also presents a secret message when tossed into the fire.

At one point, Stein says one does not simply walk into the middle of a war zone - a nod to a complaint about simply entering Mordor in The Lord of The Rings.

Amaya's argument that they can use The Spear wisely against their enemies rather than destroying it mirrors that of Boromir in The Lord of The Rings.

Rip's speech about the courage of men not failing this day is a nod to Aragorn's speech in The Return of The King.


Technobabble

Stein theorizes that The Spear of Destiny is made of some magnetized compound which acts as its own sealant.

The British army broadcast on a frequency of 3 mHz.


Dialogue Triumphs

(The Legends look over the two pieces of The Spear of Destiny that they have.)
Rip: It's hard to imagine that when joined with their siblings, they're as powerful as God.
Jax: But right now, that's just a useless piece of wood.
(Sara picks up the wooden piece of The Spear.)
Sara: It's not useless. I know ten different ways to kill somebody with this.
Mick: Not to mention it's great for scratching those hard to reach places.
Ray: Please don't tell me you used The Spear of Destiny as a back-scratcher!
Mick: Who said anything about my back?
(Sara drops the piece of wood.)
Stein: Well, as Mister Rory has demonstrated, in the wrong hands, this divine artifact can be put to truly horrific use.
Mick: Yeah!

(Sara comes up behind Mick, who is staring at the place where Snart died.)
Sara: Mick? Mick! Are you okay?
Mick: Am I okay? Why wouldn't I be okay?
Sara: ... I miss him too.
Mick: He blew himself up. For what?
Sara: So the rest of us could live.
Mick: Idiot:
Sara: Mick, we've got to go. (harder) Look, this is a heist. We have to steal the other pieces of The Spear and get out of here. (pauses) You think this is what Snart wants?! You waiting around so that you can get caught?!
Mick: ... probably not.
(Wordlessly, Mick turns around and walks past Sara. She looks back to the point herself before following after.)

(Rip tries - and fails - to shoot his way into the obelisk holding The Legion's pieces of The Spear of Destiny.)
Rip: Your try, Mr. Jackson.
Firestorm: Oh. (pauses as he looks at the obelisk) What's your favorite candy?
Rip: Jellybeans. Why?
(Firestorm slaps Rip on the shoulder and walks over to the obelisk. He touches it and it begins to flash yellow and red. Within a few seconds, the material collapses into a pile of jellybeans along with two pieces of wood. He smiles and gestures like a magician having just accomplished a great trick.)
Firestorm: A little transmutation trick me and Grey have been working on.
(Rip slaps Firestorm on the shoulder and kneels down. He takes one of the jellybeans and looks at it carefully before putting it in his mouth. He clearly enjoys the taste and savors it a moment before grabbing the pieces of wood.)
Rip: Both delicious and impressive, Mr. Jackson.

Thawne: This can't be happening. They're not smart enough for this to be happening...

Snart: My, my my - how the mighty have fallen.
Mick: You said that the last time you appeared. Huh. You picked a hell of a time to show up. I'm kind of in the middle of something.
Snart: Yeah. In the middle of being a good little doggie to those insufferable wannabees.
(Mick closes his eyes and clutches his forehead.) 
Mick: Stay on mission, now. Gotta find this Hobbit guy.
Snart: J.R.R. Tolkien? Why? Hoping for an autograph?
Mick: I don't even know who the guy is! All I know is I gotta find this Hobbit guy who knows the guy that's buried with Jesus' blood. Then we can destroy The Spear of Destiny!
Snart: Mick, Mick, Mick - when have we ever destroyed anything we've ever stolen, let alone the most valuable score in the universe? What have they done to you?

(Snart is trying to convince Mick to use The Spear of Destiny to save his life.)
Mick: You're in my head. You're an... illumination.
Snart: A hallucination?
Mick: That's it.
(Snart punches Mick, bruising his face almost instantly.)
Snart: Now, did that feel like a hallucination?
(Snart leaves, leaving Mick to rub his face in confusion.)

Rip: This darkness will pass.
Tolkien: You speak as someone who has seen the future.
Nate: Haven't all students of history? Those who suffer, heal. Everything destroyed gets rebuilt and our towers grow a little taller every time.
Tolkien: I should like to believe you. Tell me - why do you seek The Grave of Gawain?
Rip: Ehhh... It's a long story.
Tolkien: Well, I enjoy long stories.
Nate: Yeah. He does.

(Mick grabs Stein, gesturing to the bruise on his face.)
Mick: Snart did this!
Stein: I believe you!.
Mick: You do?!
Stein: Of course not! I just don't want you to hurt me!

Snart: Pretty pathetic if you ask me.
(Snart emerges from behind the team, cold gun in hand. Mick looks at him in disbelief. Everyone else is stunned.)
Rip: Mr. Snart?
Mick: Wait... you can see him?
Ray: You're supposed to be dead!
Snart: Yeah, they told me all about how I get soft and die for you losers. I didn't believe them:
Mick: Believe who?
Darhk: (entering from behind Snart) Well, if that's not an entrance line, I don't know what is.
Tolkien: What is going on here?
Rip: The Legion must have traveled back in time and picked up Mr. Snart before he joined The Legends.
Darhk: He told us all about your plan of how you were going to destroy The Spear.
Snart: (mock-cheerful) Thanks for the tip, Mick!
(The rest of the team turn and look at an embarrassed Mick.)
Mick: ... I didn't think he was real!
Darhk: No-no-no! No need to defend yourself. (pauses) Actually, there is. Angriff!
(German soldiers swarm the church and begin firing on The Legends.)

Rip: Attention all combatants! May I have your attention, please? There are casualties on the battlefield. Brave men on both sides who are in urgent need of medical attention. I know that the divisions between us run deep. That they may very well be insurmountable. But I implore both of our armies, for this one moment, to come together as allies and honor a ceasefire so that the injured may be removed from the field of battle. There may come a day when our courage fails us. When we forsake our friendship sand break the bonds of fellowship. But today is not that day! And perhaps in showing our humanity, we might just save it.


Dialogue Disasters

(As The Waverider flies away)
Thawne: Nooooooooooooo!


Continuity

Rip reveals that The Legion of Doom have been operating out of The Vanishing Point.

The pieces of The Spear of Destiny are attracted to each other and can be used to track one another.

Mick flashes back to the events of 115 and Snart's death.

Firestorm has refined his transmutation powers to the point that he can transform the laser-resistant pillar holding The Legion's spear fragments into jellybeans.

"Natum de sanguine, perditus a sanguine" is written on The Spear of Destiny in letters of fire, which are revealed when the spear is burned. The phrase means "Born of blood, undone by blood."

Nate knows Latin.

Nate spent a year in Oxford while working on his Masters Degree. During that year, he dated a woman named Wendy.

Nate theorizes that only The Blood of Christ can destroy the Spear of Destiny.

According to Rip, there are several points in time which a time-traveler cannot risk interfering with. The birth, life and death of Jesus is one of these points.

Nate remembers a paper he read where a young scholar suggested that Sir Gawain did not find The Holy Grail, as legend claimed, but instead had a vial of Jesus Christ's blood.

Darhk says he and Merlyn were sent to locate The Kalabros Maniscript when The Legends raided their base and took their pieces of The Spear.

Mick refers to the hallucinations of Snart he had up until 209.

Nate cannot do a convincing British accent.

Nate played Bert in his middle-school production of Mary Poppins.

Amaya tells Sara that she saw the future of her village, her daughter and her granddaughter.

Laurel Lance told Sara about Amaya's grand-daughter - the modern-era Vixen.

Gawain's burial place is in a cathedral in Amiens.

Darkh reveals that The Legion of Doom took Leonard Snart from a point in time from before he joined The Legends.

Amaya claims to hear the voice of her mother when she is near The Spear. The voice urges her to save their people and their legacy.

Mick claims to hear the voice of his parents around The Spear, only they're begging him not to play with fire.

The location of the blood of Jesus is revealed to be smack dab in the middle of No Man's Land.

The Spear of Destiny glows in the presence of Jesus' blood.

Mick betrays The Legends to join The Legion of Doom. He offers Amaya a chance to go with him but she declines.

The vial holding Jesus Christ's blood is destroyed.

Merlyn locates The Kalabros Maniscript - The Word of God and an owner's manual of sorts for The Spear of Destiny.

The episode ends with The Legion of Doom using The Spear of Destiny.


Location

A battlefield near the Somme River in North-Central Framce - 1916
The Vanishing Point
The Church of Amiens in Amiens, France - 1916.


Untelevised Adventures

We don't see how The Legion of Doom persuaded Snart to join with them.

We also don't see the "not easy" adventure Malcolm Merlyn had to go on to retrieve The Kalabros Maniscript.


The Bottom Line

A great episode with one hell of a cliff-hanger and Dominic Purcell's best turn yet as Mick Rory.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 16 - Into The Speed Force

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Desperate to rescue Wally from the prison that Savitar escaped, Barry once again enters into The Speed Force and experiences visions of friends and enemies lost to time and space. Meanwhile, Iris considers the state of her relationship with Barry as Jesse pushes the rest of Team Flash to find a way to track down Savitar.


Influences

The Flash comics of Mark Waid, particularly Terminal Velocity.


Artistry

The lighting and direction of the sequences in The Speed Force are genuinely creepy.


Flash Facts

HR says he is not going to be held responsible by his Earth Two counterpart if Jesse gets stuck in a negative world. Cisco recognizes this as a reference to the original Super Mario Bros. game, where a glitch could cause the player to get trapped in World - 1 - an endless water level. This world is more typically identified as Minus World rather than Negative World, however.

Cisco says "To Infinity and Beyond!" when Barry enters The Speed Force. This is the catch-phrase of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story films.

Cisco refers to the movie The Iron Giant when speculating on how a piece of Savitar's armor might seek out the rest of it once broken off.

The fake Snart in The Speed Force makes a remark about how Jay Garrick is "getting slow in his golden age." Jay Garrick was the first superhero to use the name The Flash, back in what is commonly known as The Golden Age of Comics from 1938 to the mid-1950s.


Technobabble

HR asks why they can't come up with some kind of tether to keep Barry from getting lost in The Speed Force. This leads Cisco to say he could do that and Julian to develop a biological component that can measure Barry's vitals when he is in The Speed Force, letting them pull him out if something happens.

The electrode halo - in addition to being the device that allowed Team Flash to channel Savitar through Julian Albert - is also part of the device that Cisco used to pull Barry Allen out of The Speed Force the last time he entered into it.

Goldtooth is the Cisco Ramon designed inter-dimensional equivalent of Bluetooth.

The electrode halos are electromagnetically linked via Goldtooth. It gives them all the relevant locus information no matter where in the multiverse Barry is. If he needs help, it will automatically stimulate Cisco's prefrontal cortex, letting him open a breach to wherever Barry is and pull him back to Earth One.

Julian speculates that Savitar's blade is made of  some kind of new metal akin to a Luttinger liquid - a theoretical model describing interacting electrons in a one-dimensional conductor such as carbon nanotubes.

HR refers to the theory of Schrödinger's Cat - a paradoxical thought experiment involving trapping a cat in a box with a radioactive source and a poison that will be released upon the emission of radiation - the result of which is that the cat will be both alive and dead until the box is opened and it can be observed.

Caitlin says that the metal of Savitar's blade is made of a near-frictionless material that is a constant state of flux. While totally motionless on the outside, it is constantly moving on the inside as if being affected by an outside influence. Julian likens this to how tides are affected by the phases of the moon. Jesse suggests that the outside influence is Savitar and that he somehow has the ability to control the metal despite it being separated from his armor.

Cisco describes feeling a lot of harmonic feedback when trying to vibe into The Speed Force.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Barry and Iris are alone in the hallway at STAR Labs.)
Barry: I'm gonna find Wally.  Whatever's holding him, whatever's keeping him trapped in there? I'm gonna get him back.
Iris: Okay.
Barry: Okay.
(Barry looks down at Iris' hand. She still isn't wearing her engagement ring.)
Barry: Iris?
(Iris doesn't meet his eyes.)
Barry: Did I lose you?
(Iris says nothing and just walks away quickly. Barry turns and watched her sadly. Joe enters from behind Barry.)
Joe: Baar?  What's going on?
Barry: Nothing. I'm just trying to.. make her not worry so much.
Joe: About Wally?  Or you?
Barry: Joe, now is not the time, alright?
Joe: Look, you are about to risk your life to save her brother. I think now is the perfect time.
Barry: (sighs) She's having doubts about us. About marrying me.
Joe: She... call off the engagement?
Barry: Guess I changed the future one too many times.

Barry: Where is Wally West?!
Eddie: He's not exactly here per say. He's in the prison you created. Well, your future self, that is.
Barry: How do I get him out? (more intensely) How do I get him out?!
Eddie: I think you' ll find we're not going to be as accommodating as we were the last time you visited us.
Barry: What the hell does that mean?!
Eddie: It means things have changed. We gave you your speed back because you said you'd come to terms with your mother's death. But you lied to us. You went back in time and saved her. And in doing so, you created Flashpoint.
Barry: Zoom had just killed my father -
Eddie: We know. And we understand. Which is why we allowed you to do that. But choices have consequences and I'm afraid we can't let you make any more choices like that.
Barry: Wally's just a kid...
Eddie: He's a Flash. He made his choice. Now he has to live with it. Just like you do.
Barry: I'm not going anywhere until Wally is free.
Eddie: Then be prepared to spend an eternity in here.

(Jesse wants to run off and find Savitar.)
HR: Hold your roll, Jesse Quick. This hesitation that you feel on behalf of the group is our realization that this "go for broke" attitude is the very attitude that got Wallace in his predicament in the first place. Am I right?
Julian: I can't believe I'm uttering the words but... I actually agree with HR.
Cisco: Ditto.
HR: Thanks boys.

(Barry looks on Caitlin holding a baby, singing her to sleep. Ronnie Raymond stands by his side.)
Ronnie: This troubles you. Another life that could have been and never was.
(Ronnie walks over and kisses the baby on the forehead. Caitlin mutely walks off with the baby.)
Barry: Caitlin and Ronnie should have had that. A family... a future.
Ronnie: The future doesn't always turn out as we want it to.
Barry: I see what you're doing. First Eddie. Now Ronnie. Showing me all the people who sacrificed themselves for the greater good...

Ronnie: No, Barry - their sacrifices were for you. As was Wally's when he attempted to stop Savitar.
Barry: Savitar tricked Wally! And now he's trapped. Wally doesn't belong in The Speed Force. You have to let me take his place. (pauses) That's why I'm here. 

Ronnie: Or the other reason, Barry.
Barry: I want to sacrifice myself for Wally. 

Ronnie:: We can't allow that.
Barry: Why not? 

Ronnie: Because where Wally has gone is a hell all his own.
Barry: Savitar said "one would suffer a fate far worse than death".

Ronnie: And it's not for you. Leave Barry. While you still can.
(Ronnie turns his back on Barry and starts to walk away.)
Barry: No.
(Barry pulls up his hood and looks at Ronnie, who turns back to face him.)
Barry: Whatever hell Wally's trapped in, I'm going to set him free. And I'm not leaving here until I do.
Ronnie: Very well. But you were warned.
(There is a growl from behind Barry as The Black Flash runs out of nowhere and shoves him across the bank of computer desks.)

(HR block's Jesse's path as she tries to leave the lab with the piece of Savitar's blade. He tells her that he is not letting her pass.)

Jesse: You done?
HR: Yeah. Said my peace. And guess what? I'm still. Not.
(Jesse punches him once at super-speed.)
HR: ... moving.

(HR falls to the floor. Jesse kneels down and checks to make sure the unconscious HR isn't seriously hurt. She nods to herself.)
Jesse: That was oddly satisfying. 

(Barry watches Wally West through the window of the door to a hospital room. Wally is starring at an empty bed, eyes watery. unable to look away. Leonard Snart comes to stand besides Barry.)

Barry: What's happening to him?
Snart: Wally West is caught in an endless temporal loop, just like Savitar after you imprisoned him here in the future. No wonder he hates you.
Barry: What's he seeing?
Snart: He's reliving the single most painful moment of his life. Over and over again. His mother's death.
Barry: Wally... he doesn't deserve this
Snart: And let me guess - you do?
Barry: I know what my hell is. I've already seen it. In the future.
Snart: You don't like the future, Flash? Change it!
Barry: I can't ! Don't you get it?!  I can't! I'm not fast enough! He is! (he sighs and looks back to Wally) That's why you have to let me take his place. Wally can save Iris.
Snart: (annoyed) Not learning your lesson, Barry. You keep telling us one thing and then doing another! (pauses) You want to know what inspired Leonard Snart to sacrifice himself? It was you. Barry Allen. You inspired him to be... better. You inspired him to be selfless. To sacrifice himself for others. To be a hero. Just like you.
Barry: I'm no hero. Not lately.
Snart: So... what? Had enough, Scarlet Speedster?  Time to hang up the cowl and give it all up? Well,, if you're out...
(Snart draws his cold gun and powers it on.)
Snart: ... you're out.
Barry: (tiredly) I'm done fighting.
Snart: We know. And that's exactly the problem.

(Snart blasts Barry, sending him flying against the wall. Barry is pinned to the wall, gasping for breath as the ice sticks him up against the wall unable to move.)

Snart: You think seeing Iris' death is hell? You ain't seen nothing yet.

(Suddenly a red streak appears and knocks Snart down. It is Jay Garrick.)
Jay Garrick: (looking to Barry) Let's get you out of here.

(Barry guides Wally to the door out of the hospital room.  Jay moves to stand where Wally had been.)

Barry: Jay? Let's go. 

Jay: Sorry kid. This is where I stay for a while.
Barry: What? What are you talking about?
Jay: We both know that a speedster needs to take Wally's place. That's why I'm here.
Barry: No. No, Jay! You already lived your hell when you were Zoom's prisoner.
Jay: And you set me free! And I owe you for that.
Barry: Jay -
Jay: I've run a hell of a race. But every marathon has a finish line. Time's finally come for me to cross it. But you? You, Barry... you need to put an end to this once and for all and stop Savitar.
Barry: How?
Jay: Do what you do best. Be The Flash. (Jay holds up his helmet and hands it to Barry.) Cisco said that he could use this to track you and bring you home. 

(Barry reluctantly takes the helmet.)
Barry:  I'm gonna get this back to you again. When I break you out of here.
Jay: (nodding) See you soon, Flash. 

Continuity

Helium is used to power gas stoves on Earth 19. This fact is revealed with HR says "Now we are cooking with Helium!"

The Super Mario Brothers game series exists on Earth 19.

Barry's shoulder is still injured from the last episode.

The electrode halo - the device Cisco used to pull Barry out of The Speed Force in 221 - is given an official name. This is also the same device Julian wore to channel Savitar.

The place where Barry arrives in The Speed Force looks like the Central City Police Department on a stormy night.

Barry saw Eddie Thawne die in 123. He took a trip to the past, where he saw Eddie before his death in 217.

The motto of the Central City Police Department is "Justice For All."

A Time Wraith - last seen in 223 - blocks Barry's path in The Speed Force.

The second location Barry travels to in The Speed Force resembles the hallway and main medical lab of STAR Labs.

Barry last saw Ronnie Raymond when he sacrificed himself to close the super-breach in 201.  He saw Ronnie's Earth Two counterpart, Deathstorm, die in 213.Barry sees a version of Caitlin holding a baby girl. He is told, by the vision of Ronnie Raymond, that it is her daughter.  Barry quickly figures out that this is a vision of the life Caitlin and Ronnie would have had together if Ronnie hadn't sacrificed himself.

Caitlin says that the metal from Savitar's blade, much like the box that held The Philosopher's stone, both exists and does not exist at the same time.

On Earth 19, according to HR, the theory of Schrödinger's Cat is called Schroeder's Cat.

On Earth 19, according to HR Charlie Brown was the kid with the piano in the Peanuts cartoons rather than Schroeder. The joke was that Charlie Brown was a terrible piano player.

HR wears a men's size 11 shoe. Presumably American size, assuming Earth 19 shoe sizes are the same as Earth One's.

The third place Barry finds himself in The Speed Force is a hospital hallway.  Wally is trapped in one of the rooms, seemingly starring at an empty bed.

Barry last saw Leonard Snart in the flesh in 209. A hologram of him appeared in 304. Snart apparently died in L115.

Wally West's personal hell is watching his mother's death over and over for all eternity.

According to The Speed Force, Leonard Snart chose to sacrifice himself because of Barry Allen's example.

Savitar claims to have already lived through all of the events that are about to happen to Team Flash.

Jesse Quick is able to throw lightning like Barry Allen.

Savitar is apparently immune to lightning and can either throw lightning without having to run around first or can absorb and redirect the lightning generated by other speedsters, as evidenced by his throwing a bolt of blue-white lightning at Jesse.

Jesse is able to hurt Savitar by stabbing him with the piece of his blade aiming for a gap in his armor.  HR correctly guesses that Savitar wouldn't be wearing armor if he didn't need it. This confirms that Savitar is mortal and not a god, no matter how fast he is.

Jay Garrick was last seen in 309. He says that Cisco came to his Earth (Earth Three) and asked for help when the team lost contact with Barry.

Jay takes Wally's place in The Speed Force.

Jesse decides to travel to Earth Three until Savitar is defeated - partly to thwart whatever plans Savitar had for her and partly to protect Jay Garrick's Earth until he can return.

Iris declares that she wants to marry Barry.

Barry says that he thinks they need some space while they figure out everything and that he's afraid he did propose to her for the wrong reasons.

Iris will stay in their apartment while Barry stays with Cisco.


Location

The Speed Force


The Fridge Factor

Averted hard in the case of Jesse Quick, who makes all the correct intellectual leaps to figure out how to use the piece of Savitar's armor to find him and hurt him.  Honestly, I'd rather the show follow her and see her adventures on Earth Three than watch Barry whine about saving Iris for another seven episodes this season.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode but not for the reasons you'd think. The sequences in The Speed Force are powerful, precisely because they keep Barry off-balance and knock him out of the "I must save Iris!" rut he's been in for the past few episodes.  The sequences with Jesse Quick are strictly standard in terms of writing yet are made engaging by Violett Beane's performance. As good as Grant Gustin and Candice Patton are, however, they can't make the continual drama between Barry and Iris engaging and reducing Iris to the role of She Who Must Be Saved has killed all of the character's momentum. Still, it's nice to see Wentworth Miller snarking it up as Snart, regardless of the circumstances. And John Wesley Shipp continues to get more and more impressive with ever appearance he makes as Jay Garrick.

The Flash #17 - A Review

The Rogues just puled their greatest heist ever!  Naturally, The Flash quickly caught up with them as they were skipping town, but can he move fast enough to overcome Captain Cold's new and improved cold gun?  One which draws off the power of The Speed Force itself?!


The Flash #17 is a disappointing conclusion to what had been a promising return for The Rogues into the Rebirth universe.  The story here is predictable and nothing we haven't seen before. The only thing that makes it tolerable is Joshua Williamson's command of the characters and the fact that he writes great dialogue.

The artwork - provided by three artists this month - is similarly disjointed. I find Carmine Di Giandomerico's style disjointing at times but the general wild and untamed feel of it usually seems to fit The Flash on its own terms. Placed alongside more traditional artists as part of the same tale, however, it comes off as sloppy and scribbled-over.

The Flash #16 - A Review

The Rogues have divided and conquered, luring The Flash out of Central City just long enough for them all to rob multiple targets. Even The Fastest Man Alive can't be in six places at once! Can The Flash thwart his enemies' greatest heist ever?


The artwork is much stronger than its been in recent issues of The Flash. The uncharacteristic sloppiness that plagued Carmine Di Giandomenico's recent output is absent. Fittingly, there is a continual sense of motion to Di Giandomenico's work that well suits this issue's high-action story. Of particular note are the effects used to simulate the variety of energies involved from The Flash's lightning to the fire of Heatwave's gun.

Despite this issue being furiously-paced, Joshua Williamson's script also contains a number of brilliant character scenes. No matter how fast his stories moves, Williamson always gives his cast a chance to speak and the scenes of Barry trying to reason with his enemies and show them a better way are powerfully written.

The Flash #15 - A Review

The Rogues have been in hiding for quite a while, which can't mean anything good. The Flash uncovered plans indicating they went to the island of Corto Maltese to steal a golden statue of the god Mercury. Even though it isn't Central City, The Flash isn't about to let them get away with it but have the ol' gang learned some new tricks?


Joshua Williamson spins a masterful heist story, showing a strong grasp of the individual Rogues as characters. Unfortunately, the sloppiness that has plagued Carmine Di Giandomenico's pencils in recent issues continues to be a problem. It's infrequent enough not to distract from the story completely but this issue seems rushed rather than fast-paced.

The Flash #14 - A Review

Master thieves armed with fantastic tools and led by the formidable Captain Cold, The Rogues are the greatest enemies of law and order in The Flash's town, despite their occasionally playing the hero. Absent from Central City since before The Speed Force Storm that changed so much, finding where they're hiding has become Barry Allen's first priority now that things have calmed down somewhat. What he uncovers, however, is evidence of a heist to end all heists in another country, suggesting that The Rogue's Reformation was short-lived...


This first issue of the Rogues Reloaded storyline is surprisingly slow-paced for a Flash comic. Joshua Williamson spends a little too long trying to establish the status quo of Central City.  While this may be a necessary evil given how much back-story there is regarding The Rogues, Iron Heights prison, the new Kid Flash and Barry's newfound romance with Iris West, this is still a case of telling rather than showing the story and we wind up hearing precious little about The Rogues in all of it. Hopefully the pace will quicken in upcoming issues.

Carmine Di Giandomenico is similarly off his game this time around. There is something inexplicably sloppy about the artwork in this issue, with several pages - particularly in the opening fight between The Flash and Papercut's gang - where the figures are disjointed and the inks muddy the artwork rather than enhancing it. The artwork doesn't look bad, as such, but it's a step-down from the usual level of quality for all involved.