The Flash Episode Guide: Season 9, Episode 9 - It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To

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

Plot

Barry's birthday party is ruined by the return of Bloodwork, who has plans beyond taking over the world involving Kid Flash and the multiverse. In order to save his friends and all reality, Barry Allen will have to turn to someone else... who has become something else.

Influences

Zero Hour (Bloodwork's plan to "fix" the Multiverse mirrors Parallax's mad plan.) and the previous annual The Flash/Arrow crossovers.


Goofs

Cecile says that Barry's first 30th birthday took place while the team was fighting Cicada all night. This is likely a reference to the events of 516. However, that episode took place on March 12, 2019 when Barry's birthday is March 14. (Possibly his party was planned for that night.)

This episode takes place on March 14, 2023. This means that it must occur before the last three episodes chronologically. However, that doesn't fit the timeline of the previous episodes, with Allegra telling Chester she loves him, which first occurred in 908 on April 5, 2023.

Bloodwork says he just escaped from prison, However, his escape came during the 2022 Earth-Prime comic series, meaning that he should have been on the run for at least two and a half months. 

Performances

Stephen Amell slips easily into the role of Oliver Queen one more time, but with a little more humor given the knowledge he has now as The Spectre.


Artistry

The special effects are fairly solid this time around.

Flash Facts

The title is a pun based on a lyric from the Lesley Gore song "It's My Party."

This episode continues the tradition of the annual Arrow/The Flash crossover taking place on the 9th episode of the season.

The episode features a special title card, in the middle of the episode.

This episode was directed by Danielle Panabaker, who plays Khione.

This episode marks the first time Barry's birthday party has been celebrated on-screen.

This is the first episode in which David Singh and Kristen Kramer have appeared together, despite Kramer serving directly under Chief Singh.

Barry makes reference to "the Hall" as a place to display Oliver Queen's bow. This seems to be a nod to the Hall of Justice which was established (without being named) at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Chester exclaims "Holy Duane Jones!" when encountering the Bloodwork zombies. This is a nod to actor Duane Jones, who played the lead role of Ben in the original Night of the Living Dead.

Oliver tells Diggle that his brightest days are ahead of him. This is a nod to the Green Lantern oath.


Technobabble

Wally recommends a drink made of dried sendru and honey to help Iris fight morning sickness.

The necklace Chester made Allegra contains a facial transmogrifier.

To stop Bloodwork's powers from metastasizing inside a breach. a massive ultraviolet pulse is required.


Dialogue Triumphs

(After Wally refuses to work with Bloodwork.)
Bloodwork: I understand your hesitation. No one has ever really believed in you, have they? You have been cut down your entire life, forced to watch your mother suffer. It is a pain that I know all too well. My mother was diagnosed with HLH, and I couldn't save her either, Wally. I had to watch her die. And we have that in common. Then you understand what it is that I'm trying to do... That it's about more than just stopping death. It is about ending the suffering that we have both endured, that, together, we can create a Multiverse where no one has to watch their loved ones die...

Ollie Queen: Oh, Barry, Barry, Barry... what have you done this time?

(Wally hugs Ollie, who, for once, returns it.)
Ollie: Okay. Let go. Barry, let go.
Barry: Wait. If you're here, that means I'm really...
Ollie: You're dead. Otherwise, why would I let you hug me that long?

Barry: But when we fought the Red Death, she thought she escaped from her timeline into an alternate one -
Ollie: She is from Earth-4125. 

Barry: You're numbering them?
Ollie: I've had a bit of time on my hands...

Barry: I fight some random mad scientist. I get three extra years to live. You know everything now, right, Oliver? Tell me, how is it right I'm alive and they're dead? How's that fair?
Ollie: Life is a lot of things, Barry. Fair isn't on the list. 

Barry: I don't know what my life would have been like if I hadn't taken that train to Star City.
Ollie: You still would have been a hero.
Barry: Maybe. But you made me a better one.
Ollie: You made me a better man. 

(Ollie gets ready to leave the bar.)
Ollie: Okay, Mr. Allen, I think that I have done enough to upset the cosmic order for one night. Can you get this?
Barry: Are you kidding? You're a billionaire.
Ollie: Well, you... you can't take it with you. 


Continuity

As the episode opens, Team Flash is preparing a surprise birthday party for Barry Allen.

Cecile says that the first time Barry turned 30, the team was too busy fighting Cicada to celebrate.

Chester says that Barry is physically 30 years old, referring to his battle with Dr. Orloff in 816 and how it deaged Barry a few years.

Chester is in charge of the entertainment for the party, Allegra and Cecile took care of the decorations, and Khione is said to be out getting the cake.

The party attendees include Cecile, Chester, Allegra, Kristin Kramer, David Singh, Joe West, Wally West and John Diggle.

John Diggle appears for the first time since 818.

Wally West appears for the first time since 614.

Kristin Kramer and David Singh argue over who is the better Captain.

Diggle gives Barry Oliver Queen's bow, which ARGUS recovered from National City. Somehow, it wound up there after being presumed lost on Earth-38.

It has been three years since Oliver Queen died saving the multiverse.

Diggle makes reference to Caitlin's apparent death.

Barry tries to refuse it, but suggests maybe they could display the bow in "The Hall."

Chester makes Allegra a necklace that should hide her face whenever she is using her powers for their one-month anniversary. 

Wally is still studying with Bhikkhuni Amala in the Himalayas.

Wally tells Barry that after Iris told him about the Red Death, he began projecting his consciousness into the Speed Force to explore alternate timelines, hoping to find another version of himself who already found enlightenment whom he could learn from.

Wally says there's baggage he needs to get past, but doesn't talk about it more when Barry asks what his issue is.

Bloodwork was last seen in 617. However, his escape from ARGUS custody occurred during the Earth Prime crossover comic event.

Bloodwork is revealed to have put his blood into the champagne and cider for Barry's birthday toast.  Everyone except Chester (who doesn't drink), Iris (who shares Nora's healing factor) and Barry and Wally (whose powers protect them) are infected. 

Bloodwork reveals that his plan this time is to target Wally and break his mind through their connection then use his powers to travel the multiverse and spread his tainted blood around multiple Earths.

Bloodwork sees that the real reason Wally was exploring the alternate timelines was to try and find somewhere his ex-girlfriend, Jesse Quick, was still alive.

Chester flees to his lab and barricades himself inside.

Iris is able to lock herself inside the Time Vault, but is slowly losing control of herself.

Bloodwork gets Wally to kill Barry by vibrating his hand through his chest.

Barry wakes up in Purgatory (which looks like Lian Yu island) and is greeted by Oliver Queen.

Oliver Queen appears for the first time since A810.

Oliver confirms that he created Earth-Prime so that all his allies would have a single Earth to protect together. He also created the new Multiverse.

Red Death is confirmed to be from Earth-4125 rather than an alternate timeline.

Oliver explains that rather than traveling to alternate timelines, Wally has been traveling to parallel Earths in the new multiverse.

Khione saves Chester by freezing the water inside the bodies of Team Flash.

Khione says she felt a presence calling her, telling her she was needed back at STAR Labs, while she was waiting in line for the cake. This presence is later revealed to be Oliver Queen.

Oliver explains that he can only step in as The Spectre when the multiverse is endangered. This retroactively explains how he was able to help XS and Impulse fight Magog in the Earth Prime comic.

Oliver resurrects Barry and manifests, temporarily as Green Arrow one more time.

Khione is only able to safely thaw out John Diggle after removing Bloodwork's blood from his system.

John Diggle joins the fight against Bloodwork.

Barry is able to reach Wally and help him fight Bloodwork's control.

Oliver shoots an cosmic arrow into the breach, rewriting reality so that Bloodwork loses his powers. He also heals Bloodwork's HLH so he can live a long life in prison.

Barry and Team Flash learn that a new multiverse exists.

Ollie reveals that Khione's powers come from a connection to the natural world, which allowed her to expel Bloodwork's unnatural cells from the rest of the team.

Wally decides to stop exploring the multiverse and look for the answers he seeks within.

Ollie gets a chance to stay goodbye to John Diggle that he didn't during the Crisis.

Ollie confirms that he is keeping an eye on Felicity, Mia and William, but that part of the rules of his being The Spectre are that he can't make contact with his family. He was, however, able to bend the rules for Diggle since he was there at the crisis point.

Diggle confirms he is watching over Ollie's family too, telling him that William has started college and Mia can already climb a salmon ladder scaled to her height.

Oliver confirms that there are Flashes on the other Earths, but Barry is still his favorite.

Ollie and Barry have their traditional post-team-up drink before Ollie disappears.


Location

Purgatory
O'Shaughnessy's Bar in Keystone City

Untelevised Adventures

Oliver Queen has been defending reality as The Spectre ever since Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The Bottom Line

Easily the best episode of this short season so far. Ignoring the lore involving the larger Arrowverse setting and all the nods to past episodes, Bloodwork is allowed to be far smarter than any villain in recent memory. This was a flashback to better days, no pun intended, and it is a shame that more of Season 9 couldn't be like this.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 18 - The Man In The Yellow Tie

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

Plot

As Barry begins mentoring a new speedster, an old enemy in a new form emerges. Meanwhile, Cecile's powers undergo a shift that may allow her to help Team Flash in a new way, as John Diggle seeks help from an unlikely source regarding his problem.

Influences

The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson, Final Crisis (mentions of the Dark Monitor and Bleed) and Blackest Night.


Performances

Matt Letscher has a fantastic turn here as the reformed Thawne. He also has fantastic chemistry with Kausar Mohammed, who is equally impressive in the first full episode with the Negative Flash.


Artistry

The effects work for the speedster fights is some of the best in the show's history.


Flash Facts

The way Cecile sees the emotions of other people and projects new emotions on to them is similar to how emotions manifested from the viewpoint of Black Lanterns in Blackest Night.

Reverse-Flash describes the technology powering Diggle's box as Transmatter Technology. In the classic JSA and JLA comics, both teams used transmatter cubes to travel to one another's respective universes. 

The Reverse-Flash mentions a place called the Orrery of Worlds. In the Post-Crisis DC Comics universe, this was the name given to the core collective of 52 worlds making up the multiverse following Infinite Crisis.

The Reverse-Flash makes mention of a cosmic odyssey awaiting John Diggle. Cosmic Odyssey was the name of a 1988 mini-series which features a major role for the John Stewart Green Lantern.

The Reverse Flash tells Diggle to "drink of the Bleed" within his box once he opens it a second time. In the Post-Flashpoint DC Comics Universe, the Bleed is the limbo realm between realities.

The Reverse-Flash makes mention of a figure named Mandrakk, whom he says was responsible for putting a piece of the Bleed into the cube. In the comics, Mandrakk was a name given to a being known as the Dark Monitor, who became corrupted and began devouring the Bleed between realities, causing the entire multiverse to decay and fall apart. Mandrakk was the final villain of Final Crisis.

The Reverse-Flash also makes reference to the Source Wall. In the mythology of Jack Kirby'sNew Gods, the Source Wall is the boundary between the multiverse and the source of all divine power. Many beings have become trapped in the Source Wall trying to move beyond it and claim ultimate power.

When Ray Palmer calls STAR Labs to describe the Legends' recent encounter with Eobard Thawne, he makes mention of dealing with a minor infestation of serpent creatures from the Morlaidh dimension. In the DC Comics Universe, Morlaidh was the name of a microscopic city located deep in the Amazon jungle, populated by a tribe of aliens who were stranded on Earth and descended into barbarism. Ray Palmer discovered Morlaidh and became its protector in the Sword of the Atom series. 

Technobabble

Something about the lightning Meena generates causes it to interact strangely with the natural lightning Barry generates through the Speed Force. This is later determined, through an analysis of biometrics, to be because of Meena tapping the Negative Speed Force.

Barry says a biokinetic chemical reaction occurred when his natural lightning interacted with Meena's artificial lightning.

The biometric lightning oscillation chamber (or BLOC) uses quantum computing to remotely harness lightning from the Earth's upper atmosphere, transforming it into artificial speed.

Thawne notes that when calculating quantum static in genetic speed, you have to account for the tachyons. 

Reverse-Flash describes the box Diggle found as transmatter technology, forged at the Orrery of Worlds, which has the power to travel across realities.

Before Meena goes mad with power, the BLOC oscillation level is set at 52 million joules. 

Thawne determines that if The Flash can keep Meena running for 119 seconds, that will burn off the rest of her speed, based on her 40% saturation level.


Dialogue Triumphs

Meena: My name is Dr. Meena Dhawan, and for the next three minutes and 52 seconds, I'm the fastest woman alive. 

(Barry runs into the cell block holding the Reverse-Flash.)
Barry: How are you still here?
Reverse-Flash: Well... I wanna see how this ends.
Barry: Don't screw with me! How did you get your speed back?
Reverse-Flash: I didn't?
Barry: Stop lying! I saw you, five minutes ago, 1,000 miles from here wearing your original face, pretending you didn't remember me. So, who is he? A version of you from your past? Answer me!
Reverse-Flash: I don't know. And I don't care. Don't you get it? You took my speed. There's no other versions of me out there, no other tricks up my sleeve. You took everything from me. So, why don't you just leave me alone?

(Diggle rejects the power of the cube, to Reverse-Flash's annoyance.)
Reverse-Flash: You're not special. You're not someone important. This was your last chance to be someone powerful.
Diggle: But I am someone special. Now I realize. The cube was trying to make me someone else... something else. And it even tricked me into believing that somehow I wanted it, too, but... I don't. Because there is no power in the universe more powerful than the love I have for my family.
(Diggle laughs. It is a rare but rich sound.)
Diggle: But I suppose a man like you wouldn't understand that. Because if it came down to a choice between some cosmic destiny, or... being a father, a husband... There's really no choice at all.

(In flashback, Thawne places Meena into the BLOC to save her.)
Meena: You gave up your dream. Your chance to save the world.
Thawne: You are my world.
(Cut to the present, as a sobbing Thawne begs The Flash for help.)
Thawne: So, please. Even if I was this monster somehow, or in another life, don't hold my sins against her. I am begging you. Save her.

The Flash: The Thawne I know has haunted my life since I was just a kid. He's killed people I care for. He deserves to rot. He could never put someone else's needs before his. I'm sorry. You're not the man I thought you were. You're someone better.


Continuity

As the episode opens, Barry is training Dr. Meena Dhawan by running through trees in a national park. Her top speed is said to be 300 meters per second.

Meena accidentally throws a lighting bolt at Barry which knocks him off guard. He notes that she learned to generate electricity with her powers much faster than he did.

Cecile makes reference to a new client who likes to pay in cash.

While Cecile is making a deposit, the bank is robbed. As Cecile watches the robbers, she sees their emotions as a colored aura around them and discovers she can change the auras around, taking the red anger of the robber and trading it with the yellow fear of one of his hostages. 

Cecile causes another robber to feel uncertain (blue), saying they shouldn't be here and should have become an engineer.

According to Gideon and Chester, Cecile's powers have increased 1,000 fold.

Cecile makes reference to being overwhelmed by her powers during the fight with Blockbuster in 814.

Reference is made to Barry becoming emotionless while connected to an artificial Speed Force in 702. He fears the artificial speed source Meena created could have similar unintended side effects, though her emotions seem fine.

Barry goes to Fast Track Labs to examine the speed source, saying that he was informed of the secret project by "a mutual friend who likes to run fast."

Meena agrees to let Barry look at her technology, recognizing him as the new owner of STAR Labs.

Barry says Fast Track Labs is decades ahead of any other lab.

Meena says she understands the physics behind the BLOC just fine, but that her colleague is more familiar with the nuts and bolts of super speed theory. This partner is revealed to be Eobard Thawne, in his original appearance before taking on the appearance of Dr. Harrison Wells.

Thawne introduces himself as the Chief of Engineering at Fast Track Labs and says he's been working there for a year. He is also the only employee who knows about the artificial speed source.

Thawne claims to suffer from a rare form of retrograde amnesia and that he cannot remember anything about his personal life from before one year earlier. Despite this, he still has an amazing knowledge of advanced physics relating to superspeed, which was why Meena hired him despite the worst resume she'd ever seen after he solved an equation that had baffled her for months in seconds.

Barry accuses Thawne of being the Reverse-Flash and being up to something, which Thawne denies.

Barry confirms that ARGUS hasn't posted any alerts about Thawne escaping.

The depowered Thawne is reading The Count of Monte Cristo when Barry visits him in his cell on Lian Yu. This continues a running gag throughout the Arrowverse. Oliver Queen was shown reading the same book while in prison in Arrow season 7 and Lex Luthor was reading it while imprisoned during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Reverse-Flash denies knowing anything about the other Eobard Thawne.

Barry theorizes that the new Thawne might be from another timeline, like Flashpoint and makes reference to the time remnant Reverse-Flash he created who went on to fight the Legends in Legends of Tomorrow season 2.

Reverse-Flash identifies the BLOC as the same device he built as part of his Negative Speed Force 200 years in the future to replicate The Flash's powers.

Barry realizes this explains why Meena's powers are erratic and interacting badly with his - she's tapping the Negative Speed Force.

Reverse-Flash claims that he's never heard of Meena, so he supposes she is destined to die because continual use of the Negative Speed Force will alter her personality.

As Barry leaves Reverse-Flash behind, it is revealed that John Diggle has been watching their conversation, having come to talk to Reverse-Flash earlier.

Diggle has not encountered the Reverse-Flash since F108, when he was still pretending to be Harrison Wells and that he needed a wheelchair.

Diggle describes his journey since the events of A810, trying to open the box that crashed to Earth near him. This is said to have happened two years ago.

Diggle references his appearances in F716, B309 and S612, consulting with his scientist friends on what to do with the box.

Having run out of options among his scientist friends, Diggle thought to check with Reverse-Flash, who might have knowledge of the device being from the 23rd century.

Thawne asks why Diggle didn't have Lyla interview him and deduces that Diggle is on the outs with his wife. Diggle says he's been spending a lot of time away from his family trying to solve the riddle of the box and that he feels compelled to open it again.

Reverse-Flash agrees to help Diggle open the box, in exchange for being allowed to look inside once it is open.

Barry is convinced that the new Thawne is from the Flashpoint reality, though he has no idea how he survived his apparent death at the hands of the Black Flash in L217.

The Flash shows up at Fast Track labs and accuses Thawne of trying to infect Meena with more and more Negative Speed Force Energy.

Meena attacks The Flash and runs off, saying she needs more speed.

Meena begins draining power from the power lines on a remote country road.

Thawne says that cubes like the one Diggle found appear to people with the potential to change the destiny of reality at a turning point in their lives. He claims the box closed because Diggle was not ready to accept the power it offered then.

Under Thawne's direction, Diggle is able to open the box again. However, he throws it away, rejecting it and it vanishes.

Diggle claims to have seen 1000 lives he might have lived, but all of them required him leaving his family. He didn't think it was worth the price.

Diggle leaves the Reverse-Flash behind and calls his wife, Lyla, to tell her he is coming home.

Meena's lightning shorted out Barry's powers and the radio in his costume.

Thawne reveals that he and Meena fell in love as they worked on the BLOC together, as they both had idealistic dreams of what they could do with the power it offered.

Thawne claims that all he remembered of his past life was that he was meant to be a speedster, apart from visions of the BLOC and an understand of the physics of how to make it work.

Thawne was meant to use the BLOC, since it could only work for one person. However, when Meena suffered a cardiac arrest due to her heart condition, Thawne sacrificed his chance at super speed to save her life.

Barry believes that this Thawne has honestly reformed, based on how he talks about truly loving Meena.

Barry and Thawne figure out that the Negative Speed Force is pushing Meena to absorb electricity from power junctions around the city to keep control of her. This leads her to attack the Keystone Cleveland Dam.

Meena is able to cancel out The Flash's power and is about to kill him when Thawne pleads with Meena to fight the Negative Speed Force. His love manages to bring her back.

The Flash suggests that Meena can continue using the BLOC provided she uses her love for Thawne as a lightning rod, like he does with Iris.

Chester agrees to help tinker with the BLOC, like he did with the STAR Labs artificial speed source.

Ray Palmer calls Chester and relates the events of Legends of Tomorrow Season 7 to him, discussing how he met with Dr. Nate Heywood for drinks and learned that the Legends encountered Thawne and witnessed his death in L711. Ray suggests that maybe the Time Wraiths resurrected Thawne and put him in the present day as a reward for his heroic actions.

Cecile goes out on patrol and prevents a mugging by giving a man nausea, like The Top. Unbeknownst to Cecile, however, she is being watched by The Top.

Chillblaine calls Caitlin and tells her that he figured out a way to bring back Frost without the Mirror Gun she was using.

On Lian Yu, Deon appears to the Reverse-Flash and says he had been looking for him, but couldn't find him until the light from Diggle's cube showed him and some other people where to find him. Deon says it is time for the Reverse-Flash to fulfill his destiny.


Location

Lian Yu


Untelevised Adventures

John Diggle has spent most of the two years when he wasn't appearing in other Arrowverse series searching for a way to open the box he found in the Arrow series finale. 


The Bottom Line

This is the kind of Flash story we used to enjoy quite frequently, with deep dives into the lore of DC Comics and some solid performances from the guest stars. 

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 9 - Meet Your Maker

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

Plot

With multiple signs pointing to the original Poison Ivy having awoken, Ryan, Luke and Sophie begin trying to track her down, while Montoya attempts to reach whatever remains of the woman she loved. Meanwhile, Mary's behavior begins to unnerve Alice, as Jada Jet seeks out an old friend's help in saving Marquis.


Influences

Every horror movie where the idiot protagonists are trapped in a cabin in the woods and A Quiet Place (trying to avoid triggering killer plants tracking sounds).


Performances

Again, Nicole Kang and Rachel Skarsten steal the show.


Artistry

The special effects for the killer plants are interesting.


Bat Trivia

The lake where Poison Ivy kills two fishermen is called Loeb Lake. This is likely in honor of legendary Batman writer Jeph Loeb, who wrote Hush and The Long Halloween.


Technobabble

Luke creates special darts for fighting Poison Ivy that combine a paralytic drug and a herbicide. He's certain this will slow her down without killing her until they can recreate Batman's desiccation formula.

All the psychologists Jada Jet consulted with believe a second jolt of the Joker's joy buzzer will reawaken Marquis' sense of empathy.

Natural networking is where plants communicate through acoustics in the ground.

Poison Ivy describes the cutting of her vine that Batman kept as a sporeling, which she created to recharge her, like a battery without a plug. She says that meeting Mary will restore her.

Luke describes Diggle's box as a transmatter cube and guesses it isn't from Earth. Diggle confirms this, but asks him to keep that quiet.


Dialogue Triumphs

Poison Ivy: What were you thinking would happen when you freed me?
Montoya: I wasn't. I got wrapped up in the moment, seeing you, the white tulip, the memories, the guilt.
Poison Ivy: Ah. I'm so sorry that you had to feel guilt, Renee, while I rotted for a decade with no water, no sunlight, no soul mate. Must have been really awful for you.
Montoya: I am sorry, Pam.
Poison Ivy: How am I supposed to believe that? I needed you... more than anything, and you're the one that put me there. 

(Mary is trying to go off on her own because of Ivy's efforts to reach her.)
Alice: Stop! I am supposed to be the crazy one!
Mary: You're not the one with a bitch of a migraine that only seems to stop bitching when I go... this way!
Alice: If you go that way, you'll probably die! The O.G.'s back? She's trying to draw you to her. Why?
Mary: Uh, do I look like the president of the Poison Ivy fan club?
Alice: I don't know, but I do know that a world with two of a kind never ends well. Why don't you ask poor, boring Beth Kane? Oh, that's right. You can't because she's dead! 
Mary: Okay. Then that's why I've been feeling this way? Clearly... w-w-we have some sort of bond, and she's calling out to me. Give me the keys.
Alice: Were you not listening to anything I said?
Mary: I'm going, Alice. This is the woman who unlocked my prowess and the reason why I'm finally happy. The least I can do is go and see what she wants. Please.
Alice: Fine. Let's go meet your maker. 

Mary: Why do we work, Alice? You killed my mom, I replaced you in our family, but... here we are on this crazy adventure together. Hmm? Why?
Alice: Probably because you made me drive out to "deliverance" country.
Mary: It's because despite all of our baggage, we both found the sister we always wanted. I see the girl who... just craves her freedom, and I love that you support me to do what I want... And this is what I want.
Alice: (sighs) Okay. 

Dialogue Disasters

(Sophie watches Luke working out, shirtless, in the middle of their new lair.)
Sophie: Pretty sure in the real world this would be an HR violation of appropriate workplace behavior. Luke: Good thing it's not the real world.


Continuity

In the opening scene, Poison Ivy attacks several fishermen at Loeb Lake, to Montoya's disappointment.

Poison Ivy declares that submerging herself in water is not restoring her strength, like she thought it would.

Ryan visits her adoptive mother's grave, which notes she died in 2015.

Cora Lewis worked three jobs and volunteered at her church while raising Ryan.

Sophie spars with Luke, who seems more determined than ever to get in shape and become a good fighter. She guesses this has something to do with his being man-handled by Marquis Jet in 308.

John Diggle appears for the first time since S612, though it is believed his last chronological appearance in the Arrowverse was in F716. In either case, he has started growing a beard since his last appearance.

John Diggle oversaw Jada Jet's personal security detail at some point when her husband was still alive and they remained friends after.

John Diggle is also implied to be an old flame of Jada Jet, as he tells her he got back together with his wife and had kids and she seems disappointed.

Sunlight is also not restoring Poison Ivy's strength.

Ryan is still angry at Sophie for sleeping with Montoya and refuses to talk to her directly.

Team Bat presume Poison Ivy is active again based on reports of the two dead fishermen at Loeb Lake, an unnatural hornet attack at a pesticide factory and an oil rig being tipped over. All of these attacks were within a two mile radius of a national park outside Gotham City.

Jada offers Diggle a job as head of her security detail. He turns it down, saying that he only agreed to meet with her because he just happened to be in Gotham City attending to other business. 

Diggle agrees to help Jada find Joker's joy buzzer, which she believes might be able to cure Marquis. He suggests, given all the other Batman villain weapons on the street, that all of them were part of a collection, which means the joy buzzer might be out on the street as well.

Diggle says his sources at ARGUS thought Renee Montoya, who works for the Mayor's Offices' Rogue Unit, would be worth consulting about the possibility of a Bat-villain weapons cache.

Poison Ivy reaches out through the plants to send a message to Mary, bringing them together.

Alice tries to talk Mary into leaving Gotham with her to go to Santorini.

Mary describes the sensation of being summoned by Ivy as feeling like brain-freeze when you eat something cold too quickly.

Ryan, Sophie and Luke's van is attacked by vines shortly after they get to the national park.

A random hunter dies after trying to warn Ryan, Sophie and Luke away. They hide in a cabin.

Luke blames himself for the team's current predicament and says it's clear his father didn't give him the Batwing suit because he isn't meant to be a hero.

Ryan says that real heroes screw up all the time and keep going, pointing out that Sophie allowed Alice and Poison Ivy to escape on her watch. Sophie sarcastically agrees, pointing out that for all of Ryan's alleged detective skills, she didn't realize Mary was possessed by Poison Ivy until it was too late.

Poison Ivy confronts Montoya on how Batwoman and her allies seemed to know how to find her. Montoya admits to working with them, but says Ryan is different from Batman. Ivy refuses to believe her and goes off to kill Batwoman.

Jada Jet knows how to pick locks and apparently learned the skill while living on the street in her youth.

Diggle and Jada find Montoya's list of the missing Bat Villain weapons.

Alice makes reference to the Beth Kane doppelganger from 112.

Alice agrees to help Mary find Poison Ivy, but Mary knocks her out so she can go on her own.

Sophie and Ryan continue to argue, but Ryan does thank Sophie for grabbing the Batsuit out of their van before it was destroyed.

Sophie asks Ryan why she's always held a grudge against her and says it goes beyond her treating Ryan badly when she was a convict.

Luke is able to kill the vines that come into the cabin with a mixture of salt and vinegar.

Ryan puts on her Batsuit and makes for a truck they saw earlier that had a bag of salt in the bed.

Diggle and Jada steal he booze out of Montoya's mini-fridge.

Jada has no idea how Ryan tracked her down.

Jada finds Joker's joy buzzer in Montoya's desk.

Montoya tries to kill Mary.

Luke saves a boy, whose father was the hunter killed by Ivy earlier in the episode.

Luke visits his father's grave. He also died in 2015.

Luke tells his father that he thinks he is ready to be a hero now.

John Diggle meets Luke as his father's grave and says he is sure his dad is proud of him.

Luke returns a box to Diggle and says he couldn't get it open. This is the box Diggle found in a smoking crater in A810.

Diggle says ARGUS couldn't get the box open either, but it opened for him once before.

Luke guesses that whatever makes the box open isn't based on science.

Diggle asks Luke for one more favor - passing on a message to Batwoman from Jada Jet, that she found her fix.

Alice finds Mary's phone and a man's corpse impaled on a tree.

Montoya built up an immunity to Poison Ivy's pheromones by poisoning herself a little each day.

Mary finds Ivy. The two hug and Ivy is rejuvenated.

Sophie kisses Ryan.


Location

A national park outside Gotham City.


The Killing Jokes

Granting that they're somewhat desperate, Team Bat going into a national park hunting a villain who manipulates nature with an untested weapon seems incredibly stupid, even for these heroes.


The Bottom Line

Painfully bad. The "heroes" continue to be as unsympathetic as they are idiotic and the only thing marking the villains as villains is random, unmotivated murders. Not even John Diggle and the promise of his Green Lantern storyline being resolved can make this episode worth watching more than once.

Supergirl Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 12 - Blind Spots

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

Plot

When many are left injured by the Ormfell building collapse, including her young charge, Joey Davis, Kelly Olsen will become the guardian her community needs while the rest of the Superfriends are busy with fighting Nxyly.

Influences

The comics of Jack Kirby and The Empire Strikes Back (Lena leaving when she learns her friends are in danger mirrors Luke abandoning his Jedi training)


Goofs

It seems clear that this episode was originally intended to have James Olsen backing Kelly as she officially entered into the role of Guardian and that things were rewritten to put John Diggle in his place. 

Granting that Kara has a lot of blind spots when it comes to the image she presents to the world, Kelly's dressing her down over her failure to be an advocate for ordinary people doesn't ring true when Kara was making personal appearances at city council meetings and using her platform to give a voice to the voiceless not two episodes ago.

It is said that Alex's retinal scan will be needed to access an abandoned DEO facility, but Alex resigned as the DEO Director in 512.While the organization shut down shortly thereafter, it's unlikely Lex Luthor wouldn't have personally made sure she was wiped from the databases personally.

For that matter, how does the DEO still have an operational desert facility? 

With CatCo reporting on traffic problems in National City, it's increasingly clear why CatCo sank to #8 nationally under Andrea's management. 

Early in the episode, Councilwoman Rankin is said to take an experimental new medication but Brainiac-5 later says she was given some kind of gene therapy.

It's a little unbelievable Orlando doesn't recognize Kelly in her Guardian costume at this point. Almost as unbelievable as Kelly not quietly telling him the truth about who she is given her own issues with vigilantes lying to her.

Despite having the power to do wish for virtually anything, Councilwoman Rankin fights Supergirl hand-to-hand.

How did the book Florence wanted to give Lena get delivered to her apartment faster than Lena could fly home in a corporate jet? While it's possible it was delivered by magic, why bother addressing it if she could just send the book to Lena?


Performances

David Harewood gets a wonderful and understated moment in the middle of all the big speeches where J'onn explains why he chooses to live life as a Black man when he could appear to be anyone and it is far more powerful than all of Kelly Olsen's "Do you hear me?" speeches.

As always, David Ramsey is a delight as John Diggle/

Artistry

There are some very good speeches in the script for this episode.


Super Trivia

Azie Tesfai, who plays Kelly Olsen, co-wrote this episode. This makes her the first actor to also write for the Arrowverse on television, although Nicole Maines has written a Dreamer story for DC Comics.

David Ramsey, who plays John Diggle, also directed this episode.

John Diggle makes reference to being given the opportunity to become a special kind of hero, but it requiring that he abandon his family to do so. This is believed to be a reference to the Green Lantern Corps, which it was teased he might be joining in the finale of Arrow.

Technobabble

RP-90 is an experimental drug for respiratory issues, still undergoing trials. Somehow, it can give a human powers akin to those of a 5th Dimensional Imp after extensive exposure to magic residue.

The anti-magic cuff also makes it impossible to track Nxyly.

It is suggested that Nxyly can be tracked by modulating the Watchtower sensors to isolate Mister Mxyzptlk's unique magical energy wavelength. 

Baltorian scanners are portable and able to trace minute amounts of 5th Dimensional energy.

The device which transformed Kara's heat vision into 5th Dimensional energy also infused the Ormfell building with the same energy as it empowered Nxyly. This caused the energy to spread around the neighborhood and into the people when the building was destroyed. This is what is making the people sick.

Brainiac-5 determines that Councilwoman Rankin underwent some kind of gene therapy that turned her into an energy siphon after she interacted with the 5th Dimensional Energy, pulling life force out of the people of the Heights to make her wishes come true.

Brainiac-5 says they can create their own energy siphon using the same dampening technology employed by the magic-nullifying cuff they creaed for Nyxly. While this won't heal the sick, it will give them their energy back and enable them to start healing. However, this will consume all the 5th Dimensional energy, leaving them nothing to use for tracking Mister Mxyzptlk. 

Dialogue Triumphs

Kelly: Looking at those people at the hospital last night, knowing how badly they're struggling... And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help them.
Diggle: So you feel alone in this?
Kelly: Alex sent respirators to the hospital, but the rest of the team... Well, they have super villains to deal with.
Diggle: Oliver Queen was really good at seeing the big picture, but sometimes, because of that, he would overlook things. When I wanted to show him something he missed, sometimes he would require proof.
Kelly: Wish it didn't always require proof.
Diggle: I know. Tell me about it. 

Diggle: I had an opportunity to become a special kind of hero. But it would've meant me leaving Lyla, my kids, and everything I love behind. So I had to ask myself... what kind of a hero do I really want to be. So the question is... what are you gonna do with what you're feeling right now?
Kelly: I want to be an advocate for the people who have lost hope. For the people who have been failed by those meant to protect them. For the people who don't have heroes that look like them. Protecting those that are exhausted, so they don't have to fight every single day for themselves.
Diggle: Good. Let that guide you. 

(Kara apologizes for dismissing what Kelly had said earlier.)
Supergirl: I was just so desperately trying to catch Nyxly, because I know she would cause more damage.
Kelly: Yes, in the future. But while you all have the luxury of focusing on tomorrow, they are barely surviving today.

Alex: I thought I was listening, J'onn. You know, our lives and our experiences, Kelly and I, we have so much in common. I just...
J'onn: You will most likely never understand what she's going through. I came to this planet as a Martian. And in my heart, I've always been more Martian than anything. But... I have chosen to wear the face of a Black man for a very long time now. I could've changed races, could've changed into someone else entirely. But if I'm honest... wearing this skin has made me feel most like an alien on this planet. Feeling like I don't belong. Never quite getting comfortable with the idea that this... really is my home. But I also realize that Kelly and James don't have the option to make that choice. I know you, and I know your heart. And I know how much you and Kelly love each other. She does, too. When she's ready to open up, you'll be there for her. And she'll be glad that you are. 

Orlando: All you heroes end up being the same. You say you care, but you're just gonna go and leave us with a mess to clean up. Why should I trust you?
Guardian: You shouldn't. Trust should be earned. And when you've been wronged, nothing in you tells you to trust again. I'm just asking for a chance. A start to prove I'm different.
(There is a pregnant pause as Orlando considers this.)
Orlando: What do you need?

Alex: Well, how do I support you? Because I love you. And it kills me to see you in pain.
Kelly: Just... let me be. And don't push me to unpack it all right now so it can be communicated for you. Hold the space. And love me. Without having to understand all of me. And all my experiences. And for now, just... Hold me. 

Dialogue Disasters

Kelly: I know! I know that you're all trying to stop Nyxly. I know. But do you hear me? Do you see what is happening? People are gonna die! And I feel like I am yelling into a void! We're supposed to fight for everyone, together. And yet, I am looking at people suffer, people that look like me and everyone here is just too busy. Where is the outrage that people are gonna die without help? Without hope? Maybe you could spare a second for them?!

Councilwoman Rankin: With this power, I can transform this city, sweep away the useless and the weak and make it perfect. And no one will stop me. I'm going to destroy this whole city and rebuild it from the ground up!


Continuity

As the episode opens, Nyxly and Mitch still have not found the Totem of Courage. 

Nxyly declares that there is something off.

A flashback to 611 (i.e. 24 hours earlier) reveals that Joey King was with his friend Ayesha inside the Ormfell when it was destroyed by Nxyly. 

Joey is taken to the hospital, complaining that he can't breathe. 

Kelly discovers that everyone near the Ormfell when it collapses are experiencing the same symptoms. It is believe they inhaled a lot of dust. Unfortunately, the hospital in The Heights is already short on oxygen tanks and respirators.

Councilwoman Jean Rankin was also in the area when the building collapsed. She complains about being in Chisholm Memorial Hospital and demands to be taken to a different one when she realizes she's been recognized and makes a show about being moved elsewhere so as not to burden that hospital.

Kelly calls Alex to ask for help. Alex, who is in the middle of tracking Nyxly and trying to figure out a way to contain her, brushes Kelly off but says she'll contact some of her med school friends who work at other hospitals and see if they can send more respirators.

The doctor at the rich hospital says Rankin is fine but just needs to rest. She demands he give her an experimental drug for respiratory issues or else she'll pull her support from some local health-care grants the hospital needs.

Kelly calls James to vent about how people are dying around her. but all the local news is talking about is the Super Friends fighting a giant cat.

Lena has apparently started training in using magic with Florence.

Lena leaves Fortune Bay after getting a message about the problems in National City.

Lena leaves Florence's cave without taking a book that Florence wanted her to have. 

The DEO Desert Facility is apparently still intact and operational, despite the organization having shut down.

Alex and Kara go to the DEO Desert Facility to try and find some 5th Dimensional energy information that can be used to build a tracking device to find Mxy.

Alex thinks to check on Kelly, but decides she's got things under control.

Kelly calls Andrea, incensed that CatCo is reporting on traffic issues caused by the collapse of the Ormfell rather than the local health crisis. Andrea says her demographic cares more about traffic than The Heights.

John Diggle shows up on Kelly's doorstep, saying that James asked for him to talk to her.

Kelly recognizes John Diggle as being from Star City. He says he's in Metropolis these days.

Kelly and Diggle decide to explore the Ormfell wreckage.

Jean Rankin discovers her power after saying she would kill for a sandwich and magically creating a sandwich after her aide seemingly drops dead.

Kara and Alex find Baltorian scanners which are able to trace 5th Dimensional energy, which leads them back to the Ormfell.

Brainiac-5 says that gathering up the dust laced with 5th Dimensional energy should give them a power source that can track Nxyly and removing the dust should heal the sick people.

Jean Rankin meets with another councilwoman about building a new building that could house five teach companies where the Ormfell stood. She conjures up money to bribe her into helping her.

Kelly tries to talk to Kara about all the problems in the Heights, but Kara dismisses her and says Mister Mxyzptlk will be able to put things back how they were.

Kelly tries to talk to Alex about how she thinks there's something more than the dust hurting the sick people, but Alex runs off to deal with the effort to find Nxyly promising they will talk later.

Dreamer gives Kelly her scanner, just in case they did miss something, before she goes off as well.

Kelly uses the scanner to determine that Councilwoman Rankin is radiating 5th Dimensional energy.

Orlando confronts Councilwoman Rankin on her miraculous recovery, as she's making a speech about how the poor people in her district need to stop letting their weakness hold them back.

Rankin tries to run. Kelly chases after her and Rankin teleports away after creating a sledgehammer to try and kill Kelly.

Kelly is able to grab some of Rankin's hair in the fight with her.

Kelly loses it and shouts at the Super Friends for missing that Rankin was a problem.

Dreamer stops Alex and Kara from following after Kelly as she goes to the Watchtower gym.

Diggle follows after Kelly and tells her that he was given a chance to become "a special kind of hero" but that it would have meant leaving his family behind.

Diggle says that there are many kinds of heroes and Kelly can be the kind that protects people rather than fighting villains.

Kara apologies for not listening to Kelly and references her getting involved with the anti-alien protests in Season 4.

Alex talks to J'onn about feeling like she's failed to support Kelly. 

J'onn tells Alex that he chose to maintain the face of a Black man because he never felt so alien as when he looked like Hank Henshaw. He admitted he feared forgetting what it was like to be Martian and an outsider because of his ability to blend in anywhere.

Brainiac-5 figures out a way to drain Rankin's power and save the people of The Heights.

Braniac-5 also helps Kelly with designing a new Guardian costume, being sure to give the helmet better sight-lines. She also wants it to show off her face, making sure people can see that she's a Black woman.

Brainiac-5 tells Kelly that there is still discrimination and racism in the 31st Century, but it has gotten better in many respects.

The Super Friends confront Councilwoman Rankin and mitigate the damage to The Heights, as Kelly activates the energy siphon and tries to save the sick people.

Kelly gets Orlando to help her convince everyone in the hospital to go into the street or help the sick people out.

Councilwoman Rankin is apparently arrested (although it is unclear on what charges.)

Kelly, as Guardian, suggests that Orlando might consider running for her now vacant City Council seat. He dismisses this, pointing out he's an ex-con (even if he was fully pardoned) and that he is more worried about finding a place for himself and Joey to live.

Diggle congratulates Kelly on her premiere as Guardian and tells her something Jefferson Pierce once said - "Don't be a hero to the people. Be a hero for the people."

Kara apologizes to Kelly again and says she's thankful to have her watching out for people when she overlooks them while tending to the big picture.

As Diggle leaves the Watchtower, Brainiac-5 asks if he's heading back to Metropolis already and seems surprised when Diggle says yes.. Diggle then says "Worlds Await." - the same words that kept echoing in his head in F716. (This would seem to imply that he may have changed his mind about the job offer he mentioned earlier...)

With the interference caused by Councilwoman Rankin gone, Nxyly is able to get a bead on the Courage of Totem using her crystal ball.

Lena returns home to find a package containing the book Florence wanted her to take.

Lena's address is 508 Park Place, National City, CA 00389.

Alex apologizes to Kelly and asks what she can do to understand her better. Kelly says Alex doesn't have to understand - just be there to support her when she needs it.

Location

Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, Canada.


Untelevised Adventures

Apparently James Olsen and John Diggle became friends at some point, bonding over their similar struggles.

John Diggle also apparently met Jefferson Pierce (Black Lightning) at some point and is privy to his secret identity. 


The Bottom Line

With a hospital short on respirators and a rich white woman who literally draws her power off the suffering of children causing a public health crisis as the villain, this may be the most timely and least subtle Supergirl episode ever. That's not a problem, since Supergirl has never been subtle. The problem is that the script gives Kelly Olsen far too many speeches that try to be Maya Angelou poems and its a bit much. 

Had there been more conversations like the ones Kelly has with Alex and Kara near the end of the episode, it would have been a far better episode. On the other hand, Kelly's speeches drive home the point that sometimes one has to shout to be heard and I'm not sure those moments that work well would hit as hard without the moments that don't to contrast against.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 16 - P.O.W.

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

Plot

John Diggle arrives in Central City with a weapon to help Barry stop the Godspeed War. Meanwhile, Allegra and Ultraviolet’s new bond following he surgery is put to the ultimate test, as Joe and Kristin Kramer are hunted by her former colleague. 

Influences

The Flash comics of Joshua Williamson (use of Still Force and Godspeed characters), Ghostbusters (general design of the entropy trap),  and The Most Dangerous Game (Joe and Kramer being hunted.)

Goofs

The official show summaries keep changing Kristen Kramer's name, spelling her first name with an "i" and an "e' (Kristin/Kristen).

Cecile mentions that it is the year 2021. However, the events of The Flash season 7 have taken place within a four week period following the events of 703, which was firmly set in mid-2020 based on the Season 6 episodes leading to the battle with Mirror Monarch.

Joe retrieves his oversize gun seemingly from nowhere during the final confrontation with Creyke.

It's a minor point, but the episode never addresses if Caitlin (who knows more about metahuman neurology than most) examined Diggle while he was in Central City or after his breakdown facing Godspeed.


Performances

It's always good to see David Ramsey as John Diggle and the scenes between him and Grant Gustin improve this episode immensely.


Flash Facts

The entropy trap which Diggle delivers is said to be a one-of-a-kind due to it being constructed from some unique Time Trapper tech. This is a reference to a classic villain from the Legion of Superheroes comics - a time-traveler from the future who became the Living Embodiment of Entropy. This also confirms that the Time Trapper exists in the Arrowverse.

August Heart is said to have worked for Dayton Labs' Central City branch in the future. In the DC Comics universe, Dayton Labs is a research facility owned by Dayton Industries - a company owned by the superhero Mento, who was part of the Doom Patrol.

Adam Kreyke claims to have the power to die over and over. There are a few DC Comics characters who have a similar power of immortality, but most of them (such as Resurrection Man and Multi-Man) gain a new superpower each time they die.

At the end of the episode, Nora West-Allen's lightning is only purple when it was purple and yellow in Season 5. This is believed to foreshadow that the newly introduced Bart Allen Jr. is her twin brother, as his lightning is yellow, like his father's.

In the original The Flash comics, Barry and Iris did have twins, a boy and a girl, who inherited Barry's powers, but they were named Dawn and Don and were known as the Tornado Twins. 

Bart Allen Jr. desribes the Speed Lab as "crash." This is a future slang term from the comics, used by Impulse to describe good things.


Technobabble

The Godspeed War generates a build-up of electricity, shielding Central City from outside electrical signals, basically acting as a giant Faraday Cage. This prevents Cecile from calling Joe, who is outside of the city.

Adam Creyke is armed with an advanced pulse rifle and a scrambler program that prevents people close to him from using a phone.

The motion-detection plate on the entropy trap has a response time of a picosecond. The plasmatic wave it generates eliminates all entropy from any object or person, freezing it in time.

The metal band that Caitlin creates to replace Ultraviolet's mask is made of the same unique metal alloy, so her body won't reject it and it will still maintain the laryngeal structure.

Diggle confirms that the doctors at the neurology clinic in Gotham didn't find anything wrong with him physically.

Chester's algorithm confirms the Godspeeds are returning at an exponential rate. 

Caitlin's scan of August Heart's brain and body show no sign of speed powers, organic or artificial. However, his neurological scans show severe memory degradation yet his somatic memory cells are still intact, but inactive. She says a nano dose of neurogenic dark matter might reactivate the cells, but the procedure is risky and it would still only restore his memory temporarily.


Dialogue Triumphs

Diggle: So you want to tell me what's really got you so upset that you're talking to your teammates like that? And don't tell me it's about some broken tech, Barry.
Barry: It's my daughter. Nora. Before she came to join us, she lived in the future. The exact time Godspeed's from.
Diggle: Okay, and with everything that's going on, you think it affects the future somehow?
Barry: Dig, if... If August Heart is here, what does that mean for Nora? And the future of our family? Is she okay? Will Iris and I still have a family? Is Nora even alive in the future anymore? (breathing heavily) Now all I want to do is run to and make sure Nora's okay. See with my own eyes that my daughter's safe. But I can't do that.
Diggle: Why not?
Barry: Dig, you know better than anyone what could happen if I did. Besides, man, with this civil war destroying the city staying here to fight is the right thing to do.
Diggle: No, it's not. Barry, I lived a long life here on this earth. I've been a spy, a vigilante, a soldier... hell, I've even been the Green Arrow. The most important job I've ever had is as a dad. And there's not a bullet I wouldn't take, there's not a timeline that I wouldn't risk changing if it meant protecting my family. I know that now. Lyla... my kids, they're my heart, man. My soul. My entire world. How far would I go for them? As far as it takes. Everything else be damned. Don't be afraid to do the same.


Continuity

The events of this episode take place sometime after the Batwoman episode Rebirth (B216) as Diggle makes reference to his clinic visit in Gotham City from that episode.

As the episode opens, the Godspeeds are randomly running around Central City attacking people when they aren't fighting each other.

Barry has another dream vision of Nora West-Allen, like the one in 715, where she tells him that the future is changing and something happened to their family.

Iris is still suffering from a sickness that has her confined to her and Barry's apartment.

Cecile hasn't heard from Joe since he left Central City with Kristen Kramer 8 hours earlier

Joe and Kramer are revealed to have escaped their exploding car and hide in the woods as Creyke hunts them.

Kramer recognized Creyke's attack coming because she knew what the light of his pulse rifle looked like.

Barry is said to have six broken ribs and internal bleeding after his latest battle with the Godspeeds, but he says he'll be fine after an hour thanks to his speed healing.

Barry tells the rest of the team about his vision of Nora and wonders if he should go to the future to check on her.

Diggle arrives from Star City with a device Cisco constructed  - an entropy trap - which he thought might help with the Godspeeds.

Diggle volunteered to deliver the entropy trap personally, as he is still working with ARGUS.

Chester is aware of who John Diggle is (presumably having read up on previous Team Flash adventures) and says that he is a big fan.

Barry plans to use the entropy trap to catch a Godspeed so they can question him as to why the Godspeeds are fighting.

Caitlin heals Ultraviolet and says she won't need any more surgeries or bio-chip updates to live.

Ultraviolet plans to go after another Black Hole team right away. Allegra says that's stupid.

Ultraviolet asks Allegra to help her. Allegra agrees, but says they will only work to capture the Black Hole forces - not kill them - and that it will have to wait until after the Godspeed War is over. Ultraviolet agrees to those terms.

Barry attempts to lure the Godspeeds into the entropy trap by broadcasting one of their signals through the speakers built into his suit. They manage to catch one.

The Godspeed refuses to answer questions, which Diggle takes as a sign that he's a soldier and will talk when he is ready to volunteer information.

Diggle tells Cecile that ARGUS is aware of her empathy powers, despite her efforts to keep her status as a metahuman a secret.

Cecile tried to read the Godspeed but could only sense hatred and determination.

The Godspeed was trying to contact his other selves but was blocked by Allegra's powers.

The Godspeed finally speaks and reveals that he knows Barry Allen's secret identity.

Joe wants to flee and get back-up but Kramer wants to confront Adam Creyke.

Joe asks why Creyke would be trying to kill Kramer now when he tried to save her before. She says that he must not know who he is hunting, which gives Joe an idea.

The Godspeed reveals that there are two factions within the Godspeeds - those loyal to August Heart, who want to take Barry's speed and deliver it to him. The other Godspeeds wish to live freely, as they "did not ask to be born, but we do ask not to die" which is the inevitable fate of all the Godspeed clones.

The Godspeed reveals that the original August Heart has come to the present day from the future and the Godspeeds are trying to find him. It also says the only solution is to kill August Heart before he becomes Godspeed.

The Godspeed escapes after Barry refuses to help kill August Heart, thanks to Barry forgetting that the anti-meta safeguards in the Pipleine only work on naturally created metahumans - not artificial speedsters created by a Velocity drug.

The Godspeed also breaks the entropy trap, which can't be rebuilt as it was made using repurposed Time Trapper tech that ARGUS didn't have much of in their possession. 

Barry snaps and yells at Chester when he says he can't fix the entropy trap. This prompts a lecture from Diggle.

Allegra overhears Diggle's speech about the importance of family and resolves to help Ultraviolet against Black Hole now.

Diggle references having been the Green Arrow for a time during Arrow Season 6.

Iris gave Cecile Nora's journal to search for information on August Heart. Cecile found mention of a few places Nora found that seemed personal to Heart which might be worth searching.

Barry agrees to let Cecile search for the original August Heart, but asks her to take Diggle and Allegra with her.

Cecile winds up going with Frost and Diggle, as Allegra isn't answering her texts for some reason.

John has a massive migraine, which he says is the worst one that he's ever had.

Cecile feels John's pain, describing it as like fighting a hurricane. She also claims to have sensed something behind the pain which felt infinite in power.

Barry tries to enter the Speed Force to visit Nora in 2049 but is ambushed by a mob of Godspeeds.

Barry is pulled out of the Speed Force by Deon Owens (aka The Still Force) who tells him that the Godspeeds are feeding on the Speed Force and that "big sis" (i.e. Nora Speed Force) has her hands full trying to deal with them.

Deon refuses to send Barry to the future, saying it is too risky until the Speed Force is done cleansing herself. Besides that, it is taking all of his strength to protect Iris, who is being pulled out of time by some outside force, which is causing her illness.

Deon promises to protect Iris, but tells Barry he's needed to fight the war in the present.

Diggle attacks the Godspeeds using a dose of nanites devised by Ray Palmer that neutralize superspeed. (The same nanites were used by Oliver Queen against Eobard Thawne in 122.)

Diggle has another headache, this time hearing a chorus of voices say "Worlds Await," over and over.

Frost saves Diggle while he is down.

Allegra is revealed to be tracking Ultraviolet, who ran off without her despite her promises to wait. She finds her in the middle of a massacre, critically wounded.

Ultraviolet has just enough time to curse Allegra for letting her die alone, but she says that she will not die afraid.

Ultraviolet's body dissolves into dust upon her death.

Frost, Diggle and Cecile check out the future site of Dayton Labs' as Nora's journal said August Heart worked there for a while in her time.  That lab doesn't exist in the modern day, however.

They find a man they think is the original August Heart, but he's amnesiac and was only at the Dayton Labs site because he felt it was important for some reason.

Adam Creyke claims to have died 17 times and been reborn over and over.

Adam Creyke recognizes Kramer and asks who she really is, claiming that the real Kramer was killed during Operation Griffin.

Creyke defends his mercenary actions, saying he gave half of the money he earned back to the reservation they grew up on.

At Joe's urging, Kramer doesn't shoot Creyke.

Chester calculates they have 90 minutes before the next wave of Godspeeds.

The only thing Cecile can sense from August Heart is the same confusion and fear an amnesiac would have.

Chester tells Diggle to thank Cisco for the Time Trapper tech and to tell him that he's going to do what he can to repair it himself.

Diggle leaves Central City, telling Barry there's something he's been putting off for far too long and it nearly got him killed. This coincides with a quick flashback to A810 and Diggle's discovery of a glowing green object in the meteor that nearly hit him when he was loading his moving van.

Barry and Diggle hug before he leaves and Barry offers whatever help he can.

The mystery man confirms his name is August after Caitlin injects him with dark matter.

Cecile has still not gotten in touch with Joe at the episode's end.

Nora West-Allen appears and tells Barry she wouldn't have come to the past if it weren't important.

Nora points out that the fact that she is there is proof that Iris will be all-right, as is the person who traveled with her. This leads to the introduction of her brother, Bart Allen Jr.

Location

A wooden area somewhere near Midway City.


Untelevised Adventures

Iris is off-camera for most of the episode, being protected by the Still Force.

Barry is ambushed by several Godspeeds while evacuating City Hall.

Frost is said to be out in Central City fighting the Godspeeds for most of the episode.

Iris gave Cecile Nora's diary so she could search for information on August Heart.


The Fridge Factor

Iris is reduced to a damsel to be protected by this episode.

Ultraviolet is killed off an episode after being cured, purely to give Allegra angst about abandoning her family and likely setting up her inevitable conclusion that Team Flash is her family now.


The Boomerang Factor

Barry's forgetting that the safeguards in the Pipeline only neutralize the powers of natural born metahumans seems like a major oversight, as does the safeguards somehow not working on those who get powers from temporary means like Velocity-9.


The Bottom Line

Overstuffed but comfortable, like an old easy chair. The scenes with Diggle are enjoyable and expand well upon his mystery. Unfortunately, the urgency of the Godspeed War is seriously undercut by all the subplots involving Iris' disappearance, Joe helping Kramer and everything involving Ultraviolet. It's clear they didn't have as much time to develop everything with the shorter season order and, ironically, it's probably for the best they had to abandon the Elongated Man storyline they had planned lest this seem even busier. That being said, the final two minutes bode well for the 150th episode and the arrival of Impulse.

Batwoman Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 16 - Rebirth

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

Plot

When a familiar foe descends upon Gotham, Ryan and Mary find they must rely on each other more than ever. Alice has a has a new mission and gets an unexpected ally to join her, as Luke Fox makse a decision with the assistance of John Diggle.


Influences

Batwoman: Rebirth and the new 52 Batwing title.


Performances

David Ramsey has a brief but commanding performance as John Diggle.

Wallis Day has a commanding turn here, as both Circe Sionis and Kate Kane trying to break free of her programming.


Artistry

The nightmare sequences of Kate's mind being trapped in the Cartwright basement with Circe Sionis are truly horrific.


Technobabble

Jacob Kane uses a DNA scanner to confirm Circe Sionis is Kate Kane.

Luke has a tool for unsealing sealed digital court records.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Roman Sionis is watching the news with Safiyah on a monitor in his office.)
Roman Sionis: I expose Kane as the godfather of a fraudulent security racket, and now these cloying half-wits in the fake news are crowning him a hero.
Safiyah: Haven't you done enough, Roman? You imprisoned the man's daughter, then brainwashed her into your own.
Roman Sionis: He murdered my Circe.
Safiyah: So toying with Kane's daughter is your way of... feeling better about him killing yours?
Roman Sionis: I apologize, Your Royal Highness, but when you gave me the details of Kate Kane's flight out of National City, you knew exactly what I had in mind for her.
Safiyah: Speaking of you owing me a favor, I was hoping to employ your daughter's services to settle my affairs in Gotham. I have reason to believe that Circe's unique attributes could benefit us both.
Roman Sionis: Whatever it is, I don't want her involved. She's finally got her life back.
Safiyah: Last I heard, she was running around with a tree stapled to her face.
Roman Sionis: Oh, she's ready to make her grand reentry into Gotham's influencer life. After all, my P.R. team covered up the incident that landed her in Arkham to begin with and her death, yada yada. They've put together a very millennial cover story to explain her disappearance. Three words... Malibu Rehab Retreat. This is the crown jewel.
(Roman clicks a remote control. The monitor switches to a make-up commercial. Circe is the model and the voice over artist.)
Circe: A life lived but once is a life lived not at all. The newest line from Janus Cosmetics has arrived... Rebirth.
Roman Sionis: It wasn't enough that she believed she was my Circe. Between the new face and a strict regimen of Janus restorative burn cream, she now looks like her, too.
Safiyah: I know Enigma gave her Circe's memories, but who gave her Circe's face?
Roman Sionis: If you can believe it, that rambling sewer rat Alice.
Safiyah: You brought Kate Kane and Alice together? When was this?
Roman Sionis: Two days ago. Why?
Safiyah: Alice is Beth Kane, you idiot!

(Jacob's DNA scanner confirms Circe Sionis is Kate Kane.)
Jacob: Heh. My god. It really is you.
Circe: You've got me confused with a dead girl.
Alice: No. You've got you confused with a dead girl.

(Alice and Ocean are walking away after Ocean politely introduced himself to Jacob while dropping off a bang full of Kate's belongings.)
Alice: This "Mr. Kane" thing is definitely weird for me.
Ocean:  I want the guy to like me. Call me old-fashioned.
Alice: If you told me I'd be in the Crows headquarters with my father, my sister, and my... boy toy and I wouldn't be the one in cuffs...
Ocean: No one ever accused you of being predictable.

("Circe" describes being trapped in the same cell Alice was locked in as a child.)
Alice: That's the basement I spent my childhood in. You've been there. Do you remember?
"Circe": It's... it's more of a feeling. I'm... I'm screaming, but I can't get your attention.
Jacob: That... that's not what happened.
Alice: Maybe it's a metaphor. Circe's subconscious is a cell, and Kate needs me to free her.
Jacob:  How can you be sure?
Alice: Because it's all I ever wanted.

Batwoman: Are you Kate Kane?
Kate/Circe: Can I get back to you on that?

Tavaroff: Buddy, Gotham City is our town, and the House always wins.
(Tavaroff reveals his cards. The crowd cheers. It's a good hand.)  
Luke: I mean, people do say that. It's true. The House does win a lot because it cheats. But then sometimes, I mean, the House is just so damn stupid that it can cheat and still manage to lose.
(Luke reveals his cards. The crowd groans. It's a better hand.)
Diggle: Heh. The man made a straight.
Luke: What no applause for that... for that gut-shot straight draw? I mean, and the speech? No style points for that?
(Luke is answered with stony silence from the cops.)
Luke: Okay. Whatever.

Diggle: What you have to remember is that we all end up in the same place eventually, man, and you'll see your father soon enough. What changes with time is what you get to tell him you did while you were on the earth.
Luke: Okay. So... I'm just supposed to ignore the fact that I'm still angry as hell?
Diggle: No, brother. Don't ignore it. Use it. You carry the torch for the great Fox family. You stand for justice. You're gonna need anger to win that fight. 

Jacob: Yes, she's my daughter, and her name is Beth. She's not a monster. She's a victim of evil men and women who stole her childhood and manipulated her mind, of a father who... who didn't come through for her when she needed him. Beth has had the hardest life of anyone I've ever known, and yet... she has this humanity inside of her. I can't imagine ever having that strength, so if Gotham is angry at me, then so be it. I ask only this of them as a father. When you judge Alice for her crimes, remember Beth.

Safiyah: There's nothing left of Coryana. Your scorching was thorough and complete. Nine villagers perished in the blaze, so if you have managed to maintain a list after all these years, do include them in your grand total.
Alice: (defiant) You told me you had my sister. What did you expect?
Safiyah: If I'm honest, that. A tantrum Because at the end of the day, Alice, you're just a spoiled child who believes she deserves more than she's earned. 


Continuity

Batwoman saves a man with a briefcase from being killed by a ninja. The attack occurs at a rooftop lot above Harper's Plaza. The ninja gets away with the man's laptop.

Batwoman has to call 911 herself since Luke isn't manning the comms. Luckily the operator is a Batwoman fangirl.

Luke says he's going to need some more time to recover from his recent trauma before he can help in the Batcave again.

Russell Tavaroff is released on bond, making him a free man until he faces trial on charges of falsifying evidence to justify shooting an unarmed man.

Jacob Kane is being hailed as a hero in the local press for speaking out against the culture of corruption in the local police. This annoys Roman Sionis, who was trying to expose Jacob as the head of a fraudulent security company.

Roman Sionis is confirmed to have been working with Safiyah.

Roman was informed about Kate Kane's flight to National City in the Season 2 premier, thanks to Safiyah. 

Safiyah wants to recruit "Circe" to do a job for her, but Roman says he's trying to get his daughter back into her old life as an influencer and he's making her the face of his new make-up line: Rebirth.

Roman Sionis confirms that it has been two days since the events of 214 and Alice making a flesh mask for "Circe."

Roman had no idea Alice was Beth Kane; a fact that Safiyah informs him of, when he reveals that Alice was responsible for creating the mask that made Kate Kane into Circe Sionis.

Alice and Jacob Kane work together to kidnap "Circe."

Ryan breaks into a government safehouse, with Mary guiding her in place of Luke. She notes with disgust the safehouse has a bidet in the bathroom, yet she couldn't get hand soap built into the new community center.

The man Ryan saved earlier in the episode was a lawyer who worked with judges to place people in Witness Protection and relocate them into new lives. The laptop the ninja stole was full of top-secret information on the relocated witnesses

Sophie helped Mary with a few of the particulars, such as hacking the phone records of the lawyer to determine who he called to warn that their identity was compromised. The safehouse Ryan goes into belonged to the first man on the list.

Ryan determines the first witness on the list was blind.

Ryan finds the first witness dead, with a sword still stuck in him. She also finds the ninja, who she recognizes this time as Tatiana, who tells her to stay out of this as it isn't her fight.. 

Ocean delivers a bag of Kate's personal belongings to Crow's HQ, where Alice and Jacob run a DNA test confirming that she's Kate.

Alice explains that since they don't know the key phrase Enigma set up to deprogram "Circe" they will have to slowly job Kate's memory with familiar objects.

Jacob learns that Enigma transformed Kate into Alice and removed her capacity to love.

Mary and Ryan identify the blind man Tatiana killed as Ezra Castellanos - the man whose eyes were gouged out by Circe Sionis five years earlier - an incident first mentioned in 213.

The case around Ezra and Circe's incident was sealed by the courts, but Mary is able to use a tool Luke has to get around the seal. Circe was a model who claimed self-defense after being assaulted at a party. She was sent to Arkham and Ezra, fearful of retaliation from Roman Sionis, went into Witness Protection. 

Ryan asks Mary about Alice asking her if someone named Circe had come after her in 215.

Luke uses a fake GCPD ID to get into a private club for police officers and security personnel

Luke confronts Tavaroff, whom he notes won the Crow's Hold 'Em tournament for two years in a row He says he just came to play some poker.

The altercation between Tavaroff and Luke is witnessed by John Diggle; ARGUS agent, former vigilante and Oliver Queen's brother in arms.. Diggle was last seen in F610.

Kate liked punk rock as a teenager.

Jacob shows "Circe" a bag which he found a joint in. He grounded her for the entire summer, but it turned out to be the best summer of her life.

Alice tells "Circe" about how Kate had a huge crush on a girl named Jenny Goldberg because she was a skateboarder.

Alice gives "Circe" a mug with "MIND READER" spelled out in rainbow letters. It was a gift from when Kate was struggling to cell her sister that she was a lesbian but Beth had already figured it out and made the mug to let Kate know she knew and was okay with it.

"Circe" says that she's having visions of being locked in a basement room that smells of formaldehyde Alice recognizes the description as August Cartwright's basement lab.

.Kate's mind emerges briefly after Alice takes her hand and says she's going to free her.

Ryan calls Luke to ask for his help, but he says he's busy with the poker tournament.

Luke says he wanted to die and that he's too depressed over the state of the world to want to live in a world where he gets shot for no reason and the gunman gets out of jail in a day and is confident the charges will be dropped.

Jacob calls Mary and tells her that Kate is alive and with him at Crow's HQ.

Jacob also tells Mary that Roman Sionis is Black Mask and that he brainwashed Kate into thinking she was his daughter, Circe.

Mary tells Jacob they think Circe is connected to Safiyah somehow, just before Tatiana and the False Face Society storm Crow's HQ. 

Jacob is captured by the False Face gang.

Alice tells Kate/Circe to run. She escapes, but is captured by Tatiana.

Mary calls Ryan while she's enroute to Crow's HQ and tells her that her father matched Kate's DNA to "Circe" and that she's been hypnotized to believe she is Circe Sionis.

Mary makes reference to the skull fragment evidence Julia Pennyworth had that Kate was dead from 209.

Ryan finds Kate and brings her back to Wayne Tower.

John Diggle introduces himself with his real name and says he's from Star City, in town on a contract for ARGUS.

Luke is able to win the final game and clean out Tavaroff by pulling a straight.

Jacob is taken before Roman Sionis. He reveals that he knows he is Black Mask.

Roman Sionis, in turn, reveals that he knows Beth Kane is Alice and that he intends to reveal that to te press.

Roman also reveals that his False Face society includes several GCPD officers, including the two in the room, who arrest Jacob with aiding and abetting Alice's escape from the police

Roman threatens to kill what family Jacob has left after making them suffer greatly if he tries to reveal anything about the Sionis family to the press.

Tavaroff attacks Luke in an alley after the poker game, but is stopped by John Diggle.

Kate/Circe told Ryan about how Jacob and Alice were trying to jog her memory at Crow's HQ before the False Face goons and Tatiana attacked.

Mary greets Kate/Circe in Kate's office, but isn't recognized.

Kate/Circe does recognize Sophie Moore, who arrives shortly after that.

In Kate's mind, Circe Sionis begins to threaten the teenage Kate. 

Mary injects Kate with a syringe full of benzos - something she's taken to carrying on her as it's a handy weapon in Gotham City.

Ryan, Mary and Sophie guess that Tatiana probably captured Alice to take her to Safiyah, so she could get revenge for the destruction of the Desert Rose fields.

Ryan says she will give up the last Desert Rose in the Batcave to save Alice's life, if Alice really is the key to restoring Kate's memories. This still leaves them with the problem of finding Safiyah.

Diggle heard of Lucius Fox's case and put together some hints as to who Luke was during the poker game.

Diggle tells Luke about how his father was a marine who died while deployed overseas when he was a boy.

Diggle tells Luke he understand what it's like to lose a father and be angry about injustice, but you have to do something to make Earth a better place before you can go be with your dad. He advises him to take his anger and use it to help others.

Luke notices that Diggle seems pained. Diggle confirms that he's had some fogginess and dizziness lately. When Luke offers to call in a contact at Gotham General's world-renowned neurology lab, Diggle says he's already got an appointment with them the next morning.

Diggle notices that the Bat Signal is blinking in Morse code. He and Diggle both recognize the message - NEED FOX HELP.

A news report reveals that Jacob Kane was arrested and word has been leaked that Beth Kane is Alice.

Jacob tells the reporter Dana DeWitt that Alice is his daughter and that she's the victim of evil me who manipulated her and that nobody can judge her.

Luke is informed that Kate is still alive.

Luke is able to track down where Safiyah is in Gotham.

Ryan goes to Safiyah as Batwoman and offers her Desert Rose plant for Alice's life. Safiyah agrees to the trade.

Ryan tells Safiya about how the plant is the last connection she has to her adoptive mother. When Safiyah asks why she would trade it for Alice, Ryan says that revenge is short-lived and she owes Kate Kane a debt for the symbol she created and the chance it gave her at a better life.

Safiya has never met Kate Kane before.

As Ryan and Alice leave, Alice gloats that she's gotten away with everything. Safiyah merely says again that Alice believes she deserves more than she earned. It is then that Alice notices Tatiana is not there.

Sophie stays with Kate, as Circe takes over her body again. However, Circe is beginning to realize she's not in her own body

Alice ditches Ryan to go find Ocean.

Alice finds Tatiana and kills her, before finding Ocean's body.

Mary talks to Jacob on the phone. He tells her the judge granted his petition to be transferred to a prison in Metropolis and to change the venue of his trial to Metropolis as well.

Jacob tells Mary not to bother trying to help him win his case as Roman Sionis has the deck stacked too heavily against him. He also tells her to work with Alice so they can maybe get Kate and Beth back.

"Circe" escapes and returns to Roman Sionis, demanding to know why she has Kate Kane's memories, DNA, finger prints and how she knew where she hid the booze in her office.

Safiyah appears and threatens to tell "Circe" the truth, if Roman doesn't.


The Bottom Line

An amazing episode, despite being packed full of exposition and a need to reveal various secrets to various characters and catch them all up on what we, as the audience know. Still, there are a lot of great character moments, some effective horror imagery and, for extra added pleasure, a John Diggle cameo kicking off a new Arrowverse storyline.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 10 - Fadeout

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




Plot

With the Crisis over, Oliver Queen's friends and family gather in Star City to mourn his passing and celebrate a life well-lived and a new dawn in Star City. As what remains of Team Arrow contemplates how they will go on without the man who brought them together, they are forced to join together once more to save William Clayton after he is abducted by an old enemy of Green Arrow, who is out for revenge.



Influences

Crisis on Infinite Earths and Green Arrow: Quiver. (Oliver Queen in Heaven) 


Goofs

Rene is said to be favored to win the election for Mayor in April 2020, yet in 2040 Mayor Ramirez is running for a third term according to the Green Arrow & The Canaries pilot. It seems unlikely that Star City's mayors serve ten-year terms. (There's no guarantee Rene will win in 2020. Also, it could be a different Mayor Ramirez.)

Lyla Michaels is said to have been promoted to a new job in Metropolis. What's higher than Director of ARGUS? (It's likely a more powerful position in the Department of Defense not directly affiliated with ARGUS.)


Performances

The entire ensemble all have great moments, but the man holding it all together so all the tangents work is David Ramsey as John Diggle.


Artistry

The script is a work of art, with lots of nods to the show's history and many great character moments.

The flashback fight-scene of Oliver fighting John Byrne's men is a fitting capstone for the series' amazing action scenes.


Trivia

The episode title has a double-meaning, with a fadeout being the technical term for the slow shift to darkness before the credits at the end of a movie or television show and a part of a bow.

The title card for the episode features all 7 unique arrow-heads used over the course of the series.

The human trafficker Oliver goes after in the flashbacks of this episode, who later kidnaps William Clayton in the modern day is named John Byrne. This is a tribute to comic writer and artist John Byrne, who is perhaps most famous for his work with Chris Claremont on X-Men and for overseeing the reveamp of Superman following Crisis on Infinite Earths.

When Roy proposes to Thea, he does it on an industrial building with a sign in the back declaring that it is Van Wayne Enterprises. This is a nod to Van Wayne, a cousin of Bruce Wayne and one of the main characters of the short-lived series Powerless, which was set in a comedic version of the DC Comics universe. This would seem to affirm that the same characters (or at least Van Wayne) exist in the post-Crisis Arrowverse.

Roy and Thea make mention of Kord Industries - the oft-referred to business run by Ted Kord (aka The Blue Beetle). Brandon Routh was originally meant to play Ted Kord instead of Ray Palmer in Arrow season 3, but the rights for Blue Beetle were tied up in a live-action show based around the Jaime Reyes incarnation of the character.

The penultimate sequence in which John Diggle is knocked off his feet and finds a glowing green object where he thought a meteor had landed is a nod to a long-teased fan theory regarding John Diggle someday becoming a Green Lantern.


Technobabble

Curtis runs a quad-grid search tasked to a keyhole satellite array to track William.

Felicity implanted a subdermal tracking device in William's arm.

When fighting with escrima, it is important to use your whole body as the power comes from your hips.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: My name is Oliver Queen. After 5 years in hell I returned home with only one goal; to save my city. For 8 years, I've fought alongside brave men and women striving for justice, but then a Crisis came, and I had to become someone else. I had to become something else. I made the ultimate sacrifice, which helped birth an entirely new universe. Now my friends and family will have to go on without me, and although I have become a Spectre, there is a part of me that will always be The Green Arrow.

Rene: It's a hell of a legacy. Not just a city of heroes, a world of heroes.

Wild Dog: So how are things? It's been a while.
Ragman: Yeah. Well, a while is what it took for these rags to work again. Since then, I've been fighting for justice.
Wild Dog: To honor your father?
Ragman: To honor Oliver.
Wild Dog: We've had our differences over the years.
Ragman: Yeah, I assumed.
Wild Dog: Why?
Ragman: Of everyone, you're the most like him.

Mia: If Oliver Queen didn't kill you, than neither will I.

Oliver: Plenty of people in this book that deserve to die, plain and simple, but probably not everyone. Let's consider Mr. John Byrne to be proof of concept.
Diggle: That people can be redeemed?
Oliver: That one day I'll be able to trust you.

Quentin: For a long time I hated Oliver Queen. I blamed him for the death of my youngest daughter, I blamed him for the violence in my city, I interrogated him, I hunted him, persecuted him. I've never been more wrong in my life. Oliver Queen wasn't just a hero. He was a good man. He was an honorable person. The fact that he didn't start out that way makes him, in my book, even more honorable. He stands as a reminder to all of us that anyone can change. So will this.
(The cloth coverings behind Quentin are pulled aside, revealing a bronze statue of Green Arrow.)

Tommy: So you're from another Earth, is that it?
Black Siren: I know it's a lot to take in.
Tommy: Well, I just found out there's a reality where I was dead, so that's the curve I'm grading on these days. The Laurel of, well, this Earth, um... She was my wife.
Black Siren: So it must be strange seeing me.
Tommy: Ha! Yeah. Well, strange enough to blow the curve. (smiling) But there's something nice about it, too.

John Diggle: The Oliver that I met 8 years ago is not the one that we say good-bye to today. Oliver always told me that in order to save his city, he had to become someone else, he had to become something else. I always thought that meant becoming the Green Arrow, but today, I realized that meant becoming a better man. The best man he knew how to be. And he took all of us with him on that journey. He changed everything. Oliver brought heroes into the world, he inspired heroes, he inspired all of us here. I was his brother, and Oliver Queen was mine.

(We see John Diggle strapping his children into their car seats and kissing Lyla. She gets in their SUV and drives off, leaving John at their house with one moving van left to drive.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): Of course, life will go on. It always does, but how, what twists and turns it will take, I can't say.
(We see Mia Queen, standing before the statue of Green Arrow. She walks through a time portal into her bedroom in 2040.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): I don't know what the future holds
(We see Digg getting ready to get into his van when he stops to look at a shooting star. A meteor crashes into the ground a dozen feet away from him, throwing him back against the van.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): Except to say to expect the unexpected.
(We see Rene Ramirez in his campaign headquarters, looking at one of his political posters.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): Oliver may be gone, but his mission endures.
(We see Dinah Drake getting on her motorcycle and driving out of Star City.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over):That mission lives on, Oliver lives on in the people he inspired. Some will take that mission to the rest of the world. Maybe even beyond that.
(We see Digg pulling himself off the ground and approaching the crater. He finds a box, which he picks up and opens. Something inside it glows with a green light.)
John Diggle (Voice-Over): Because if the past 8 years has shown us anything It's that this universe is far bigger than any of us could have dared imagine. Even if it is a little less bright without him in it.

Felicity: Not to complain. I just thought that the afterlife would look a little less like your old office.
Oliver: It's my mom's office. I wanted to be where I first saw you.
Felicity: Well, that would be in the I. T. Department, seven floors down.
Oliver: You sure?
(Cut to a flashback of Oliver Queen hiding around a corner in that same office years earlier.)
Felicity: (looking at a picture of Oliver Queen) You're cute. It's too bad you're, you know, dead, which is obviously a lot worse for you than it is for me.
(Cut back to the present. Oliver smiles at the woman he loves.)
Oliver: It's a long story. Lucky for us, we have all the time in the world for me to tell it to you.
(The two look out the window of the office together. It is a beautiful sunny day. All is right in the world.)


Continuity

The opening scene shows an alternate take on Moira Queen's death in 220. This time, Oliver is able to free his hands and stop Slade Wilson from killing Moira Queen with a sword.

It is revealed that Oliver's influence on shaping the post-Crisis Arrowverse allowed him to prevent the deaths of various people, including Moira Queen. Moira talks about how she apparently died in an interview for a documentary.

The documentary filmmaker from 712 has yet to finish her film in the post-Crisis reality. She is now turning Emerald Archer into a memorial film about Oliver Queen.

Dinah, Moira, Rene and John Diggle are all interviewed about Oliver for the documentary.

Crime in Star City disappeared virtually overnight post-Crisis. This has left Team Arrow with little to do.

Digg, Dinah, Rene, Roy and Black Siren meet in the Arrow bunker for a memorial wake. They drink Oliver's vodka and toast him.

Rene is apparently running for mayor now, instead of the city council, which he was running for pre-Crisis in 804.

It is revealed that Quentin Lance is alive again in the post-Crisis universe and that his term as Mayor ends in April. He is pushing for Rene to replace him.

Quentin has offered Dinah the job of Chief of Police in Star City

It has been one month since the Crisis ended as this episode opens.

In a flashback scene to eight years earlier, Oliver has just killed a man named Jimmy Tarallo who had 22 henchmen armed with machetes. Diggle tries to convince Oliver to take him into the field, but he refuses.

Oliver's next target is John Byrne: a beer company CEO who is using his shipping trucks to facilitate human trafficking.

In 2040, Mia has a dream of Robert Queen killing himself in front of Oliver Queen on their life raft after the Queen's Gambit sunk.

Sara Lance arrives in Mia's bedroom, having traveled via Time Portal, to take her to Oliver's funeral in 2020.

Digg, Roy, Rene, Dinah and Black Siren give each other The Mark of Four tattoo first seen in 708.

Roy says he imagines the funeral will be awkward with both of Oliver's sisters there. This establishes that Emiko Queen is still alive in the post-Crisis timeline. She originally died in 722.

In the flashback, Byrne is discovered to be employing Black Armada - a private security firm made up entirely of former Special Forces soldiers. He pays them $1 million monthly.

Diggle encourages Oliver not to kill John Byrne but to bring him in alive.

Mia talks with Dinah in the Arrowcave and reveals that, for her, it's been a few weeks since William was kidnapped in 809. She's had no luck tracking him down so far.

William is abducted from his grandparents' home in Central City.

Felicity, Curtis Holt, Rory Regan, Roy, Thea, Lyla, Digg, Laurel, Sara, Mia, Dinah and Rene pair off to search Star City for William.

Roy proposes to Thea, saying he's realized he can't live without her after his death and resurrection.

Rory Regan is fighting crime as Ragman again, as a way of honoring Oliver. He doesn't specify how long he's been doing it, but apparently his magic costume has repaired itself since he was forced into retirement in 512.

Rory says he isn't surprised that Rene and Oliver fought the most, saying that out of everyone in Team Arrow they are the most alike.

Mia is the one who locates William and John Byrne.

John Byrne spent 8 years in Iron Heights Penitentiary. He was apparently the first person Oliver Queen spared after deciding to stop killing every person on the list of people his father gave him.

John Byrne tries to provoke Mia until killing him. She refuses to do so.

Amateur video footage of captures Mia capturing John Byrne. Dinah repeats what she said earlier about being sure Oliver would be proud of her.

Felicity avoids approaching Mia for fear of saying something awkward. Ironically, Mia avoids her mother for the same reason.

Moira apparently likes Roy Harper much more in the post-Crisis reality.

Thea accepts Roy's marriage proposal.

Black Siren has a breakdown talking to Quentin, saying she doesn't understand why she's still alive and all these other people came back to life but not the Laurel Lance of Earth-1. Quentin says that Oliver didn't "fix" her because she didn't need fixing.

Diggle, Dinah and Rene shut down the Arrow bunker.  Dinah is the one who flips the switch for the power as they leave it for the last time.

Dinah decides not to take the job of Chief of Police. Instead, she's going to find another city that could use a hero like the Black Canary.

Diggle and Lyla are moving to Metropolis after the funeral. Lyla has been promoted to a new position there.

A candlelight vigil is held for Oliver Queen the night before his funeral. Quentin Lance unveils a bronze statue of the Green Arrow, with a plaque that reads "He saved this city." This is the same statue Mia and William met at in 809.

Before the funeral, while visiting Robert Queen's memorial, Thea asks why Oliver couldn't bring Robert Queen back from the dead. Moira speculates that Oliver could only change those events he was involved in directly and only change them so far. For better or worse, Robert Queen had to die for Oliver to become Green Arrow.

Emiko meets with Thea and Moira for the first time.  Moira welcomes Emiko into the family.

Tommy Merlyn is revealed to be alive in the post-Crisis reality. He was also married to Earth-1 Laurel Lance before her death. He talks to Black Siren and says that seeing her is weird but nice.

Nyssa introduces Sara Lance to Talia as her beloved.

Mia and Felicity do meet and hug.

Barry Allen and Kara Danvers attend the funeral in their civilian identities.

Oliver's body was never found. A casket full of mementos was buried in front of the tombstone erected in his honor, next to Robert Queen's memorial behind Queen Manor.

Diggle gives the eulogy at Oliver's funeral.

Dinah leaves Star City on her motorcycle. We see that the main freeway out of Star City has been renamed in Oliver Queen's honor.

Mia returns to 2040 through a time portal.

Before leaving Star City, John Diggle was knocked off his feet by a meteor crashing near him. Once he got near the crater, he found a box containing something that glowed with a green light.

20 years in the future, The Monitor fulfills his bargain and guides Felicity Smoak to the afterlife, as in the final scene of 722.

Felicity meets Oliver Queen in a place that looks just like his mother's office. When she asks why the afterlife looks like that, he says he wanted to see her as she was when he first saw her. When she says that they first met in the IT Department at Queen Consolidated seven floors down in 103. However, Oliver says that isn't the first time he saw her, as he thinks about seeing her while being undercover at Queen Consolidated in the flashbacks of 314.


Location

The Afterlife



Untelevised Adventures

Much of the history of Arrow has apparently been rewritten in the post-Crisis reality. For instance, one wonders how the events of William Clayton's being revealed as Oliver Queen's son played out with Moira still alive or if Laurel Lance developed the same drug problem she did in Season 2 without Tommy Merlyn's death weighing her down.


The Bottom Line

A fitting conclusion that brings everything to a happy ending for most of the supporting players, while still leaving ample room for development of many of these characters elsewhere in the Arrowverse. Some characters are given short shrift than others and some subplots remain untouched, such as Talia and Thea forming a new, heroically inclined League of Assassins. Still, the possibilities left open by Diggle and Lyla moving to Metropolis and the plot with Mia Smoak in the future offer many avenues for exploration. The Queen is dead. Long live The Queen.