Today’s stack is about time travel. Wait, didn’t that just happen last week? Maybe you’re stuck in a time loop.

Costumes for Time Travelers by A. R. Capetta

In this book, time traveling is an ability that some people just develop, usually when they enter adulthood, and they find they’re able to walk through the mists of time—though it wreaks havoc on regular footwear. Fortunately, most first-timers end up in Pocket, a little village outside of time, the only place to get time boots with specially formulated soles that can survive these temporal trips.

It’s here in Pocket that we find Costumes for Time Travelers, a shop where you can get tailor-made outfits for any time period, whether you’re visiting the Renaissance or the Industrial Collapse. Calisto is an assistant to the store’s capable owner, and when Mena takes an unexpected leave of absence, she puts them in charge of the shop. But things get turned topsy-turvy when Fawkes arrives: he’s known as the “time savant,” and he travels through time like a leaf on the wind. He seems to know Calisto already even though it’s the first time they’ve met, and there’s something dangerous following him.

Costumes for Time Travelers is a time travel romance: Calisto and Fawkes have a relationship that may be a little reminiscent of The Time Traveler’s Wife, if only because Fawkes experiences moments in his life out of order, though that’s the main similarity. Who are the people chasing Fawkes—and now Calisto—and what is their aim? The pair end up racing through different eras to escape, and I liked the way that different characters perceive and manipulate time in different ways.

Although the story is told in the third person, each chapter usually has one character as a focus—I guess it’s called third-person omniscient limited. I’ve always found that a little bit disorienting at first because I don’t realize why I’m getting one character’s inner feelings but not the others, but I don’t always catch when it shifts to another character.

The central conflict involves some pretty creepy villains and high stakes, though I don’t want to give too much away there. The romance is sweet and the characters take their time getting to know each other, even though Fawkes has already experienced some moments of their relationship in the future. It’s not a very long book, but I love the way it introduces you to Pocket, this little place tucked away outside of time.

Time Loops & Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau

This book is probably more of a traditional romance novel than most of what I usually read—I wouldn’t necessarily call it a rom-com though there are certainly humorous scenes in it, and there are also some pretty steamy and explicit scenes later in the book. But before we get to that, let me tell you about the time loop.

Noelle Tom has a fairly mundane life as a mechanical engineer in Toronto. She’s reliable (which means she gets a lot of extra work dumped on her), deliberate, and ever since a break-up with a serious boyfriend several years ago, she’s decided that romance isn’t for her. It’s too unpredictable and she’s not interested in being hurt again. But then she eats some dumplings at a strange little booth at a night market, and she wakes up to find herself stuck in a loop—and soon she’s ready to try anything to get out of it.

As she goes about different iterations of her day, she eventually wonders if what she’s supposed to do is kiss somebody—kisses are supposed to break magic spells, right? But who would she kiss? Maybe Cam, a handsome brewery owner that she keeps running into at different places. Her first few attempts at flirting with him are definitely rom-com material, but when she hits the no-permanent-consequences phase of her time loop, she’s able to start taking some risks, and eventually they hit it off.

Well, except that every time she wakes up, things have reset and Cam doesn’t remember her at all… or does he? There are little signs that maybe some of their interactions are sticking with him, and Noelle wonders if he’s somehow key to getting out of this loop once and for all.

One of my favorite parts of this book is the way it plays with the question: what happens to everyone else who isn’t stuck in a time loop? What version of the world exists once the time loop ends? In almost every time loop story I’ve seen or read before, when the time loop ends, the world continues the last iteration of the day that the protagonist experienced. This book manages to introduce an alternative that I found really fascinating. If you love time loop stories, this one is worth reading for that alone. I don’t have as much of a read on how it ranks as a romance novel, but I did like Noelle’s journey through this weird relationship with its ups and downs: getting to take risks without fearing the consequences, but also the feeling of loss every time she had to start over. (And then the opposite when the loop ends: how do you behave when you know your partner will actually remember the things you do and say?)

Oh, and if you love Asian cuisine, this book is full of it. Noelle makes several trips back to the night market, figuring that her time troubles are somehow linked to the mysterious dumplings she ate, so over the course of the book we get a smorgasbord of different dishes that she tries. There’s also a few different beers (since the brewery plays a significant role in the story), but not quite as many once she finds one that she likes.

That’s it for today. It’s a short stack because I’ve got a kid graduating from high school this week and things have been really hectic! If only I had a time machine…

Disclosure: I received review copies of these books. Affiliate links to Bookshop.org help support my writing and independent booksellers.

When Boomerang originated as a programming block on Cartoon Network in 1992, and later when the network proper launched in 2000, it was billed as a throwback to the cartoons that many of today’s geek parents grew up watching. I spent more hours in the past two decades (since legally becoming an adult in the United States) than I care to admit watching old episodes of Looney Tunes, The Flintstones, and untold numbers of Hannah-Barbera titles.

Like so many things that dad likes from his childhood, my own younglings don’t get it. Apparently, they weren’t the only ones, as Boomerang was rebranded in 2015. The network’s focus shifted to producing original programming and airing the mother-network’s hottest properties, while mining the Warner-owned archives for the family-friendly properties with the greatest name recognition and thus the most likely to turn a dollar.

Not that I’m bitter. Can’t a guy have his Thundarr the Barbarian, Samurai Jack, and Yogi Bear?

Of course, a guy can’t complain when the new programming that Boomerang has aired consists of DC Super Hero Girls and the latest property with some serious name recognition. On the heels of last fall’s “better than it had any right to be” The Peanuts Movie comes Peanuts, the series. New episodes debut all this week on Boomerang.

Unlike the theatrical release last holiday season, the new series eschews that fancy computer animation look and feel that everyone seems to be so fond of nowadays and returns to more of a hand-drawn aesthetic. Along with what my kids refer to as “that old-timey look” (said not with distaste, but a genuine awe that something that looks like it came from the Sunday paper could be this engaging) comes a traditional comic panel approach to storytelling. Scenes are delivered with the familiar statement or situation, followed by a quick elaboration of such, then a comic turn that either refutes or jokingly confirms the statement or situation, capped by a punchline. By the end of a particular episode, you’ll feel like you’ve just finished binging a week’s worth of strips straight from the funny pages.

The look and voice acting make the new series feel like some sort of bridge between the Peanuts I grew up reading and the animated holiday specials I grew up watching and The Peanuts Movie, which my whole family enjoyed. After watching the premiere off of the DVR (note: the series airs at during the day while my kids are in school, so prepare accordingly), I found my kids at the bookshelf, picking up old Peanuts comic collections that we’ve acquired from garage sales and library book sales over the years. Any program that can entertain on television and inspire the kids to pick up a book and read is a winner in my book.

Select episodes are available online at CartoonNetwork.com, with more added as they air on Boomerang.

Last week was Barry Allen week, with the Flash not only starring in his own series but popping up in on other shows like Supergirl and The Walking Dead. What, you didn’t see him on The Walking Dead? He was that one faster-than-average zombie tromping around in the background in that one scene. You know, in the woods.

Still not buying it, huh?

How about this one: right after the DC Comics multiverse, which took center stage in four series this week, which fictional universe was the second-most prevalent this week? Not Marvel. Not one full of ambulatory zombies. Still not sure? Don’t worry, we’ve called it out for you in our reviews this week. Check them out and see whether you can figure it out.

The Walking Dead (page 2)

Supergirl (page 3)

The Flash (page 4)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (page 5)

Arrow (page 6)

Legends of Tomorrow (page 7)

Welcome to the Same Geek Channel recap for the week of March 20-26, 2016. We’re trying out a new format for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that there are a lot of geeky shows on television right now (with more popping up all the time) and we wanted to present a quick recap and analysis of as many of them as possible. A lot of the discussion that takes place here at GeekDad regarding what we’re watching on TV week-in and week-out has gotten lost recently and we want to get back to capturing more of that discussion type of format. That is to say, you’re likely to find more contributors popping in and out with their thoughts on particular episodes.

This week, Will takes us through The Walking Dead and Elementary. Corrina leads the discussion on Supergirl and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Joey weighs in on The Flash and Arrow. Sprinkled throughout are comments from various contributors.

Without further ado, here are your recaps for the week:

The Walking Dead (page 2)

Elementary (page 3)

Supergirl (page 4)

The Flash (page 5)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (page 6)

Arrow (page 7)

Be sure and let us know what you think of the new format and which shows you’d like to see us tackle in the weeks to come by posting your thoughts in the comments below!

[poll id=”52″]

Eyes a little bleary after mainlining the entire second season of Daredevil this past weekend? Having trouble remembering what happened in which episode? Or, have you taken a more sensible approach and are working your way through the season at a comfortable pace, but still want to connect with others and talk about that big moment from that one episode? Whether you’ve gorged yourself on Daredevil and sit ready for Luke Cage to hit Netflix this September, or whether you’re savoring every bite of the “Man Without Fear”, you’ve come to the right place.

The first season of Daredevil ended with the title hero capturing season one big bad Wilson Fisk, better known to comics readers as Daredevil’s longtime nemesis The Kingpin, who rose to power in the wake of the destruction leveled upon New York after the first The Avengers film. With Fisk (presumably) out of the picture, and with the additions of The Punisher and Elektra, there are a lot of questions heading into the second season. How will this season build upon the groundwork laid by the first seasons of Daredevil and Jessica Jones? How will it point toward and pull together our heroes as their lives begin to converge over the course of their individual series and the upcoming The Defenders? Will any of this fit into the upcoming Civil War? Can we get back to the simple and clean aesthetic of the black costume again?

Check out the episode-by-episode recaps below, and weigh in with your comments below.

Update: We are aware of sporadic issues in certain browser with the spoiler text not expanding/loading when you click on the episode title. If you are experiencing loading issues, you can view the spoilers in a separate online document.

Tell me, what did you think of the second season of Daredevil? Share your thoughts in the comments below (and if you haven’t finished the season yet, you might want to steer clear of the comments until you are caught up, in case of spoilers).

“Close us out, Josie. We’re done here.”

Previously on Legends of Tomorrow…

With the hot-headed Mick Rory on ice (more on this later), the team tracks Vandal Savage to 1958 Oregon, where the immortal is working at a local asylum under the pseudonym “Dr. Curtis Knox”. Fun fact: Dr. Knox was first introduced to television in Smallville season seven. According to Smallville episode writer Bryan Q. Miller, Knox was intended to be Vandal Savage on that series, but the rights to the Savage character were unavailable, thus the name change. On that episode of Smallville, Knox was an immortal who lured characters given abilities from that series’ kryponite meteorites, promising to cure them of their psychoses when in fact his real goal was to harvest their mutated body parts. On Smallville, the character of Dr. Knox was played by Dean Cain, who was Superman on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Sort of like how Brandon Routh, our Ray Palmer/The Atom on Legends of Tomorrow, played Superman in Superman Returns.

What a small, incestuous world this DC universe is. Dr. Knox is not the only call-back to other DC Comics television properties on this week’s episode of Legends of Tomorrow, so let’s dive in, shall we?

The episode highlights the social prejudices of the 1950’s era. Professor Stein waxes nostalgic while Sara and Jax point out that everything is just hunky-dory, assuming one is straight, white, and male. The interaction between Stein and Sara as doctor and nurse as they are investigating the asylum points out the gender biases at the time. It was fun watching Sara spit in the face of said norms and bust Stein’s chops every chance she got. Sara’s relationship with another nurse at the hospital highlighted the sexual orientation discrimination of the 1950’s. The racial prejudices are displayed both in Jax’s sitting at the lunch counter with Betty and with Kendra and Ray pretending to be a mixed-race married couple looking to purchase a home.

While we’re talking about how the team is split up and investigating the string of disappearances and killings around town in an effort to find Savage, I have to mention Rip and Leonard Snart. Though hardly in the episode at all, seeing the two acting as G-Men investigating the local trouble was a blast. Have either of these two had a bad scene yet this season? I’m not asking whether every scene has been a winner in the writing or making sense to the plot department. What I’m saying is that the performances these two turn in week after week has been great to watch, and I hope we see more of Captain Hunter and Captain Cold together onscreen in the weeks to come.

As for those other DC television references I mentioned? The most obvious is the meteorite that is turning teenagers into hawk-creatures being the same type that gave Savage, Kendra, and the dearly departed (cough) Carter their abilities some 4,000 years prior. The other in-joke is Jax breaking the ice with Betty in the diner by suggesting that she dip her fries in her milkshake. The last time we saw this was in Arrow season three. It was Laurel Lance’s way to break the tension between herself and Nyssa al Ghul following Sara’s death. Someone on that production team likes dipping his or her fries in a milkshake. All that was missing was a sign outside the diner that this was the first Big Belly Burger.

This episode was a loving tribute to that bygone era, from the “splatter platter” style opening (Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about) to the Red Scare of aliens abducting innocent civilians to the B-movie horror monsters of Savage’s mutant army. At the same time, the writers held nothing back in their assertion that while that might have been a great time if you were born into a specific, narrow set of demographics, our society has evolved for the better.

One might ask about the state of the team at episode’s end. Ray and Kendra are closer than ever, making that inevitable reunion with some incarnation of Carter Hall that much more awkward. Jax and Stein let Snart know that working with a partner can be tough, but working without your other half can be even harder, and that they understand how hard it must have been for Snart to off Mick for the good of the team.

Snart doesn’t say a whole lot about the way things went down with Mick last episode. Early on, Jax goads Snart, saying that Snart murdered Mick. Snart doesn’t say anything to confirm nor contradict this assertion. When Rip commends Snart for his performance as a G-Man, Snart tells Rip he only had one partner “and we know how that turned out.” Not “you made me kill him.” Not “I had to kill him.” Not “he was a danger and had to be put down.” Just that knowing line, as if Mick is still out there somewhere, an ace in the hole that only Snart and Rip know about, just waiting to be brought back in as a MacGuffin somewhere down the line.

Rather than ask where this leave our teammates, it might be better to ask when this leaves our team. Chronos attacks and boards the Waverider with Rip, Snart, Jax, and Stein aboard, stranding Sara, Kendra, and Ray in 1958. With no new episodes until March 31, it’ll be a while before we get the band back toghether again. Until then, dip a fry in a milkshake (preferably your own fries in your own milkshakes, but hey, whatever) for me!

Confession: I forgot this was going to be on last night. Luckily, my DVR always remembers.

But the fact that I forgot that it was one says something about my level of excitement to have the show back. It’s my favorite of the superhero shows on regular television but it can often be emotionally distant. Its best episode, this season’s showcase of Simmons exiled on the alien planet, focused squarely on one person. Perhaps that’s the problem: my attention is diffused.

Another issue: the winter finale on December 8th wrapped up quite a few lingering plot issues. Coulson killed Ward, the hole to the other universe closed, Andrew’s hidden identity was revealed and then set free, and Bobbi finally overcame her trauma from Ward’s torture.

This episode begins in a way I’ve come to hate, one of those flash forwards of “three months from now” with a space vehicle, seemingly abandoned, falling back to Earth. The vehicle has a few objects in it that might belong to our heroes but, you know, I’m not going to speculate. I’m throwing up my arms at this whole tactic lately of every television show jumping forward so we can guess.

It’s a cheap narrative trick and I’m tired of having my chain yanked.

Instead, let’s focus on the rest of the episodes, which first picks up the plot thread of how S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to relate to the government now that ATCU is leaderless. Coulson’s meeting with the President in Rosalind’s home (still complete with bloodstains!) felt odd as if Coulson was the one in charge and not the President. I’d thought Phil Coulson as we knew would give more deference to the head of U.S. government but that might be the point: Coulson has grown more cynical about all governments. At least, he’s earned the president’s trust enough to be told S.H.I.E.L.D is unofficially sanctioned (plausible deniability) and the president pledges the new head of ATCU will report to Coulson.

Since that new head is revealed to be Glenn Talbot, I’m not sure how well that will work out. But I like the addition of Talbot, even if it makes for yet another character that receives screentime.

Still, the real action this episode centered around Daisy’s new team of Secret Avengers, er, secret S.H.I.E.L.D. Inhuman strike team. This time, they investigate the theft of a truckload of arms in Colombia stolen by an invisible person. Turns out, she’s not so much invisible as she is super-fast. Her trick: she can travel at super-speed in between heartbeats and when that’s done, she snaps back. That’s a nice limit on a power that could make a person invincible. Hence, Elena Rodriguez will be henceforth be known as Slingshot.

Elena’s scenes with Mack, after she takes him prisoner, are the best of the episode, especially since it leads to a discussion of Elena’s powers as a gift from God, even though Mack doesn’t speech Spanish and Elena doesn’t speak English, they understand well enough. Nice twist on the reaction to getting Inhuman abilities, as everyone we’ve seen thus far save Lincoln believes the powers are a curse. (Even Lincoln started to believe that.) Elena’s character is fully formed: she’s comfortable with her powers and knows what she wants to do with them. Good, because I’ve had enough of people hating themselves for not being fully human.

Also, I love Mack, he’s so nonchalant about stuff like being handcuffed to a toilet and dealing with super-powered people. He’s even-keeled and rarely loses his temper and violence is never his first reaction.

Elena is, of course, on the side of good, having hijacked the weapons shipment in order to destroy it. Bobbi and Hunter find this out the hard way when they’re knocked out by an Inhuman with some sort of eye power that paralyzes. Killer Eyes and Slingshot may have comic versions but since I haven’t read Secret Avengers, I’m unfamiliar with them, and can’t comment on if they’re better or worse.

Also getting screen time is Daisy’s new operative, Joey, the metal bender we met in the pilot. That’s some team she has, with her quake powers, Lincoln’s electricity, Joey’s metal bending, and a speedster to call on. My guess: it’s going to take all of them to defeat what’s possessing Ward. They certainly make short work of those who’ve kidnapped Bobbi and Hunter, though Killer Eyes takes down Slingshot temporarily. Unfortunately, they lose the villain to a Hydra retrieval net.

Back at Hydra, the plot focuses on what’s possessing Ward. Word is that this is a Marvel villain called “Hive” but so far, NotWard doesn’t seem too dangerous, only weak and hungry. Gideon is skeptical of his value but we’ll see. Hive certainly likes his meat raw.

In the last subplot, Fitz and Simmons are distant but polite with each other, as Fitz feels guilty about killing Will. Though that wasn’t Will, it was the Hive thing. By the end of the episode, they make up and decide to start with a clean slate. Hey, show, I love these two kids and want them to be together but you’re overdoing it with the melodrama and dragging it out too long.

Meantime, Coulson, out for revenge against Gideon, uses the memory extraction torture machine on the comatose Kid Strucker to find some dirt on Gideon. He does, the info is released to the press, and Gideon’s company stock drops. A good first move, I suppose. Later, over drinks, Coulson grieves with May, not just over Rosalind’s death but his killing of Ward in revenge. “You’ve joined the calvary,” May notes, with just the right amount of sadness in her voice.

That was my favorite scene of the night. Aha, that’s what this show needs: More Agent May.

Previously on Legends of Tomorrow…

The team is in a bad way after leaving Star City 2046. Mick is still upset with Snart for knocking him out and dragging Mick away from the home he found among Star City’s derelict buildings and dystopian gangs (or is that dystopian buildings and derelict gangs?). Rip is floundering; without a much-needed firmware update from Vanishing Point, Gideon can’t get a lock on where or when to look for Savage. Rip’s out of ideas.

So, Rip spends a week or so (how does one measure time from inside a time vortex?) replaying a holo-message from his wife and son. Rip was off being a Time Master while London burned. We know that Rip wasn’t there when Savage killed Miranda and Jonas. Where was he exactly and what was he doing?

The isolation aboard the Waverider has Mick pacing like a caged tiger. He’s ready for some action and finds it when the team receives a distress call from a disabled Time Master ship, the Acheron. Heedless of the danger in doing so, Rip takes a small team consisting of Mick, Jax, and Professor Stein to the Acheron in order to get the information that Gideon needs in order to find Savage again.

While this series is full of sci-fi tropes (superheroes travelling through time), it was nice to see the space part of space and time being addressed in this episode. What’s the point of having this big, sleek ship if all your doing is the same thing that Barry Allen and the Reverse-Flash have managed to do without any such vehicle?

The story splits us up into various small groups. The away team is immediately ambushed aboard the Acheron by time pirates who have taken the ship. After giving Gideon a set of coded verbal commands that allows the Waverider to disappear from the pirates–was that a Kanjar Ro reference in there?–Rip, Jax, and Mick are locked in the brig with the Acheron’s captain, leaving Stein to play space ranger and lead the rescue operation.

The Waverider is compromised during the attack. A hole is blown into the hull of the ship. Snart and Sara rush off to seal the hole, but are trapped in the hold while the icy repair job does nothing to stop the freeze of deep space from creeping into the ship. Snart asks Sara what it is like to die. Sara says the worst part is being alone, and even though she doesn’t like Snart, at least she’s not alone this time when she dies. Death foreshadowing… you just know with all this morbidity that someone had better pay the piper in this episode.

That leaves Ray and Kendra to find a way to seal the hole and save their teammates. Ray uses the Atom suit to venture out on a little spacewalk to repair the damage, which the suit was never designed to do. Things get dicey as Ray starts to black out from lack of oxygen, but he manages to repair the Waverider and get back aboard before going into cardiac arrest. Again, we’re facing the prospect of one of our team of legends dying, but Kendra revives Ray with a few double axe-handles to the chest. Death cheated again. There will be ramifications!

Meanwhile, Jax fails at attempting to hotwire the lock on the brig’s door. Mick tells Jax that it isn’t the kid’s fault. That blame belongs to Rip. Rip (ahem) rips into Mick, telling him that the only reason that Mick was brought on this trip was because Rip knew that it was the only way to get Snart to agree to come along. The two were a package deal.

Finally, Rip said something that makes sense. As Snart has told Sara, he is the level-headed one that balances Mick’s fury and aggression. Snart has been the one who has refused to leave a teammate behind. Snart is the one running toward danger. Snart has been the one to think on his feet and improvise a plan on the fly. Snart is the one who should be calling the shots, not the Time Master who failed to save his family, failed to save the world from Vandal Savage, and has gone rogue.

Having heard enough, Mick makes a deal with the pirates. I’ll give you the Waverider if you’ll just take me home. Mick leads the pirates aboard the Waverider while Stein leads the rescue and escape on the Acheron. Melees break out on both ships, with Rip going alone after the pirate Captain Valor on the Acheron and Mick going alone to the Waverider’s engine room to get the part the pirates need to take Mick home.

While the rescue team is surrounded by pirates on the Acheron, those aboard the Waverider fare much better. Rip manages to save Jax, Stein, and the Acheron’s Captain Baxter by using a trick that his wife taught him during their time together as Time Masters in training. On the Waverider, Ray, Kendra, Snart, and Sara deal with the invaders.

Sara reaches Mick in the engine room, where the two brawl before Mick gets the upper hand and tells Sara he’ll only kill her “a little bit”. Another death reference. Mick tries to fry Sara, but Snart gets the drop on his partner. Once Mick is locked away, the rest of the team gathers to decide what to do with him. They can’t leave him in the brig. They can’t let him wander the ship. They can’t return him to 2016, where Mick would be free to hunt down the loved ones of his estranged teammates and kill them out of spite. Snart says Mick is his partner, he’ll handle it. Stein asks if Snart is going to kill Mick, which elicits a repeat from Snart. “I’ll handle it.” Again, planting that seed that someone is going to die here, right up until the end.

The episode ends with Snart and Mick, alone, somewhere in the woods in an undisclosed place and undisclosed time. It appears that somehow, while Mick was locked in the Waverider’s brig, Snart knocked Mick out again and dragged him here. Mick tells Snart that there is no way he’ll kill Mick. That Snart doesn’t have the guts, but he’d better find some quick, because only one of them is making it out of this alive. Snart agrees with his old–maybe his only–friend, then blasts Mick with the cold gun.

Now, what to make of this scene? As laid out above, Snart’s not the kind of guy to leave a teammate behind. Even when things were bleak, Snart told Sara that he was sure that Mick was the one putting the hurt on the pirates over on the Acheron. He believes in his partner. Snart is also a master of improvisation. I swear I thought that when Mick led the pirates aboard the Waverider and Snart got them to chase him, Ray, Kendra, and Sara through the halls that it was going to be part of some plan that he and Mick had ran in the past.

Anyhow, I don’t think that Snart killed Mick. We never saw Mick killed by the cold gun. Not even hit by its frigid discharge. We were led to believe all throughout the episode that someone was going to die, and the way that the conversation went right before this scene (what to do with Mick) and the way this scene was staged, its easy to chase mindlessly after the white rabbit and believe what the writers and producers want you to believe, that Snart killed Mick, in spite of the fact that everything that has happened up to this point stands contrary to that idea.

This episode is titled “Marooned”, and it’s easy to associate that with the Acheron. I think it is just as likely that the title refers to the bigger shock/twist at the end of the episode, that Mick is now “marooned” somewhere in time by Snart in order for whatever plan Snart has pulled out of his hat to pay off down the road. It gives Mick time to cool off and “pick a side”, as Snart says.

Assuming that the scene follows directly from those before it. Again, we’re dealing with travel through space and time. We’re in a generic spot in the woods in an unspecified time. This scene could be long after, or it could even come before this episode. This might be the result of actions yet to play out in the future, or it might be Snart telling Rip to take he and Mick back to an earlier dispute in order to set things right with the team now.

Only one way to find out, I suppose…

Previously on Legends of Tomorrow…

After crashing out of the timestream, the team finds themselves stranded in Star City in the year 2046. But this isn’t the Star City that any of them remember. Ray’s name is gone from the Palmer Tech building, replaced by “Smoak.” Around them, the city burns. At least there is still a Green Arrow trying to take the city back, but that isn’t Oliver Queen under the hood.

Rip is adamant that this is just a potential future. It is not set in stone. Once the Waverider is repaired–a job he assigns to Stein, Jax, Kendra, and Ray–and Gideon is back online, they can get out of here and get on with their mission of stopping Vandal Savage. In order to do so, they’ll need a device that Ray’s company was working on back in 2016, which Felicity should have perfected by 2046. Rip has just the two for the job in Snart and Mick, but Sara isn’t going to just sit on the sidelines as the city that used to be her home falls to ruin.

Rip has been talking about being careful with changing the timeline. Sometimes, the actions you take to stop a particular outcome are the very actions that lead to that outcome taking place. To illustrate, we have Jax’s crush on Kendra. When Ray and Kendra pair off to work on the ship, Jax gets jealous and Stein can feel it, being psychically linked with the other half of Firestorm. Stein tells Jax to have a little confidence in himself.

So, Jax makes a little one-on-one time with Kendra. Meanwhile, Stein goes to ask Ray what his intentions are as they relate to Kendra. Ray tells Stein he hasn’t thought about Kendra romantically. Stein walks away satisfied, but in asking the question of Ray, Stein has inadvertently planted the seed. Now Ray is thinking about Kendra in that way, which leads to Ray asking Kendra for a drink and striking out.

If only Rip had taken his own advice. In attempting to stop Savage, thus saving his own wife and child (along with the rest of the world… that’s important, too), Rip has given Savage every piece of information and all the motivation that Savage needs to hunt down Rip’s family and kill them. Rip has created the future he is trying to avoid. Remember Savage’s words to Rip’s son in the series premiere? Savage killing Rip’s family is because of Rip’s actions to try and stop Savage.

Sara, meanwhile, is having a hard time with this version of the future. The only way Star City could wind up like this is if her sister and father were dead, which is confirmed when Sara and Rip are led to the old Team Arrow HQ to retrieve the device to reboot Gideon. How fitting that the information comes from another ghost, Oliver Queen.

(Aside: this version of Green Arrow goes by the name Connor Hawke because he doesn’t feel he’s earned the right to call himself by his real name–by his father’s name–John Diggle, Jr. Love it!)

As the repairs to the ship are underway and the device they need is secured, Mick decides that he’d rather stick around and be king of these criminal gangs that run Star City. These are his kind of people, doing his kind of work. They’re setting the fires and watching the world burn. That’s all Mick has ever wanted. Snart tries to reason with Mick. (Another aside: I really can’t wait for Snart and Mick to get back to Central City and put the Rogues together. This is the leader I want Snart to be.) Mick’s having none of it. He has found his tribe. This is home.

So, Snart knocks Mick out and drags him back to the ship.

As you can imagine, Mick’s not happy. Snart reminds Mick that one is the brains, one is the brawn. Reminds Mick that he’s had to pull him out of the fire before, and sometimes that means lying to Mick for his own good. Just when you thought “I’m lying to protect you” had run its course in these shows after this week’s The Flash and Arrow made it a point to knock it off, here comes Thursday night to suck you back down. Leaving his people behind, Mick is unmoored. He’s lost his bearings. He had found paradise and now it is gone, perhaps never to exist in the first place. It’ll be interesting to see how this affects the big man in the weeks to come.

Rip is ready to go, but Sara is not going to leave Connor and Star City in Deathstroke’s hands. If, like me, you were hoping to see Manu Bennett back as Slade Wilson, then you were likely just as disappointed as I was to find that this Deathstroke is Grant Wilson, who somehow managed to do what his father could not in taking Star City while looking like the DC version of Anakin Skywalker (or, for those who have justifiably wiped the prequels from your minds, like Kylo Ren).

Rip gives Sara the “it’s dangerous to mess with the timeline” and “this is only one potential timeline” speech, again, but Sara calls Rip on it. Rip rounded up this crew in order to do just that, to change the timeline, but only because Rip has a personal stake in it. How can he lecture them about not changing things based on their personal, selfish interests when that is exactly what Rip is trying to do.

Sara storms off to convince Ollie to jump back into the fight. Rip threatens to leave Sara. He’s not putting the mission in jeopardy in order to save this misbegotten splinter in the skin of the timeline. Rip asks if the ship is ready. Stein tells Rip that it doesn’t matter. They’re not leaving until Sara is onboard. What gain is there in stopping Savage if they have to become villains in order to do so?

This isn’t the first time Rip has been ready to throw one or more members of the team under the bus or abandon them altogether for having their own opinions, motivations, and making their own decisions. Worst. Leader. Ever. Time to promote Snart to official team captain.

In the end, Connor and Ollie work together to defeat Deathstroke while the legends fight off the thugs. Sara still feels responsible. Would all of this have happened had she and Ray stayed in Star City (or returned to Star City sooner)? She offers to stay and help Ollie regain control of the city, but Ollie tells her he has all the help he needs in John Diggle, Jr.

Rip proclaims to have seen the error in his ways. No teammate left behind–like he has done before and threatened to do again. No telling one teammate to kill another if things look dire–like he has done before. Every timeline is worth fighting for.

Until it isn’t.

Previously on Arrow…

This is the episode we’ve been building toward for three and a half seasons. Ollie’s lies and half truths come to a head. And, it costs him. Sure, he might have won this round (finally) against Darhk and HIVE, but he’s lost those he cares most about. Because he’s a habitual liar.

Darhk tells Ollie and Felicity that he has taken William. In order to release Ollie’s son, Darhk requires Ollie to not only drop out of the mayoral race, but throw his support behind Ruve. Ollie doesn’t think twice about it. He will do what Malcolm refused to do when confronted with a similar proposition. Ollie will give up position in order to protect his son.

Felicity is understandably shaken. She’s supposed to be marrying Ollie, but he can’t trust her enough to tell her that he has a son. It doesn’t get any better when the team is assembled and it comes out that Thea knew about William. So does Barry. And Malcolm.

Laurel’s pretty broken up over the information, too. Sure, there’s a lot of water under the bridge between her and Ollie since they dated. Ollie was dead. So was Laurel’s sister, Sara, with whom Ollie was cheating on Laurel. Then Ollie wasn’t dead. Then Sara wasn’t, either. Then Sara was, again. But now she’s not. Oh, and Ollie has a son by another woman he cheated with.

The team starts hunting down leads. Ollie’s search takes him to Detroit to recruit another magic user to help fight against Darhk’s magic. Vixen received her own introduction in an animated series on CW’s streaming service, CW Seed, which featured cameos and voice-over work by CW’s DC superhero regulars. If you’re interested, go check it out… but not until we’re finished here.

Thea calls on Malcolm, who is still sulking. Not about losing his hand, though that’s part of it. Malcolm is upset that he is no longer Ra’s al Ghul. Thea asks Malcolm if he told Darhk about William. Malcolm gives an “of course I did” no-answer. Funny how Malcolm went from suiting up as the Green Arrow earlier this season in order to spring Ollie from Darhk and is now one of Darhk’s right-hand men. Sorry, bad analogy, considering Malcolm’s current condition.

Which does raise one question. Malcolm loves to test people. To push them to and sometimes past their limits. The fact that he was the one who abducted William and handed the boy to Darhk reinforces that Malcolm is a bad guy. He wanted to level half of Starling City back in season one. However, Malcolm still hasn’t given Darhk a vital piece–or multiple pieces–of information. Malcolm knows that Ollie is the Green Arrow. Malcolm knows where the Arrow HQ is located and how to get inside without raising any alarms. So, what hasn’t Malcolm given that up to Darhk yet? Stealing William in order to force Ollie’s hand so that Ollie is willing to go further than he’s allowed himself to go so far since returning to Star City sounds like exactly the sort of thing that Malcolm can picture as being the correct thing to do.

Vixen is able to track William, but that operation sours when Darhk is able to Force-choke both Ollie and Vixen and make his escape. In response to the attack, Darhk calls Ollie and ups the timetable for Ollie’s speech. Drop out of the race tonight. Which Ollie does. Again, no hesitation.

Darhk doesn’t release William right away. He lets Ollie dangle a while. During that time, the team is able to figure out that Darhk must be getting his power from some sort of talisman like Vixen uses and that it must be on a ley line in order to channel that power and feed it to Darhk. When Darhk does call and arrange a drop off, the team has to choose… take Darhk’s word for it and get William back (maybe) or attack and steal the idol when Darhk is least expecting it.

The team opts for the latter. Vixen steals the idol easily enough, but Darhk is still strong enough to Force-choke the entire team assembled in his driveway. Vixen goes to Plan B and shatters the idol. Game over.

With William safe, Ollie must choose to either keep William close in order to keep him safe, as Dig suggests, or push William away so that he can have a normal childhood outside of Ollie’s orbit. Ollie chooses the latter and records a message for William, to be played after William turns 18, where Ollie explains why he had to let his son go.

Felicity wheels in. She’s heard enough. She tells Ollie that a marriage is about trust, and that she doesn’t think that Ollie knows how to trust. She understands that Ollie was forced to keep silent about William, but understanding doesn’t make it right. Nor does Ollie deciding to push William away without talking to Felicity at all about the decision. Felicity’s done with the lies, and for now at least, she’s done with the liar. That’s when Curtis’ spinal stimulator starts to work. With her first steps, Felicity gets out of her wheelchair and walks out the door without a word or a single look back.

Finally! Can we get past the “lying to protect” motivation that our heroes on these CW/DC Comics series have? I can understand (but, like Felicity, understanding doesn’t make it right) that Malcolm still thinks this way. He’s the villain. Most likely, the villain… the guy who puts someone that the team cares about in the ground near the end of this season, the guy who Ollie and Felicity realize has to be killed in order to be stopped.

It’s time for the good guys to stop acting this way. Barry and Cisco seem to have moved past this, as they couldn’t keep what they saw on Earth-2 from Joe, Iris, and Caitlin, even though they were told that doing so could be disastrous. Keeping the secret “for their protection” has proven to be more disastrous so far. Now that Ollie has lost his son, his fiancé, and what respect the rest of his team (both his campaign team and his team of heroes) has for him, maybe he’ll learn this lesson as well and I won’t have to type “Ollie is lying to protect someone he cares about” ever again.

A fella can dream!

First, know that I adore Peggy Carter with every fiber of my being. Peggy and television Jessica Jones are my spirit animals.

Peggy for so many reasons but mainly for being fearless, intelligent and compassionate; and Jessica because despite all her myriad faults, human life is sacred to her. She spends her entire season trying to make sure nobody dies. That she fails in numerous instances destroys her emotionally but it only makes her more determined to save as many people as she can. This is why I think she’s a better role model than Barry (Let’s blithely kill metahumans I don’t know) Allen and Oliver (I’ve given up killing except for all of the nameless goons who I shoot with arrows) Queen.

Saving people means something to Jessica Jones, even if she claims it doesn’t. In the same way, saving people means a great deal to Peggy Carter. Peggy doesn’t want to kill Whitney or Dottie. Whitney earns Peggy’s contempt because she’s so cavalier with human life, while Dottie has Peggy’s sympathy because she had no choice in becoming who she is. Still, both must be stopped so innocents can be saved.

With that gushing out of the way, I can now say that the television show Peggy Carter has issues this second season. I still enjoy watching, I’m still having fun, but something is missing. I could say it’s the tonal changes from one episode to the next or the love triangle but those are symptoms of the overall problem.

Peggy lacks a proper character arc.

A character arc is what you hang your season on, it’s what gives a story structure, it’s what drives the external plots. Peggy doesn’t have one and it puts a hole in the middle of the show.

Heck, the writers are aware of this hole on some level because they put in a dreamlike musical number in which Peggy is busy wondering what she wants! I suppose it was directed at her confusion about whether to supposedly choose Sousa or Wilkes (though it was Angie and Peggy who seemed to have the most chemistry) but it could have easily been meta commentary on the season too.

Hint: Peggy wants a character arc.

In the first, brilliant season, what Peggy wanted was to be accepted and valued by her co-workers in the SSR for herself, not for her connection to Captain America, and to become a whole person emotionally again. The radio show, Peggy’s investigating on her own, and her moving to the apartment complex were all connected to this. The reason Howard made such a good antagonist is that he threatened to pull her away from the respect she wanted by respecting her already. But helping Howard will help him, not help her obtain her personal goals.

This is why Peggy slapped Howard. He was a distraction from her real goal and, worse, he’d lied to her instead of providing her respect.

Hence, the line at the end, where Peggy says “I know my value” has resonance. Yes, Thompson took the credit. But Peggy doesn’t need cheers. She’s gotten what she wanted: work that she can do that will help, and anyone else’s opinion doesn’t matter now.

In season two, what does Peggy want?

Well, Thompson may be an ass, but at the beginning he’s letting her take charge of missions, like capturing Dottie. That’s all good. Her life doesn’t have any significant issues she can’t handle. Then it’s off to Los Angeles, all well and good and a fun mystery. I thought, at first, that this season would be about Peggy opening up emotionally, having come to terms with losing Steve. That’s a decent arc, if you hit the right beats. And some were hit: her first scenes with Wilkes, including the dance and the heart-to-heart talk while they were on their date worked.

But since then? The relationship is in the same place. All that’s happened is now Peggy is perhaps interested in Sousa too and she doesn’t know who to pick. (Hey, Peg, you can date two people at once, ya know!) This has nothing to do with Peggy opening herself up emotionally. Instead, it’s a trite plot device.

Want to know what the difference is being having a character arc and not having one?

Take Jarvis. In the beginning of this season, Jarvis is kinda in love with the idea of having fun helping Peggy with missions. As the season continues, he gets more and more over his head until the point where Ana is shot, and he realizes the fun adventure he wanted isn’t fun or adventure at all.

Jarvis moved from “let’s have fun,” to “it’s good to help save the world” to “doing this work can have awful consequences and what have I done.” Peggy herself outlines this character arc to Jarvis last night herself. (A little too on-the-nose, there, writers, but I understand the point.)

Peggy has gone from “I must find the truth” and “I want to help people, especially Wilkes” to….? Do you know? I don’t. What’s her endgame? Acceptance by Thompson? She has that, though he’ll always put in his own agenda first. Romance? Doesn’t seem like she particularly wants that, either.

What does Peggy want? Yes, to stop Whitney. But what does she want with her life? Okay, to do the work she’s doing. But she’s got that. What else?

I’d have loved a character arc built on Peggy trying to help Dottie overcome her programming, with the push-pull between the two women, as Dottie would no doubt carry the attraction to Peggy of being utterly independent and able to do what she wants, while Peggy has to work under self-imposed structures dominated by men. They’re mirror images and a character arc built around Peggy realizing how much like Dottie she is (remember the torture?) but ultimately rejecting methods that violate her own conscience could have been powerful.

That’s not what this season is about though.

What does Peggy want? I have no idea, Peggy has no idea, and the writers obviously have no idea.

Previously on The Flash…

So, this episode. Yeah. Where to begin?

In this television series, King Shark is not a shark (apologies to Gail Simone). He’s a man who, if his affliction is anything like his Earth-1 counterpart’s, has a mutation akin to cancer (oncologists across the world are shaking their heads in disbelief) that has made a man into a shark-like creature. What’s more, he’s escaped from the ARGUS containment aquarium where he’s been held since his last attack on The Flash, and he’s looking to finish the job.

It was good to see Lyla and Diggle make the trip to Central City. I like the way the characters from this shared television universe step in and out of one another’s stories without it being a big two-night crossover event. (Aside: I wonder if next season we’ll get a three-night mega crossover event between The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow.) Beyond the plot device of tracking King Shark for ARGUS, Diggle is here to be the one to tell Ollie–I mean Barry–to stop letting all of your survivor’s guilt weigh you down and use it to make sure that bad things no longer happen to good people on your watch. It’s a role Diggle has perfected in three and a half seasons on Arrow, and good to see him talk some sense into Barry now that he’s the one moping around.

Barry’s not the only one having issues. Wally is having a hard time getting comfortable around Barry. Barry is the golden boy, and even though Joe and Iris are accepting and loving Wally, Wally is still jealous of the years and the love that Joe and Iris gave Barry, before they ever knew that Wally existed. Wally uses King Shark’s attack on the West house to try and throw Barry under the bus in front of Joe and Iris, who know better than Wally about where Barry was and what Barry was doing during the attack. But Barry’s not exactly making things easy for Wally, either. This will be a relationship that requires watching. I’m sure we’ll eventually see them all become one big, happy family, but I’m hoping that it takes a long time to get there, not having Wally and Barry magically bond offscreen and become brothers over the upcoming break.

Caitlin, as you can imagine, is being distant after watching her latest boyfriend die. Cisco is concerned that Cait is becoming “cold” and sliding down the dark path toward becoming a villain like her Earth-2 doppelganger, Killer Frost. She’s not, of course. I mean, she’s not a metahuman, for one, and what she needs are friends who recognize that she needs to figure out how to deal with Jay’s death on her own and who will be there for her when she decides (on her own terms) that she’s ready to open up about what she’s going through.

Cisco’s concern for Cait is genuine, but, at its heart, Cisco’s concern is less about normal, non-meta Earth-1 Cait becoming a villain like her Earth-2 counterpart and more about himself. Earth-2 Cisco had all the same metahuman abilities as Earth-1 Cisco, only Earth-2 Cisco had dialed them up to eleven. Cisco is trying to do the same, to make himself more powerful, while resisting the temptation to use those enhanced powers for selfish reasons. It’s an age-old philosophical question: did the powers make Earth-2 Cisco evil, or was Earth-2 Cisco already a bad guy whose negative traits were magnified by his new powers?

Seriously, I think I remember reading Plato or Aristotle or someone pondering Cisco’s fate in Intro to Philosophy in college.

Then there’s the whole “you realize that your/his/her/mine/our Earth-2 doppelgangers are not the same people as their Earth-1 counterparts” thing. Imagine you had a twin. Imagine said twin was separated from the rest of the family and raised by another family. Let’s even say that the family who raised your twin were siblings (maybe even twins themselves) of your parents. Your twin is still not you. Your rhetorical sibling is his or her own person, making his or her own decisions based on the experiences he or she had in his or her own life, which is not your life.

I know, it’s a poor analogy, but the bottom line is that whatever choices a person on Earth-2 makes has no bearing on what their Earth-1 counterpart will choose. You know what does impact your Earth-1 friend’s choices? That friend’s life. Want to know how your Earth-1 friend will likely react in a given situation? Look at how he or she has reacted in the past. That’ll give you a better understanding of what your Earth-1 friend is going to do than by trying to compare them to a different person on a different world.

The one good thing that came out of our Earth-1/Earth-2 melodrama is that neither Cisco nor Barry could keep a secret from the people they care about for very long, even when they were told that telling Cait, Joe, and Iris about their Earth-2 doppelgangers could be disastrous. Maybe we’re done keeping secrets in order to “protect” the ones we love… at least on this program.

Everything comes to a head in an awesome water chase and fight sequence. There were so many ways this scene could have gone wrong. It would have been very easy for this to have come off as very cheesy, but it all came better than I had dared hope it would. Kudos to everyone involved in putting that action sequence together!

In the end, Barry apologizes to the team. It was Barry’s selfish decision to go back in time and try to save his mother (even though Barry didn’t try to save her once he got back there) that brought all of this down on the team. He’s right, of course. Barry doesn’t apologize specifically for a lot of the jerk moves he’s made in this season alone, but we’ll let it slide under the umbrella of this general apology. Barry’s determined that they will find a way to get back to Earth-2 and stop Zoom, somehow.

Meanwhile, back on Earth-2, the man we know as Jay Garrick, the Earth-2 Flash, is dead. The man in the iron mask is upset. So is Zoom. Whatever Zoom’s plan was, it just got a lot more complicated. Zoom unmasks for the first time. Hey, that guy sure looks a lot like Jay Garrick!

We’ve got a long time to mull over what’s going on before The Flash returns in late March. My gut reaction, just minutes after watching this episode? Jay Garrick is–was–the Earth-2 Flash. But he’s dead. Zoom is Jay’s Earth-1 doppelganger, Hunter Zolomon, who has always been Zoom in the comics. I’m guessing that Zolomon somehow obtained his speed at the same time as Barry, during the Earth-1 STAR Labs explosion. How Zolomon got to Earth-2 is beyond me at this point, but it is likely how Team Flash is going to get back to Earth-2 to stop Zoom and fulfill Barry’s promise to the man in the iron mask. With Jay dead, I expect we’ll see Zolomon playing a dual role, pretending to be Jay in order to help Barry get faster to “defeat” Zoom, while in actuality planning to take that speed for himself.

What say you all? What are your thoughts on Zoom, the man in the iron mask, Jay Garrick, and what we’ve seen so far? Join the discussion in the comments below!

Previously on Legends of Tomorrow…

This week’s episode wraps up the 1986-set double episodes. I wonder if every time we change settings we’re going to get a multi-episode mini story arc. We had three episodes set primarily in 1975 before jumping ahead to a pair of Cold War era episodes in 1986. It makes sense, I suppose, to get the most bang for your buck with sets, costumes, and guest stars. It’ll be interesting to see whether the pattern holds.

With Professor Stein, Ray, and Mick in the gulag, it falls to Rip, Sarah, and Snart to free their companions. Jax and Kendra are left on the sidelines because 1) it wouldn’t make sense to hand Savage the one person who can kill him and the other half of Firestorm and 2) because these two still aren’t very competent characters, much less heroes.

The takeaways from this episode, which really felt like it could have been edited down with last week’s episode into one really good episode instead of two overly long at times episodes, is that the team is starting to work together and see itself as a team. And who do they have to thank for that? The criminals. It’s Snart and Mick, with their thieves’ honor, that gives the team an example of how to work together. Leave no man behind. We don’t kill one of our own.

Which is Rip’s fail-safe. Again, he’s preaching at the group that he hand-selected that they have to be careful or they’ll damage history and the future. He’s ready to have Sara sacrifice Professor Stein if things get too bad. Rip isn’t the one making that call, he’s dumping it all on Sara and telling her to be the one who pulls the trigger. Rip, whose entire mission is to change the frakin’ timeline, gets upset when one or more of the others he brought along to help him change the timeline in the way that Rip wants it changed either makes a potential slip-up or they assert their personalities and decide to make the changes that they want to their own timeline.

In the end, Jax gets to come off the bench and play the hero, forcing the Soviet Firestorm to split and freeing Professor Stein. Sara’s humanity overtakes her killer instinct. Ray shows that he’s willing to take a beating for his principles and realizes that the only thing separating himself from guys like Mick and Snart is one bad day. Mick sees value in the guy who’s willing to make that sort of sacrifice for another person. Snart, meanwhile, is flexing and honing the skills that are going to make him one heck of a leader of the Rogues once he gets back to modern-day Central City.

Other than being able to fly Jax into the gulag, Kendra’s still essentially useless until she gets the ancient knife and deals Savage a killing blow. As for Rip, it seems that the more he tries to bend time to his will, the more he’s doing to create the very events that he’s attempting to rewrite. Savage has Rip’s name, his wife and son’s names, and has studied their photos. I think we all see where this confrontation is heading.

But, before we’re back in 2166, we’ve got a few more stops to make. Up next, Star City, 2046!

Whoa.

With rumors swirling about the possible cancelation of this series and with last week a bit off tonally, Marvel’s Agent Carter picked the perfect time to drop its best two episodes of the season.

By the time those two hours were finished, numerous characters were dead or injured, things got better for ghost-Wilkes, then became worse, and all the figurative playing cards had been tossed into the air, completely upending the game.

The rundown:

• Peggy broke Dottie Underwood out of jail because she needed an operative to obtain a sample of Whitney Frost’s dark matter-infected blood to stabilize Wilkes.
• Jarvis and Dottie went undercover for said sample.
• Thompson screwed up the plan by being at the party and then later by giving Peggy an ultimatum which resulted in her quitting the SSR.
• Dottie has no fear of torture devices, but she is scared of Whitney Frost.
• Whitney took over the proto-Illuminati by killing half of them via dark matter, including the husband who tried to sell her out. Don’t make the woman angry, boys, you wouldn’t like her when she’s angry. Vernon gets this memo right away.
• Wilkes used the dark matter stolen from Whitney to make himself material again with the help of a steampunk’d cage and then wasted no time at all in kissing Peggy. Carpe diem, sir!
• Sousa was beaten up because he refused to kowtow to Vernon, then was put on leave.

Oh, and did I mention that Whitney shot Ana Jarvis (!), Dottie Underwood is free again, and Whitney also kidnapped Wilkes for, well, whatever nefarious purposes she can come up with that will make her a further master of the universe.

That’s a great deal to take in, especially when a rundown of the facts is inadequate to describe the intensity of these two hours. I noted last week that Peggy has become increasingly desperate to save Wilkes, and her plan to break Dottie out of jail showed just how much she’s willing to risk for the scientist. Oh, she told Sousa that they need Wilkes to build their case against Whitney Frost and Isodyne, but I’m not buying that and neither was Sousa.

Poor Daniel Sousa. His fiancee breaks up with him because she thinks he’s still in love with Peggy, and loyalty to Peggy cost him more than a few bruises and perhaps his job, as Vernon took over the Los Angeles branch of the SSR. Plus, he almost kisses Peggy but doesn’t. Does Sousa truly love Peggy or Violet? Looks like Peggy at this point but, dude, you have to speak up about all this.

As for Thompson, I have no more sympathy for him, as he seems to have gone over to the dark side fully and is only worried that Peggy knows the true story of his military “heroism.”

But most of all, it’s Poor Jarvis. He’s pushed beyond his limits as an amateur spy, tasked with keeping Dottie in check and handling Thompson, though he cut down the latter like a champ. He performed admirably as a captive, but crumbled to pieces after Whitney shot Ana to cover her escape from the Stark mansion.

Show, if you kill Ana, I will never forgive you.

Meanwhile, the Dottie/Whitney femslash was born. ABC could create a series called “Lethal Ladies,” starring Peggy, Dottie, and Whitney as they remake the world amid consensual BDSM sequences. Too much for network television? Likely, and I’m partially joking, but I’m sure someone is working on a fanfic about that right this second.

It fascinates me that that when Whitney killed the people trying to contain her, I cheered. Sure, she’s a selfish and obsessed, but she’s also smart and capable of learning from her enemies. She’s a female, slightly more murderous, version of Howard Stark. I also dug her confrontation with Wilkes as she’s arguing that they need to join together for power and science. He never wavered from his assertion that they’re dealing with a deadly force that should be left alone. Too bad that argument was truncated by him getting hit in the head.

In short, Whitney is a villain that you sometimes want to win, and that makes her complex and interesting and, thus, makes the show better.

I’m also enjoying Whitney’s unflappable mobster boyfriend, Manfredi. Hey, “get the lady what she wants” seems to be his attitude, and that will certainly keep him alive.

But my favorite moment had to be Dottie and Peggy racing to see who could free themselves from Whitney’s restraints first.

Next up: Peggy attempts to rescue Wilkes, find Dottie, take down the corruption in the government, all the while recovering from a rebar hole in her abdomen. Oh, and an atomic bomb might go off.

If this is the final season of Agent Carter, it’s going out full-speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.

Previously on Arrow…

I’m going to eschew the usual recap-and-review format to address the elephant in the room. One of the big issues I’ve had with this shared TV universe, between Arrow and The Flash in particular, Legends of Tomorrow to a lesser extent (so far), and I guess Supergirl now that the crossover is scheduled, confirming that National City isn’t that far from Central City and Star City, is this idea that people–traditionally the men in the leading and supporting roles–are justified in their lying and secret-keeping in order to protect those fragile women and children in their lives.

Ollie has been doing so from day one of his return to Starling City. He has lied to everyone on the team (let’s call it “everyone on the show that he’s interacted with”) at one point or another to varying degrees. Why? Because keeping secrets from the ones we care about is supposed to keep them safe. And by “safe” we mean Moira being killed by Slade Wilson, Thea getting stabbed by Ra’s al Ghul, Felicity being paralyzed, Sarah being killed, Lyla being abducted, the whole team being gassed by Ra’s al Ghul, Diggle being put in harm’s way time after time… the list goes on and on.

Ah, but he’s a secret vigilante. That’s violent work. Okay, let’s take a look at Barry Allen. He spent the entirety of season one lying to Iris (with Joe implicit in the deception), then spent the first half of season two lying to Patty Spivot (even though she figured out Barry’s secret and called him on it). Why? Because the weaker… uh, fairer sex needs to be protected from the boogeymen in the world.

So, what’s with this “noble sacrifice” crap that the teams behind these shows are shoving down our throats? You’d have thought that Quentin would have had enough of this line of thinking after working for HIVE in order to secretly protect Laurel earlier this season. But no, this episode is about Quentin lying to Donna to protect her. Ugh… I think I’m going to puke.

To her credit, Donna calls Quentin’s BS and ends their relationship. You see, she’s not some young, doe-eyed object of the hero’s affection. She’s a grown woman who’s made her living on the Vegas strip. She’s been hurt and she’s done what she’s had to in order to raise her daughter the best way she knew how in a single-parent home. In Donna’s words, her BS detector is well refined and if Quentin can’t resepct her enough to tell her the truth, then she doesn’t need him.

By episode’s end, Quentin comes clean and tells Donna everything. Not just that he was lying to protect her because he’s on HIVE’s hit list, but everything. How he worked for HIVE in order to protect Laurel. All of it. And Donna forgives Quentin, because she’s a grown woman who’s learned to forgive when the person you care about asks for forgiveness and means it.

Then there’s Ollie…

How many times over the course of the episode did we hear about how wonderful Ollie and Felicity’s relationship is? Because Ollie has someone he doesn’t have to keep secrets from. Because Ollie would never keep secrets from Felicity. Over and over. We all know where this is heading, even before Greg moved his head and we got the sneak peak at next week’s episode.

Surprisingly, Ollie didn’t try to hide the truth from Thea once she did a little digging into Ollie’s past. Yeah, he had lied to Thea about Samantha and the million dollar check earlier in the episode, but when confronted with the truth, Ollie owned up to it. But, we all know that if Thea hadn’t dropped it in Ollie’s lap that he would have kept on denying the truth.

What’s worse is that, like Joe West told Barry Allen, Thea tells Ollie that he is doing the right thing by lying to protect the ones he loves. Really? And in trying to get Donna and Quentin back together, Felicity says essentially the same thing to Donna. Maybe Quentin is lying to protect Donna. That would be okay, wouldn’t it? It’ll be interesting to see whether Felicity still thinks it’s okay to withhold life-changing information from the one you love when she’s on the receiving end of Ollie’s silence about his son, William.

I understand that Ollie is supposed to be a broken person. We know that he’s not good at healthy, adult relationships. But, in the show’s fourth season, he’s supposed to be trying to do things differently. He’s not a killer (unless the plot needs him to be). He’s out in the open, fighting for Star City in the light of day. It’s time for Oliver Queen to grow up and start trying to be a better person toward those he cares about.

And there has never been an excuse to make Barry Allen into an Ollie-lite jerk.

One last gripe with the episode before we get to all the awesomeness… I get that the innuendo-laden conversations between Ollie and Ruve are supposed to be little winks to us, reminding us that Ollie knows more about Ruve than she does him. He’s trying to rattle her. That’s all fine, but seriously, he might as well walk up to her, shake her hand, and introduce himself as the Green Arrow. He’s not that subtle, but apparently she’s not that bright not to have put any of this together. Where’s Patty Spivot to figure things out when you need her?

Don’t get me wrong. There was a ton of good stuff in this episode. Exploding glitter bombs as wedding announcements. Malcolm having worked his way into the HIVE’s braintrust. Darhk having William stay with his family for a while. A team that fights with sledgehammers and nail guns. Top-notch stunt and fight camera work and choreography, from the scene early in the episode with the team tailing Ruve’s car to the melee in the debate hall. The line, “Curtis, you’re terrific.” So much goodness here that, unfortunately, is dragged down under the weight of the same issues over and over again.

Here’s hoping that Ollie and the rest of the team learn their lesson about telling lies and keeping secrets next week when Darhk reveals that he has William. If not, then at least we’re going to get Vixen called up from CW Seed to prime time.

Previously on The Flash…

The two-part sojourn to Earth-2 wraps up with this week’s episode. On Earth-1, Caitlin, Jay, Iris, and Joe have their hands full as they deal with rampaging metahuman Geomancer, try to reverse the effects of Velocity-6 that are slowly killing Jay (made worse by last week’s Velocity-7), and get the breach stabilized before time runs out on the away team.

Geomancer calls out the new Flash, testing Jay’s capabilities by collapsing a building in the heart of Central City. Cait has worked her way up to Velocity-9 (pardon me while I fanboy squee… SQUEE! Okay, I’m back) and Jay injects himself without a second thought. Not only does Velocity-9 provide Jay with the superspeed he needs to save all three–count them, three–people in the building, but it seems to be kick-starting Jay’s own regenerative abilities, which reverse the poisoning effects of Velocity-6.

While Jay grabs a power nap, Geomancer heads to STAR Labs (I can’t be the only one who remembers Cisco bragging about the new security system he installed in the season two premiere, can I?) and threatens Cait and Iris. The two flee, but Geomancer catches up to them and seemingly knocks Cait out, only to be shot with the boot that Cisco designed and introduced in the season premiere. It sure is starting to feel like season two is circling back around upon itself, doesn’t it.

Geomancer’s attack has destabilized the breach, again. With only a minute to spare, Joe flips the switches on the rings that look a whole lot like the transporters that Phineas & Ferb built (which, in turn, resembled oversized hoop earrings) while Jay burns up the rest of the Velocity-9 in his system by creating a vortex around the unstable breach to keep Joe from getting sucked over to Earth-2.

While the Earth-1 team is playing beat-the-clock, the away team on Earth-2, frankly, doesn’t act like they’re all that rushed. I mean, Barry-1 just spent the better part of a day impersonating Iris-2’s husband. Now that Barry-1 is locked away, Zoom is hunting for Wells so that Wells can finish extracting Barry-1’s speed, then Zoom can kill the whole lot of them and go on about his business of terrorizing Central City.

Zoom seems to be doing a good job of that without Barry-1’s speed. He’s going to a lot of trouble when there is no one left alive besides Barry-1 who has any sort of superspeed, thus potentially posing a threat to Zoom’s reign of terror.

While waiting for Wells, Cisco, Iris-2, and Barry-2 to come to his rescue, Barry-1 burns up his time in captivity by trying to figure out what the man in the iron mask is banging out on his cell wall. Between Barry-1 and Jesse, they figure out that the masked man is tapping out “J-A-Y”. Barry-1 tells the masked man that Jay is alive, but not on Earth-2. The masked man is visibly upset, but we’re never explicitly told what it is that Barry-1 said that upset the masked man.

At this point, the question of Who is Zoom? is less interesting than the question Who is the Man in the Iron Mask? What was it about the message “J-A-Y” that the masked man was trying to tell Barry-1? Give us your theories on one or both of these in the comments below!

Zoom cuts off the exchange between the prisoners before we can gain any clarity. Zoom phases into Barry-1’s cell, smacks him around a little bit, then phases back out. Only then does Barry-1 get the idea that maybe he should try using his superspeed to attempt to phase out of his cell.

Worst. Hero. Ever.

The rescue party is tired of waiting for Zoom to hunt them down. Cisco and Wells free Barry-2 and fill him in on everything that has gone down in season two thus far. Like I said, they don’t seem to be too worried about Jay, Cait, and crew on Earth-1 closing the breach after 48 hours and leaving them stranded on Earth-2. Barry-2 then repeats the story to Iris-2. Plus, I’m pretty sure they all stopped somewhere for Big Belly burgers. Who’s watching the clock?

After a brief confrontation with Killer Frost, Cisco convinces her to take them to Zoom’s lair. Cait-2 agrees and leads them to the prisoners, where Jesse is freed. Great for Wells and Jesse, not so great for Barry-1, who hasn’t been able to phase through his cell because he didn’t believe in himself enough (oh, so it’s not a physical issue, it’s a spiritual one. Huh.) and the man in the iron mask. Barry-1 tells the rescue team to get out of there, which makes sense, what with a murderous speedster on the loose, but Barry-2 tells Barry-1 that he didn’t trek all the way up to Zoom’s lair in a pair of loafers just to leave Barry-1 behind.

So, Barry-1 forgot he could use his powers to phase through matter until he saw Zoom do it. And, even though he overcame his self-doubt carried into the season two premiere (from letting Ronnie die while closing the wormhole) and his self-doubt after Zoom roughed Barry-1 up back on Earth-1, it took Barry-2’s little speech for Barry-1 to believe in himself enough to finally phase through his cell. Is this really the hero who gives the people of Central City hope? I think I’m starting to side with Iris-1’s new editor at the newspaper. Not only is Barry-1 a jerk, but The Flash-1 is kind of a chump.

Zoom returns home and pulls a Bill Cipher. The only one that can hope to match Zoom’s speed is here, along with everyone Zoom needs in order to pull the last bit of speed out of Barry-1. Wells tries to bargain. Zoom only needs Wells and Barry-1. Zoom agrees. The rest can be killed now, starting with Jesse, who was only being kept alive to ensure Wells’ cooperation. Though, if Zoom kills Jesse now, what does he have left to ensure that Wells does follow through and steal Flash’s speed? For all his sinister plotting, Zoom’s no better at this whole “master plan” thing than the rest of these guys and gals.

Cait-2 lets it go and blasts Zoom with her frozen abilities, buying the team enough time to get out of there and back to STAR Labs, but not enough time for Barry-1 to save the man in the iron mask. Barry-1 swears that he’ll come back and rescue his fellow POW, but exactly how or when he plans to do that after they close the only remaining breach between the two worlds is beyond me.

Barry-2 and Iris-2 head to Atlantis to lay low until this whole Zoom thing blows over. Cisco and Jesse head through the breach and into Earth-1, literally at the last minute. How fortuitous! Now, how did they get through without a speedster to take them through, again? Fuzzy sci-fi logic is one thing, but keep it consistent, people!

Barry-1 is ready to take Wells through the breach, but Zoom is thawed out and has Wells in his clutches. Wells injects Zoom with something–presumably the slowing serum–and Barry-1 whisks the two through the breach. Barry yells for Jay to throw the football and close the breach. Jay does, the breach begins to collapse, and everyone cheers. Except for the man in the mask banging away in his cell. Who’s going to rescue him now?

For some reason (inconsistent sci-fi logic), the breach doesn’t slam closed like all the others did. And, for some reason, Jay is standing right next to it with his back to the only hole in the room where Zoom can still reach into Earth-1. Why not, right? What could possibly happen?

So, Flash fans, here we sit. Supposedly, the breaches are closed and the two earths are sealed off from one another. Jay’s back home, assuming he survived the hand through his chest. The man in the iron mask is still in his cell. Cait, has lost another fella. Wells and Jesse are on Earth-1 with no way to easily slip into the general population, since Earth-1 Wells-who-wasn’t-Wells was a public figure and is deceased. But, we have Velocity-9, Jesse Quick, Wally West, and writers who are playing fast and loose with their own established laws of sci-fi physics, so there’s no telling where we’re going with the rest of this season.

But we do know who’s returning… ba dum. Ba dum. Ba dum ba dum ba dum ba dum!

Previously on Legends of Tomorrow…

This is a team in shambles, and that’s before half of them get captured by Soviet military scientists in 1986. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. The team blasts to Washington D.C., 1986. That’s the year that Mikhail Gorbachev introduces the world to the terms glastnost and perestroika. But before that, the Soviet Union welcomed Vandal Savage with open arms on the promise of building a weapon that would end the Cold War.

At the Pentagon, the mission to extract the secret files on Savage’s whereabouts sours. Stein and Jax bicker like… well, like an affluent, geriatric white man talking down to a young, black man. Alarms blare. Sarah and Kendra are stopped by military police. Kendra busts out the wings and red eyes (that’s new), then proceeds to make Sarah’s bloodlust look like nothing more than a blood-common-cold.

Back aboard the Waverider, blame is doled out. Ray urges the group to look at the positive (Mick: “Yeah. That was awesome.”). Now that they know where to find Savage, they can find out what the immortal warlord is up to and put an end to it.

We’ve got our mission. Roll that Legends theme music and logo.

In addition to dealing with whatever Savage has up his sleeve, Chronos and the headmaster from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Timemastery track the team to Russia and make Rip an offer. Turn yourself in and you’ll be pardoned for your time crimes. The members of the team will be returned to their homes. Mick tells Rip that it’s obviously a set-up, and he’s right. Rip, Mick, and Firestorm push back, forcing Chronos and the Time Master to retreat.

Their victory (if you can call it that… the Time Master and the bounty hunter are still out there) comes at a cost. Jax is injured, because he doesn’t really have a role on this show other than being the other half of Firestorm. Jax plays the “I didn’t agree to come along” card, even though he has continued to agree to go along with this plan to save the world in every episode since being roofied, so that made zero sense.

While we’re revisiting whiny character motivations, let’s talk about Kendra’s use (again) of the “two weeks ago I was a barista” complaint every time she’s asked to do something outside of her comfort zone. She has to be one of the most irritating characters on television right now. Even going feral didn’t improve her station all that much, especially when she is nearly killed by Sarah during their first training exercise.

I understand that the unspoken need is for someone to whip Kendra into an immortal-killing warrior priestess by the end of the season, and yes, Sarah is the best candidate to be Kendra’s Master Shifu. I understand that these two are yin and yang; one the barista who needs to become a warrior and one a warrior who needs to overcome her homicidal tendencies. I know these things, and they make rational sense, but they don’t feel right. I prefer Sarah in Black Widow mode, like she has been in the 1975. Not burdened with Kendra.

On the flip-side, Snart and Ray are a yin and yang pair that works infinitely better onscreen than Sarah and Kendra. Snart is smooth and confident. Cold and calculating. But not so cold that he’d willingly leave a friend or teammate behind. Ray is still the young labrador pup who piddles on the rug when he gets excited. The kind that’s never met a stranger. Anytime these two share screentime–which they’ve done a lot in the first four episodes–you have some of the best scenes in the episode.

Please, pull Sarah off of Kendra duty and let her run with Snart and Ray for a while.

To wrap up the first half of this two-parter, Professor Stein infiltrates the lab where Savage has Valentina Vostok working to create an army of Soviet Firestorm soldiers. Stein is able to remove the lab’s thermal core, but in doing so gets himself, Ray, and Mick captured and sent to the gulag. As Ray might say (if he hadn’t eaten the stock of a Soviet rifle), look at the positives. At least we still have Kendra and the useless half of Firestorm!

Be sure to check back next week when Sarah, Snart, and Rip save the captives while Jax and Kendra argue over which of them is the most irrelevant to the series. (Psst… it’s Jax. Kendra has to be the one to kill Savage, so she’s got that going for herself. Which is nice.)

Previously on Arrow…

As the episode title states, this week’s episode of Arrow is all about the daddy issues. Picking up where we left off last week, Felicity’s absentee father is in town as the hacker villain The Calculator. Over coffee, Noah tries to convince Felicity that he isn’t the bad guy that Donna has painted him to be. He abandoned his family rather than make them run from the police and the FBI with him. In fact, he has a thumb drive with jobs he’s pulled that proves he only does bad things with good intentions.

Felicity really wants to believe her father. Who can blame her? But Felicity is wiser now. She guards her optimism. Spending three years as part of a vigilante team does that to a person. If only I could tell you about the years I spent–well, nevermind that. The point is that Felicity devises a test to find out just how trustworthy her father really is. She gives dear old dad a tour and unrestricted access to the innovations at Palmer Tech. Data that pops plans to steal.

In the end, even though it will cost her any potential future with the man who exited her life once already, Felicity turns her father over to the police. It’s the right thing to do, but Ollie warns Felicity that closure never comes quickly and easily when dealing with family.

Well, that’s all for this week. Glad you stopped by, be sure to check back next week when–

Hmm? What’s that? Oh, yeah, I nearly forgot about the rest of the storylines in this week’s episode. Thanks for reminding me.

Nyssa al Ghul made her return to Star City last week, offering a magic potion that can save Thea from the bloodlust that is slowly killing her. All Ollie has to do is kill Malcolm, take the ring passed down from Ra’s al Ghul to Ra’s al Ghul that Ollie gave to Malcolm, and name Nyssa the new Demon’s Head.

Ollie racks his pretty but not to bright head trying to think of a way to save Thea that results in preventing a civil war within the League of Assassin, keeps both Nyssa and Malcolm alive, and saves Thea’s life. Like Felicity, Ollie requires proof of Nyssa’s claim that the lotus will save Thea. Unlike Noah’s spectacular failure, Nyssa comes through with a sample of the elixir, which temporarily halts the spreading bloodlust and momentarily heals Thea.

Even though she’s unconscious most of the episode, Thea has a whole other set of daddy issues of her own. Let’s not forget that Malcolm used his daughter to kill Sarah (Laurel’s sister and Nyssa’s main squeeze). That put Thea in Ra’s al Ghul’s crosshairs, which led to her being injured, then restored in the Lazarus Pit, which had side effects that threaten her life now.

For his part, Ollie lost his father when Robert Queen sacrificed himself in order to prolong Ollie’s life in the hope that the son would one day atone for the sins of the father. While the rest of the usually less extreme team doesn’t understand Ollie’s reluctance to kill Malcolm in order to save Thea, Ollie explains that this isn’t about right versus wrong. It’s about family. He’ll not be the one to strip Thea of any chance at a real relationship with Malcolm by killing the guy who tried to level the poorer parts of Starling City who is now the leader of the frakin’ League of Assassins!

Ollie tries to negotiate a deal. He tries to reason with Malcolm. He tries to understand why keeping power is more important to Malcolm than saving his daughter. Malcolm surprises Ollie by asking Ollie whether he would really lay his bow at Damien Darhk’s feet and sacrifice the city in order to save William, Ollie’s son in Central City that no one is supposed to know about. Because Malcolm says that’s exactly the type of thing that Ollie is asking Malcolm to do.

Laurel (who, surprisingly, is spared the daddy issues in this episode) tries to reason with Nyssa. Laurel tells Nyssa that this obsession that Nyssa has isn’t who she is. It’s who Nyssa’s father was. Laurel tries to get Nyssa to cry off her crusade and save Thea, but Nyssa won’t stop until either she or Malcolm lies dead.

There is the set up for the big rooftop showdown between Nyssa and Malcolm. The two are about to engage in their duel to the death when Ollie invokes his right as Nyssa’s illegitimate husband to stand her champion in the fight. Ollie shows that there is always another option by slicing off Malcolm’s hand, taking the ring, and giving it to his wife.

Rather than be a slave to her father’s old way, Nyssa disbands the league and melts the ring. Like Felicity, it is time to put the past behind her and move forward, unbeholden to the ghost of her father’s misdeeds. Malcolm, on the other hand, seethes at Ollie before giving a vital piece of intel to Damien Darhk… the name of Ollie’s son.

Which brings us back to this season’s big questions. We’re only, what, three months or so from the graveside that we’ve been flash-forwarding to since the season premiere. Who’s in the grave? What happened to Felicity’s engagement ring, especially since the pair are talking about hurrying the wedding along in order to take advantage of the lull in HIVE-related action? After turning over a new leaf and refusing to give in to his hatred, who is it that Ollie has to kill to avenge that death?

Sound off on your latest theories in the comments below!

This was an odd episode of Agent Carter. I enjoyed it but the tonal switches from slapstick to tragic didn’t quite work.

Peggy was definitely one for the crazy plans tonight. However, I see that as a result of her desperation to help Wilkes. She’s already lost Steve. She’s not going to lose anyone else she cares about, particularly when she feels responsible for Wilkes’ condition.

Still, the show veered too far into quirky and ended up being shallow rather than fun in spots. It also tossed out some huge plot contrivances that were difficult to swallow. After last week’s intense torture sequence the humor was appreciated but in the smaller doses that have worked best for the show.

BEWARE SPOILERS BELOW.

Nominally, this episode is about a heist, as Whitney Frost discovers that she needs to recreate the atomic explosion that originally resulted in the creation of dark matter. Hence, Peggy & her intrepid crew have to steal the nuclear material from the closest atomic bomb before Whitney has a chance to steal it for herself.

Whitney had perfect delivery with her oh-so-logical request for the atomic bomb. Priceless.

Other highlights tonight:

• Peggy deciding to take Rose on the mission to steal the bomb parts from Roxxon. Female solidarity for the win and Peggy calling out Sousa for sounding like Thompson was icing on the cake that was Rose’s first field operation. Yes, I know Rose in the field kicking ass is pure wish-fulfillment. Ask me if I care. I do not. Go Rose. You stand in for every underappreciated and overlooked woman ever.
• The lab sequence, with Dr. Samberly sounding just as under-appreciated as Rose. This show respects the smart people: Howard, Wilkes, Whitney and SSR’s version of M, Dr. Samberly. Even Jarvis has science skills.
• Yes, Peggy invading the office of Roxxon President Hugh Jones–the ‘previously on’ keyed us into his appearance ins season 1– was funny, especially her use of Dr. Samberly’s two-minute memory-wipe zapper and her American accent. But, like most of the humor tonight, the scene went on a bit too long.
• Whitney’s reaction to Peggy’s appearance at Roxxon. Not anger, not shock, but impressed. Peggy is now creating a legion of villain fangirls, to judge by the previews for next week when Dottie shows up again.
• Whitney’s mafia boss boyfriend. Again, great hidden menace and some nice awkward conversation between the husband and the boyfriend. The swap to violent rage would have worked except it happened in such a public place. It’s too much for me to believe there would be zero repercussions to such an outburst.
• Best outfit of the night? Peggy’s red and blue ensemble to crawl through air ducts.

Previously on The Flash…

What an episode! How much fun was it to see Barry and Cisco as tourists on Earth-2? So much flip-flopped goodness to discuss and what it might mean for these characters going forward into the rest of this season and beyond… let’s jump right into it.

Picking up where last week’s episode ended, Barry, Cisco, and Wells-2 close down all of the remaining breaches except for the one in STAR Labs. With only one doorway between worlds, the three head into the breach. There were so many images coming at the team from inside the breach that I’m going to need to go back over that scene again in slow motion. I know I saw Supergirl in there, which makes sense given the recent announcement of an upcoming The Flash/Supergirl crossover episode coming in March. Who else did you see? Leave your answers in the comments below.

Update: Okay, here is what I saw in the breach.

Using the one remaining portal caused a portal energy overload, leaving the away team trapped on Earth-2. Jay could get right on fixing the device that he built to stabilize the portal in the first place, but there are other issues. A new metahuman calling himself Geomancer is calling out the Flash, but Barry is trapped on Earth-2.

Joe suggests that Jay take another shot of the Velocity 6 serum he used to extract the bullet Patty shot into Wells-2 back before the holiday break. Jay comes clean with Cait; he wasn’t content just being fast as Flash-2. Jay wanted more speed. So, he began taking Velocity 6, but that is what has poisoned him. That is what sapped his speed and is slowly killing Jay.

Off-screen, Cait whips up an improved version of the serum (because it would be wrong if we ever actually saw her doing something), named Velocity 7, which Jay takes and uses to scare off Geomancer before crashing, both literally and figuratively. Back to the drawing board, Cait.

Meanwhile, on Earth-2, Barry abducts his doppelganger from CCPD-2 and poses as Barry-2 in order to gain intel on where to find Zoom and rescue Jesse. Like Jay and Cait back on Earth-1, Barry has a hard time staying focused. On Earth-2, Barry-2 and Iris-2 are married. Joe-2 can’t stand Barry-2 and blames Barry-2 for Iris-2 being a cop on the front line in the war against Zoom.

What are the odds that Barry, when he returns to Earth-1 (and you know he will) uses this as some sort of rationale in his mind to attempt to start a romantic relationship with Iris? We’ve had the newspaper byline from the future last season and now the Barry-2 and Iris-2 coupling in this episode. How much longer until Barry and Iris hook up?

This peek into the life of Barry-2 gives us all sorts of twists and inversions on the characters we know. On top of Iris-2 being “Detective West”  and Joe-2 being a lounge singer at Jitters, we see Hank Hewitt-2 as a seemingly normal and totally not flaming-with-the-fury-of-Firestorm scientist working at STAR Labs, a name drop of Mayor Snart, Captain Singh-2 as a criminal brought in for booking, and our old friend from Arrow, Floyd Lawton-2, as a Barney Fife-esque version of “Deadshot.”

But that’s not where the fun ends. Enter a pair of Zoom’s hench-metas. Cait-2 is Killer Frost and Ronnie-2 (welcome back, Robbie Amell… it’s been cameo season this past couple of weeks on The Flash and Arrow) is Deathstorm, who has Professor Stein-2 all locked away in their shared headspace. The pair is looking for whoever came through the breach.

These cameos were a lot of fun, but leave me wondering something… what is the relationship between Earth-1 and Earth-2 doppelganger? They’re not opposites; not every good guy on Earth-1 is a bad guy on Earth-2 and vice versa. Every meta from Earth-2 that we’ve met is a villain to some degree, regardless of whether their Earth-1 doppelganger is not a meta (Cait, for example) or is a meta (like Ronnie). The only exception is Jay, whose Earth-1 doppelganger is a man by the name of Hunter Zolomon, which is familiar to fans of The Flash comics.

Iris-2 attempts to arrest the two, which gets Joe-2 killed. Barry speeds the villains away before beating a hasty retreat to STAR Labs-2, where Cisco is having no luck getting his abilities in tune with Earth-2’s vibration frequency. Wells-2 tells Barry that now that Zoom’s cronies know that Barry is here, Zoom will kill Jesse, then Barry and the rest of the gang. Barry doesn’t care about that. Right now he needs to be with Iris-2 and Joe-2, even though–as Wells-2 points out–they are not the Iris and Joe that raised, loved, and cared for Barry back on Earth-1.

Barry convinces Iris-2 to take Cisco with her and Deadshot-2 to take down Killer Frost and Deathstorm. Cisco can neutralize Frost’s powers. (Not sure what they were going to do about the flying, nuclear-powered guy with her.) But Frost and Deathstorm aren’t working for Zoom. They’re working for someone else who is working for Zoom.

Cisco rightly calls out his Earth-2 doppelganger, Reverb, for attempting to turn Cisco to the dark side, using the “together we can destroy Zoom and rule Central City” mind trick. Cisco resists, but shows a crack in that resistance when he sees how Reverb has mastered his/their powers. Cisco wants a piece of that action.

Barry shows up in time to save Cisco and Iris-2–I’m not sure about Deadshot-2, he took a pretty good hit–but is beaten down by Deathstorm and Reverb. Cait tells them to stop, that their orders from Zoom were to apprehend but not harm Barry. Zoom enters and shows his displeasure by killing both Ronnie-2 and Reverb, killing Cisco-2 in the same way that the Reverse-Flash killed Cisco last season. Cait-2 is left alive and mourning Ronnie while Zoom speeds Barry away to Zoom’s version of the STAR Labs metahuman prison.

So many questions. Will Cisco turn to the dark side in an attempt to increase his powers? Will Barry be able to save Jesse, or is she toast now that Zoom has Barry? Will Jay get his speed back? Who was the man in the iron mask that Zoom was holding captive? Will we ever get to hear Joe’s golden pipes again?

Finally, we take another turn at the Who’s Zoom? guessing game. Let’s start with eliminating those who we know can’t be Zoom. Not Jay nor Wells-2. Not Barry-2 (I had my money here). Not Joe-2 nor Iris-2. Not Cisco-2 nor Ronnie-2.

That leaves a whole lot of doppelgangers still on the table. Another popular theory is Henry Allen-2, but it sounds from Barry’s phone call with his Earth-2 mother that Henry-2 and Nora-2 are living a simple, non-meta life. Doesn’t completely eliminate Henry-2, but makes it seem unlikely. Smart money is now looking at either Wally West-2 (we know Wally-1 does like his speed) or someone whose Earth-1 doppelganger we haven’t met or is inconsequential to the Earth-1 story.

Who knows, Zoom could be Vandal Savage-2…

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