Taking Flight: Supergirl Episode 308, "Crisis on Earth X, Part 1"

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Submitted by S.J. Mitchell on Tue, 11/28/2017 - 14:20

Team Flash

Episode one of this year's Crossover event kicks off with a true contribution by SUPERGIRL, whereas last year it was practically an end credits scene. Let's see how it played out...

Right off the bat we are aware that Earth-X is run by Nazi's as we are shown a glimpse of a city adorned in banners that display the twisted cross. Dirigible's fly across the cityscape. An evil version of Arrow breaks into a facility while killing everyone in his path, including this world's version of Vigilante. It's shown, from the beginning, that Nazi's are ruthless killers who will stop at nothing to remain in power.

Jumping to Central City, barry is in the middle of a fight with King Shark as Iris contacts him about another problem that's developing.

Their wedding! It seems the caterer's need a final head count and not everyone has RSVP'd yet! There's nothing like a little wedding talk, while Barry is fighting for his life, to remind us that it's still going to be a little light-hearted in nature.

Quick jump to Arrow and we get much of the same. Felicity contacts him about something important and downplays the fact that he's in deadly combat with ninja's. Once again, it's about Barry and Iris' wedding. Are they going?

I would like to think that Oliver and Felicity wouldn't need to wait until the last day to give Barry and Iris a head's up. For the sake of keeping everything 'fun', their procrastination provides a moment of levity.

Then we jump to England, circa 1183, where the Legends are battling King John's soldiers. While in the midst of combat, they discuss RSVP'ing to Barry and Iris' wedding. I sense a theme developing here.

Thankfully, Supergirl strayed from the running gag as she beats down a Dominator and left it laying unconscious in the street. Through the entire fight, not a single mention of the wedding was uttered. But something else stood out to me that didn't seem right. Is the DEO sending in a cleanup crew? It's a small thing, but it would've been nice to hear J'onn say, "Good job Supergirl. Winn, dispatch a team to extract the Dominator before it wakes up."

Unless she killed it, but that seems even more out of character than just leaving an alien laying in the street, unconscious.

This is a Four-Part crossover, so I'm willing to accept the fact that time constraints limit unnecessary exposition. They want to introduce all the players quickly for people who may be tuning in just for this event. Then again, Kara quickly gives us an update on her and Alex's relationship status in a re-cap for those who haven't been following Supergirl.

One of the big problems with a crossover such as this, is not everyone is watching all four of The CW's shows. So, in order to use certain characters, time needs to be spent on their current status within the context of the show they're in. After all, they don't want to alienate their viewers <insert rim shot>.

Rather than wallowing in self-misery about Alex's breakup and Kara's love interest being married to someone else, Kara makes the decision to attend Barry and Iris' wedding. With Alex. Using it as the motivation to get off the couch and enjoy themselves, Kara uses a remote control to open up a breach. Why bother creating a way for them to be in the same universe, when it's only the click of a button away right?

During the girls manicures, one thing stood out to me. I could be reaching here, but sometimes dialogue gives us a little insight on things to come. It was mentioned that Iris was 'glowing', but then quickly re-phrased because 'only pregnant women glow' and Iris wasn't ready for that yet.

Now, rewind to when Barry was ejected from the Speed Force. Didn't he ramble on, at one point, about needing more diapers? We know that Barry is fast, but come on!

The re-caps continue as they quickly touch on the fact that Professor Stein wants to discontinue his connection to Jackson so he can rejoin his family. Jackson feigns joy, as Wells and Cisco provide them with a serum to do it. While it still needs to undergo some testing, Stein appears hopeful that this will work. If you've been following along with Legends of Tomorrow, you'll know that there's a potential replacement in the not too distant future.

Returning to Earth-X we discover that while the technology that was stolen is very powerful, there's no guarantee it'll work. As a parallel to the Firestorm serum, some testing needs to be done; only in this case it's to make sure the rebels didn't set a trap for them.

The best line of the entire episode goes to Jackson. When Professor Stein is explaining to him what he 'cooked up', based on the serum he was given, he spoke like any scientist does on these shows - using a lot of big words. Jackson's response echoes what we're all thinking:

"Do you just make up scientific words to make yourself sound smarter?"

Thank you for giving providing us, non-genius level, audience members a voice on the show. I can't tell you how many times I sit on my couch and wonder if they're just stringing a bunch of nonsense together.

The overarching theme of this episode, and possibly the entire crossover, is LOVE. Some are enjoying it. Some are missing it. Some are chasing it. Some are celebrating it. And some, well, some are losing it as Oliver gets caught up in the moment and asks Felicity to marry him. Only to get rejected. There was a time when Felicity looked forward to marrying Oliver, as they were previously engaged. Now she seems hesitant to make it 'legal'. While she enjoys her life with him, her sudden trepidation to tie the knot is curious.

So what we've established so far: Nazi's are evil. Heroes are love.

Right before the wedding is about to begin, Barry is greeted by a young lady who claims the wedding will be 'one for the ages'. She's excited to be there and reminds him to say "I do". There's plenty of time travel to go around on these shows, so it's easy to wonder if she's from the future? What about their wedding is so important to this young girl, who also bears a slight resemblance to Iris. Casting is important. And so is foreshadowing. Could she be Barry and Iris' daughter? Scroll back up for the possible connection!

Without warning, the wedding is quickly interrupted by the Nazi's. For absolutely no reason. It just, happens. Realizing they weren't going to win this impromptu street fight, the Nazi's quickly retreat. It was a high-octane, knock 'em down, drag 'em out fight sequence that was as confusing as it was entertaining. Afterwards we were informed that at everyone in the church had their mind's wiped to protect the hero's identities. Which takes me back to the unconscious Dominator that Supergirl left in the street.

I guess you can't have every plot hole filled, so I'll take what they give us.

As the dust settles, the heroes gather to question why they were attacked. Meanwhile, on a rooftop, the villains question why they attacked. I'm sure you are sitting at home questioning the attack as well.

Earth-X Harrison Wells (Reverse Flash) and Oliver argued about the logistics of attacking during the wedding. Wells felt that their entire mission (still unknown to us) could have been compromised, while Oliver felt that it was an opportunity that couldn't be wasted. Earth-X Supergirl tells them to save their anger for the enemy. While it's hard to tell who is calling the shots, this is the second time she's had the last word on something.

The villains were defined as Nazi's from Earth-X who want their reign to last forever. So naturally the logical choice is to visit another world and pick a fight with the heroes that exist there, right? Wrong. It seems silly to leave their world if they're afraid of losing control of the people on Earth-X. Hopefully the episode of Arrow will flesh out the villains purpose a little more.

This was a fun first episode, full of backstory to get viewers up to speed, and while there are still a lot of unanswered questions, it's off to an exciting start!

Team Arrow