DC Catchup: The Flash - 'The Present', Arrow - 'What We Leave Behind' and Legends of Tomorrow - 'The Chicago Way'

Hey kids! It's Mark Hamill!(1)

It's mid-season finale time in the Arrowverse (apart from Supergirl, as Earth-38 apparently breaks a week early,) which obviously means DRAHMAH!

In 'The Present', Barry seeks advice from Jay Garrick on Earth-3 vis a vis Savitar, which gives a chance to drop in a Mark Hamill cameo as the Earth-3 Trickster. Jay explains that Savitar is a Speedster legend, not actually a god, but the first man ever to tap into the Speed Force. His appearance in Earth-2 suggests that he fear's that Barry is about to become powerful enough to challenge his dominance of Speed (which implies that Zoom was just a wannbe, but read on.)

Alchemy makes a big push to restore all of the Flashpoint metahumans at once, but is stopped and captured, revealing his identity to the team. They soon learn, however, that Julian is little more than a vessel for Savitar. He was drawn to seek out a relic, the Philosopher's Stone, by visions of his dead sister. Opening a box he released Savitar; closing it banishes him. Of course, Cisco is lured into opening the box again by visions of Dante, but Caitlin talks him down and they use Julian's connection to question Savitar and learn that he is seeking vengeance for Barry trapping him in the box in the future. He predicts that one will die, one will betray the team and one will suffer 'a fate worse than death' before being cut off and lobbed into the Speed Force. Unfortunately, this slingshots Barry into the future, where he sees Savitar murder Iris before his future self can react, although Jay tells him that future visits are unreliable; the past should be fixed, the future is in flux.

And then Christmas happens! Wally is given his suit, having done good this week. Julian joins the team plus Joe's girlfriend for nog. Barry presents his gift to Iris: He's signed the lease on a sweet apartment for them both, which is... I want to say presumptuous and probably fraudulent, but I think they're going for sweet. A lot of people wander how he can afford it, perhaps forgetting that he is Harrison Wells' sole heir, and that clearly 'Wells' (actually Thawne) had enough capital knocking about to keep the STAR Labs building and his own sweet pad post-accelerator accident.

It's all about the legacy.

'What We Leave Behind' is far less merry than 'The Present', and that featured our leading lady getting future-shanked by a self-proclaimed god. Prometheus attacks Curtis in his civilian identity, and this catalyses a growing rift between Curtis and his husband. Evelyn's betrayal is revealed, and turns out to have been prompted by learning that Oliver was also the murderous Hood. In a similar vein, a series of revenge acts lead the team to conclude first that Prometheus is a businessman whom Oliver killed in Season 1(2), then that he might be the man's son. Either way, it's clear - not least from the fact that his fighting style shows he trained with the same people as Oliver - that he is seeking to punish Oliver's high-handed actions, as Diggle basically predicted at the time.

Seeking a swift and final confrontation, Oliver charges into a building after Prometheus, who has staged a scene identical to Oliver's earlier assault on the same building. He shoots a masked man dead, only to discover that it is Felicity's cop boyfriend, with his mouth duct taped under the mask. This is Prometheus' message: Everything Oliver touches, he destroys. Felicity refuses to be turned against Oliver, but as we close for mid-season Curtis has been chucked, Diggle is surrounded by police after an apparent SOS from Lila, Oliver has hooked up with vodka-drinking reporter lady (which is bound to end badly, not least because...) and Laurel Lance turns up. Alive. Apparently.

"I feel like one of us is not pulling his weight when it comes to the roaring 20s
theme."

And in Legends of Tomorrow, our heroes set out to take down their enemies 'The Chicago Way'. Chasing an anomaly in 1920s Chicago, they barely save Elliot Ness from assassination, leaving Nate and Ray to attempt to live out their Untouchables fantasies. Unfortunately, the two are having a bit of a spat over which of them is the redundant second nice guy on the team and they stuff it up. Okay, in part they stuff it because they are facing not just Al Capone, but also the unholy trinity of Damien Darhk, Eobard Thawne and new recruit Malcolm Merlyn.

In fairness, the team do okay, but it turns out that their foes are working way, way ahead of them. Stein is kidnapped and a disguised Thawne infiltrates the Waverider in his place, ultimately forcing Sara to make a deal for Stein's life. This also resolves Sara's anger at learning that Stein, the man who taught he not to kill Darhk and so save Laurel (redundant as that would apparently have been,) is hiding the existence of his daughter the time aberration. Sara trades the amulet they have for Stein, allowing Thawne to combine the two amulets into a single compass which points the way to the Spear of Longinus, which can rewrite reality.

So, Arrow takes the prize for biggest mid-season jaw drop by a country mile. I mean... the Spear of Destiny is cool and all, but Laurel Lance trumps the Holy Lance for reveal shocks. I'm not sure what to make of it, although I don't think it's time travel. That would be something of a betrayal of all the vowing not to shenanigan with history that our peeps have been doing of late, and also would not explain why Olly is as shocked to see her as he is. If she never died, he wouldn't be surprised. Further to this, Evelyn wouldn't have tried to be the Black Canary, been recruited into nuTA and been in a position to betray them to Prometheus. Most pressingly, it's too much of a crossover to form a foundational part of Arrow. All in all, it's a punchy close to a decent half-season and we're definitely wanting to know what gives.

The Flash has had a rocky half season, following from a rocky second half to its sophomore year. 'The Present' is pretty good, but Doctor Alchemy was honestly more interesting than Savitar (because honestly, we've already had one faster speedster from the future who considered himself done wrong by Barry. The potential death of Iris and the threatening predictions of Savitar are moderated by the promise of a mutable future, although Iris' death would be the ultimate test of Barry's resolution against temporal shenaniganning.

Legends is possibly still the weakest of the bunch, but it's hard to be sure when it's come on by leaps and bounds since last season. It's big shock ending is actually not the Spear, however, but the revelation that Rip Hunter appears to be alive and well, and directing low budget SF films about himself in 1960s Hollywood. What's that all about?

(1) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was not a good movie, but it had some good bits.
(2) Flashbacks to Season 1; I fucking called it!