After months of build up and enough promos to last you a lifetime, the long awaited four part DCTV crossover event finally hit the small screen. While SUPERGIRL may have technically been the first part of “Heroes vs. Aliens,” THE FLASH is where the overarching storyline actually kicks into gear, as the team assembles and we’re introduced to our extraterrestrial baddies. The show didn’t waste much time establishing the threat or reintroducing each character, which was probably for the best given the limited amount of time available.
However, the episode started to lag halfway through when the focus shifted back to the changes Flashpoint made. The problem with the setup of these crossovers is that they’re forced to balance the main plot line of story while still ostensibly functioning as an installment of their individual shows-- meaning that the series is forced to weave in plot threads from the season that really aren’t related to the main alien conflict and end up sidelining one in favor of the other.
In this instance, the team was distracted from their mission after all the non-Flash characters learned about the events of Flashpoint and how their lives had been altered, and the aliens only appeared at the tail end of the episode. It’s unclear if the fallout from some of these revelations will happen on The Flash or be left to the other shows, especially since some characters like Professor Stein originated from The Flash before moving shows. It’s hard to imagine a relatively grounded like ARROW having an arc focusing time travel, but it’s not as if Team Arrow can hang out on THE FLASH until they’ve all sorted out their emotions about people they know being erased from existence. It puts the characters in an awkward spot. The fact that secret message from future Barry was finally revealed here and not in LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, despite it being on the show’s ongoing subplots, seems to suggest that the shows will be melding again in the future, but to what degree is anyone’s guess.
That said, there were still plenty of fun dynamics to be had between the team, even with disjointed, mishmash plot. The action scenes weren’t the best any of the shows have offered, but the novelty of seeing the heroes’ powers play off of one another (in the Hall of Justice, no less!) helped make up for it. Any time you pair up two characters as radically different as Supergirl and Heatwave, you’re bound to get some entertaining interactions. It was also great to see older characters like Caitlin and Stein reunite and have their history acknowledged. However, with this many characters to balance, most of Team Flash ended up being pushed to the sidelines while Barry dealt with both Flashpoint and the alien crisis with heroes from other shows.
Coming off of a big emotional episode like “Killer Frost,” one would expect the whole team dynamic to have shifted. But no one acts any differently around Caitlin, and she’s even gone back to playing peacemaker Barry and Cisco… in spite of the fact that she tried to kill Barry only a few days ago. Maybe there’s some internal logic or guilt driving her, but given how out of focus the team is, it’s impossible to tell. At one point Cisco jokes that it’s apparently illegal for anyone to stay mad at Barry, but in truth, his comment wasn’t that far off the mark. While the team was furious with Barry after learning about Flashpoint, Barry never actually did anything to try and regain their trust. Everyone just forgave him by the episode without any sort of reasoning or build up. Even Diggle, who had his daughter erased from existence, never brings it up again.
This episode offered some enjoyable odd couple team-ups with characters both old and new. That’s fun to watch, but only on a surface level; the unfocused plot and lack of an arc for the team meant there wasn’t much meat behind the snappy one-liners and snarky comments. And it’s frustrating all the interesting plot threads from the last episode be pushed aside in favor of such an empty storyline. As fun as the premise of these crossovers is, if they’re going to keep being an annual thing, they’re going to need to find something to drive the story beyond the sheer cool factor. Otherwise they’ll keep feeling like irrelevant sideshows that don’t affect the main show storyline.
Written by Kaitlin Roberts, THE FLASH Beat Writer -- Click to read Kaitlin's posts