Part 2 of the Arrowverse epic crossover played a bit slower for the first half, as we got into some important romantic material involving our favorite characters, but quickly picked up and managed to be just about as good as the first hour. It doesn't hurt that it kicked off by giving us one of the coolest and unexpected reveals in which none other than Colin Donnell was under the mask of Prometheus. Yes, that's right, the writers taking the biggest wink at the audience (whom just about half of them thought Donnell aka Tommy Merlyn was Prometheus just last season on Arrow). He's been a fan favorite ever since season 1 and I'm always glad to see him return, especially considering he was only shooting for a few hours and then flew immediately back to Chicago for his other show. How can you not love that?
For the next few chunks of the episode, we dealt with a lot of emotional-romantic drama, including a much needed sit down between Oliver and Felicity. I'm glad that the two of them finally got to address the elephant in the room of why they haven't at least talked about getting engaged again. And if the showrunners know what's good, then they will take the approach Felicity suggested, which is to hold off on the wedding for a while. She had some good points and while I obviously want the two of them to not be constantly deal with Olicity drama on a week to week basis (like in season 4), I'm glad that we got these few scenes.
Heck, we also got some nice Iris-barry moments, funny banter between Sara and Alex, and a surprisingly moving speech from Jax towards Stein being his only father figure. As I said in part 1's review, the writers really did a nice job of mixing in a little bit of everything tonight.
Even though I know the answer (just not enough screen time), isn't it worth asking where Diggle, Nate, Ray, Amaya, Zari, Dinah, Curtis, Rene, and Wally are for the majority of the episode? Granted, the last 4 did have brief appearances, but shouldn't they have chipped in a little more? At any rate, I know they will play a part tomorrow night, so i guess it isn't entirely worth complaining about. The real importance is that the writers managed to take the screen time that would have been used on the heroes, and given some depth to Earth-X's team of baddies. Ollie-Kara romance is a little weird don't get me wrong, but I'll take that over the randomness to the Dominators invasion last year. Plus, the action sequence with Ollie, Kara, and barry vs. Evil Kara, Evil Ollie, and Reverse Flash is about as cool as you're going to get.
Luckily, that wasn't all the action the episode provided as there was yet another big budget and well choreographed action set piece towards the end with a good chunk of heroes and villains, which ended in the capture and imprisonment of Ollie, Kara, Barry, Alex, Sara, Jax, and Stein on Earth-X. A great way to end the episode and set-up tomorrow night for sure, also providing us some reasoning for the invasion in the first place. Evil Kara is dying and needs a new heart. Not what I expected, but definitely original enough for me not to complain. Overall, tonight's 2-parter was capped in exciting fashion. Seeing these episodes come together truly makes sitting through hours of just halfway decent television all worth it. And I mean that in the best way possible.
A few other tidbits worth mentioning: +They literally killed Tommy (AGAIN!) +Kryptonite Arrow! +Nazi Lance! +How the heck is Eobard still alive?
10/10
For the next few chunks of the episode, we dealt with a lot of emotional-romantic drama, including a much needed sit down between Oliver and Felicity. I'm glad that the two of them finally got to address the elephant in the room of why they haven't at least talked about getting engaged again. And if the showrunners know what's good, then they will take the approach Felicity suggested, which is to hold off on the wedding for a while. She had some good points and while I obviously want the two of them to not be constantly deal with Olicity drama on a week to week basis (like in season 4), I'm glad that we got these few scenes.
Heck, we also got some nice Iris-barry moments, funny banter between Sara and Alex, and a surprisingly moving speech from Jax towards Stein being his only father figure. As I said in part 1's review, the writers really did a nice job of mixing in a little bit of everything tonight.
Even though I know the answer (just not enough screen time), isn't it worth asking where Diggle, Nate, Ray, Amaya, Zari, Dinah, Curtis, Rene, and Wally are for the majority of the episode? Granted, the last 4 did have brief appearances, but shouldn't they have chipped in a little more? At any rate, I know they will play a part tomorrow night, so i guess it isn't entirely worth complaining about. The real importance is that the writers managed to take the screen time that would have been used on the heroes, and given some depth to Earth-X's team of baddies. Ollie-Kara romance is a little weird don't get me wrong, but I'll take that over the randomness to the Dominators invasion last year. Plus, the action sequence with Ollie, Kara, and barry vs. Evil Kara, Evil Ollie, and Reverse Flash is about as cool as you're going to get.
Luckily, that wasn't all the action the episode provided as there was yet another big budget and well choreographed action set piece towards the end with a good chunk of heroes and villains, which ended in the capture and imprisonment of Ollie, Kara, Barry, Alex, Sara, Jax, and Stein on Earth-X. A great way to end the episode and set-up tomorrow night for sure, also providing us some reasoning for the invasion in the first place. Evil Kara is dying and needs a new heart. Not what I expected, but definitely original enough for me not to complain. Overall, tonight's 2-parter was capped in exciting fashion. Seeing these episodes come together truly makes sitting through hours of just halfway decent television all worth it. And I mean that in the best way possible.
A few other tidbits worth mentioning: +They literally killed Tommy (AGAIN!) +Kryptonite Arrow! +Nazi Lance! +How the heck is Eobard still alive?
10/10