There are some episodes of shows that get people talking. “1159″ is one of those. While it’s become a huge cliche, it’s true that Arrow will never be the same again. It’s also true that, to an extent, history repeats itself. But we’ll get there. I warn you now, there are spoilers in this review because they’re kind of integral to what happens.
There are a few spoilers here. I generally try to avoid those, but I needed to include them for the review to work. Proceed at your own risk.
Legends of Tomorrow “Left Behind” picks up pretty much where the previous episode stopped.
Liv and the rest of the iZombie cast are building up a lot of momentum as they get closer and closer to the season finale. Thankfully, all the CW shows that I watch have already gotten renewal announcements, this one included. That’s good because there are a lot of balls in the air and I don’t see how they could possibly wrap all this up in just a few episodes.
Gotham continues their by now alternate history version of the days of the city before Batman with “Wrath of the Villains: Prisoners.” After the trial last episode, Gordon has been sent to Blackgate Prison. In a series of montage shots, time passes, what appears to be several months of monotony.
On “Beacon of Hope,” the Arrow writers bring back Bree Larvin, last seen as a bad girl over on Flash. She’s just as smart as she was before, and manages to use her computer skills to hack her way into early release. Really, who let the genius hacker have computer time? That was a bad decision.
The writers on Agents of SHIELD dug deep into the catalog of Marvel characters to find a really obscure group of bad guys for “Watchdogs.” They are an obscure hate group that, in the comics, was part of a long term plan in one of Red Skull’s conflicts with Captain America. They played a large part in the early career of John Walker, who was one of the men to temporarily replace Steve Rogers as Captain America before going on to become US Agent.
Last episode, Supergirl lost two of her closest allies. This week, she gets a little help from a new friend in “Worlds Finest.” Worlds Finest was a very long running team up book from DC Comics that usually featured Superman and Batman. In this case, it teams up not only two heroes but two shows and even two networks, as the CW’s Flash stops by for a visit.
The amusing titles keep coming on iZombie. This week’s is “Pour Some Sugar, Zombie,” which I guess is a tip of the metaphorical hat to Def Leppard. The writers are continuing to have the secrets fall away one by one. Pretty soon, at least most of the cast is actually going to know what’s going on everywhere, which might be a nice change.
Barry is taking the revelation about Jay being Zoom hard. He’s comparing it to his trusting Wells in the first season, and vowing not to make the same mistake again. Barry is working hard at trying to find a way to improve his speed so he’ll be able to beat Zoom when they meet next.
Arrow comes back from its hiatus with “Broken Hearts,” a title that works on a few levels. The show opens with a couple pleading for their lives. Their tormentor shows up soon enough- Cupid, the crazy archer Team Arrow defeated a while back who went on to become part of ARGUS’ Task Force X. Task Force X is better known by their action branch’s name- the Suicide Squad.
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