DC TV Watch: Breaking Down ‘Arrow’ and ‘Supergirl’s’ Big Twists

Welcome to The Hollywood Reporter‘s weekly DC TV Watch, a rundown of all things DC Comics on TV. Every Friday, we round up the major twists, epic fights, new mysteries and anything else that goes down on The CW’s Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl and Fox’s Gotham and what it all means. Note: Gotham and Legends of Tomorrow did not air new episodes this week.

Gotham

Big announcement: Get ready to dive back into the world of Ra’s al Ghul on another DC Comics show, as Gotham just cast Game of Thrones alum Alexander Siddig as the leader of the League of Shadows just two seasons after Matt Nable took on the same iconic supervillain on Arrow. How will the Fox version compare to The CW’s? Not much is known about Gotham‘s iteration just yet, but the biggest difference will probably be in how the show explains Ra’s al Ghul’s long life, as the mythology leans more towards science rather than magic on the Batman prequel series. Do you think it’s too soon to redo the same character in the same DC TV universe, or is it fine because the two shows don’t have any crossover potential? Let us know in the comments section.

Supergirl

Daddy drama: Kara (Melissa Benoist) and Alex’s (Chyler Leigh) father Jeremiah Danvers (Dean Cain) returned in this week’s episode, “Homecoming,” but his sudden reappearance wasn’t just luck. He’s been working with Cadmus the whole time, and that betrayal will continue to haunt Alex. “Alex wholeheartedly wants to believe in one particular thing, and just really believe that everything is pure and good on his behalf,” said Leigh. “And once you start to see how deep the rabbit hole goes, and where his loyalties lie in one way or another, it’s heavy. It’s definitely very emotional, very heavy.” 

Taking sides: In regard to her father, could Alex’s emotions get the better of her and twist her allegiance? “The question of where do Alex’s loyalties lie plays a major part of the next episode,” said showrunner Andrew Kreisberg. “Battle lines are drawn a little bit, which is interesting because no one’s really wrong, in a way. And everyone, whether it’s Mon-El or Kara or Alex or J’onzz, everyone is doing it because they love each other. And even Jeremiah. Everyone is doing what they’re doing out of a sense of love and to keep the people that they love safe.”

Getting political: Supergirl isn’t pulling any punches with its alien storylines moving forward, as Kreisberg revealed the showrunners wanted to use Cadmus‘ plans as an allegory for what’s happening in the real world. “It’s a shimmy on Lillian’s desire to rid the Earth of aliens and it’s an interesting debate in the next episode between Jeremiah and Alex, if his plan is any more humane,” said Kreisberg. “And some of the talking points in the episode, I think, are reflective of the current debate in our world about dealing with immigrants, which we were very conscious of, and wanted to speak to that.”

Blackmail: Before everyone figured out that Jeremiah was betraying them, Mon-El suspected the truth. But Jeremiah resorted to blackmail to get him to stay quiet, threatening to reveal Mon-El’s secret to Kara. That’s right: Jeremiah knows who Mon-El really is. “The Mon-El secret comes to light in episode 16, so you don’t have much further to go,” said Kreisberg. “It’s going to cause some problems. He doesn’t quite get that it’s the cover-up, not the crime, which I think is really the issue. Because she’s Supergirl, she has to be the best, so opening herself up to a relationship, whether it was trying to do it with James or trying to do it with Mon-El, it takes a lot of her to put herself out there and let somebody in, because when you do that, you’re opening yourself up to a lot of messy stuff. She’s going into this with like one foot out, and then finally in the Mxy episode, put both feet in. So a lot of the conundrum for the two of them, a lot of it is on her part of like, ‘Stupid me for doing that.’” 

The Flash

Put a ring on it: Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) are officially engaged! And Jesse Quick (Violett Beane) officially moved to Earth-1 to be with Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale), so love was in the air in this belated Valentine’s Day-themed episode. Also, Wells (Tom Cavanagh) — at least, the Earth-2 version — is still a jerk. He literally pretended to be dying of an illness to try and guilt Wally into convincing Jesse to stay on Earth-2. That was pretty low, even for Harry. Maybe a sabbatical back on Earth-2 and some alone time will do him some good.

Arrow

Prometheus unmasked: In a truly shocking move, Arrow decided to subvert all fanboy expectations and actually made Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra) the identity of Prometheus, and not Vigilante like he is in the comic books. (Check out what executive producer Wendy Mericle had to say about that reveal here.) Prometheus unmasked himself after fighting Vigilante, but Oliver (Stephen Amell) and the rest of Team Arrow still have no idea one of their biggest allies is actually their biggest enemy. The next run of episodes will deal with Adrian’s motivations and his origin story. “We’re not going to leave it to the end of the season,” said Segarra. “We’re going to get to watch the pot get stirred a little bit. It’s hard because I already know how [Oliver] reacts, and I love the way it goes. You’re going to see Chase just kind of trying to burn the world around him. We’ve seen the reluctance [in] him to kill [Oliver]. I never want to kill him. It’s just to make sure that we can make him stir a little bit, make him uncomfortable. So I think that’s where it’s going. Once they do find out, it’s how then to continue with my mission.”

What did you think of all the shocking twists, reveals and mysteries on the DC Comics shows this week? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Gotham airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox; Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on The CW; The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW; Legends of Tomorrow airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW; and Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.