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 did not air a new episode this week.
Supergirl
Mama drama | It should come as no shock to viewers that Mon-El’s (Chris Wood) mother Rhea (Teri Hatcher) took a villainous turn at the end of this week’s episode, killing her own husband Lar Gand (Kevin Sorbo) and vowing to destroy Earth all because her son wanted to stay with Kara (Melissa Benoist) rather than go back to rule his Daxamite people. Hatcher’s casting was billed as the season’s new big bad, after all. Regardless of the predictable turn, it will still be plenty compelling watching the family drama unfold when Mon-El finds out that not only did his mother, the Queen of Daxam, not leave Earth like he threatened her to do, but she also killed his father, the King, just because he didn’t agree with her plans to get revenge on Kara for “stealing” her son. RIP Lar Gand, along with any hope of redemption for Rhea.
Presidential secret | We already knew that President Marsdin (Lynda Carter) was an alien masquerading as a human, but why was she trying so hard to protect the Daxamite ship? She ordered J’onn (David Harewood) and the DEO to stand down and not engage with the Daxamites no matter what, so something is clearly going on there. Could it have anything to do with what kind of alien she is and where she comes from?
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The Flash
The new big bad is … | After executive producer Andrew Kreisberg revealed at PaleyFest that next season’s main villain “won’t be a speedster” for the first time in the show’s history, speculation ran wild over who Barry’s (Grant Gustin) next foe would be. This week’s episode may have provided a clue as to the identity of next season’s big bad, as metahuman Abra Kadabra (David Dastmalchian) revealed that since he was from the future (the 64th century to be exact), he knew all about Barry’s biggest enemies. He listed off the season one through three villains, Thawne (Matt Letscher), Zoom (Teddy Sears) and Savitar, before saying a throwaway name in the same breath as all the others: DeVoe.
Comic book fans should recognize that name as The Thinker, aka Clifford DeVoe, a genius inventor who created technology to make his infamous “thinking cap,” which gave him extremely powerful mental powers. Introduced in 1943, DeVoe was a member of the Injustice Society, but he fought against Jay Garrick (John Wesley Shipp), not Barry Allen, so expect the show to put their own spin on the source material. Name-dropping DeVoe could just be a throwaway thrill for comic book fans, but it also could be major foreshadowing for what’s coming down the pipeline, just as Arrow did with mentioning Damien Darhk (Neil McDonough) many times before he was ever actually introduced a full season later.
More pressing concerns | But before Barry and co. can think about anyone named DeVoe, they first have to deal with Caitlin Snow’s (Danielle Panabaker) evil metahuman alter ego Killer Frost, who returned because Julian (Tom Felton) ripped off Caitlin’s metahuman power-dampening necklace after she almost died. While Killer Frost has always been a fun and exciting addition to the show, hopefully The Flash will use the character in a new way this time around rather than repeating the same stories over and over.
On a deadline | And Iris’ (Candice Patton) impending death date is still looming, closer than ever. But Patton promises that Iris isn’t just going to sit back and let others try and save her; she’s going to be very hands-on in her own rescue. “It’s been amazing. It’s really nice this season to finally see Iris being a part of the narrative rather than just being a bystander in the narrative,” Patton tells THR. “It changes what I do as an actor on the show. It gives me a lot more to play with. It’s been really cool to watch her navigate all the levels of eventually dying, acting out being reckless, then having to be a pillar of strength for Barry and Joe [Jesse L. Martin] and Wally [Keiynan Lonsdale], and then we’ll see in later episodes of this season her coming to terms with the fact that she might actually die and preparing for that possible scenario.”
Legends of Tomorrow
Reality rewritten | What happens when the villains win? Legends of Tomorrow asked that same question this week, when the Legion of Doom used the Spear of Destiny to rewrite reality. Their “Doomworld” erased all the Legends’ powers, and Thawne destroyed the Spear, making their reality permanent. He then killed Amaya (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), leaving the Legends in shock, down a team member and no possible way out of their nightmare situation. At least Mick (Dominic Purcell) finally made the right choice and helped out the Legends after last week’s betrayal. Small consolation in the wake of a team member literally getting shattered into a hundred pieces right in front of everyone’s eyes. What does this mean for Vixen’s destiny? Does her granddaughter Mari (Megalyn EK) not exist anymore?
Game-changing finale | The next episode actually marks the season finale for Legends as it has a shorter season this year. “It’s going to blow everyone’s minds of what’s happening in the finale,” Caity Lotz tells THR. “When we were filming it, I couldn’t even understand how it works. There’s a lot of technical, CGI things and it’s very difficult to shoot. I’m really curious to see how it all comes together. It’s crazy.”
Arrow
Prometheus unmasked … again | Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra) has already been revealed as Prometheus to the audience and to Team Arrow, but this week, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and her new Helix hacker pals managed to get video of the District Attorney taking off his Prometheus mask on camera. He’s still out and about killing people and hasn’t taken his sights off of Oliver (Stephen Amell) and his team, but at least he can’t hide behind his politician alter ego anymore. Let’s call that a win for Team Arrow.
End of an era | As season five speeds towards the finale, the end of the island flashback storyline is looming as the timeline finally catches up to where the series premiere began with Oliver on Lian Yu. “The wrap-up of the island story and the five years Oliver spent away is coming to an end soon, and it’s just crazy,” David Ramsey tells THR. “How we wrap that up into how we handle Prometheus is going to be really interesting.”
Long-anticipated return | Katie Cassidy is finally coming back to Arrow in the final two episodes of this season and as a series regular next season … but not as Laurel Lance. Black Canary’s death is sticking, and Cassidy is reprising her Earth-2 metahuman alter ego Black Siren. But is she returning as a villain, or has Oliver managed to convince her that a path to redemption is worth her time? Could Black Siren actually join Team Arrow? Or is she actually poised to become Arrow’s new big bad, making her the first female season-long villain in DC TV history? Now that would be a worthy twist.
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.
