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.
Legends of Tomorrow
Legion of Doom takes center stage: While the Legion of Doom villain team of Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher), Damien Dahrk (Neil McDonough), Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) and Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller) was announced over the summer at Comic-Con, so far Legends of Tomorrow has given viewers only a small glimpse into how the supervillain ensemble works and what they want. But according to former The Flash star Letscher, all that will change in the next episode. “It’s going to be very clear what each member of the Legion’s motivations are at the end of the episode, why they’re each desperate to obtain the Spear of Destiny,” he tells THR. “And you’re also going to see how things are going to work moving forward between the three of them because they aren’t working all that great right now. As you might expect with any group of supervillains, it comes together as a clash of egos. There’s a lot of resolution at the end of this episode in terms of where they stand with each other and why they need the Spear of Destiny and then you get a greater sense of urgency moving forward with the group as a whole.”
The race for the Spear: Both the Legion and the Legends are currently on the hunt for all the pieces of the mysterious Spear of Destiny, because it has the power to rewrite history permanently, unlike time aberrations, which can be fixed. “The members of the Legion each have their own specific reason for wanting it,” says Letscher. “A lot of it does have to do strictly with self-preservation, where they all happen to be at this point in time, literally, in the timeline. But they are on the same page when it comes to getting all the pieces together and assembling it?”
Who’s in charge? When it comes to the Legion, Thawne so far has been acting as the ringleader of the trio simply because, as a speedster, he is the most powerful of them all. But in a group filled with egomaniacs and supervillains who have never been able to act as followers before, do they respect Thawne as their leader? “I think they recognize Thawne as the smartest guy in the room. He’s the guy with the plan, and he’s the guy who fully understands the potential for the Spear of Destiny and what it can mean for all of them,” says Letscher. “That doesn’t mean that they respect him as the overall leader of the group, they’re not just willing to hand over that title to him. That’s something that’s addressed directly in this episode, how they’re going to sort out the hierarchy of power between the three of them.”
But regardless of what Dahrk and Merlyn think, Thawne definitely believes he’s in charge of the Legion. “There’s no question, he’s treating them like his underlings,” says Letscher with a laugh. “Not only do they think he’s the smartest guy in the room, but unquestionably Thawne always thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room too. There’s always this sense with him, like, ‘Just shut up, do what I’m telling you to do, and it’ll come together. The more you question me and the more you waste time, the more vulnerable we are.’ Obviously those people don’t respond to that kind of attitude. He’s due for a bit of a comeuppance in this particular episode.”
Bringing it full circle back to The Flash: Thawne, first introduced to the DC TV universe as the Reverse-Flash on The Flash, hasn’t fully let go of his experiences with Barry Allen (Grant Gustin). “You find out in this episode that a lot of what is motivating him are some pretty human things, and you start to see much more of the human side of Eobard, as much as there is one,” says Letscher. “It’s not necessarily archvillain evilness that is driving his actions. There’s a lot of self-preservation at stake in his actions. It relates to his storyline on The Flash. A lot of things will get tied together in that regard.”
Identity crisis: At the end of this week’s episode, the Legion captured former Legends captain Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) after they found him back in the ‘70s, but he had no idea who he was and didn’t remember his past as a Time Hunter due to a time drift messing with his brain. “He isn’t the person they want him to be, but he still has value to the Legends,” explains Letscher. “There is a sort of cat-and-mouse game here with him that doesn’t necessarily relate to the knowledge he has, although it may eventually, but it relates to what Rip means to the rest of the crew and how the Legion can use that to their advantage.”
Supergirl
Secret royalty: Has Mon-El’s (Chris Wood) secret been revealed? When he was escaping Slaver’s Moon with Kara (Melissa Benoist), he came across a Dominator who seemed to recognize him. The Dominator stopped another alien from shooting Mon-El, and he bowed to Mon-El before letting him go. Kara didn’t see any of that exchange, and it was clear from the look on Mon-El’s face that he was glad she didn’t. Is this the confirmation we’ve been looking for that he lied about his identity, and instead of being the Daxamite prince’s bodyguard he’s actually the prince himself? The way Mon-El dismissively said that the prince wasn’t worth admiring back on Daxam fits into the way he used to see himself, before he decided to make something of his life, so it would make sense. And that also explains why an entire alien ship is scouring the galaxy for him. If he was just a bodyguard, he wouldn’t be worth the voyage, but a surviving prince from a planet that no longer existed? No expense would be spared until he was found.
Parasite returns: The Dominator wasn’t the only returning alien villain this season. Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg reveals that Parasite also will come back to wreak havoc on National City. “It will be this season,” he tells THR. “It will be episode 13.”
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Gotham
The Joker returns: Jerome (Cameron Monaghan) finally rose from the dead in this week’s episode, much to the chagrin of the GCPD and the delight of his underground Joker-obsessed cult of followers. After a little hiccup where he had to literally sew his face back on, bringing forth a new iteration of a disturbingly scary Joker appearance, he plunged Gotham into a citywide blackout and encouraged the citizens to create their own Purge – murder, destruction, mayhem, anything goes. Jerome always has been one of Gotham’s best villains by his sheer charisma and attitude alone, but now that he’s essentially leading the entire city into complete anarchy, he’s now one of the most formidable. Fingers crossed that Gordon (Ben McKenzie) doesn’t defeat him too soon, because a longer arc with Jerome is only a good thing for this show.
Mama drama: While it was obvious to Bruce (David Mazouz) that Selina’s (Camren Bicondova) mother was only back in town and reuniting with Selina after all these years to con her out of money, Selina had no idea. She let her guard down, and when she caught her mother red-handed with the money, she broke down. She kicked her mother out of Gotham for good, and broke up with Bruce for essentially lying to her by keeping his suspicions a secret. Of course, Bruce was only trying to protect Selina from the heartbreak she feels now, but she’s too hurt to see things clearly. The last scene between these two was just gut wrenching to watch, as Bicondova channeled so much emotion and devastation into her performance for a character who normally keeps everything pushed down deep inside. She was bound to break eventually, but who knew it would be this intense?
The Flash
Road map for the rest of the season: When Barry had Cisco (Carlos Valdes) vibe on his future vision of Iris’ (Candice Patton) death, they were able to take note of what news headlines occurred that night. “The big question is, can they stop enough of these things to change time?” Kreisberg tells THR. “They have a little bit of a road map and it reminds us of Oliver’s [Stephen Amell] list. They’ve got like a mission every week to see if they can change the future. It’s something we’ve never explored before. Most of The Flash has been about the hold that the past has on you and how you can’t change your past. They’ve never had to deal with knowing something terrible is coming down the pike and can they avert it?”
Mark the calendar: If The Flash writers have any say, the season finale will air May 23, because that’s the date that Savitar kills Iris. In between now and then, according to the future headlines, the Supergirl musical crossover villain Music Meister (Darren Criss) will get a six-figure book deal, Joe (Jesse L. Martin) will be honored at City Hall, Killer Frost aka Catilin’s evil meta alter ego (Danielle Panabaker) will return, STAR Labs museum will close, and the city will be attacked by gorillas (Grodd!).
H.R.’s past returns: The end tag of this week’s episode showed a mysterious woman coming through a breach Terminator-style, holding a hologram of H.R.’s (Tom Cavanagh) face, clearly hunting him. “H.R. has secretly been staying in touch with the world that he came from, Earth-19, and because of that and because of his own hubris, he basically sets off an alarm that brings Gypsy [Jessica Camacho] to their front door,” executive producer Aaron Helbing tells THR. “Because of that, we’re going to see just how far some members of the team are willing to go to save H.R. even though he isn’t the genius that Harrison Wells was and Harry Wells was. He’s really become a true part of the team and this is the episode where we all realize that.”
Potential new ally? Metahuman Gypsy starts off the next episode as a clear antagonist for the STAR Labs team as she tries to take H.R. from them, but could she become a friend some point down the line? “She’s pretty similar [to her comic book counterpart], but because it’s a TV show we always try to separate them and make them a little distinct from the comic book character,” says Helbing. “Gypsy is actually going to learn a few things about teamwork and friendship and hopefully that will have an impact on her through the rest of the season.”
Familiar faces return: While both Rick Cosnett, who played the late Eddie Thawne, and Robbie Amell, who played the late Ronnie Raymond aka the first Firestorm, have announced their returns to the show on social media, the showrunners are staying mum on how they will be included in future episodes given that they’re both dead on the show. “We’re very excited to have Rick [and Robbie] back, but we’re not really going to talk about why they’re back,” Helbing says.
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Arrow
False alarm: Just like we predicted, Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) did not come back from the dead over the winter hiatus. The Laurel that showed up in the Arrow cave was Earth-2’s Black Siren, sent by Prometheus to try and tear apart Team Arrow from the inside. She fooled almost everyone at first, except for Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), who figured it out pretty quickly. They caught her and locked her up before she could do any real damage, but the entire experience reminded Ollie that he promised the real Laurel before she died that he would find and train a new Black Canary to continue her legacy. As he told Felicity his plan to honor that promise, the cameras cut to a mysterious, fierce girl in a bar with canary cry powers, saving a woman from getting harassed by two men. Could this be the new Black Canary? Is she a metahuman, or something entirely new?
Flashback surprise: While the flashbacks have become the least interesting part of Arrow in the past few seasons, this season has revived them in an exciting way, finally telling Oliver’s Bratva origin story in Russia. This week’s episode delivered yet another surprise in the flashbacks when iconic DC Comics character Talia al Ghul (Lexa Doig), daughter of Ra’s al Ghul (Matt Nable), showed up to save Oliver’s life as he was about to be killed by a corrupt Bratva boss working for government strongman/Bratva enemy Konstantin Kovar (Dolph Lundgren). Since this took place before Oliver ever met Ra’s, his other daughter Nyssa (Katrina Law) or the League of Assassins, how does Talia know who Oliver is? And why is she protecting him? Suddenly these flashbacks have become much more intriguing.
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. 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.
