On Supergirl, Eliza comes to National City to celebrate Thanksgiving prompting Alex to consider coming out to her, and leading to the suggestion that Mon-El has feelings for Kara. When Cadmus unleashes a virus that instantly kills Aliens, Kara enlists the help of Lena Luthor. Then, Barry Allen and Cisco Ramon show up to ask for help with an Alien invasion on their earth. The rest of the week deals with the effects of this invasion, and it shows how team Flash, team Arrow, and the Legends of Tomorrow, respectively, deal with the invasion.

Important Things to Know This Week:

The characters in Supergirl are all in a transitional state right now. Winn and Jimmy need to decide whether or not they should tell Kara about being Guardian. Alex now has to consider coming out to a new family member, and she and Kara are still trying to find Jeremiah again. J’onn has to deal with his impending transition to a white martian. Mon-El is dealing with newfound feelings for Kara, and Kara is still fighting Cadmus at every turn.

With the other shows, the focus will largely be on the crossover, and will likely stray from the traditional stories. There are a few things that might come up though.

On The Flash, keep in mind Wally and Caitlin’s new powers, and Julian potentially being Alchemy. On Arrow, keep in mind that Oliver is trying to bring his new team together, and dealing with both Prometheus and a new vigilante running around Star City. The Legends of Tomorrow, on the other hand, are still trying to locate Reverse-Flash to hopefully stop the amount of aberrations and time quakes, and Stein is dealing with seeing an unfamiliar girl in visions/memories.

The Biggest Moments This Week (Spoilers!):

Supergirl: (S2 E08: Medusa)

Kara’s ignorance to the fact that Mon-El is interested in her is hilarious. The whole dinner scene was actually really entertaining to watch. Everyone was trying to get their piece in, and it caused things to definitely be more than a little awkward. Later on, though, Kara attempts to ask him outright and freaks him out, causing him to deny it all, only to show his true feelings while dying in a hospital bed. I guess aliens aren’t so different from humans after all, they’re even just as cheesy sometimes. Alex was able to come out to her mother eventually, as well.

The attack by Cadmus was huge! The haven’t been this direct with their attacks yet. It created an interesting dynamic by putting the aliens on ice in the DEO, and it also gave them an excuse to involve Alex and Kara’s mother in the plot. The scene between Lena and her mother was also very interesting. It was sad that she wasn’t wiling to help Supergirl fight Cadmus, and her mother. It was really disappointing to see her agree to help her mother, though. I was happy that it ended up being a trick, and that she helped the good guys in the end.

Barry and Cisco’s attempts to get to Earth-2 came at very interesting times. It would have been hilarious for them to pop up at Thanksgiving dinner, and it would have been awesome for the two of them to show up and jump right into the fight against Cyborg Superman/Hank Henshaw at L Corp. It makes sense, though, that they wouldn’t show up until the end. This crossover is all about Supergirl going around to the other shows, Barry helping in her world wouldn’t have made a ton of sense.

The Flash: (S3 E08: Invasion!)

I hate that Cisco is still upset with Barry. He’s too smart of a person to really think that Barry could have done anything to save Dante’s life. Hopefully they get back to normal soon. At the same time, the Cisco-Barry relationship is only the second most annoying part of this episode. Iris stopping Wally from being able to use his powers was downright frustrating, especially for people who have been waiting to see him fight alongside Barry. I loved that he decided to go help anyway. Plus, he’ll have HR helping him now.

I wasn’t expecting the big team-up so early on. It was fun to see the way Barry pulled everyone together so quickly. I also like how they replayed the final scene from Supergirl for people who don’t spend four nights a week watching these shows like me. I’m very interested in seeing how the crossover continues to develop, and who plays a part each night.

I really like the way that Barry’s message from Legends became a huge plot point in this episode. I had hoped that the time-travel thing would be a big part of the crossover. this makes me think that it either will prove to be a big part in the next two episodes, or that there will be some smaller crossover later on in the season. It also was the catalyst that allowed them to avoid the mind control that everyone else was affected by.

Arrow: (S5 E08: Invasion!)

Arrow picks up where The Flash left off after many of the heroes were abducted by the Dominators. They have been placed in pods that are showing a different version of the world. In this world, Oliver’s parents are alive (and his dad is going to be mayor), he’s engaged to Laurel, he isn’t the Green Arrow, Diggle is. Ray is trying to buy out Queen Consolidated (I guess some things stayed the same), Thea and Sara are just normal sisters to Oliver and Laurel. Despite all of this, they are getting weird flashbacks to their real lives. Of course, once they figure out what is going on, the Dominators throw former enemies into this alternate world. Then, they throw massive emotional roadblocks in to try to convince them to stay.

While Oliver is going through that, Cisco and team Arrow work together to find the abducted heroes by trying to hack into the Dominators’ technology. Of course, Flash and Supergirl come in to help. I get Wild Dog’s thoughts here. There is an argument to be made that the existence of high-powered people often lead to high-powered enemies. He has never expressed this concern around Rory though. I wonder what allows him to get past that but be so opposed to Barry, Cisco, and Kara. At least he came around, at least a little bit, towards the end.

The escape from the alien’s space ship was really awesome. Of course, it perfectly set up the next installment, as Ray, Sara, Oliver, Thea, and Diggle were saved by the Legends. I’m trying to avoid any spoilers for myself, but I’m really hoping that we’ll get to see a huge team-up to stop the alien invasion during Legends of Tomorrow as the crossover concludes.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: (S2 E07: Invasion!)

So much stuff happens in the conclusion of the crossover, it was seriously the best episode this week!

I loved the little adventure back in time where Cisco and Felicity save the day (and have an amazing heart-to-heart discussion. Stein’s conversation with Caitlin about his daughter, and how she shouldn’t exist was a significant moment because it showed the reality of time travel. Even though his daughter isn’t hurting anyone, she is an aberration, and he can’t create aberrations, when his job is to protect the timeline.

Then, it gets so REAL! I was so upset when the alien reveal stole my hopes of the crossover being closely linked to Flashpoint. When Flashpoint came back into play in The Flash’s section of the crossover, it felt like a minor concession to people who had hoped for it, but then the producers did this amazing thing and made the alien invasion a result of Flashpoint, I was trying to watch the whole episode before writing this section of the recap, but I had to pause it after that reveal to get my thoughts down, because the rest of this is going to be so amazing.

I love time travel, and the fact that this episode pulled everyone into the dangers and complications of time travel was easily my favorite thing about this season. I don’t like that Cisco forgave Barry so easily, especially because he has been angry for so long. It seems a little too convenient for me, and I doubt it lasts.

The huge team-up fight was amazing. Everyone’s strengths and weaknesses seemed to come into play in perfect ways, and it made the whole thing more realistic, without overpowering the effect of everyone coming together.

Overall:

This is the fourth straight year of a “crossover” event around episode 8 of the season. In 2013, Barry Allen showed up in Star City and helped Oliver solve a problem (Prior to becoming the Flash). Oliver went to Central City in 2014 to help Barry learn to be a better hero, and to also hunt down Captain Boomerang, then Barry returns to Central City to help him out. In 2015, Oliver and Barry help protect Carter and Kendra, which helps set up the premiere of Legends of Tomorrow. I haven’t been a huge fan of these crossover events. They’re generally very entertaining, but they also focus a little too much on helping to set up a new show in my opinion. My hope for this year was that it would focus more on the story, and less on introducing the rest of the “Arrowverse” to Supergirl.

They went even beyond that though. They progressed Stein’s plot in The Flash, as they revealed that the girl he’s been seeing is his (previously nonexistent) daughter, and hint toward the idea that his wife may not actually be alive. In “Arrow” there isn’t as much plot progression, but Sara getting to fight Damien Darhk was pretty cool. As I mentioned above, Legends of Tomorrow dealt with a lot of lingering Flashpoint issues. On the other end of the spectrum, Supergirl, while heavily involved, and infinitely important in the fight, didn’t overpower the whole thing.

The big party at the end was awesome. Especially the interactions between characters. I’m excited about the possibility of Supergirl being able to crossover when she wants/needs to. Hopefully we’ll see that more in the near future. These shows like to create surprise team-ups toward the end of the season. A lot could happen this spring.

Ryan’s Speculation of the week:

We haven’t seen the last team-up this season. We won’t get a 4 show mashup that takes a whole week like we did here, but we’ll see something. I don’t think the message from future Barry is resolved from this team-up. I think the events of Flashpoint are still huge, and that they’re going to entirely overwhelm team Flash next week. This was a nice way to send Supergirl into the midseason break (who knows what has been happening on her world, considering the next episode is titled “Supergirl Lives”). The other shows though, seem to be set up for huge midseason finales next week. I’m guessing there’s a good reason that they held those episodes until after the crossover episode.

Supergirl airs on Mondays, The Flash airs on Tuesdays, Arrow airs on Wednesdays, and Legends of Tomorrow airs on Thursdays on the CW. Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about this week’s slate of episodes.