Just when The Flash is about to marry his long time love Iris, alternate Earth invaders have other plans in mind.
Supergirl – “Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1”, Season 3, Episode 8
Airdate: November 27, 2017
Writers: Robert L. Rovner, Jessica Queller, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim
Production Company: Berlanti Productions / Warner Bros. Television
What You Should Know:
This episode is the first part of a 4-part cross-over called “Crisis on Earth-X”, which takes place between the CW Network television series Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. Because of this, there are scores of characters involved and several individual show storylines referenced.
What You’ll Find Out (Spoilers):
The episode starts with an overview of a cityscape at night were the majority of the skyscrapers are covered with Nazi banners. Several men scurry along the outside of a warehouse and are killed with arrows. A masked archer costumed with Nazi symbols approaches the warehouse and begins the battle with James Olson dressed as Guardian. Just before Guardian dies from his wounds, he tells the archer that others will come to stop him. When the archer enters the warehouse, he sees a dimensional gateway to another world.
Flashes of various heroes battling different opponents are shown, in which each lament over their invitations to The Flash’s upcoming wedding: The Flash battling King Shark, Arrow battling ninjas, the Legends of Tomorrow battling the Sheriff of Nottingham’s men in the past, and Supergirl battling an alien Dominator. After Supergirl’s battle, she returns to her apartment where she and her adoptive sister Alex initially have a pity party for themselves due to having their hearts broken. Getting a second wind, Supergirl tells Alex that she’s taking Alex as her plus one to Barry Allen (aka The Flash)’s wedding to get their minds off of things.
When they arrive the day before the wedding, Kara (aka Supergirl) and Alex join Barry’s fiance Iris West and several other women attending the wedding at a mani-pedi nail salon, while the male half of the wedding party try on tuxes at a tailor shop. It’s here that Barry asks Oliver Queen (aka Arrow) if he plans on proposing to his girlfriend Felicity Smoak. Oliver tells him that he’s just not there yet. Later that day, Cisco Ramon (aka Vibe) is able to generate a serum that can help Martin Stein and Jefferson Jackson eliminate their joint Firestorm persona. When presented with the serum, Martin is elated as he feels he can get back to his real life again as a father and grandfather. Jefferson is less than enthused, however, which Martin notices. Martin, knowing Jefferson wishes to remain a superhero, later develops a serum of his own. He hands it to Jefferson, telling him that it will give him spider-like powers. Jefferson is angered and refuses the option, telling Martin he doesn’t know him at all.
At the rehearsal dinner, Alex meets Sara Lance (aka The White Canary) and the two of them agree that it’s ironic that they’re both at a wedding. When Sara asks if it’s a man who left her, Alex tells her no, that it was a woman. This peaks Sara’s interest. Barry then asks Kara why her boyfriend Mon-El isn’t with her. She tells him that he’s now married to someone else, which Barry has no answer for. He then asks if Kara would do him a favor. Iris’ father then provides a toast to the wedding couple, saying that love, above all things, is important. The camera then goes to Alex and Sara, who are privately making out passionately in the next hallway. Oliver then approaches Felicity and asks her if she will marry him. Felicity tells him no, to which the entire wedding party hears.
The day of the wedding, Kara confronts her sister, asking her where she was all night. When Alex admits that she had a one night stand with Sara, Kara congratulates her. As the wedding begins, Kara stands before everyone and sings as Iris comes down the aisle. When the priest gets to the part where he asks if anyone has an objection to the wedding and to speak now or forever hold their peace, he is instantly vaporized by an energy beam. Nazi soldiers and several Nazi meta-humans crash the wedding and a huge brawl ensue. One of the Nazi meta-humans has powers similar to Kara. The two of them find themselves evenly matched, but Kara still manages to take out her opponent.
During the battle, Barry’s wedding party friends are able to hold back the Nazi troops. Seeing that they are not yet strong enough, the Nazi archer leader takes his forces and retreats. Barry’s team is able to capture the Nazi archer side-kick named Prometheus before he can escape, and hold him for questioning. Regrouping on a nearby rooftop, the Nazi archer leader and his evil Supergirl-like ally meet with Reverse-Flash. Reverse-Flash convinces them that their defeat is only a setback and that they will attack again. He then removes his mask to reveal Prof. Eobard Thawne beneath it.
What Does This Mean for the Future?
With Barry’s wedding obviously on hold, the Supergirl, Flash, Arrow and Legends teams will need to join forces to find out who these evil Nazis are, what they want, and how to stop them.
Rating: 9/10
Final Thought: This cross-over was jam-packed with geeky goodness! I don’t even know where to begin! Firstly, let’s tackle the AWESOME hook-up between Alex and Sara. The look Sara gave when she finds out that Alex was into women is classic. Then to see them totally making out in a later scene… I totally snort-giggled. Then “the day after” moment when Alex discovers herself naked in Sara’s bed and tries to sneak out silently but fails…classic. I really must give kudos to The CW for constantly being open to showing romance in any context in their programming, and for having them have Supergirl give her sister the thumbs up for finding joy. It shows just how far we’ve come as a society in understanding that love is love.
They also gave Supergirl three really cool scenes in this episode. The first was having Supergirl actress Melissa Benoist flex her singing chops. This is a rare moment for her to explore in the series, but it usually happens when she gets together with The Flash star Grant Gustin. This makes sense as they both sung together in their previous series Glee. Another great moment was when Kara is battling her evil twin and uses a super hand clap to not only stop her opponent but also blast out other people in the church including the stained glass windows! Lastly was seeing Kara floating on air as she sleeps. Small things all, but things audiences eat up happily.
The church brawl was also one of the highlights of the show. Seeing so many superheroes battling Nazis was a lot of fun to see. Also, the way the writers were able to flow and weave the various story plots from the different television shows into one episode was a lot of fun and pretty easy to follow along with. I’m really looking forward to seeing that the next episode will entail.