Recap: GOTHAM Has a Slice, SUPERGIRL Pays a Price , and THE FLASH is on Thin Ice

This week being a holiday, the Rogues have taken time off to spend with family and friends. But there were still shows this week: Gotham, Supergirl, and The Flash all had episodes in the week running up to the big four-night crossover event on the CW. So to sate your appetite until then — and to keep you up to speed until we return — here’s what happened this week.

 _______________

Episode 309 “Mad City: Time Bomb”
Written by: Robert Hull
Directed by: Hanelle M. Culpepper

In the wake of Captain Barnes going Coocoo for Cocoa Puffs last week, Bullock (Donal Logue) is Acting Captain, which has got him hitting the bottle pretty hard — the pink stuff, mind you (been there, Harvey…). Especially since there’s apparently a professional hit squad out to get Don Falcone (John Doman).

Only it’s not Don Falcone who’s the target. Gordon (Ben McKenzie) figures out it’s actually Mario (James Carpinello) who’s the intended victim, and Gordon has to actually do his job to stop the bad guys from killing his rival for the affection of Leslie (Morena Baccarin). It’s well and truly messed up, better suited for a daytime soap opera instead of a show based on the Dark Knight Detective — oh, wait. He’s not in it.

Down by the docks, Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) has captured Butch (Drew Powell) and Tabitha (Jessica Lucas), stashing them away in a warehouse (or is it a foundry? They all look alike anymore…) and hooking Butch up to an electric bug zapper to get him to confess to murdering Isabella. Only Butch, of course, doesn’t know anything about it. But he finally “confesses” to Nygma — he shot Isabella right in the head, see — in order to save Tabitha from getting her hand cut off in Nygma’s homemade mini-guillotine. Except he doesn’t do it soon enough, and Tabitha gets the chop. Nygma realizes his mistake just as Barbara (Erin Richards) arrives, having tracked them down after having a very interesting chat with Olga (Deborah Unger), maid to Mayor Oswald (Robin Lord Taylor). Olga gives Babs a receipt for a bondage shop where Nygma had all his toys delivered, and oh by the way… the Mayor has a thing for Ed.

Now Babs and Butch have a common enemy. Look out, world!

Meanwhile, back at Stately Wayne Manor, Bruce (David Mazouz) and Alfred (Sean Pertwee) have holed up with Selina (Camren Bicondova) and Ivy (Maggie Geha) whilst they try to figure out the key they found. What does it unlock? What kind of key is it? Bruce, of course, is going through his library while Selina goes stir crazy and Ivy uses her chemistry set to convince Alfred to let her out — and she promptly gets kidnapped by the Whisper Gang, a group of Ukrainians who are fighting the Court of Owls — to which the key belongs.

Enter Talon (Brandon Alan Smith), who cosplays as The Green Hornet and kills all the Ukrainians at the docks, because this key is one of two, and the thing what it unlocks is a weapon of Great Dire Properties.

Speaking of dire, Le drops by Gordon’s place on the way to her rehearsal dinner. They say their final goodbyes, because this is a tragic love story full of Handwavium and Hand of the Writer, because as she’s leaving she just happens to be seen by Mario, who just happens to be following her.

And he just happens to be infected by the Tetch virus… dun-dun-DUNNN!

 

Episode 207 “The Darkest Places”
Written by Robert L. Rovner & Paula Yoo
Directed by Glen Winter

It’s a pretty straightforward episode this week, with James (Mehcad Brooks) and Winn (Jeremy Jordan) cleaning up the mean streets of National City as the Guardian and his sidekick. Except according to Winn, it’s more of a “partner” relationship, maybe, if he knew anything about it. Which he doesn’t. Because he doesn’t. Right?

Except… coming along behind Guardian is Barrage (Vitor Zinck, Jr.), who’s actually killing dead some of the criminals Guardian is leaving behind for the cops. So Maggie Sawyer (Floriana Lima) jumps to the conclusion that Guardian is the killer, not realizing there’s a second vigilante in town (and yes, this feels very much like the plot of last week’s Arrow).

So Alex (Chyler Leigh) has to come to Guardian’s defense when she finds out from Winn (who can’t keep his mouth shut) that it’s James under the helmet, and that there’s a second vigilante in town. (Probably has a cousin in Star City…)

They figure out it’s a former SEAL named Phillip Karnowsky (Victor Zinck, Jr.) who’s offing those criminals who got off due to a technicality in the legal process — those pesky rules and all — so he’s dishing out Stone Cold Justice™ to those who beat the system. Instead of preventing new crime, he’s committing new crime in the pursuit of punishing old crimes. Got it?

Meanwhile, Kara (Melissa Benoist) is searching for Mon-El (Chris Wood), who’s a prisoner of terror group Cadmus — remember last season when it was a government agency? — and Lillian Luthor (Brenda Strong) threatens to kill him unless Supergirl co-operates and blasts a power collector with her “solar flare” heat vision. Which she does, because Supergirl can’t see even a Daxamite suffering needlessly. Even a Daxamite who’s about to confess that he’s actually the Royal Prince — but they’re interrupted by a rescue. It’s Jeremiah Danvers (Dean Cain)! And he’s looking pretty intact for a guy who’s been a prisoner … wait, he’s got a security badge…

Not the Cyborg Superman we were expecting. Turns out the real Hank Henshaw (David Harewood) is alive and well and feeling a bit more than himself after all the enhancements Cadmus gave him. Except… this quibble: He looks nothing like Superman. He’s never pretended to be Superman, as he did in the comics way back in the day. So there’s absolutely no in-story logical reason for him to call himself “Cyborg Superman” other than to make fans squee a bit.

And the fake Hank? J’onn is starting to hallucinate. Talking with M’Gann (Sharon Leal), he learns rather unpleasantly that she’s is a White Martian, and the blood transfusion is turning him into a White Martian.

Oh, and Maggie makes nice with Alex. They’re totes friends again. Pool tomorrow night…

 

Best line, from Kara: “My cousin worked with a vigilante once. Tons of gadgets. Lots of demons….” And with that, Batman has just been brought into Supergirl‘s continuity. That, plus the mention of Nth metal and the planet Thanagar, make this hour worth it.

 

Episode 307 “Killer Frost”
Teleplay by Andrew Kreisberg & Brooke Roberts, Story by Judalina Neira
Directed by Kevin Smith

We begin Kevin Smith’s sophomore outing on The Flash with a poorly-rendered CG slugfest between Savitar and The Flash (Grant Gustin), who’s the only one who can see the self-styled “god of speed” as he gets his kiester kicked from here to the docks. At the urging of H.R. (Tom Cavanagh), Cisco (Carlos Valdez) and a reluctant Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) vibe over to the docks, where the good Dr. Snow blasts Savitar with her Icy Fingers of Doom™ — from which Savitar runs like the whipped puppy he is…

Meanwhile, Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) is still in his cocoon, only that’s not what Caitlin tells Joe (Jesse L. Martin) when she gets him out of the interrogation room where he’s questioning one of Savitar’s acolytes. Caitlin then gets frosty with Henchman #3 as she hopes to locate Doctor Alchemy to get him to take her powers away. Only on her way out, she gets spotted by Julian (Tom Felton), so she has to take him hostage…

… to the Ledded Goh Frozen Foods plant. (Yes, it’s a Frozen reference.)

The more Caitlin uses her powers, the more she’s turning into Killer Frost. And it scares her, until it doesn’t. The rest of Team Flash has to lock her up in the pipeline, where she verbally jabs and taunts Barry into admitting that all of this is his fault with the whole Flashpoint thing, and that includes the fact that pre-Flashpoint Cisco’s brother was still alive. And now he’s not. This is becoming an on-going issue the show keeps putting in, then taking out. Because we’ve already been through this once already this season.

Joe can’t take much more worry about Wally, because his gut’s telling him he needs to act. So he cuts the cocoon open before Wally’s had a chance to fully bake, which means Wally’s body and brain aren’t quite connected because the Speed Force isn’t fully integrated into his system yet.

Barry appeals to Dr. Caitlin Snow, calling out her “Killer Frost” act and proving to her that she doesn’t have it in her to kill anyone. This breaks the cycle of anger in Frosty, and Caitlin is back to herself enough to develop a serum to help Wally stabilize. So now he’s a speedster, Caitlin is relatively back to normal, Cisco is back to wondering if Barry’s his friend, and H.R. is maybe starting to contribute a bit.

The only glitch is Julian. He saw Caitlin, knows that she’s a friend of Barry’s. So in exchange for not telling Detective Patterson (Greg Grunberg) what he saw, he demands that Barry quit the CCPD immediately. Julian thinks Barry’s judgment is off, that his moral compass is askew.

Then we get the reveal that Julian is actually Doctor Alchemy. Dun-dun-DUNNN!

 

 

 

NO EPISODE THIS WEEK

 

NO EPISODE THIS WEEK

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow were dark this week, so to give you something for which to be thankful, here’s a merge of the four posters for next week’s massive super crossover:

Notice something in the background? Some kind of … Hall?