Supergirl: Crisis on Earth-X Part 1 review S3 E8
Crisis on Earth-X Part 1 couldn’t get to the Nazis fast enough. Yeah, that felt dirty writing too. But with a weird mix of out of place romance drama and the now standard silly hi jinks most of this episode didn’t click.
That really felt weird considering Supergirl has been in a much darker tone this season. I was encouraged at the news of Supergirl’s crossover episode being a real part of the proceedings and not just a quick tie-in. But that meant handling some serious issues going on in Arrow and Supergirl in particular with all the subtlety of Legends of Tomorrow.
Things got off to a very promising start with the iconic red skies showing a glimpse of Earth-X. There, a squad of Rebels got taken down by an archer with a familiar fighting style. The rebels’ back-up, Guardian Patriot arrived too late, but not late enough as the archer killed him. That was a pretty intense opening act, which left me excited about the rest of Part 1. Unfortunately, things wouldn’t get to that level of entertaining until the back end of the episode.
A quick montage segment showed most of the gang remembering to RSVP for Barry and Iris’ wedding. It was fun seeing Killer Shark again, but Supergirl battling a Dominator wasn’t as fun since the Legends just tangled with one. I’m puzzled at how Supergirl or the Legends received the invitation. Does Barry not know anyone else? And what deep connection does he have to the Legends besides maybe Stein and Jax to invite them to his wedding?
At least Part 1 delivered on the Oliver pep talk scene we should have gotten on Barry’s bachelor party. It makes sense for Oliver to be in Barry’s wedding party, but is Iris really that close to Felicity?
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Trying to get all the cast members’ schedules to line up for a massive four-series crossover must be insane, but there were some weird omissions at the wedding. Diggle actually knows Barry and even teamed up with him on several occasions. It would have been nice to have some ridiculous excuse explaining his absence especially since he’s off active duty as Arrow. And it really felt like a wasted opportunity to not have Nate and Ray do a riff on Wedding Crashers. Of course that would assume that Iris or Barry know anyone besides their super friends.
Considering he helped throw the bachelor party and is the sidekick in training, where the heck was Ralph? Or Jesse Quick for that matter? Wedding episodes are a great time for callbacks from previous seasons and it felt a little disappointing that the wedding was more a crossover party than a true moment for Barry and Iris.
It was interesting to see how complete a crossover Part 1 was even going as far as to advance key subplots in the other shows. Cisco and HR whipped up a serum so Jax and Stein won’t have to be Firestorm anymore. Jax wasn’t thrilled about Stein coming up with his own concoction so Jax could be a superhero. Tarantula would be nice and budget friendly. But what is the deal with all the Marvel references? It’s like the writers are trying to be cool by referencing the Marvel universe. The DC world is cool enough guys.
The best aspects of Part 1 were the character chats like Barry and Kara, Caitlin and Stein and Cisco and Mick. Although it did seem kinda funny that Kara bothered wearing glasses on another Earth. I mainly only paid attention to this because Melissa Benoist and Emily Bett Rickards look so similar with glasses.
Mick stole the show in Part 1 with his interactions with everyone. His excitement in seeing Caitlin turn into Killer Frost was really funny. He was easily the MVP that Part 1 desperately needed.
Of course the rehearsal dinner at CC Jitters because why wouldn’t you have it at your local coffee shop? Here’s your helpful reminder that Sara is a lesbian. According to CW logic no two lesbians can be in the same room without hitting on each other. I’m sure someone thought this was a funny gag, but it just felt like it cheapened all the emotional fallout of Alex and Maggie’s breakup. Then of course was the now common needless men diss with Alex shocked that she had a one night stand like some dude. No series of shows works so hard to turn off its straight male fan base for no reason more than the Arrowverse.
Trick question: if I spot you Joe and Cecile, J’onn and M’gann & that abortion of Diggle and his sister-in-law, name another black couple in any of the Arrowverse shows. I’ll wait. And it seems super insulting to suggest anytime gay/lesbian characters meet they’re instantly attracted to one another. Legends has done a much better job of not making Sara a roaring horn dog in every scenario.
Oliver’s proposal to Felicity was weak. And if you’re keeping score, this is the second time Oliver has proposed. Seems if someone overcomes their paralysis to walk off and leave the engagement ring, you probably should never propose to them ever.
Just as the priest kicks off the ceremony, Earth-X Supergirl, Overgirl, vaporizes him. Probably for allowing someone to actually have a waitress serving drinks in the church. Who does that? I’ll probably never be that excited to see Nazis show up ever in life. The fight made up for a lot of the underwhelming moments in Part 1. I really dug the subtlety of Reverse Flash taking out Cisco. And that Earth-X’s version is still played by Tom Cavanagh.
I was less enthused with Prometheus being taken out by Sara and Alex. Supergirl keeps trying to make Alex its version of Winter Soldier, but she’s really just a good fighter. She’s not on Sara’s level. And it certainly seemed like Prometheus’ identity is being kept secret for a reason. We know Earth-X’s Arrow and Supergirl is Oliver and Kara, but I smell a twist coming.
After the thrilling opening act, Part 1 dramatically slowed down. Things picked up with the wedding, but this first chapter left a burden for the other three parts to truly make this crossover great.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW