In the ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ recap for the ‘Invasion’ finale, it’s time for the last showdown between the heroes and the Dominators with Earth hanging in the balance…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The four-night, epic crossover between the four CW superhero shows came to a conclusion on Thursday night during ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ as everybody teamed up for one last showdown against the alien invaders known as the Dominators.
This crossover definitely felt bigger than anything these shows have done previously and with good reason now that ‘Supergirl’ is also part of the family. Truth be told, the crossover really only spanned three episodes because ‘Supergirl’ didn’t really get involved until the waning moments of that hour on Monday.
Still, it was an ambitious effort that was a fun ride in the end while showing off a few flaws when trying to team up these four series. Oliver noted during the episode that when he signed up to be Green Arrow he was taking on human threats and now he’s fighting aliens. ‘Arrow’ is a show that’s always been at its best when grounded in (sort of) reality. Meanwhile, ‘The Flash’ and ‘Supergirl’ definitely exist in a more “super” universe so hopefully the writers find a way to rid themselves of this pesky multiple-Earths problem that keeps them separated so we could see more team ups between the two of them in the future.
As for the ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ — a show I’ve not watched until this episode — this time-traveling epic stuck somewhere between ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Firefly’ is a series worth checking out in the future. A strong second appearance in these crossover episodes after first dropping into ‘Arrow’ and ‘The Flash’ a season ago.
Overall, the ‘Invasion’ storyline was a great team up but something tells me this was only a trial run for what comes next. A journey into ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ still remains my prediction for next season.
With that said, let’s recap ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ for ‘Invasion’ part four…
Back to the Future
Following a harrowing encounter with the Dominators after being kidnapped from Earth, Oliver and the others return home determined to come up with a plan to stop the alien invaders before things get worse.
More than anything right now, the heroes need to figure out what the Dominators true intentions are — especially after they traveled to Earth once before in 1951, took some humans, investigated the planet and then disappeared again. It would be so helpful if they could just interrogate one of the Dominators to find out what they wanted.
That’s when the team comes up with a brilliant plan — why not travel back to 1951 in the Waverider, take one of the Dominators, and ask them what they planned to do.
Felicity and Cisco volunteer to join Nate, Maya and Mick from the ‘Legends’ on this journey going back more than 60 years into the past. When they arrive, Felicity can’t stop throwing up and Cisco gets bummed out when the Legends tell him that they are going to wait in the ship while the team ventures out into the battlefield to take one of the Dominators.
Once they arrive in the middle of the battle, the Dominators have already won and they are taking the remaining soldiers aboard their ship and even Mick doesn’t seem very excited about tackling one of these monstrous aliens. At that moment, there is one Dominator left behind while the others have already transported away to the ship so the team makes their move.
Thanks to some fiery moves from Mick and power punching by Nate, they knock the Dominator out and it looks like they will finally get some answers — until the men in black from the U.S. government show up. The leader — Agent Smith — is the same horn-rimmed glasses wearing suit that was advising the president back in ‘The Flash’ when the aliens first arrived in Earth’s orbit.
This time around, he shoots the heroes with tranquilizer darts and takes everybody hostage — including the Dominator.
Inside the shadowy government facility, Nate, Mick and Maya are locked up with the Dominator and since they have a captive audience, they decide to ask some questions. The alien talks to them — in English no less — and reveals that the Dominators arrived after the Justice Society of America first formed and they were investigating to see if this group of humans would eventually become a threat to wipe them out one day.
It was clear after kidnapping Oliver and the other humans in the super friends that the aliens were going after humans to get answers about the metahumans. Now this is even more evidence that the aliens have returned to Earth with concerns about the metahumans that started springing up after the STAR Labs explosion on ‘The Flash’.
While the group gets their answers, the government wants some of their own so they take the alien away and begin to experiment on it. Meanwhile back in the ship, Gideon alerts Felicity and Cisco that the Legends have been taken and are currently being held by the covert government group.
That means tech support is going to have to save the day — so they arm up with some weaponry found inside the Waverider and proceed to blast their way through the guards until they free the team. Before leaving, Cisco hears the Dominator screaming as its being tortured by Agent Smith and the other government goons.
He believes that maybe by freeing the alien that it will go back and tell the other Dominators that the humans showed it benevolence and possibly stop this attack in the future before it starts. So the team rushes in, frees the alien and allows it to use the craft captured by the Waverider (during the last episode of ‘Arrow’) to fly back to the mothership and return home.
Before leaving, Cisco manages to steal one of the communicator devices from the ship to hopefully reconnect with his alien from 1951 in hopes of brokering a peace once they’ve returned to the future. Mission accomplished — well almost.
Self Sacrifice
Back in the present timeline, Barry, Oliver and the others have a meeting set up with the new President — it seems the one we met back on ‘The Flash’ really was vaporized by the Dominators — but when they arrive, the shadowy government agents show up instead. Supergirl doesn’t get to play along after Oliver tells her to bow out. It seems after his original interaction with the Dominators, he’s soured to dealing with aliens of any kind, even those who lend a helping hand.
They certainly could have used her help with Agent Smith — the same one who the Legends encountered in 1951 except now he’s 65 year older — steps out of the vehicle and orders the other officers to open fire on the heroes. Thankfully, Barry is still around to speed through every one of them before the other heroes intervene and when it’s all finished, only Agent Smith is left standing.
He finally explains why he’s here — it seems he’s brokered a peace with the Dominators under one condition — they want Barry Allen.
Apparently when Barry traveled back to create the ‘Flashpoint’ timeline, the aliens took notice and if their fear of metahumans wasn’t bad enough, this disturbance forced them to come back to Earth to take action. Now they want Barry to turn himself over to them and if he does, the Dominators will leave the planet once and for all. If not, they will drop a special bomb that will wipe out every metahuman and about two million innocent bystanders as well.
To make matters worse, Cisco and Nate believe that maybe they can work with the alien they freed back in 1951 to prove that metahumans are trustworthy and will save the planet rather than destroy them. Instead, after vibing onto the ship, the alien tells them that they are convinced more than ever that the metahumans are a threat. The alien even says that its interaction with Agent Smith back in 1951 after being captured has led them to believe this action must be taken because what happens is someone like that is gifted with extraordinary abilities.
After vibing back to Earth, Cisco realizes by capturing, allowing Agent Smith to torture and then releasing the alien, they may have set this entire sequence in motion. In other words, Cisco is getting a dose of what Barry did accidentally when he created the ‘Flashpoint’ timeline.
With the bomb ready to be dropped after dozens of ships arrive on Earth, Barry prepares to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
All Out War
Of course none of the other heroes are going to allow Barry to give himself up to the aliens and they decided to fight alongside him to stop the Dominators once and for all. Thankfully, Dr. Stein along with help from his daughter (more on that later) have created some nanotechnology that can be attached to the Dominators and when activated it will cause them extreme agony. The only way it can work, however, is if the devices are attached to all of them at once before turning it on.
So Barry, Oliver, Supergirl and the others race off to fight the Dominators while Sara and Cisco fly off in the Waverider to stop the meta-bomb that’s being dropped by the main ship.
As the battle ensues, Barry and Supergirl race around to place all the devices on the Dominators while the rest of the heroes distract the aliens with a fight. Meanwhile, Sara uses the tractor beam on the ship to slow the bomb down while calling on Firestorm to transmute the weapon into a far less harmful element.
Back on the ground, Barry and Supergirl complete their mission by putting Dr. Stein’s weapons on all the aliens, which Felicity then activates and all the Dominators double over in excruciating pain. Up in the sky, Firestorm is able to transform the bomb into water and it falls harmlessly to Earth.
Finally with no weapon and suffering some serious pain, the aliens pack up and fly off in their ships to leave Earth alone. The heroes celebrate the victory as they defeated the Dominators once and for all — although it’s clear there’s always a chance they could return one day ‘independence Day’ style.
Honored
Following the battle with the Dominators, the new President honors the heroes for their fight to save the Earth. Supergirl even holds a private conversation with the new President and tells her about the Department of Extra Normal Operations on her Earth and how that might be a useful tool here as well. The President agrees while also offering to ship Agent Smith up to Antarctica where he will spend the rest of his days.
Back at the hangar, the team celebrates together — including Cisco finally forgiving Barry for his mistake with ‘Flashpoint’ after realizing how much time travel can inadvertently affect the future. Supergirl says her goodbyes but not before Cisco presents her with a device that will allow her to travel back to Earth-38 as well as come back here if she’s ever need or even communicate with them if she needs help.
Diggle even forgives Barry after ‘Flashpoint’ cost him his daughter. Finally, Barry and Oliver retreat to a bar for a few drinks while joking about returning to ‘normalcy’ following an epic battle with aliens. The two friends toast to a job well done as ‘Invasion’ come to an end.
Super-Bits
— Throughout the episode, Dr. Stein is struggling to accept his daughter because when he interacted with his younger self back in 1987, he accidentally implanted the idea that he should have children. Fast forward to 2016 and Dr. Stein suddenly has a daughter named Lily that he doesn’t remember.
— After some cold interactions with her, Dr. Stein finally has a connection with Lily before telling his partner Jax that he doesn’t want to go back in time to erase her while begging that he keeps this a secret from the other Legends.
— In a nod to ‘Superman Returns’ — Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) notes that Supergirl looks a lot like his cousin when she walks by him.
— Oliver comes to grips with his disdain for aliens after he’s chucked off a roof and Supergirl is the one that saves him. He apologizes to her and admits that he was too quick to judge after a bad interaction with the other aliens he encountered.
Next week, ‘The Flash’, ‘Arrow’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ will go into their winter finales while ‘Supergirl’ has already closed up shop for 2016 before returning next year!
