In ‘The Flash’ recap, the Dominators land on Earth and it forces Barry to ask for help from some heroic friends but sins of the past come back to haunt him…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
‘The Flash’ promised that the events of ‘Flashpoint’ would reverberate throughout the entire season while also affecting everybody else in the Arrow-verse.
That was never truer than the latest episode, which fully kicked off the gigantic CW crossover as ‘The Flash’ crossed paths with ‘Supergirl’, ‘Arrow’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ to help battle an alien invader that landed on Earth.
Unfortunately before the group could enjoy “the best team up ever” — as Felicity Smoak said during the episode — everybody was forced to learn how much Barry’s decision to go back and save his mother’s life may have affected them.
That revelation has far reaching consequences throughout the episode as the people Barry called for help now look at him with mistrust, disgust and anger. There was also a very interesting audio clip found by the Legends from 40 years into the future where Barry warned them not to trust him during this timeline.
Whatever Barry did to reset things with ‘Flashpoint’ isn’t finished and it doesn’t appear things will be going back to normal anytime soon. It’s certainly not a good foundation as Barry and the others team up to face the Dominators in the biggest and most ambitious crossover yet.
With that said let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Flash’ titled ‘Invasion!’ (Part 2)
Alien Invasion
Before the Dominators arrive on Earth, Barry is still dealing with the fallout on his own team after Cisco learned that his ‘Flashpoint’ reset cost his brother Dante his life. Meanwhile, Wally is testing off the charts with his new found speed, but both Iris and Joe are hesitant to let him race into any danger. You’d think after what happened with Harry and his daughter Jesse earlier this season that they would have learned already.
Regardless, while H.R. is pitching a new STAR Labs tour to help the public start to trust the facility again after the particle accelerator explosion, Barry is called away when a satellite tracks a meteor headed for downtown Central City.
When he arrives, Barry finds that the meteor is actually a spacecraft and when he approaches it, he gets shocked and thrown back by the force field protecting. Out of nowhere, several creatures escape the craft, run right past him and he’s shocked as he realizes that aliens have officially landed on Earth.
The next day with the government on the scene along with Lyla — the head of A.R.G.U.S. — Barry finds out that there’s already a cover up in place to explain away the alien landing. When Barry meets with Lyla back at STAR Labs, she explains that these same aliens landed on Earth back in 1951 and declared it an exploratory mission to better understand humans. When soldiers intervened as the aliens started taking humans, the Dominators (as they were called) destroyed the army and killed many men before just getting back into their ship and flying away.
Three months ago the Dominators sent a message to the government saying that they were going to return and no one should interfere or they will suffer the same consequences as the soldiers in the 1950’s. While the FED’s want to cover this up and deal with it their own way, Barry knows that this is a job that he has to handle but he can’t do it alone.
Best Team Up Ever
Barry races off to Star City — while interrupting a battle between the Green Arrow and his new rival the Vigilante — and asks him to lend a hand to this Dominators problem. Thea decides to come out of retirement as Speedy to help out while John Diggle suits up as Spartan to join the fray as well. As much as these four might be a tough team to deal with on a regular basis, these are aliens after all so they require some more back up.
So Felicity puts a call into ‘The Legends’ to stop their time traveling pursuits long enough to land back on Earth in the current day to help stamp out the Dominators. Enter ‘The Legends’ which includes Firestorm, White Canary, Heat Wave, and the Atom, who all offer to help as well but there’s still one more piece missing.
If you’re fighting a bunch of aliens, you need an alien of your own.
So Barry and Cisco travel to Earth-38 where they ask Supergirl to join the team and return to their Earth with them to defeat the Dominators.
After a brief introduction, Barry is chosen as the leader of this new group of super friends — much to the chagrin of Cisco — and they ask Supergirl to train them. She also informs them that the Dominators exist in her world as well and they were responsible for many deaths on Krypton so these are some very dangerous creatures. Supergirl will help out but Oliver asks specifically that she not go easy on any of them because otherwise they won’t learn.
Meanwhile, Dr. Stein and Jax pull Barry aside to show him something they found during their time traveling pursuits. It’s an audio file from 40 years in the future — from Barry Allen.
On the file, Barry warns them about a huge alteration to the timeline that has continued to spiral out of control as the years moved forward and if they ever encounter him in the past, do not trust him. Barry is forced to finally reveal to Oliver and the others that he created the ‘Flashpoint’ timeline and the changes that it’s made to everybody’s lives — including people in that room.
They decide to keep it a secret for now, but Dr. Stein asks Caitlin to take a trip with him to visit his wife and that’s when he discovers what Barry has done to his timeline. When he returns home, Dr. Stein finds his daughter waiting to greet him — except in the original timeline he didn’t even have a daughter. He embraces her for moment before rushing back to home base, completely overrun with emotion.
While the team is training — and getting their asses kicked by Supergirl — Cisco finds the audio file and insists that Barry tell the team the truth about what he did. Barry finally comes clean — including the news that Diggle’s daughter from the original timeline has disappeared and she’s been replaced by his son John Jr. — and his revelation makes virtually everybody turn against him.
This infighting doesn’t help matters much when the Dominators make their move and kidnap the President of the United States. The heroes decide to go after him but not with the Flash as part of the team. Oliver also refuses to go with them if Barry isn’t included, but Supergirl promises to handle the situation and recover the president.
Make Up Your Mind
With Barry and Oliver out of the picture, Supergirl, the Legends and the rest of Team Arrow arrive at the warehouse where the President’s GPS tracker has been located. The team quickly heads inside where they find the President in handcuffs begging for help. Supergirl is ready to fly up to save him when the Dominators reveal themselves and vaporize the President into dust — either that or he was a hologram, that’s kind of unclear at this point.
Either way, the super team is surrounded by the aliens when a strange pulse is sent out into the warehouse. The wave washes over everybody inside and suddenly they aren’t so interested in stopping the Dominators any longer.
Back at STAR Labs, Barry is lamenting about all the issues he’s caused by creating the ‘Flashpoint’ timeline while staring at the news article from the future that Eobard Thawne brought back with him. In 2024, The Flash goes missing but in the reset timeline article, the article is written by a new reporter instead of Iris West-Allen.
Does this mean Barry and Iris aren’t meant to be together after all in this new timeline? Will something happen to Iris?
Either way, Oliver tries to tell Barry that while he made a mistake it wasn’t anything he wouldn’t have done if he had the same powers. Oliver tells Barry the story about how his father sacrificed his own life to make sure he could survive after they were trapped following a shipwreck. If he could go back and save his father, Oliver would do it just like Barry wanted to keep his mother from being murdered by the Reverse Flash.
Their conversation is cut short when Cisco alerts them that STAR Labs is under attack — from Supergirl, the Legends and Team Arrow.
It seems the Dominators used some kind of mind control device and now they are using the heroes to eliminate their friends, which will virtually stop any real resistance Earth can mount against their invasion.
The Flash and Green Arrow put up a fight, but it’s a tough battle considering the odds they are up against. With no help in sight, Wally decides to lend a hand and he upends a few of the mind controlled Legends but then takes a hit himself that knocks him unconscious.
Barry asks Oliver to hold off the rest of Team Arrow while getting Wally to safety while he deals with Supergirl. Barry challenges Supergirl to find out who is really faster as he races off to the building where the Dominators first attacked.
As Barry is racing around the building like a matador with a bull chasing him, Cisco figures out that he’s trying to make her angry. With each turn, Supergirl is one step behind and her rage is simmering as she tries to catch up to Barry. Finally, Barry stands in front of the glowing device that’s controlling everybody’s minds and just as Supergirl attacks, he darts out of the way and she destroys it.
A moment later after the device is eradicated, Supergirl and all the others return to normal with the mind control broken.
Chapter 3
With the heroes all back to normal, the team reconvenes at STAR Labs but the Dominators are far from finished with them. Before anyone can celebrate the momentary victory, a bright flash of light comes out of the sky and zaps away White Canary before the same thing happens to the Atom and Spartan. The light captures Oliver as well but Barry races to save him just as his friend disappears.
The Dominators have now captured half of the best team up ever and that’s going to leave Barry and the other searching for their friends and a way to stop these aliens from taking over the Earth.
The next chapter of ‘Invasion’ takes place on Wednesday night on ‘Arrow’ and we will have a full recap!
Flash-Bits
— Wally’s brief encounter with heroism doesn’t sit well with Joe or Iris, but he knows he’s destined to be a hero. Since no one else will try to help, Wally enlists H.R. to be his trainer. While he’s hesitant at first, H.R. finally agrees and now he will help Wally become Kid Flash
— Christina Brucato has been added to the cast of ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ where she will play Lily Stein — Professor Martin Stein’s daughter — who appeared after the events in ‘Flashpoint’.
— One interesting side note — Supergirl takes place on Earth-38 — and something tells me that the multi-verse will eventually lead us to ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ being introduced for a future crossover. Possibly next year? If you’re not familiar with that story, highly recommend checking it out!
‘The Flash’ returns for the winter finale next Tuesday night at 8pm ET on the CW!
