The Week In DC: Barry Faces Off Against DeVoe For The Fate Of The World

By
John Nolan
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This week marks another end of this season of a spectacular show on the CW’s Arrowverse.  Before we get to Barry and DeVoe’s showdown, a quick recap as to what’s been going on.  Last week on Supergirl, Reign was revealed to have all the powers of the World Killers, and in order to complete her journey to the dark side, she had to kill her human alter-ego’s daughter Ruby.  Lucky for little Ruby, Kara, Alex, Mon-El, and Lena Luthor all had her back.  Unfortunately, she finally found out that her mother was the evil World Killer Reign, which won’t bode well for her future therapy bills.  Kara and Lena were at odds with each other, since Kara didn’t appreciate her hoarding Kryptonite, and Lena didn’t appreciate that Kara was so hypocritical about the one thing that could hurt her (when she could destroy a city if she so chose).  Meanwhile, on The Flash, DeVoe was one step closer to bringing about The Enlightening and reducing everyone’s intelligence across the planet.  In order to try to stop them, Barry needed to give Cisco and Caitlin a little bit of his Speed Force abilities so that they could rescue ARGUS hostages and stop DeVoe from launching his satellites.  They managed to save the hostages and destroy one satellite.  However, DeVoe then used STAR Lab’s satellites instead to launch his attack on the planet.

So how did this week in the Arrowverse go?

Supergirl: “The Fanatical”

This episode begins at one of Lena Luthor’s facilities.  Reign is once again back in their custody after she was stopped from killing Ruby.  Lena reveals that they are safe from Reign as she has developed a new technology that shields Kryptonians from escaping the cell.  Kara even tries to use her x-ray vision to look into the now blocked cell, which ends up hurting her.  She is once again angered with Lena Luthor for developing technology that could hurt her.  Once again, Kara is a bit of a hypocrite as she wants to remain invincible.  The people of earth would be stupid not to have a means of defending themselves.  What if she gets some red Kryptonite and turns evil?  Then humanity would need some of Lena’s technology to keep them safe.
    
At CatCo, Kara decides to confront James about telling Lena the truth about her having him as Guardian spy on her.  James told his girlfriend the truth, which Kara has a problem with.  James maintains that he did the right thing and even tries to counsel Kara on finding common ground between the two of them.  Out of nowhere, one of Thomas Coville’s followers, a woman named Tonya comes into James’ office needing help.  She has one of his Cult of Rao journals, which reveals that the cult (even without their leader) is trying to build a bomb.  Tonya knows that James knows who Supergirl is, so she hopes that Supergirl will be able to stop them.
As expected, Ruby is not having a good time.  After the reveal that her mother is a superpowered serial killer, one would feel a little down.  Alex has taken Ruby in under he wing and is trying to do everything she can to try to lift her spirits up, with no such luck.  J’onn is also struggling with his father Myr’nn’s deteriorating mental health.  The two decide that both need something to pick them up.  They take them to a local arcade.  Myr’nn, not used to how shoot ‘em up games work is terrified of one of the arcade games and Ruby still doesn’t want to do anything.  However, the two of them have a conversation with each other about their problems, and they discover foosball, which they both absolutely love.  The two enjoy smiles and laughs while playing foosball as Alex and J’onn happily look on.
Members of the cult try to kidnap Tonya, only for James to stop them.  However, during the scuffle, James helmet is knocked off and Tonya finds out that he’s Guardian.  The cult then reveals that they had a camera and the only way they won’t reveal that James is Guardian, as long as they turn over the journal and Tonya.  Later on, James is discussing his options with Lena.  For the first time, James really acknowledges that he’s a black man.  As he monologues his experiences with Lena, he reveals that story many young black men all can tell: their first experience being arrested by the police for being nothing else can being young a black.  He’s worried that the reveal of Guardian being black will paint him in another light.  At first, he’s going to hold a press conference to remove the cults leverage, but Tonya tells him she’s proud that he’s Guardian.
Kara and the DEO decide to stage a sting to lure Tonya and get the cult in one fell swoop.  They allow Tonya to get kidnapped and Mon-El will tag along, acting like their getaway van is an Uber ride. Actor Chris Wood had a bit of fun playing against type, being a nerd instead of a prince-turned-superhero.  The cult finds a way to stop Mon-El’s tracker, but once he gets to their hideout, he uses his powers to reveal the location to Kara.  However, the cult uses a ritual to give one of their members World Killer powers, which makes the fight between them, Mon-El, and Supergirl difficult.  Instead of fighting, Kara once again appeals to the woman’s humanity, just as she did last week against Reign.  After the woman lets go of a rock that gave her the powers, Kara and Mon-El destroy it.
At the DEO they discover that the rock is five light years away and maybe they can defeat Reign if they have it.  They borrow J’onn’s spaceship/convertible so they can find it.  But they have to hurry up as Reign is becoming immune to Lena’s technology.
Next week, Kara and Mon-El go on a ride where she runs into Kryptonians…. Even her mom???

The Flash: “We Are the Flash”


First off, this season of The Flash has been a breath of fresh air.  For the first time, the big bad villain wasn’t a speedster.  We finally have some diversity in his villains with DeVoe.  While he did have all the bus metahumans’ powers towards the end of the season, for the most part, the only thing that DeVoe had against Barry was his intelligence.  And to watch him continuously outthink Barry and Team Flash, gave us a competent villain, who proved to be more than a match for them.

The episode begins with the beginning of The Enlightenment.  Captain Singh is going to Jitters for a cup of coffee (does anyone go to a bar?  Like who gets coffee after work?) where he even leaves Barry a voicemail that he can get his job back on the account that DeVoe was an evil supervillain all along.  Soon enough, the sky goes purple and all technology goes off as the satellites have been launched.

At STAR Labs, they manage to get the power back on, and now have to race against the clock to stop the dark matter energy from satellites from covering the entire planet.  Lucky for them, DeVoe’s wife Marlize is now on their side and they have to find a way to stop DeVoe.  Marlize thinks the best option they have is to enter DeVoe’s mind and find the one part of him that is still good to try and get him to stop The Enlightenment.  In order to do that, they will need some help from Cecile, who can bridge minds thanks to her pregnancy.  However, she’s about to get ready to deliver.  It’s going to be tough.

It works out as Barry is transported into DeVoe’s consciousness.  It’s not as easy as Marilize hopes it would be.  Turns out, they cannot find a good version of DeVoe as he’s completely evil.  However, there is one good person stuck in DeVoe’s mind: Ralph!  Remember, DeVoe is using Ralph’s body, so somewhere in there, Ralph’s consciousness remains alive.  We all knew he was going to come back in one way or another.  Barry is determined to get Ralph back to the land of the living.  If they manage to escape, Ralph will come back, and DeVoe will be destroyed.  However, this is something DeVoe was prepared for as well.  He has multiple versions of himself stop Barry and Ralph from trying to leave his mind, while in the real world, he goes to STAR Labs to stop Team Flash.  As he is fighting them in his mind, he almost kills Cecille, which would kill Barry.  However, Barry and Ralph find a way out of DeVoe’s mind, destroying DeVoe in the process.  With DeVoe, no loDeVoe transfers his consciousness to his chair, but Maralize destroys the chair, stopping DeVoe for good.  Unable to get control of the satellites, The Enlightenment is over.

Just in time, as Cecille’s water breaks and she is able to deliver her baby.  Marlize and Cisco find a way to reverse Harry’s brain degradation.  However, it doesn’t fix him completely, and he doesn’t have the same level of intelligence (a least he can talk).  Harry now is in tune with his emotions, and is completely fine with not being one of the smartest people in the multiverse.  He leaves Earth-1 to spend some time with his daughter.  In the aftermath, everyone is at Joe’s house to celebrate he and Cecil’s new daughter.  Even Wally shows up to meet his new sister.  Barry and Iris even talk about them one day having children.  Just on cue, the Mystery girl comes back.  she’s now seeking their help.  She reveals to Barry that she is he and Iris’s daughter Nora Allen-West, and she’s from the future.  She reveals that she made a “big, big mistake” by traveling back into the past and might have created her own “Flashpoint” and now needs her parents help to right her wrong.

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