'The Flash' Recap: 'Invasion!'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

At first glance, the final moments of this week's episode of Supergirl, where Barry and Cisco appeared through a portal and into Kara's apartment, thus signaling the beginning of DC Week on the CW, seemed relatively underwhelming. I mean...that was it? Just a quick hello and 'come help us' from Barry and we fade to black? But the more I think about it, the more I realize that the brief beginning to this four night super hero crossover event...was a genius stroke of storytelling.

That brief encounter was all anyone, including myself, could talk about yesterday, that this was it, the crossover was here and by giving us that tiny little teaser, we found ourselves hungry for more and excited enough to the point where I know that I was sitting on my couch, popcorn in hand, ready for The Flash and the 'Invasion!' to begin and let's just get the fanboying out of the way now...this episode was absolutely freaking awesome on so many levels. I mean come on, a Hall of Justice reference? Supergirl and the Flash fighting side by side? This was simply a geeky dream come true and to top it all off...the story was pretty awesome as well.

Because as it turns out...the Dominators are a freakishly mean and nasty race of aliens. They're able to control the minds of men with a simple device and they are ruthless in the pursuit of their goals, murdering anyone that gets in their way and what makes their appearance on the show so incredibly fascinating...is the sheer fact that they didn't quite come in with guns (or lasers) blazing to wipe out all of humanity, they came here with a plan...to control and capture the protectors of our planet. Yes, earth's heroes are their target and of course the big question is why. Is there something specific about our heroes that these aliens want to harness for their own personal gain? Or...are they planning to use our intrepid heroes to do their dirty work when it comes to conquering our world? The possibilities are endless and I'm sure we'll find out more about their dastardly plans as the crossover progresses.

However, despite all the action and adventure this episode provided us with, it did take the time to expand upon the whole Flashpoint mess in epic fashion as well. Thanks to a recording from the future that the Legends discovered, Barry's secret about altering the timeline and everyone's lives was revealed and the end result of the truth coming forth was outright heartbreaking for Barry. Aside from Oliver and Supergirl, most of the heroes assembled turned their back on him for the time being and he was left at S.T.A.R. Labs to ponder on his poor decision and all the bad that has come from it and despite the sorrow he felt, it was nice to see Oliver take the time to remind Barry that he's only human, mistakes will be made and given the chance, the Green Arrow would have gone back in time to do the exact same thing...

But despite that touching moment between those two heroes, and the fact that Oliver more or less instructed Barry to man up and find a way to make peace with the timeline he's created...the resolution of that plot thread will have to wait for another day. Because the danger of the Dominators still remains and a fair chunk of the heroes assembled to combat these beings from another world...were snatched up by the Dominators and whisked off to an unknown location. Either way, this was simply a phenomenal episode, one that more or less healed the bitter wounds fans endured from Batman v Superman since this was just an hour of pure, unadulterated, action packed fun and I cannot to see what will come next as the Invasion continues tonight on Arrow...

---