The Flash season 3, episode 8, “Invasion!”, introduced the Dominators and set them up as villains that will require the efforts of all the heroes to defeat.
“Invasion!” had the difficult duty in the extended crossover of setting everything up. The episode had to introduce the alien threat of the Dominators and bring the characters from all four shows together while still telling a Flash story.
And for the most part it succeeded, though I have a feeling the overall crossover would have benefited from all four episodes this week tying into the Dominators narrative; the story of the Flash episode felt like it could have comfortably stretched into two episodes to explore the dynamics of these diverse characters as they come together.
We had a few hints of that, such as when Ray had to break the news of Snart’s death to Barry and when Supergirl discovered Mick’s “colorful backstory.” But there is no shortage of character combinations left to explore, and spending a chunk of an episode with most of the characters brainwashed cuts into some of that fun.
The main character dynamics explored in this episode were Barry and Cisco — Cisco is still mad at Barry for Flashpoint — Barry and Oliver — Oliver is supportive of Barry, showing he’s come a long way from shooting him in the back — and the West family — Joe and Iris don’t want Wally using his speedster powers. They’re channeling Earth-2 Harrison Wells with Jesse, which is a bit frustrating since we’ve already done this story this season.
Joe and Iris’ disapproval of Wally using his powers will drive Wally to train with H.R., who recognizes potential in Wally. This has me scratching my head since H.R. is neither speedster nor scientist so what he can offer seems minimal.
Meanwhile, Jax and Stein reveal the contents of future Barry’s message to Rip Hunter (which was introduced on Legends) to Barry and Oliver. It seems that Barry changing the timeline will have wide-reaching effects; things will only continue to get worse as the effects of Flashpoint are felt. And when Cisco discovers the message, he forces Barry to share the truth with the entire group. Conveniently for the plot, everyone but Oliver loses faith in Barry so goes on a mission without the pair of them.
I have to say, any of the Legends giving Barry crap for changing time has no leg to stand on. They seem to change some aspect of history in every episode. For example, Sara claimed the high ground because she’s not resurrecting Laurel with her time ship, but a) she tried to change history, and b) her chat with Damien Darhk in 1987 seems like it might have erased the events of Arrow season 4 with Darhk joining forces with Eobard Thawne. Pretty much every member of the team has a similar strike against them.
Luckily the distrust doesn’t last past this episode.
All that being said, there were plenty of fun moments. Barry recruiting Team Arrow was hilarious. Supergirl’s clear superiority to the entirety of the other heroes was amusing (and it should give Supergirl viewers a new appreciation for James Olsen fighting crime on Earth-38 without powers since even characters with powers on Earth-1 can’t stand up to her).
I loved seeing Lyla interacting with the most powerful people in the world. Wally getting a hero moment before being injured by Supergirl had me cheering. Barry stopping the mind control by tricking Supergirl was smart and well-executed. And so on.
And then there were the Dominators themselves: Lyla reveals that they’ve been to Earth before on a reconnaissance mission but disappeared without a trace. Now they’re back and they have not come in peace. They are terrifying to look at, and their look is quite loyal to their comic book counterparts. A+ work. Interestingly, the Dominators also exist in Kara’s universe, as she reveals they arrived on Krypton before she was born.
As for Barry, well, he’s voted team leader since he brought all the teams together, but he’s feeling an incredible amount of guilt for creating Flashpoint — especially after hearing his future self’s message about the damage changing the timeline caused. Oh, and realizing that the article from Eobard Thawne’s Braille room about his disappearance in the future is no longer written by Iris West-Allen shakes him to his core.
Cisco has been cold to his best friend, and I think he is well within his rights to be angry after Dante’s death, but at the same time, Barry needs to move forward. If he doesn’t keep going (always forward, right Luke Cage?), he’ll never be able to make amends.
I really loved the conversation he had with Oliver, who told him about his father’s and mother’s deaths and says that in Barry’s shoes, he would have saved them too. Barry is human and making mistakes is part of that. Despite Barry being three years into this hero thing, Oliver is still serving as his mentor. And I think it’s good for both men.
Oh, and we also learned that the woman Stein has been having visions of is his daughter — a daughter he didn’t have before interacting with his past self in 1987.
The episode closed with several of the heroes, including Oliver, being abducted by the Dominators. This will lead into the Arrow portion of the crossover.
Watch a promo for the next part of the crossover
