DC TV Watch: ‘Arrow’ Retreads Same Twist for Its Latest Shocker (2024)

Welcome back to The Hollywood Reporter‘s weekly DC TV Watch, a rundown of all things DC Comics on the small screen. Every Saturday, we round up the major twists, epic fights, new mysteries and anything else that goes down on The CW’s Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl and Black Lightning and Fox’s Gotham. This week, bothArrowand Gothamget baby crazy. Note: Supergirl did not air a new episode this week.

Arrow

The big news: Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) is pregnant with Oliver’s (Stephen Amell) baby, and their daughter will grow up to become Blackstar (Katherine McNamara) in the future.

What it means: This is obviously the news that “Olicity” fans have been waiting for ever since Oliver and Felicity got married. But this is hardly an event to celebrate, as it’s far from a happy ending. Mia calls herself “Mia Smoak,” which could signal trouble in paradise for Oliver and Felicity in the future. Her parents still haven’t been seen or heard from in the future storyline, and there’s no way of knowing if they’re even alive at this point. Felicity’s been “murdered” (although the jury is still out on if that actually happened, as Mia doesn’t believe it) and no one is even mentioning Oliver. While the news of Felicity’s pregnancy may be a good thing in the present, Mia’s life has clearly not been one full of love. She didn’t even know about her half-brother William (Ben Lewis), so this family is about to get fractured. It’s also interesting to note that Arrow is retreading the same surprise family twist just a few episodes after revealing that the new Green Arrow is Oliver’s half-sister Emiko (Sea Shimooka). Half-siblings suddenly appearing in a time of crisis? Has Arrow run out of ideas?

Other noteworthy moments: The Star City Slayer was none other than Oliver’s prison stalker, Stanley (Brendan Fletcher). After he escaped Slabside, he kept up his obsession with Oliver to the point where he started stalking Team Arrow. Before they caught him and sent him back to prison, he slashed Dinah’s (Juliana Harkavy) throat, which finally explains her scar in the future. Has the Black Canary lost her cry for good? This sudden reappearance was well done, as it both tied up a loose end from earlier in the season as well as packed a shocking punch for the future storyline. It can be argued that Dinah losing her cry is Oliver’s fault for trusting the wrong person. That can’t be an easy pill to swallow.

And Team Arrow lost a member by the end of this week’s episode. Echo Kellum has departed the show and is no longer a series regular as Curtis decided to accept a new job in Washington, D.C. to leave the vigilante life behind. There is the chance he could reappear as a guest star later down the line, but for now, Mr. Terrific has left the building.

Gotham

The big news: Arrow wasn’t the only DC TV show getting baby crazy this week, as Gotham also dropped a bump-sized bombshell on Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie): Barbara (Erin Richards) is pregnant with his baby.

What it means:Their night of passion in the GCPD is going to have long-lasting effects, especially as it happened right before Lee (Morena Baccarin) returned. While Gordon and Barbara aren’t together, this is a kind of full-circle twist that brings everything back not onlyto the beginning of the series, but also the comics. While Gotham has definitely taken some liberties with the Barbara Gordon character from the comics, making her Jim’s ex instead of his daughter, the show has finally linked the characters and made them family, even if they’re no longer together. Watching how this plays out just as Gordon and Lee reunited will add even more insanity to the final season.

Other noteworthy moments: The rivalry between Gordon and Eduardo Dorrance (Shane West) reached an all-time high as they tried to kill each other — and Gordon thought he succeeded, impaling his former friend on a piece of rebar. But with Dorrance surviving and being taken to Hugo Strange (B.D. Wong), he’s about to become Bane instead, glowing mouthpiece and all. Is his mission as simple as killing everyone in Gotham, or is there something more sinister at play here? Could there be some kind of technology or resource the military is trying to get its hands on somewhere in the city? Or is it really just a genocide?

Here is a new trailer for next week’s Joker origin story, when Jeremiah (Cameron Monaghan) finally reaches his comic-book destiny:

The Flash

The big news: The Flash certainly loves playing fast and loose with time travel, but did this week’s episode throw out the rule book and forget all the lessons it’s learned over the years? Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) reset the timeline more than 50 times trying to save the team from Cicada (Chris Klein), and somehow everything seemed to work out in the end.

What it means: Nora eventually gets it right with the help of the team instead of keeping things a secret (especially when Cisco (Carlos Valdes) started vibing all the timeline resets). But by resetting the timeline and going back in time 52 times, hasn’t she just created another Flashpoint timeline? What has changed about the present? Why wasn’t Barry (Grant Gustin) more upset about Nora breaking the rules of time travel when he found out? And has The Flash just given up on trying to make sense of all the time-travel rules? Why hasn’t a time wraith or Black Flash come for Nora yet? This is all too neat and tidy for how much she’s changed with her time travel, and hopefully the show course corrects to bring some consequences for the fledgling speedster considering how much Barry had to lose before he learned not to mess with time travel.

Other noteworthy moments:It seems as if the only consequence for Nora’s meddling with the timeline is Sherloque (Tom Cavanagh) watched her decode her speed force language in her journal and can now translate all her notes. Will he expose her partnership with Thawne (also Cavanagh) or use it for his own benefit (aka cash)?

Black Lightning

The big news: Tobias (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III) got the leg up on the pod kid race, successfully stealing most of the pods out from under everyone’s noses.

What it means: As the race for the pod kids heated up thanks to the Markovians trying to become a metahuman world power, Tobias finally made his move. While Lynn (Christine Adams) was able to revive and keep one of the pod kids, Tobias now has the rest. And with Dr. Jace (Jennifer Riker), a Batman and Outsiders villain from the comics, working with him to wake up all the new metahumans, it looks like Tobias might finally have the power he’s been craving. But will his plans to sell the metahumans on the black market work? He can’t control newly powered metahumans and make them do his bidding. Unless he and Jace figure out a way to mind control the pod kids, he could have a mutiny on his hands.

Other noteworthy moments: One of the story threads didn’t make sense in this week’s episode: Jefferson (Cress Williams) had the chance to be reinstated as principal of the high school once more, but he decided at the last second he didn’t want the job. His Black Lightning duties came first, which makes sense, but leaving his students at the mercy of the cruel and uncaring Mr. Lowry (P.J. Byrne) doesn’t add up. Jefferson has seen just how bad Lowry is at handling the complicated dynamics of Garfield High and his lack of empathy for the students during tough times. How he could endorse Lowry as the right choice for principal is a huge plot hole that just doesn’t make sense.

Also, RIP Todd (RJ Cyler). The ambitious, brilliant grad student should have known not to get into bed with Tobias. After helping him locate the pod kids, Todd was unceremoniously killed as Jace took his place as Tobias’ new right hand henchman. It’s the fate everyone saw coming a mile away but losing Todd’s sarcastic wit and shameless ability to say exactly what was on his mind, regardless of Tobias’ ego, will truly be missed.

Looking ahead

Supergirl returns Sunday with the first new episode in weeks as Nia Nal (Nicole Maines) finally suits up as Dreamer for the first time.

Note:Supergirlairs Sundays;ArrowandBlack Lightningair Mondays;The Flashairs Tuesdays; andLegends of Tomorrowreturns in April on The CW.Gothamairs Thursdays on Fox.