What I’m Watching: The Flash

The Flash: Season 3, Episode 8 “Invasion!” (B+)

I’m not there’s anything quite as exciting as a four-series crossover, and after we saw just a glimmer of it on “Supergirl,” this was the real start of the action. I loved the reaction everyone had to the discovery of alien life, and there were a lot of them because of the sheer number of characters present in this episode. It was awkward for there to be internal strife among the players on this hosting show, since Barry’s authority was very much in question due to Cisco’s anger at him. Sara asking if they were just supposed to pretend that they didn’t hear Oliver feeding Barry leadership lines was entertaining, and I’m glad that the two of them staying behind ended up being very crucial to breaking the mind control that was making everyone else try to kill them. Wally stepped in to save the day at just the right point, and HR agreeing to train him is a curious and worrisome development since he doesn’t actually know anything about his powers. Hearing Barry’s message from the future was a foreboding revelation, and no one seems to be too pleased about what it could mean, save for Oliver, whose outlook on life is already bleak enough that he’s not going to let something like that bring him down. Caitlin helping Stein back home to discover a daughter he didn’t know he had was sweet – and hopefully helpful – and I enjoyed the far more comic interaction between Mick and the Kryptonian he wanted to call only “Skirt.” I look forward to seeing what happens next on part three of this crossover and where all our abducted heroes have been taken.