Oh, The Metahumanity! Feb 20-23)

SO MANY ROBOTS!

Arrow improves, because how could it not? Flash goes ape. Powerless slips a bit from last week's high, and Agents of SHIELD knocks it out of the park, asks us to hold its beer, and vanishes until April.

The Flash: "Attack On Gorilla City" (15% Stupid)

OK. I'm not gonna ding Flash for another one of those Flash episodes where the budget and the effects crew really isn't up to the task. It's an ambitious episode, and yeah, you can see every single corner they cut, but they get a pass from me on that.

I have one small problem, and one large problem with this episode. The small problem involves Jessie Quick. Not only was leaving her behind a dumb contrivance to further her Wally story (really, you don't want to bring a person with superpowers and familiarity with Earth 2 on your rescue mission to Earth 2?), but neither her wrestling with her decision to stay, nor her decision, ever referenced the fact that the only reason she went to Earth 2 in the first place is that "Earth 2 needs a Flash". Guess it doesn't anymore even though it's full of monkey armies?

The larger problem may or may not be ameliorated next week, but the show needs to explain why, if Grodd had Gypsy in his back pocket the entire time, any of the events in this week's episode needed to happen at all. I mean, yeah, technically he needed someone to defeat Solivar so he could take over Gorilla City, but you'd think a dimension-hopping trained assassin would be able to manage that without any of the moral qualms that got in Barry's way.

Agents Of SHIELD: "Self Control" (0.0000000001% Stupid)

This was fucking fantastic, start to finish. Tense, dramatic, action-packed, emotional, EVERYONE'S A ROBOT, tables got turned over, the status quo of the show shifted, and they left us with a fucking cliffhanger for a six week break until the show returns in April. APRIL! I wonder if they're getting out of the way of Iron Fist?

The tiny fraction of stupid is due to the fact that I can't quite jibe the events of this episode with the cliffhanger revelation from last episode that detected four robots when four people entered the base.

Arrow: "The Sin-Eater" (15% Stupi)

Much better than last week. The biggest problem here is that the show has had like five seasons to establish various moral centers. And I think it was maybe three episodes ago where Diggle got a stern talking to about torture and Felicity got a stern talking to about blackmail.

What Thea did in this episode is roughly on par with that, and it's a sign of SOMETHING DARKER. And to accomplish this, the show has to paint Susan Williams in a WAY more sympathetic light than the season has shone on her to date. As far as this season's been concerned, she's been manipulating Oliver and dating/fucking him while compiling a dossier on and investigating him.

So when she gets mad at Ollie for lying, using a line I'm pretty sure has been in this show before, it's hard to amass sympathy, even given the morally questionable means by which she was neutralized. I can go along with it, but I'm not fully invested because it's not fully consistent.

Powerless: "Emily Dates A Henchman" (60% There)

I freely admit I was biased towards this episode because I saw the title ahead of time and love it. The actual plot referenced in the title is, really, the B plot of the episode, and it plays out OK. The dynamic between Emily and Jackie is rife for comedy, and this ep takes a noble swing at it and only whiffs a little.

I still don't know why Dnany Pudi is here. I like him. I like his character. But he's spent the entire season being the third whieel in other people's plots. What does Teddy bring to the ensemble? No idea. Everyone else's contribution is clear four episodes in, so it's definitely time to answer the question for Teddy.

Also, Van Wayne has a rubbersmith.