[7.0/10] I feel like the subtitle for this episode should be “the random solution for a random problem.” I kind of thought that after a lot of set up in the last episode, the show would start to bring things together here, but we don’t really get that. Instead we get a lot of “and thens” with out of nowhere developments that have out-of-nowhere fixes.
But let’s start with what I did like. For one thing, there’s a cool The Thing vibe when the Justice League has to figure out which one of them has been possessed by the “dark heart” crystal. The show generates some real tension out of Flash testing the various members with the gem Mophir entrusted him with. Likewise, while the mechanics of the mass possession are a little wonky, Flash vs. the Justice League makes for a cool set of action sequences, particularly when the speedster has to evade his best buddies without being destroyed by them.
Pretty much everything else here is rushed or convenient. We get the backstory on the dark heart crystal, which is apparently the product of a long long ago struggle between vaguely Viking-like humans and a group of heretofore unknown anthropomorphic snake people? (Maybe they’re the same people that the Kobra group in Batman Beyond idolize?) It’s pretty weird, and doesn’t really track with anything else we’ve seen in the DCAU, but I suppose we’ve seen crazier stuff so it shouldn’t rankle too much. More than anything, it just plays as kind of hokey, especially with Mophir’s caveman dialect and Peter Lorre-style vocal tones.
But it’s what happens next that doesn’t really make much sense or have any real setup. Hawkgirl shatters the crystal (why did no one else think of that in the past millennia or so?) only to have it sprinkle and possess all the Justice League. That’s not a crazy extrapolation of the crystal’s effects as is, but it’s still a little convenient.
The real plot hole comes when Flash is able to cure them with very bright lights. I guess the idea is that the snake people were moon worshippers and so on, but the show did nothing to establish that the crystal’s effect is vulnerable to strong blasts of sunlight. There’s at least some set up for the idea that the villain plan is to use the nuclear radiation-sucking device to blot out the sun, but the solution there is just as random.
Apparently, the Watchtower shuttles have a device that can create wormholes in space time. That’s never been mentioned before, and a pretty damn big deal to just be casually tossed in! What’s more, apparently Flash can make it work apart from the shuttle just by running fast in space using a track created by GL. I’m less apt to complain about that since it’s a decent enough comic book-y combo of the two heroes’ powers, but it’s still a little hinky. Last, but not least, apparently the resulting blast can be big and powerful enough to suck up gobs and gobs of explosive radiation, while somehow not sucking up Flash and leaving him 98% unharmed. Whatever.
Worse yet, the show just wraps up the jerkass talk show host bit in two scenes. Gordon Godfrey seems to regret his comments about the League when the sun’s in danger, and gets near-instant comeuppance when the audience’s sympathies change on a dime. I don’t want to minimize our heroes saving the world, but they do that on a weekly basis! If the people who watched his show fell for that shtick in the first place after all the times the Leaguers publicly protected the planet, why would this one more time be the thing that turns their hearts? It doesn’t really make sense and feels like something the writers threw in and undercooked because they were running out of time. The same goes for Mophir doing the endorsement deal that Flash abandoned.
Overall, some of the horror movie vibes, action material, and focus on Flash as a main character boost this one into “good enough” territory, but the episode leaves a lot on the table and delivers plenty of developments that make little-to-no sense.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-08-28T19:28:45Z
[7.0/10] I feel like the subtitle for this episode should be “the random solution for a random problem.” I kind of thought that after a lot of set up in the last episode, the show would start to bring things together here, but we don’t really get that. Instead we get a lot of “and thens” with out of nowhere developments that have out-of-nowhere fixes.
But let’s start with what I did like. For one thing, there’s a cool The Thing vibe when the Justice League has to figure out which one of them has been possessed by the “dark heart” crystal. The show generates some real tension out of Flash testing the various members with the gem Mophir entrusted him with. Likewise, while the mechanics of the mass possession are a little wonky, Flash vs. the Justice League makes for a cool set of action sequences, particularly when the speedster has to evade his best buddies without being destroyed by them.
Pretty much everything else here is rushed or convenient. We get the backstory on the dark heart crystal, which is apparently the product of a long long ago struggle between vaguely Viking-like humans and a group of heretofore unknown anthropomorphic snake people? (Maybe they’re the same people that the Kobra group in Batman Beyond idolize?) It’s pretty weird, and doesn’t really track with anything else we’ve seen in the DCAU, but I suppose we’ve seen crazier stuff so it shouldn’t rankle too much. More than anything, it just plays as kind of hokey, especially with Mophir’s caveman dialect and Peter Lorre-style vocal tones.
But it’s what happens next that doesn’t really make much sense or have any real setup. Hawkgirl shatters the crystal (why did no one else think of that in the past millennia or so?) only to have it sprinkle and possess all the Justice League. That’s not a crazy extrapolation of the crystal’s effects as is, but it’s still a little convenient.
The real plot hole comes when Flash is able to cure them with very bright lights. I guess the idea is that the snake people were moon worshippers and so on, but the show did nothing to establish that the crystal’s effect is vulnerable to strong blasts of sunlight. There’s at least some set up for the idea that the villain plan is to use the nuclear radiation-sucking device to blot out the sun, but the solution there is just as random.
Apparently, the Watchtower shuttles have a device that can create wormholes in space time. That’s never been mentioned before, and a pretty damn big deal to just be casually tossed in! What’s more, apparently Flash can make it work apart from the shuttle just by running fast in space using a track created by GL. I’m less apt to complain about that since it’s a decent enough comic book-y combo of the two heroes’ powers, but it’s still a little hinky. Last, but not least, apparently the resulting blast can be big and powerful enough to suck up gobs and gobs of explosive radiation, while somehow not sucking up Flash and leaving him 98% unharmed. Whatever.
Worse yet, the show just wraps up the jerkass talk show host bit in two scenes. Gordon Godfrey seems to regret his comments about the League when the sun’s in danger, and gets near-instant comeuppance when the audience’s sympathies change on a dime. I don’t want to minimize our heroes saving the world, but they do that on a weekly basis! If the people who watched his show fell for that shtick in the first place after all the times the Leaguers publicly protected the planet, why would this one more time be the thing that turns their hearts? It doesn’t really make sense and feels like something the writers threw in and undercooked because they were running out of time. The same goes for Mophir doing the endorsement deal that Flash abandoned.
Overall, some of the horror movie vibes, action material, and focus on Flash as a main character boost this one into “good enough” territory, but the episode leaves a lot on the table and delivers plenty of developments that make little-to-no sense.