The Clock Tower: ‘Supergirl’ Returns as the Arrowverse Prepares a Slew of Season “Finales”

(Welcome to The Clock Tower, where we’ll break down the goings on of the The CW network’s Arrowverse. We’ll touch on things like themes, cultural impact, lead-ins to major events, ships, and more every week! Warning: this Clock Tower is filled with spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.)

And we’re back! As of right now, it looks like the Arrowverse won’t be filming anything else for the regular season, meaning that each series will just have to end when they run out of footage. There hasn’t been official confirmation, as we’re still not quite sure how this whole pandemic situation is going to shake out. But, for now, all of our heroes are back from hiatus and ready to kick some bad guy butts! 

Let’s Talk Finales

Listen. This is all pretty complicated. While we all want to see some conclusion to this seasons’ set of arcs, it’s just not on the cards with all of this COVID nonsense. As mentioned, the seasons will end when they run out of episodes. Once that happens, the “full” runs will be up on Netflix shortly after. Here’s the quick breakdown of “finale” dates:

• Batwoman: May 17
• Supergirl: May 17
• The Flash: May 12
• Legends of Tomorrow: June 2

Legends is the exception here. Their shorter run meant that they wrapped filming early.

Now, here’s the thing. The whole of the DCTV suite was renewed for the upcoming season. Obviously a premature ending isn’t ideal – especially for those who pour their blood, sweat, and tears into these series – but it means that all your faves are safe and will be ready to bring you new content in the coming months once we can all return to work safely. Honestly, there’s something funny about Legends of Tomorrow and Black Lightning being the only two series who got to tell their full stories this season after spending years as the Arrowverse’s stepchildren. 

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane… 

No, it’s a director! Melissa Benoist traded the tights for a director’s chair in Supergirl’s return episode “Deus Lex Machina”. Benoist helped bring Lindsay Sturman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s story to life in a complex episode diving into the Lex Luthor’s rise to power after Crisis. We also learn that Lex was behind the death of Jeremiah Danvers, a tragic incident that we had all already forgotten about. 

If it feels like we’ve gotten a little Lex-centric as the season’s progressed, it’s because we’re basically living in a world of his making. This week’s return episode explores just how he put himself in the place that he did after Oliver Queen’s sacrifice and the subsequent chess game that followed. Leviathan’s still in the picture, and we’ve still got that overarching “dangers of tech” narrative, but there’s not a piece on the villainous board that’s moving without Lex’s design. Which is, admittedly, pretty standard for Lex Luthor. 

Those who have been waiting for something on the Lena and Kara front do, at least, get a bit of a moment between the ladies when Lena offers condolences over the loss of Jeremiah. She might still be in there yet, y’all! 

Holy Hellhounds, Batman

Ok, so, Batman’s one of the few heroes that hasn’t shown up on Legends of Tomorrow, but there were still hell hounds. While this Loom of Fate arc continues to do very little for me on a personal level, the VFX team did bring it with some fun hell monsters this week. Caity Lotz got a fun stunt out of it, too. 

While the overall plot still isn’t doing much for me this year, Legends still has plenty going on to keep my heart in the story. Zari’s continued (and complicated) growth has been fun despite my earlier resistance to it, and Mick’s odd paternity situation remains fun enough to keep me engaged.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Someone, anyone, please, for the love of the gods, make this Mirror Master arc end on The Flash. Hartley Rathaway returned in a Pied Piper centric arc that has nothing to do with the overall story. Late season villain of the week episodes aren’t a new thing on the CW, but there’s supposed to be at least a small pang of disappointment that we aren’t stepping closer to the close of a story. Instead, it was a welcome distraction from the exhausting “part two” of The Flash’s sixth season.

On paper, the idea of splitting their season into two completely different arcs sounded like it could be fun. Less filler, more focus on big bads and how our heroes will handle them. Unfortunately, the new format doesn’t seem to be working well for Team Flash. While Black Hole remains an interesting undercurrent, we’ve spent a lot of time split from that arc. 

What I’m saying is that seasons six has been kind of a bummer and I hope to see them sort out their pacing woes in season 7.

Hush

You remember when we met Tommy Elliott in a throwaway plot to kill “Batman” at the very beginning of Batwoman? Well, he’s back, and he’s fulfilling his terrifying destiny! We’ll be playing with Hush for what we can assume will be the rest of the show’s first season. Hopefully, the series will shift away from the standard Arrowverse formula and allow complex villains like Tommy and Alice continue to terrorize Gotham for more than one season. 

Batwoman has done a good job showcasing some of the empathy for the criminally insane that seems to have gone forgotten in recent Batman stories, so hopefully they’ll continue on that trajectory. 

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel

We head into finales next week (not you, Legends. We’ll see you later)! That feels weird for obvious reasons! Despite the unfortunate circumstances, I have no doubt that each of the series’ will have something to keep us all on our toes. It might not be as cohesive as expected, or exactly what you were after narratively, but remember to give a little grace on the “perfect finale” front. 

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