After an absolute stellar DC Week, the massive Heroes Vs Aliens Crossover even for Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and Legends Of Tomorrow came to a close tonight on Legends. Much like how this trilogy of episodes started, tonight’s episode was primarily focused on dealing with plot-lines from The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow. Though despite this focus, this Crossover has opened up brand new doors and posed some very poignant questions that the entire Arrowverse will have to deal with for Seasons to come.

So let’s take a Closer Look at Legends of Tomorrow “Invasion!”, Part 3 of the Heroes Vs Aliens Crossover.

Why Did The Dominator’s Invade? – The Missing Pieces:

The dominator’s first invaded in the 50s due to the emergence of first Metahumans, the Justice Society of America (which is a great throwback to this season of Legends). Since then a truce was struck, which was then broken when Barry broke the Timeline in Flashpoint. Now how the Dominators were able to detect these changes while remaining in the same universe is unknown, but judging by their advanced technology and distance from the events of flashpoint, it’s not outlandish to think they’d be able to notice.

Though the question is: If the Dominator’s wanted Barry Allen, why didn’t they take him when he first encountered them in Part 1 of the crossover? The answer is that they didn’t know WHO/ what caused it. They only figured it was a Metahuman and should do some recon. If they could find the culprit, they’d deal with him/her and if not they’d nuke everything. The Dominator’s didn’t learn of Barry’s identity as the culprit until they kidnapped Oliver and the gang. They themselves had just learned of Flashpoint, so it wouldn’t take much prodding for the Dominator’s to find what they were looking for. It is via Part 2 of this Crossover that they learned it was Barry that they wanted.

Though the change in tactics from capture to straight up aggression regardless of surrender happened in the past. When Cisco went back in time and tried to make things better by showing a Dominator mercy, all he did was let a terribly tortured Dominator escape and ponder for 60+ years what it’d be like if evil men like his captors had these godlike powers. Due to that change, the Dominator’s changed their tactics and wanted to purge every Meta. Had Cisco not interfered and let that alien die, then the current Dominators would only deal with the responsible Meta rather than trying to annihilate all Metas before they annihilate them.

Making Things Worse By Making Them Better – Barry, Cisco & Heroes In General:

The theme of trying to make things better and wondering if you just made them worse has been a long time staple in Arrowverse. In The Flash, we know of Flashpoint – the alternate universe Barry creating when trying to save his parents. Then when he aw how messed up that world was, he tried to change things again causing all the problems there are now – including the Dominator invasion. Cisco had been holding these mistakes against Barry for a few episodes now, but this episode changed that (seemingly) as Cisco sees how his attempt at making things better only resulted in making them worse. Cisco thought he was showing an alien compassion and thus sparing them in the future; but in reality all he did was allow a tortured being 60+ years to mull over what COULD happen next – and thus taking on captive became wiping out an entire species.

So do your heroic actions lead to a better tomorrow or just a bigger threat? We’ve seen Oliver ponder this many times in the past on Arrow and even currently. Is he the one making his city a better place or is he the one his city needs saving from? Sara even touches upon this question at the end of the episode by reminding Oliver (and us the viewers) that this all started with those two getting on the Queen’s Gambit. If there were no Hood or Black Canary, there might never have been a Flash or Legends – nor would Supergirl ever have crossed over. So did they cause all this madness to spiral out of control OR would this all have happened anyway, and their actions just helped them be ready for what comes next?

We might never know the answer to this question and it’s sure to be something each show in the Arrowverse will struggle with. Do heroes bring the villains or do the heroes arise to be prepared for when the villains come? It’s the age-old battle of Light vs Dark and there might never be one without the other.

Aberrations & Family – When To Fix It & When To Accept It:

As I’ve said before, a major theme this crossover and entire season of Arrowverse where Flash and Legends are concerned are what do you do with aberrations? In Part 1, Sara and the crew were disappointed to learn that while they were out fighting timeline problems, their friend was causing one of his own – twice! Sara dealt with this problem and decided to leave the timeline intact, but now we have Stein on the other side of the equation as he realized he’s inadvertently caused an aberration of his own – his daughter. Though whereas before timeline changes have only resulted in loss and new bad guys, we have our first ‘good’.

At first Stein sees his daughter as a shade, nothing more than an abortion. Though towards episode end he decides to keep her and not fix the timeline. The problem is, which does this fall under. Is he causing a temporal disturbance to protect a loved one (Barry causing Flashpoint) or is he accepting the present course of events (as opposed to Barry resetting Flashpoint). As we learned from Jay Garrick on Flash, every time you mess with time – especially a certain point in time – it cracks and the more you try to fix it the more problems you cause. Is Stein causing more problems by letting her exist or would bigger problems arise by trying to revert? And all of this comes into play before we remember this is an entirely new person. Sure Diggle lost Sara and gained John, but this is a fully new person with years of life about to be erased should he reset things. This is far beyond any modern day ethics and is a storyline that VERY few have ever explore. In fact, the only thing that comes to mind that remotely mirrors this comes from Final Fantasy 13-2 where a character learns they were only born as a result of a multiple Time Paradoxes and thus goes on to sabotage anyone trying to “fix” the time paradoxes. Again, it’s not exactly the same – or will it actually play out that way? Either way, this is a decision that will have drastic changes for Legends Of Tomorrow as Stein will now have his choices torn between his team and his family.

Legends Of The Episode – Easter Eggs, Quotes & Other Notables:

• Favorite Quotes:
  • “I can’t believe you guys escaped an alien space ship, key word alien spaceship.” – Cisco
  • “I mean, I’m with him mostly because I don’t want to loose my geek cred.” – Felicity
  • “I don’t get unnerved” – Oliver
  • “This ship is automoatic, supersonic hypnotic, funky fresh” – Cisco/ Felicity
  • “For real, you’re gonna use Princess Bride against me AGAINST ME!”
  • “Celebrating Fourth of July early …. You look like a star spangled idiot” – Rory to Nate
  • “You know you’ve really taken this whole absent minded professor thing to a whole new level” – Caitlin
  • “Great, saved by geeks” – Rory
  • “I can’t see, why can’t I see” – Felicity
  • “Got me, I only know how to stab punch or skewer things” – Sara
  • “Is it just me or is she really hot” – Rory to Sara about the new president
  • “Hey skirt, call me” – Mick hitting on everyone
• Continuing the throwbacks of past seasons and bringing everything together, having Firestorm transmut the massive Meta-Bomb was a wonderful throwback to how he saved the world in the Season 1 Finale of Legends.
• As funny as it was hearing Felicity comment on how Kara has the same vibe she gives off, the real gold was when Ray comments on how she looks like his cousin. This is a reference to when Ray’s actor Brandon Routh played Superman in Superman Return. Then again, who knows? Perhaps Ray’s cousin really is Earth-1 Kara and she becomes Power Girl. That would add in nicely with Oliver’s comment about this Earth needing a Supergirl.
• As for Kara’s Earth needing an Oliver Queen, since he’s written so similar to Batman, Batman will probably be for Earth 38^th. HA! Imagine if Stephen Amell plays that Batman too!
• This was the first debut of Citizen Steel’s full suit and what a glorious suit it was.
• Just want to take a second to point out that somehow those suits had serum that negated powers. Could they become a threat later on? By episode’s end it seemed like this Earth might get a DEO but could we instead see an Earth-1 version of Cadmus?
• It could have been coincidence, but I can’t help but think that the evil suit guy being named Agent Smith is a Matrix reference.
• Giving Kara an Intradimensional Extrapolator will sure make crossovers a lot easier. Though we have to imagine how they can top this episode. Then again, there is talk of a singing episode in the future with Kara and Barry since they both used to be on Glee.
• Even though Cisco has seemed to have forgiven Barry, let’s not forget how many times Barry’s learned a lesson only to forget it in a time of pain. Next week’s MidSeason Finale will mark Cisco’s first Christmas without Dante and could be a painful experience for him. Will he do something stupid in a time of pain?
• I guess we finally found out who won that hinted at second fight in the original Flash vs Arrow crossover end credits: Barry. Then again, since as Oliver says “there were no witnesses” does it really count?
• If you’re wondering why Thea wasn’t present despite being here for the last two parts, remember how badly she took the emotional roller coaster of Part 2. If anyone earned to site one out, it was her.

Overall this was an absolutely incredible crossover event and as The Flash, Arrow and Legends Of Tomorrow head to their Midseason Finale’s next week, they wont have much time to recover. Everyone has been affected – both positively and negatively – by these events. Though when it comes to us the fans, we can’t praise these episodes enough. Every year they top themselves more and more and at this rate, next year might even seen them openly calling themselves the Justice League or Superfriends. Maybe even Superman and J’Onn will crossover, but with even more powerhouses and an expanding roster who could they fight?

We’re getting too far ahead of ourselves. For now, let’s just bask in the glory of an amazing week of television and get ready for next week’s MidSeason Finale of Legends. So stay tuned to the CW and here for a Closer Look.