The Flash Season 3 Episode 17: Duet Recap [Video]

Welcome to the first ever, epic, Flash-Supergirl-Legends-Arrow musical crossover episode! Did anyone actually get to join in from Arrow? Malcom Merlyn/John Barrowman was an Arrow character until he moved to Legends this year, so we’ll count him. This is a reunion of all sorts, with Grant Gustin, Melissa Benoist, and Darren Criss/Music Meister having starred together on Glee, various combinations having gone to college together, and others knowing each other through previous work or longtime friendship. Fun times all around.

Previously on The Flash and Supergirl, Kara broke up with her boyfriend, Mon El, because she found out that he’s actually the Crown Prince of Daxam, rather than a lowly palace guard as he’d originally told her. Her planet, Krypton, has always hated Daxam, its sister planet. The Kryptonians inadvertently destroyed Daxam, as well, when they destroyed their own planet, through their own environmental arrogance. Despite the fact that Mon El has a much better reason to hate Kara than she does to hate him, she continues to find reasons to nurture her racism while telling herself it’s in the name of truth and justice. It’s all very alt-right, while supposedly being feminist. Except the word feminism doesn’t mean what the Berlantiverse thinks it means.

Barry, on the other hand, broke up with Iris at the end of the last episode for some contrived reason that I can’t remember and am not going to bother to look up. He’s been in love with her since he was ten, and has finally gotten what he’s always wanted, but decided out of the blue that they can’t be together. It was obviously so that the plot of this episode will work, so we’re just going to go with it, as one does when crazy sh*t happens in musicals.

If I write a full recap of this episode, I’ll just end up ranting about the unfair treatment of Mon El and the misogyny on The Flash, so I’m going to leave it at commentary and videos.

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I could watch the Flash/Supergirl teams do awkward get to know you banter for hours, especially if it centered on Chris Wood the whole time.

Cisco is finally developing some confidence in his abilities.

I love that Darren gets to be the villain-ish in his relationship with Grant Gustin this time around. Those little flashes of Blaine are killing me though.

Moon River: Supergirl may get on my nerves, as did Marley Rose on Glee, to be honest, but Melissa Benoist has a freakin’ gorgeous voice. Check out her Glee songs on YouTube, if you haven’t already. The kid cleans up pretty well, too.

Barry’s obsessed with Singin’ in the Rain and Kara’s obsessed with The Wizard of Oz. Discuss. Kara’s connection is obvious.

Barry is so disappointed that Kara won’t try clicking her heels together three times.

Winn and Cisco are the cutest little Newsies in Central City. And Winn was right, they are BFFs.

Music Meister says it could have been a war movie or a space opera, instead of a musical. That’s an inside joke, since Darren wrote a space opera musical for his musical theater troupe, Starkid.

Barry to Music Meister: “Leave your jacket on.” Since when does Grant Gustin tell Darren Criss to keep his clothes on? Grant’s face as Darren tosses the jacket aside, though. 😋

Put a Little Love in Your Heart- We will now all cry over how wasted Jeremy Jordan, Carlos Valdes and John Barrowman’s immense talents are on these shows. Petition to have their extra-curricular theater ventures filmed and shown as episodes of the shows.

I would watch the h*ll out of this show every week. But let’s keep Barry/Kara and Mon El/Iris as the couples.

Barry and Kara get all sourfaced when they see Iris and Mon El together. It never occurred to them that Iris and Mon El might move on to other people.

Candace Patton is so fantastically talented and utterly flawless. I love it when they give her something to do besides stand around and watch Barry.

The reveal of J’onn is hilarious, just as Cisco is going into his metahumans only speech.

Music Meister is so warm and caring. He’s a therapist at heart. I’m on the side of anyone who treats Wally with respect. He notes that Wally’s struggling, but treats him as a worthy adversary. It allows Wally to act normally again.

It’s nice to see Mon El do something besides grovel.

Jesse L Martin and Victor Garber: Dream dad couple, or dreamiest dad couple? Somewhere near Broadway, Rachel Berry is raging with jealousy.

LMAO, Malcom’s musical son is named Tommy, too. I thought Barry was in control of this dream. Does he even know that Malcom had a real life son named Tommy? Maybe Oliver told him about his best friend Tommy during a heart to heart at some point. Oliver was probably drunk.

These scenes with the dads are the point of the musical. Barry and Kara realize their own mistakes as they argue for Tommy and Millie.

More I Cannot Wish for You- Now we’re reminded of how talented Victor Garber and Jesse L Martin are. Thankfully, they’ve done movie musicals, so we can enjoy their talents occasionally.

Super Friends- This is Rachel Bloom’s song. It’s so good to see Grant dance again. The man has amazing legs. This song is so Rachel Bloom, in humor and melody. It’s the best use of Grant’s voice I’ve heard outside of the old YouTube of him singing Run Away with Me. If you like the song, do yourself a favor and go watch Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on Netflix.

Barry and Kara prove intelligence isn’t their superpower when they forget they aren’t fast or bulletproof at the moment and run straight into the middle of the gunfight. Luckily, Iris has common sense and understands that this is a musical, so True Love’s Kiss is required to save Barry and Kara. Mon El also isn’t as dumb as he seems, and immediately follows suit. The fact that it works means that he truly loves Kara, and might signal that they are endgame.

MM is all about the love and teaching people to let go and let love. He’s Blaine, now the magical being that we fans always knew Blaine was, finally set free to do the good work he was meant to do, spreading love and music throughout the dimensions to heal broken hearts. Still misunderstood, as always. 😎  Someone send me the link to the fan fic.

Music Meister says they wouldn’t even understand where he comes from. Yeah, nobody understood the last few seasons of Glee, you’re right. Or maybe he’s talking about playing Hedwig in San Francisco and LA. He’s right, in that case, too. Nobody understands San Francisco.*

Music Meister out. They wrote his exit in a way that allows him to come back to any of the shows, any time. He’s a helpful trickster. Surely we need one of those around more often? This was the best episode of The Flash this season, probably since the first couple of times they went to Earth 2.

Caitlin brings up her karaoke date with Barry in season 1. Why isn’t that a regular thing?

Runnin’ Home to You: This is the Pasek and Paul song, which is obvious within the first 30 seconds if you’ve ever heard the songs from Dear Evan Hansen. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m pulling for this song to win an Emmy, so that they can get their EGOT within one calendar year.

Metamaiden says: “Whenever something is wrong in a TV show, you just need to put Darren in there and have him fix everything.” That was after she finished squealing about the perfection of it all in dog language for 30 minutes. Jeremy Jordan, Darren Criss, Captain Jack, Carlos Valdes, and Mon El all together on her screen at once was almost too much to take. If Oliver Queen had been there to stand in the corner and brood, her head would have exploded.

 

 

*For the record, my son and future son-in-law live in San Francisco.