“Invasion!” is episode eight of season three of The Flash.
The episode opens with Barry and Oliver behind a wall, by the sounds of it under attack. Oliver is complaining to Barry. He comes to Star City, asks for Oliver’s help and then they are immediately up the creek. Then a hole is burned through the wall they are hiding behind. Oliver asks what that was and Barry tells him heat vision. They leave the shelter of the wall and Supergirl and most of the Legends and Team Arrow are there. They are the ones attacking. Then it goes back ten hours previously.
Wally is being tested in the speed lab; he’s already up to Mach 2 which is faster than Barry was at that time. Iris is concerned. She doesn’t want Wall rushing off half-cocked to take on Alchemy or Savitar. Caitlin tells them that Wally isn’t like her – he doesn’t want his powers gone. In the previous episode, “Killer Frost”, Caitlin caused a fair bit of damage before she regained control. It will be hard to convince Wally not to use his powers. So Iris wants them to convince Wally he isn’t ready. No training, no encouragement and no suit. Cisco comments about what’s another lie between friends. Then H.R. summons them all to the cortex for his presentation.
Said presentation is on reopening S.T.A.R. Labs to the public in two weeks. A soft open. With particle vision. A view of the accelerator accident from the view of a particle. Cisco, Barry and Caitlin do not look impressed. H.R. wants to regain the public trust and turn S.T.A.R. Labs back into a powerhouse. Then an alarm goes off – there’s a meteor heading for downtown Central City. Barry runs off and arrives at the point of impact. Only there is no impact. Nor a meteorite. Instead, there is a spaceship. He gets blasted backwards by an energy burst and aliens run out.
At the site the next day a reporter is saying that it was actually a DoD aircraft on a routine training op. Lyla Michaels is there but a NASA official is telling her they have everything covered. Barry arrives and Lyla says to meet back at S.T.A.R. Labs where she will tell everything they know.
Which is that they call the aliens the Dominators. Pointed out by Cisco and H.R. that this is not a good name. The aliens have been known about since the 50s. The Dominators appeared, abducted humans to gather intelligence, killed several hundred soldiers, then left. Three months ago a message was received that claimed they Dominators posed no threat to human inhabitants as long as they were not attacked. Ships were also detected heading towards Earth. Presumably to gather intelligence again. The UN members are planning a coordinated response. Barry tells Lyla that the military can’t stop the Dominators. She tells him that they can’t either.
Stopping the Dominators can’t be done alone and Barry doesn’t plan to. He heads to Star City, sweeping Digg and Oliver out of the way of a couple of bullets and back to Oliver’s. Oliver claimed they nearly had the vigilante they were hunting. He also wants to know if Barry wants his help with another evil speedster. Maybe – but that’s not why Barry is here. Felicity wants to know what’s so urgent. Aliens. Digg claims his life was normal until he met Barry. Oliver does not seem to agree with this.
Felicity has also called Thea, who is willing to come out of retirement to face aliens. Felicity doesn’t think four people are enough. So they are going to get the Legends as well. The meeting point is an empty hanger owned by S.T.A.R. Labs – well, Barry now. Digg asks if the Legends are just going to pop into existence. Yes. Not the Waverider though, but the jumpship. With them fighting aliens, Barry plans to get one of their own. Cisco will help – for the mission he will put aside his issues with Barry.
At the end of the Supergirl episode, “Medusa”, Barry and Cisco appeared in Kara’s apartment through a breach Cisco had created. Back in “Worlds Finest” Kara had promised to help Barry out in return for his help if he needed it. He needs it. So they return with Kara.
Sara tells the others that Nate and Amaya are back with the Waverider, as they are newbies. Kara doesn’t look very alien-like and Diggle wants to know what makes her so super. She flies and burns an El symbol into the ground. Digg is convinced. Felicity thinks this is the best team up ever. The Dominators are elsewhere, preparing a device to end the war before it starts.
Kara has been introduced to everyone. Iris didn’t know Oliver was the Green Arrow. She thinks he has got so much hotter as a result. Cisco starts the presentation, saying they don’t know much about the aliens. Although Kara does – they visited Krypton before she was born, did experiments on people and killed more. Those assembled want to know who is in charge. Cisco nominates Oliver but Oliver nominates Barry. Then prompts Barry as to what to say. Which Sara makes comments on. Barry also tells Kara that Oliver trained him – and Oliver says he didn’t hold back. Both confirm that, in “Flash vs. Arrow”, Oliver shot Barry. Oliver doesn’t want Kara to hold back either, as the others are going to train against her. Ray has a new suit and he tells Barry what happened to Snart.
Professor Stein and Jax have something to share with Barry, and he gets Oliver to accompany them. The something is the message the two found from Future Barry on the Waverider in “Shogun”. Which this time is heard in full. In it Future Barry says he messed with the timeline and that things will have changed. Nothing can be trusted. Including him. So Barry explains what he did in “Flashpoint”.
The first move the Dominators do is to abduct the president. Oliver didn’t want to share the details of the history changes before a battle with aliens. So of course they come out. Of everyone, Oliver is the most understanding of what Barry did. As in he completely understands why, referring to what happened to his mother in “Seeing Red”. Professor Stein gets more details on what has changed in his past – although now it can’t be sure why they changed. Felicity tries talking to Cisco about what Barry did; it’s perhaps fortunate she doesn’t say that she already knew about it. So, lots of interpersonal problems and Barry is feeling very guilty.
The crossover continues in the Arrow episode “Invasion!”.