Reconciling 1990's The Flash with the Modern Arrow-Multiverse

Update after "Crisis on Earth-X" (12/9/2017):

Well, now that we know there is a finite number of universes in the multiverse (53, to be exact), this topic becomes a little more relevant, huh? Oh, who am I kidding: this is still a ridiculously pointless topic for me to have written about. In any case, what with the rate that The Flash is introducing new Wellses, we could be running up on that 53 limit one of these days. Then again, none of the Earths those Wellses are from are necessarily exclusive from the Flash '90 Earth, so again, there really is no point to this at all, is there?

Update on 11/13/2018 (lead-up to "Elseworlds"):

Well, well, now that John Wesley Shipp's Barry Allen is apparently on the table for Elseworlds, this topic becomes a lot little more relevant, huh? I'll be honest: I never thought it would actually happen. And I'm still not sure that it should. And, for that matter, I'm still not convinced that it even will. Between Doctor Destiny, Psycho-Pirate, and the Monitor, literally anything can happen in this crossover. He could end up being nothing but a hallucination or a Speed Force ghost or a million other crazy things. Yup, Elseworlds is gonna be bat-shit crazy. And I approve of that.

Update after "Elseworlds" (12/13/2018):

Whoa, Elseworlds was awesome! Definitely the best crossover, in my opinion. And now we have a whole year to look forward to Crisis on Infinite Earths! I'll have plenty more to say about that, for sure, but that's not what this article is about. I think we can now say quite definitively that The Flash '90 took place on Earth-90 of the modern Arrow multiverse. Elseworlds gave us a few more insights into that universe, and there's also a couple connections I didn't catch from before, so I'm adding them all now: Joe Kline, Carter Hall, John Diggle, and everyone from the Earth-90 teaser. Enjoy!

Opening Remarks

Ever since a scene from CBS' 1990 Flash TV series flitted by as one of Barry's speed force visions in "Welcome to Earth-2," it has been kind of semi-canon that that show takes place on one of the alternate Earths of the Arrow-Multiverse. To some extent at least, this makes sense with what we know about the multiverse: several actors from that show have appeared on the new show playing eponymous characters. We could call them doppelgangers (I'm not putting the umlauts over the a's, okay. That seems like a lot of work.). I think I'll use "Earth-90" as my placeholder name for the Earth in question; that numbering seems in line with the decision to number Supergirl's Earth as 38, so I guess it's as good as any other arbitrary name for the time being.

Update after "Elseworlds" (12/13/2018):

Okay, did I nail it with this "Earth-90" thing, or what?

Of course, this connection between the new and old Flash shows is nothing more than a small novelty. I certainly never expect it to have any storyline significance or for Barry to ever visit Earth-90. Still, in the name of continuity, I think it'd be fun to catalog the characters of Earth-90 and examine how they may reconcile with the modern multiverse. Incidentally, shouldn't Flash 1990 be rolled into the Arrowverse Wiki? It certainly has as much justification to be there as Constantine, which I still see no reason to assume takes place on Earth-1...oh, whatever.

My first realization when creating this list has been that we really don't know much about how the multiverse...well, works. Most fundamentally, why and how do the Earths deviate from each other? Obviously, there is some force at play that causes them to maintain major similarities, even though each contains radically different causal chains. For an easy example, Barry Allen of Earth-1 and Jay Garrick of Earth-3 both became speedsters and chose the name "the Flash" completely independently of each other. I will label these phenomena "coincidences," even though they are obviously the result of more than mere randomness.

I will make a couple of very conservative assumptions for the sake of this write-up. (1) Identical people (played by the same actors) on alternate Earths are doppelgangers of each other. (2) Doppelgangers' parents (in fact, all ancestors) are also doppelgangers. My logic is that a person's identity is dependent on their having the same exact two parents. That seems in line with everything we've seen of the alternate Earths on the Flash.

With those assumptions in mind, I am organizing this document into two sections: doppelgangers and coincidences. Doppelgangers are people who are known to have versions on Earth-90 and on another known Earth. Based on my assumptions above, all the ancestors of known doppelgangers are also doppelgangers, so I'm omitting characters who haven't been specifically seen on multiple Earths, for the sake of keeping the list short. The coincidences I've found are people who are not doppelgangers, but who happen to share the same name (or nickname/codename/super-person-name). Okay! Enough talk. Let's get to it!

Doppelgangers

Henry Allen - 1 / Jay Garrick - 3 / Barry Allen - 90

The most prominent case. On Earth-90, the doppelganger of Earth-1's Henry Allen is named Barry Allen and he--rather than his son--becomes the Flash. Simple enough. Earth-3's version of the character also becomes a speedster, but he takes his mother's maiden name of "Garrick," presumably because his father doesn't raise him. His given name of "Jay" is also significant to Earth-90, but I'll elaborate on that in the Coincidences section down below.

Christina McGee - 1 / Christina McGee - 90

This one's fun, isn't it? On Earth-90, Christina McGee is a scientist who works at S.T.A.R. Labs, whereas her Earth-1 counterpart is the head of rival company Mercury Labs. She was the female lead of the 1990 show, filling both the Cisco/Caitlin role as Barry's scientifically adept ally and the Iris role of Barry's primary romantic interest. That relationship was alluded to in the modern Flash season 2 finale when Tina and Henry got to meet and started (very gently) flirting. Of course, a few minutes later Zoom drove his hand through Henry's heart. Tina hasn't appeared on the show since. Oh, well.

James Jesse - 1 & 3 / James Jesse - 90

You gotta love Mark Hamill. The Trickster of (at least) 3 Earths, James Jesse has been wreaking havoc for the Flash and having a hell of a time doing it since way back in 1990. Archive photos of Hamill in costume from the old show were even used for props in the new show as records of Jesse's earlier psychopathic rampages. Hopefully we'll be seeing Hamill's Trickster again in season 4 and beyond.

Zoey Clark - 1 / Zoey Clark - 90

Well, this happened. We haven't gotten Mark Hamill's Trickster back on The Flash in a while, so they gave us his old sidekick Prank instead. Rather a poor substitute, in my opinion, but I guess you take what you can get. In any case, she is definitely a doppelganger: same actress, same character name.

Julio Mendez - 1 / Julio Mendez - 90

Julio Mendez was a principal character on the 1990 show as Barry's close friend and colleague in the CCPD. He took a little longer than his costars to appear on the new Flash, but he eventually did in season 3 in a memorable 2-episode role. First, in 3x01, he supplanted Singh as police chief in the Flashpoint timeline. Then, several episodes later in "Untouchable," he was targeted by Clive Yorkin among other cops that contributed to Yorkin's arrest in the erased timeline. In the post-Flashpoint world, Mendez was not a cop but a lounge singer. Of course, that didn't stop Yorkin, who used his powers to rapidly age Mendez into a decomposing corpse. I guess we shouldn't expect any more appearances from this doppelganger, at least...

Anthony Bellows - 1 / Anthony Bellows - 90

Earth-90 Tony Bellows was just a cop, but his Earth-1 counterpart seems to have become a little more distinguished. Anthony Bellows appeared in a few episodes of The Flash as the mayor of Central City, then was revealed to be corrupt, arrested, and imprisoned over the course of season 4. F4x04 also confirmed that Earth-1's Bellows used to be a cop, like his Earth-90 doppelganger. Who knows, maybe back on Earth-90, ol' Tony picked up some political ambitions and nowadays he's heading up city hall there... or, you know, also in prison.

Jessica Danforth - 1 / Felicia Kane - 90

This one is my absolute favorite. Back in 1991 Jeri Ryan played a small part on an episode of the Flash as Felicia Kane, a wealthy heiress who gets kidnapped and is rescued by the Flash. Fast-forward to 2015, and she appears on episode 4x02 of Arrow as Jessica Danforth, a wealthy citizen of Star City and old friend of Moira Queen who decides to run for mayor. Damien Darkh has Lonnie Machin kidnap and torture Danforth's daughter, successfully scaring her far away from city hall. The whole ordeal is what inspires Oliver to try becoming mayor himself. His rationale is that he and all of his friends and family are total badasses (or dead), so he's probably the only person who could survive the all-out warzone that passes for a political theater in the freaking hostile place that is Star City. Ollie's political career has already involved throwing down with Damien Darkh, Tobias Church, Vigilante, and Russian mobsters, so I guess he was right!

Anyways, back to the point, it is plainly obvious that Jeri Ryan's connection to the 1990 Flash was completely unintentional and unnoticed. Both characters she's played are very minor. Nonetheless, I choose to believe that they are indeed doppelgangers. Both seem to come from wealthy families. We know of course that doppelgangers sometimes have different given names. Perhaps Jessica Danforth's maiden name was Kane. Sure. Why not?

John Diggle - 1 / John - 90

Among the many (many!) hugely entertaining Easter eggs in Elseworlds was the first in-universe reference to the popular fan theory that John Diggle is a version of Green Lantern John Stewart. The Flash of Earth-90 immediately recognized Diggle as "John," and asked him where his ring was. That's enough to conclude at least that Diggle has a doppelganger named John on Earth-90. Too bad we'll probably never actually see him, since the Monitor destroyed that universe at the start of the crossover. But fear not. Whether it's an possible future or an alternate Earth, I will be shocked if we don't eventually see a Green Lantern John Diggle in some form.

Coincidences

Henry Allen - 1 / Henry Allen - 90

A little weird, huh. On Earth-90, Barry Allen's father (that would be Earth-1 Barry Allen's paternal grandfather) was named Henry. On Earth-1, Barry Allen's father was named Henry. Everything's a generation off (for obvious reason; the first show was made a generation ago). Maybe Earth-1 Henry Allen is really Henry Allen, Jr., then? Maybe not. There's not much point speculating, but you can bet my ears will perk up if the names of Barry's grandparents ever gets mentioned in passing in an episode of the Flash one of these days.

Nora Allen - 1 / Nora Allen - 90

This one's even stranger, since there is no relation between these two Nora's. On Earth-90, a Nora (quite likely née Garrick) married Henry Allen, then on Earth-1 a different Nora coincidentally married his doppelganger's son (who was also named Henry). Again, no point speculating, but I'll be paying attention on the day when we learn Earth-1 Barry's grandparents' names.

Barry Allen - 1 & 2 / Barry Allen - 90

Again, weird, for all the same reasons. As I mentioned in the opening remarks, there is quite clearly some force that impels the alternate Earths of the multiverse to converge at points of similarity, despite the apparent statistical impossibility of such coincidences. The existence of the Flash is obviously one of the most important such points of convergence. A man named Barry Allen, with father Henry and mother Nora, gains super-speed and becomes the superhero the Flash. That's just how its gotta be.

Jay Garrick - 3 / Jay Allen - 90

Out of all these coincidences, this one actually makes some sense! On the Flash 1990 show, Barry Allen had an older brother named Jay Allen in an obvious reference to Jay Garrick of the comics. Meanwhile on Earth-3, we have Jay Garrick, who is a doppelganger of Earth-90 Jay's younger brother Barry. Apparently on both Earth -3 and -90, Jay was the preferred name for the firstborn son of the Allens. Since there was no counterpart for Earth-90 Jay Allen on Earth-3, that name went to Jay Garrick (the doppelganger of Earth-90's second Allen son) instead. Seems conceivable.

Yes, I know I'm putting way too much thought into this.

Sam Scudder - 1 / Sam Scudder - 90

So it turns out that the Mirror Master Sam Scudder actually appeared on the 1990 show, played by none other than David Cassidy. David Cassidy may be of note to Arrowverse fans as the father of Katie Cassidy, who plays Laurel Lance. Of course he's also just generally quite famous from the Partridge Family and whatnot. His father Jack Cassidy (Katie's grandfather) was also a very talented and famous actor; among plenty of other roles, fans of Columbo will recognize him from playing the murderers in about 50% of the episodes (that's a vast exaggeration). How did I get to talking about Columbo? Let's get back on track.

As we know, Earth-1 also has its own version of the Mirror Master Sam Scudder (who is incidentally one of my least favorite villains in all of the Arrowverse). For what it's worth, H.R. tells us that Earth-19 has a Mirror Master, too, but that one is named Evan McCulloch. Earths -1 and -90's Scudders are obviously not doppelgangers, but maybe they're related? Perhaps Cassidy's Scudder is the new Scudder's father? A quick hop over to Wikipedia tells me that David Cassidy suffers from dementia and has retired from performing (that's sad, he's fairly young), so don't hold your breath for an appearance from Mirror Master, Sr.

Leonard Snart - 1 / Leonard Wynters - 90

Yup, Leonard Wynters. Wynters. It's easy to cringe at that, but don't forget that the modern Flash show unabashedly brings us such names as Roy G. Bivolo and Kyle Nimbus. Oh, and this version of Captain Cold is albino, so take away from that whatever you will. Come to think of it, Captain Cold is more or less albino in Young Justice, too. I wonder if there was some inspiration there?

Anyways, just another case of multiversal coincidence. Both Earth-1 and -90's Flashes have Captain Colds to contend with. IMDB indicates that the guy who played Cold hasn't acted in anything since before I was born, so again, don't hold your breath for a guest appearance on the new Flash.

Iris West - 1 & 2 / Iris West - 90

Apparently, Iris West was cast to be a main character and Barry's primary love interest in the pilot for  the 1990 Flash. I guess someone didn't like her because she was written off of the show when it was picked up for a full season. In any case, another coincidence of people with the same name who are definitely not doppelgangers.

Linda Park - 1 & 2 / Linda Park - 90

Lastly, Linda Park. She was a minor character on 1990's the Flash, who is certainly not the doppelganger of the Linda Park we know. Then again, there are already two Linda Parks who are both journalists on Earth-1 (the TV reporter who used to show up on Arrow and the more prominent character who appeared later on Flash), so this character has no shortage of coincidences.

Kline - 1 / Joe Kline - 90

The Flash '90 introduced a TV pundit named Joe Kline. The new Flash show reused that character in a very minor role in "The Once and Future Flash" as a news anchor in the year 2024. The two Klines are clearly not doppelgangers, so we'll count this as just another coincidence.

Carla Tannhauser - 1 / Carl Tanner - 90

Now this one's cool! It's hard for me to say too much about Carl Tanner, since I've never actually watched any of the 1990 Flash (I'm relying heavily on Wikipedia here), but apparently he was the villain in the second episode of that series. He was portrayed as a scientist and an old friend of Tina McGee who comes to Central City and creates a super-serum which mutates him into some kind of monster. Apparently the modern Flash writers thought of him when it came to naming Caitlin Snow's estranged mother.

It's not uncommon for immigrants to Anglicize their names when coming to the US. Perhaps on Earth-90 some immigrant Tannhauser shortened their name to Tanner. Seeing as how they share a given name and a scientific aptitude, it also seems a fair inference than Carla Tannhauser is some kind of gender-flipped near-doppelganger of Carl Tanner. In other words, Caitlin Snow's mother was actually on the Flash back in 1990! You just didn't recognize her because she happened be a man!

Carter Hall - 1 / Carter Hall - 90

Hawkman never actually appeared on The Flash '90, but the name "Dr. Carter Hall" was referenced in a single throwaway Easter egg. Of course, we know that Carter exists on Earth-1, though he's certainly too young for his doppelganger to have been a doctor in the year 1990. On the other hand, I'm not even sure how doppelgangers would work with the whole reincarnation thing. In any case, I don't want to make any strained assumptions, so this will just count as another coincidence.

By the way, Carter's costume was among the Easter eggs in the Earth-90 Elseworlds teaser, so... yeah. Not much to say about that, but it seemed worth noting. See below.

Elseworlds Teaser Easter Eggs

So there were a whole lot of Easter eggs in that short Earth-90 Elseworlds teaser. I'm talking about the one that first aired at the end of the shows the week before the crossover. No faces though, so we can't call any of them doppelgangers--just a bunch of fun "coincidences." Here we go:

• Stargirl, wearing her Earth-1 costume.
• A woman who looks a lot like Huntress from Earth-1. No crossbow, though, that I can make out, so its hard to be too sure.
• Firestorm, wearing Jax's Earth-1 costume.
• Nightshade from The Flash '90, I think?? He's got a dark brown trenchcoat and a grey balaclava. I don't know who else that would be.
• Hawkman's helmet, same as Earth-1.
• Someone with light-colored hair and a striped costume. I can't place it.
• Jesse Quick... I think? Actually I'm not convinced that the costume matches, but I also have no idea who else this could be.
• The Ray's helmet, sames as Earths-1 and -X.
• The rest of Hawkman, wearing his Earth-1 costume.
• A black, white, and red sleeve that may belong to Mr. Terrific.
• Captain or Citizen Cold, wearing his Earth-X jacket.
• Hawkgirl's helmet, same as Earth-1.
• A version of Green Arrow, wearing his Smallville (!) costume.

Closing Remarks

Voila! That's all I've got. Now bear in mind that I've never actually seen a single minute of the 1990 Flash show, so I've been depending heavily on good old-fashioned Wikipedia. Also, IMDB is very comprehensive on the cast of the show, and I'm pretty confident that I caught every actor who could qualify as a doppelganger. In the coincidences section, though, my knowledge is very likely incomplete. It seems very probable that the 1990 show had some Easter Egg references to comic book names that have now popped up in the Arrowverse. Also, if the modern Flash writers have been looking to the old show to borrow names ala Carl Tanner, then most of those would have flown under my radar as well.

Now that I've written this, I must admit that it seems kinda pointless in hindsight. What was I hoping to gain here again? Well, in any case, it's done now, so I hope you got something out of it.

Hope you enjoyed!
Phillip

Arrow Predictions: Who is Prometheus and who is his boss?

Update 1:

I originally wrote this post on 3/11/17, in between episodes 5x15 and 5x16. After watching 5x16 "Checkmate," I have added some notes like this one, pointing out relevant developments from the episode.

Update 2 on 8/13/2017:

I originally wrote this post on 3/11/17, in between episodes 5x15 and 5x16. Now that Arrow season 5 is complete, I'm adding just a couple more notes on how things turned out.

Opening Remarks

Generally speaking, I find it prudent to avoid Arrow fan blogs and the like (yes, I realize that that's exactly what this is). The Arrow fandom can be pretty absurdly contentious; if you ask me, some of these people are straight-up nutcases who have a hard time separating fiction from reality. Bottom-line: there's a treacherous jungle out there where dogmatic debates over Olicity and persistent delusions about Tommy's ever-imminent resurrection run wild. Okay, okay, I know I'm exaggerating/overgeneralizing, but the fact of the matter is I have a hard time reading the stuff for too long before I just get kind of depressed.

But! For whatever reason, yesterday I allowed myself to be drawn in deep to the bottomless abyss of the Arrow fandom. I braved the belly of the beast and escaped with my sanity and a whole lot of wild Arrow theories/predictions to think about. Most of what I read didn't really make sense, but it did bring up some interesting clues that I hadn't at all been considering. Frankly, before I read this stuff, I had been pretty unimpressed with Arrow season 5: I kind of thought that the writers have just been coming up with random twists as they go. Now I'm starting to realize that the master plan of this season may be much deeper and more rewarding than I expected. Still, I shouldn't have to read fan blogs to enjoy the show--good writing should pace out the twists and clues in such a way that the show builds up its suspense and mystery all by itself.

Anyways, after hours of contemplation, I have cut through the bull and refined my thoughts down to two unified theories of Arrow season 5. The theories are independent of each other, but compatible. In other words, either one of them could be correct, or both could be correct.

Theory 1: Adrian Chase is really Christopher Chance

Update after Arrow season 5 (Summer 2017):

To put it straight: this theory was wrong. To put it the way I prefer to put it: this theory was never really outright disproved, was it? And now that Adrian Chase blew his own head off, there's no chance for anyone to check whether or not he was actually wearing one of the Human Target's Mission Impossible masks. As far as I'm concerned, until the day that Christopher Chance shows up alive and well on Arrow, I'm not admitting I was wrong, dammit!

Christopher Chance's appearance in episode 5x05 "Human Target" was so out of the blue and weird that I suspected immediately he was going to come back later in the season. I figured there would some point near the finale where Oliver was about to be killed, then in a shocking twist, someone you thought was a bad guy would save Oliver. Lo and behold, Oliver and the Human Target have been playing the long game and Christopher Chance has been working for Oliver undercover for months. What I failed to consider is the possibility that Chance wouldn't return as a hero, but as a villain...

The short of my theory is this: Christopher Chance is really Justin Claybourne's son and Prometheus. At some point, he killed the real Adrian Chase and stole his identity. Here is my point-by-point argument for this theory:

The Argument in Favor

 

The Human Target helps defeat Tobias Church

The Human Target arrives to help Oliver defeat Tobias Church exactly when it benefits Prometheus to do so. Church had just learned the Green Arrow's secret identity and was hours away from killing him--which would obviously ruin Prometheus' plan. Prometheus couldn't kill Church head-on because he was constantly flanked by dozens of underlings and that ridiculous mercenary Scimitar. So Prometheus reverted to his Christopher Chance persona and helped Team Arrow defeat Church's gang--then killed Church when he was vulnerable in the prison transport. Problem solved.

The Human Target never shares the screen with Adrian Chase

When I first came up with this theory, I almost immediately disregarded it because I figured that Human Target and Adrian Chase must have interacted in the mayor's office when Chance was impersonating Oliver. So I checked the footage. Would you believe that Adrian Chase does not appear once in the entirety of episode 5x05! In fact, since his debut in 5x03, it's the only episode he hasn't been in (discounting "Invasion!"). Coincidence? I think not.

Christopher Chance orchestrates Oliver's relationship with Susan

Christopher Chance very strongly pressured Oliver to date Susan Williams. In Oliver's guise, he flirted with her and gave her Oliver's personal phone number. Then, he was the one who revealed to Oliver that Felicity was dating Billy Malone and encouraged him to move on from Felicity by dating Susan. Now, it remains to be seen if there is more to Susan than meets the eye, but for now, let's just assume that there isn't: she's just a random woman, and Chance could just as easily have pushed Oliver toward a relationship with anyone else. Knowing what we now know, it is clear that Christopher Chance's actions in 5x05 furthered Prometheus' plan in two important ways:

• Making sure Oliver was dating again provided Prometheus with another person Oliver cares for--another pressure point in his psychological game. At the end of the last episode (5x15), Adrian apparently kidnapped Susan: now we'll find out what his full plan is for her. Surely it's some variation on the whole psychologically-torment-Oliver-Queen technique. Whatever it is, it wouldn't be possible unless Chance encouraged Oliver to start dating again back in 5x05.

• Oliver's relationship with Susan has gone a long way toward pushing him away from Felicity, ensuring that both are sufficiently miserable as we head into Prometheus' endgame. Prometheus knows that Felicity is one of Oliver's most important allies, and he's effectively driven a wedge between them with this whole you're-dating-so-now-I'll-date-but-wait-now-your-boyfriend-is-dead-too-bad-I'm-still-gonna-date-Susan routine. It also seems like a pretty safe bet that Helix is working for Prometheus. Driving Felicity away from Oliver was instrumental to orchestrating her allegiance to Helix. Again, we don't know exactly what Prometheus' final plan is for Helix and Felicity, but whatever it is, we can trace back its origin to Chance's fateful conversation with Oliver in 5x05--in a way that Prometheus plausibly could have predicted and planned out.

Update after episode 5x16 "Checkmate":

After Helix's involvement in this episode I'm even more convinced that Helix works for Prometheus/Talia. They fed Felicity information leading to Susan's location, which seems to have been exactly what Prometheus and Talia wanted. The villainous duo was waiting for Oliver at the building--they knew he was coming. Furthermore, I bet that the information Helix gave Felicity on Adrian's real identity is totally bogus. Oliver's probably going to try to go public with the info and make himself look like a total jackass when Adrian is ready to completely discredit it.

Update after Arrow season 5 (Summer 2017):

The mystery of Helix remains interesting. At Comic-Con we found out that Arrow season 6 will involve a cabal of villains (including Anatoly) opposing Team Arrow and that Felicity's Helix contact Alena will be reappearing in season 6. Also, Arrow 5x19 "Dangerous Liaisons" very conspicuously kept the face of Helix leader Cayden James covered through the whole episode, presumably because the writers were planning to use him in a more major role in season 6, and they didn't want to cast an actor yet.

All-in-all, I think it's quite likely that Helix and Cayden James will be involved with season 6's villainous cabal. Also, I think it's very, very likely that Talia al Ghul survived Lian Yu and will also play a big role in the cabal. That is to say, there is still time to reveal that Helix has actually been working for Talia all along. I rather fancy the idea that Helix is Talia's information-age version of the League of Assassins, using brutal methods to police the world with no accountability.

In that case, the question that remains is whether the writers would be willing to introduce such a big twist to season 5's story after the fact. I think it's plausible, and here's my chain of logic: (1) Helix and Cayden James will definitely be returning in season 6. (2) Helix and Cayden James will almost certainly be acting as villains in season 6. (3) There needs to be some way of explaining why Helix becomes antagonistic to Team Arrow. (4) Revealing that they were actually secretly working against Team Arrow all along would be a good way of doing that.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but like I said, it seems plausible, and it would make me feel better about how conveniently timed Helix's interventions always seemed to have been for Prometheus. When Helix gave Felicity Susan's location in 5x16, it sure seemed like Adrian and Talia were forewarned and waiting to ambush Oliver. And when Helix gave Felicity the tools to unveil Adrian Chase's villainy in 5x18, it sure looked like Adrian was just waiting for that phone call so he could kill those two marshals. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just seems like too big a coincidence that nothing Helix did actually ever disadvantaged Prometheus in any way.

One does not simply become the district attorney 

It doesn't make a lot of sense that Adrian Chase managed to become the district attorney of Star City just to further his plan to get to Oliver. Wouldn't that take years of law school and experience as an attorney? And unless Adrian just happened to already be an accomplished lawyer pre-Prometheus, he only had a few months to maneuver into the district attorney's office since Oliver became the mayor. Really, it's straight-up impossible. Conclusion: Adrian Chase was just a guy who happened to become the district attorney of Star City. When Christopher Chance was ready to activate his plan against Oliver, he killed Chase and assumed his identity. Seems a lot more plausible, right?

Prometheus has no reason to be married

For me, one of the biggest surprises of this season was also a completely subtle reveal: Adrian Chase is married. Why? How? It seems unlikely that he was married before his transformation to Prometheus: surely he had to go through years of training that would have been hard to completely hide from his wife. Even if he did it without arousing her suspicion, he would have to make sure that she never told anyone about his months-long absences since they could potentially compromise his otherwise meticulously perfectly crafted secret identity. It also seems unlikely that he would marry after becoming Prometheus. What reason would he have to get married when his whole life revolves around revenge against Oliver? It's not necessary as a disguise: it's perfectly believable that a guy Adrian's age would be single. Conclusion: Prometheus never got married because Prometheus is not the real Adrian Chase. The real Adrian was just a guy with a normal life who happened to be married. When the Human Target replaced him, he took over both his personal and professional lives. Brutal.

Update after episode 5x16 "Checkmate":

Well, I think Adrian murdering his own wife without hesitation certainly leads some credence to this point.

Stealing an identity is easier than creating an identity

If the real Adrian Chase is Prometheus and Claybourne's son, how did he erase all records of his birth/parentage/past while maintaining his identity as Chase? Who do the records say that Adrian Chase's parents are? Really, it ties into this whole problem about Chase having to become a reputable, married attorney practically overnight. Granted, on Arrow they totally could say he's just such an amazing hacker that he was just able to do it. But try thinking about it like this: if you were Prometheus, what would you do? In my mind, it would make a lot more sense for me to steal someone else's identity than it would to try to hack myself up a brand new life from scratch.

Update after episode 5x16 "Checkmate":

As I mentioned above, I think it's likely that the info Helix gave Felicity about Adrian Chase's real identity was bogus.

Christopher Chance is a ridiculous name

I'm half-joking with this one, but hear me out anyways. There's no way "Christopher Chance" isn't an alias, right? I mean, what a ridiculous name. Conclusion: "Christopher Chance" is just the name that Claybourne's son came up with for himself when he became the Human Target (prior to his turning evil and becoming Prometheus). It is an appropriate name to choose: after all, he was apparently conceived by chance...hahaha! Then again, if you can have people named Roy Bivolo and Kyle Nimbus on the Flash, why not someone named Christopher Chance on Arrow? Like I said, I'm half-joking.

The Argument Against

Now, I'll admit there are a couple of problems with this theory that I don't have perfect explanations for:

Diggle hires the Human Target

In episode 5x05, the Human Target only comes into play because John Diggle contacts him and enlists his professional services. It's hard to come up with a way that he could have predicted that or manipulated Team Arrow into hiring him. Then again, it's possible that it was a coincidence and he just took advantage of the situation. Finding himself in Oliver's confidence, he used the opportunity to plant the seeds of the relationship with Susan Williams. In hindsight, it's easy to look at everything Prometheus has done as one incredible master plan, but we don't really know how much of it has been driven by flexible, opportunistic reactions to events Prometheus simply couldn't have predicted. Still though, it seems like a big coincidence that Diggle just thought off the top of his head to hire this guy who happened to secretly be Prometheus.

What was he doing in Russia?

Speaking of big coincidences, is there really any reasonable explanation at all for why Christopher Chance just happened to cross paths with Oliver back in Russia? Frankly, this is a problem whether the Human Target turns out to be evil or not. Maybe I'm missing something, but I haven't been able to come up with any explanation that fits this. As of now, I'm pretty sure it really is just a big, meaningless coincidence, aka bad writing. After all, we know how desperately the writers try to connect the flashback storyline to the present day. Maybe it's not worth reading too much into this.

Theory 2: Prometheus works for Talia al Ghul

One of the big theories that the fan blogs got me thinking about was the idea that Prometheus is working for someone else. Actually, the theory I read said he was working for Malcolm Merlyn, but that seems pretty unlikely. Sure, what with time travel, there's no reason Malcolm couldn't have come back to the beginning of this year at the end of his adventures with the Legion of Doom. It really doesn't seem like something the writers would do, though. Nonetheless, as I'll now attempt to prove, Prometheus probably does have some type of boss or informant. Furthermore, this mysterious puppet master more or less has to be either Malcolm or Talia.

Update after episode 5x16 "Checkmate":

Wow! Looks like I was almost right on the money with this Talia theory at least! The only thing I failed to predict was how soon the show would reveal Talia's villainy. I kinda had this twist pegged for the season finale or second-to-last episode.

Update after Arrow season 5 (Summer 2017):

Well, I also had it pegged that Talia's story would become a major part of the end of season 5. Instead, the writers chose to keep the spotlight on Prometheus and save Talia for a presumably big role in season 6. Talia al Ghul is too important a character to be killed off after how little she got to do last year, so I find it to be a near-certainty that she survived Lian Yu.

In my update to the post "How should Legends of Tomorrow set up its characters for next year?" I proposed that Talia assemble a Secret Society of supervillains like Black Siren and Gorilla Grodd to serve as the antagonists of next year's mega-crossover. Now though, the show's creators have heavily hinted that the mega-crossover is going to be about a double wedding for Oliver & Felicity and Barry & Iris (which I am 100% down with, by the way), so that option seems a little less likely. Perhaps instead, Talia will be heading up a different team of villains: the cabal of Arrow antagonists that will collectively be the "big bads" of season 6. I think it's quite likely that she'll be involved with that storyline in some way, at least.

Talia trained Prometheus to oppose Oliver

Prometheus was apparently trained by Talia. This is a really important clue introduced in 5x09 when Oliver first fought Prometheus and recognized his moves. At the beginning of the next episode, Oliver mentions to Diggle that he's looking for the woman who trained him (and apparently also Prometheus), but she's hard to find because she doesn't stay in one place for very long. Then the writers just kinda stopped talking about it.... It sure seems to me like finding Talia should be right at the top of Team Arrow's to-do list, but I'm not even sure Felicity knows to be looking for her. In any case, I see 3 possible sequences of events that explain how and when Prometheus was trained by Talia:

• Talia trained Prometheus before he turned evil. In this case, Prometheus must have been one of the people Talia hand-picked and trained to be heroes, like Yao Fe and Oliver. This seems like an impossible coincidence, though: what are the odds that one of the people Talia trains also just happens to be the bastard son of somebody on the List? Then again, we don't necessarily know that Prometheus is Claybourne's son--that could still be nothing but a red herring. Knowing what I know about the way Arrow is written, though, I doubt that they would reveal that Prometheus' motivation for hating Oliver is actually completely different than what we've been led to believe. Something like that would retroactively take away all the tension in their relationship. I think, but I don't know, that Prometheus is indeed Claybourne's son, and therefore couldn't have been trained by Talia before he was evil.

• Prometheus sought out Talia and deceived her into thinking he was a good person. Seems unlikely. First of all, in this scenario, Prometheus would have had to somehow find Talia based on...well, nothing. How could he possibly figure out that she trained Oliver and then know how to track her down? Then, supposing he managed that, he would have had to deceive her into thinking that he was a good person and convince her to train him. Given what little we've seen of Talia, she is clearly very shrewd, very wise, and very cautious. She literally did years of research into Oliver before contacting him, then more or less perfectly psychoanalyzed him the first time they met. It seems hard to believe that Prometheus would be able to trick her. Then again, if anyone could, it would be Christopher Chance (see Theory 1, above).

• Talia sought out Prometheus and trained him to become her evil servant/puppet. Here's the winner. Suppose something (see "Unanswered Questions" below) happened that made Talia hate Oliver. It makes a lot more sense that Talia sought out Claybourne's son and trained him to be her pawn than the alternative where Claybourne's son somehow tracked down Talia al Ghul. In my mind, this scenario works way better than either of those other two alternatives.

There's one more reason why Talia is probably evil. Because if she isn't, why hasn't she contacted Oliver and intervened in his struggle against Prometheus? Clearly she keeps close track of her past students, like Yao Fe. You'd think she'd be interested in the fact that one of her students turned evil and embarked on a murderous vendetta against another one of her students.

Talia had access to the List

In episode 5x06 "So It Begins," Prometheus killed four people whose names formed anagrams of four names from the List. Sure, he could just be using the names of people Oliver has killed, but they are all from Oliver's first year back in Starling--his year as the Hood--his year using the List. Also, Adam Hunt is one of the anagram names. Oliver didn't kill Hunt; the Dark Archer (Malcolm Merlyn) did. Granted, that's not necessarily public knowledge in the Arrowverse, but it seems like another indication that the element connecting the four names is indeed the List itself. Another interesting name is Ted Gaynor: if Prometheus is just vengeful over the Hood's killing Justin Claybourne, you'd think that he would want to use the names of other corrupt businessmen and "1-percenters" that the Hood targeted. Gaynor doesn't fit that mold--again, the real connecting factor pretty much has to be the List itself. But how could Prometheus know the names on the List?

Quick refresher on the history of the List: Malcolm Merlyn compiled it with the names of people that he could manipulate to do his bidding--either voluntarily (because they could be bribed, etc.) or through blackmail (because Malcolm had something on them). Merlyn and his small circle of co-conspirators (Robert Queen and a handful of others) had copies of the List. For a while they tried to use the List benevolently by blackmailing corrupt businessmen and the like into helping them improve the Glades. Eventually, they gave up on that pipe dream and decided to just level the goddamn place. We know how that turned out.

Very few people in the world have ever had access to a copy of the List. As far as I can recollect, the only important candidates are Malcolm Merlyn, his Undertaking co-conspirators, Team Arrow members, Walter Steele, and Talia al Ghul, who read Oliver's (Robert's) List back in Russia. I think you will agree with me that out of those choices, Talia is by far the most likely to be the informant behind Prometheus. Still, this line of reasoning cannot rule out Malcolm, who obviously has a copy of the List.

The Black Siren knew that Sara time-travels on the Waverider

Here's where things get nuts. At the beginning of episode 5x10 "Who Are You?", Earth-2 Laurel Lance aka the Black Siren convinces Oliver that she is his Laurel saved from the brink of death. How? She tells him that Sara used time travel to save her. She knew that Sara's timeship is named "the Waverider." She specifically did NOT know the phrase "time aberration." She also did NOT refer to Sara's team as "the Legends." I don't know how I missed this clue before, because in hindsight it seems so obvious that there's no way the Black Siren should know that stuff! Presumably, Prometheus told it to her, but how could he possibly know about the existence of the Waverider?!? Only a handful of people in the world have that information, and most of them are definite good-guys (Team Flash and Team Arrow).

Ready for this theory to get mental? Sara Lance could have told a young Talia al Ghul about time travel and the Waverider during her two years spent with the League of Assassins between 1958 and 1960!!! What if that cameo of young Talia in Legends of Tomorrow episode 1x09 was more than just a throwaway Easter egg??? You can tell I'm excited by this theory because of all the triple punctuation marks!!! It's not inconceivable that the writers were planning out Arrow season 5 around the time that they made that episode (though it does show a bit more foresight than I would typically expect from them). This theory reconciles damn near perfectly with exactly what the Black Siren did and didn't know: at that point in Legends of Tomorrow, they hadn't started using the term "time aberration" and the protagonists hadn't started calling themselves "the Legends." I told you: mental, right?

Notably, this time-travel angle cannot definitively rule out Malcolm either. He is, after all, one of the very few people in the world who do know about Sara and the Waverider.

Update after episode 5x16 "Checkmate":

I'm very curious if the writers are going to acknowledge this connection in the show. Actually, I'm curious if the writers are even aware of this connection or if it's just a lucky accident. If this really was intentional from all the way back in Legends of Tomorrow 1x09, then I imagine the show is going to make a reference to it. I think that if the writers decided to be this clever, they would probably want to make sure they could get some recognition for it.

Update after Arrow season 5 (Summer 2017):

Ugh! It's really become very important to me (not really) that the shows acknowledge this connection! I'm not sure how they would do it, though... maybe Talia tells her villainous allies about how Sara prophesied the future coming of superheroes to her way back in 1958? It could tie in to her motivations for leaving the League in the first place. Alternatively, Oliver and Sara could have a conversation about Talia during the mega-crossover. Unless Talia is the villain of the crossover, though, that kinda seems like it would be a waste of valuable time. Hmm...of course this is all assuming that the writers even made the connection intentionally and are thus looking to acknowledge it, which quite frankly I don't think they did.

Unanswered Questions

If it's true that Talia al Ghul is Prometheus' puppet-master, the obvious next question is "what is her motivation?" Really, we know very little about Talia's background at this point (which in of itself tells me that some surprises about her will be important to the finale of this season). We know that as of 2011-ish, she was operating at least semi-independently of the League of Assassins, finding extraordinary individuals like Yao Fe and Oliver and training them to be heroes. We also know that she has used Lazarus Pit water for a long time to extend her youth, which is noteworthy because only Ra's al Ghul is supposed to use the pit. Given these clues, I theorize two possible stories for Talia's life prior to meeting Oliver Queen in 2011.

• She ran away from the League, stealing some Lazarus, and actively works against them. It's possible... in fact, it's the more obvious possibility. She did mysteriously tell Oliver that she knows what it's like to think of yourself as a monster, then come back from that darkness and learn to use your abilities for good. She very well could have been implying that she came to see the League's evil and resolved to turn against them. At that point she pulled a Damien Darkh and vamoosed with some Lazarus water. Like I said, it's entirely possible.

• She came to disagree with the League's goals, but Ra's loved her so much that he gifted her Lazarus and allowed her to leave peacefully. Now we're talking! This storyline aligns very well with what we know about Talia al Ghul from DC comics. From what I understand of the comics, Talia is very much the favorite Daughter of the Demon. Back to Arrow, as we know, there was never any love between Ra's and his other daughter, Nyssa. But suppose Ra's loved Talia so much that he allowed her to habitually use the Lazarus Pit to prolong her life, a privilege typically reserved for the Head of the Demon alone. When Talia came to see herself as a monster and wanted to leave the League for some personal time, daddy didn't slit her throat like he would have Nyssa's--no, he gave her his blessing and a bottle of Lazarus for the road. For all we know, Talia remained in contact with the League over the years--doing her own thing but not directly opposing the League either. It's speculative, but certainly plausible. Also, this option works out well if we're looking for a reason why Talia might hate Oliver Queen.

Oliver Queen is the man who single-handedly (okay, maybe with a little help), killed Ra's al Ghul and dismantled the League of Assassins. In fact, if we think about the first 5 years of Arrow as one cohesive chapter, the uniting thread of that chapter is the story of the destruction of the millennia-old League of Assassins, told from the perspective of the man who destroyed it. And we should think of these 5 years that way, because the show's creators keep insisting that that's how they think of the show and that this season is going to cohesively close off that chapter.

Talia al Ghul is the perfect close-off to the story of the destruction of the League of Assassins. In season 1, we got Malcolm Merlyn--a forewarning of just how dangerous the League is. Look at all the trouble that just one rogue mastermind with League training was able to cause. In season 2, we (and Oliver) met the League for the first time through Sara and Nyssa. Season 3 was obviously the main course of the story--Oliver physically defeated Ra's al Ghul and ideologically defeated everything he stood for. Season 4 showed us the consequences of a world with no League of Assassins (or at least not a strong one)--within a few months of not having Ra's al Ghul to oppose him, Damien Darkh almost managed to nuke the whole planet. But Oliver stopped him, validating his decision to dismantle the League. But the true reckoning is yet to come.

Now, season 5 gives us the ultimate finale of Oliver's vendetta against the League of Assassins. Talia is pissed as hell that Oliver used her training to go and murder her father. She thinks that he's stuck his nose into things he knows nothing about--things having to do with the safety of the entire world. From their perspective, the League of Assassins has been the only real source of justice on the planet for millennia--the only thing stopping guys like Damien Darkh from running the show. Sure, their methods are brutal and, sure, Talia came to see her life with the League as, well, distasteful, but she recognized the League's necessity to humanity. Then this spoiled, naive punk from Starling City showed up out of nowhere, turned out to be the greatest fighter the world has ever known, and used his abilities to blow the whole thing up.

This is my theory. Talia set her sights on Oliver after he killed Ra's at the end of season 3. She sought out Prometheus and trained him to be her servant. She deployed him to wear down Oliver physically and psychologically. Then, right when things are at their worst for Ollie and friends, Talia herself is gonna show up to deliver the killing blow. Prometheus probably doesn't even know this part of her plan. I think he really is just vengeful for the Hood killing his father, and he really believes all that crap about Oliver being the real villain that the city needs to be saved from. Prometheus is the Sebastian Blood to Talia's Slade Wilson. Prometheus is the psycho that the real mastermind has wound up and pointed in Oliver's direction.

But fear not! If I know the first thing about television, Ollie's gonna beat her. Better yet, we'll finally be rid of this neverending struggle between Oliver's dark and light sides. Talia was the one who encouraged Oliver to split his dark and light into two identities (the Hood and Oliver Queen) five years ago. In the present, beating her symbolically will mean beating that internal struggle. We know that season 6 is supposed to kick off a new era of Arrow with a significantly different status quo. I read one person who speculated that season 5 would end with the Green Arrow publicly revealing his identity. Maybe! I wouldn't dismiss the possibility--after all, what would be better as a definitive conclusion to the light side/dark side story? Five years ago Talia encouraged Oliver to split himself into two halves; defeating her in the present may entail bringing his two halves back together. Other rumors say that the new status quo will involve Oliver and Felicity finally, permanently being together. Seems very likely if you ask me--all the indicators in the show are pointing that way, and you can only drag out this Sam and Diane stuff for so long (look up Cheers if you don't know what I'm talking about).

But most importantly, the new era will be the era of no League of Assassins. The League and their brutal, old-fashioned brand of justice don't fit the world anymore. Oliver's journey has been the story of defeating their ideology and replacing it with a new type of justice. The veritable army of superheroes who have been inspired by Oliver are Earth's true protectors now. The new era is the era of superhero justice. (Can you tell I'm using the word "justice" a lot to imply that they should introduce the Justice League in season 6...haha! Now that would be a new era!)

Closing Statements

Time to get real. Chances are none of this is true and it's all way simpler than I want to believe. The writers really are just making it up as they go along. Adrian Chase really is Prometheus and Claybourne's illegitimate son. He's the district attorney... just because he is. He's married... because why not? He wasn't in episode 5x05 because the writers didn't have anything for him to do that week. Christopher Chance encouraged Oliver to date Susan because he's just a nosy guy. As for why Prometheus knows the names on the List and Black Siren knows about time travel... just don't think about it too much.

Anyways, let me know in the comments what you think about all this! What have I overlooked? What mistakes have I made? Do you have any better predictions? Let me tell you, even if none of this turns out to be true, I think I've had more fun in the last 2 days working all this out than I have in the last 2 years of watching Arrow. Haha!

Hope you enjoyed!
Phillip

How should Legends of Tomorrow set up its characters for next year?

Update on 6/27/2017:

I originally wrote this post on 2/13/17, in between episodes 2x11 and 2x12. Now that year 5 of the Arrowverse is complete, I'm adding some notes to point out my reactions to how things actually turned out. Also, I'm updating some of my hopes of how these characters could be used in the Arrowverse's year 6.

Update on 12/9/2017:

Now that we've seen the first 9 episodes of season 3, I'm adding a couple small updates to discuss how things have turned out.

Opening Remarks

So far, Legends of Tomorrow season 2 has been a very impressive improvement over season 1. Most shows (including Arrow and The Flash) come up with a great premise for their first year or two, then slowly deteriorate over time as they run out of ideas. Legends has done the opposite: gone from a pretty mediocre first year to a downright fantastic second.

That being said, it's probably not too hard to make your show entertaining when you're straight-up stealing all the best characters from Arrow and the Flash. I mean seriously, Legends is currently using 4 out of 6 of the main villains from the last 4 years of the Arrowverse (not that I'm complaining!). Those characters are significant to the shows where they originated, so the conclusion of Legends season 2 will likely have ramifications on Arrow and the Flash.

As for the Legends themselves, we can also expect some cast changes. The show's creators insist that Legends of Tomorrow is an anthology show, meaning that it has a different main cast every year. Granted, the turnover was not all that drastic from season 1 to 2, but it's a safe bet that at least a couple Legends are gonna be getting the boot at the end of this year.

All those characters make for a lot of moving pieces on the Arrowverse chessboard that need to be set up for future storylines. Who will go back to Arrow and the Flash? Who will stay on Legends? Who will get killed off? Who will not get killed off, but just be written out of the show (a la Kendra and Carter)? Here's how I would do it if I were... well, whoever decides these things.

I've ordered these sections from least to most interesting.

The Legion of Doom

Damien Darkh

Verdict: Back to 1987, just to die in 2016

Seems pretty clear what has to happen to our old buddy Damien. Legends of Tomorrow isn't going to erase a year of Arrow, so one way or another, Damien has to end up back in 1987--and probably with no memory of his time traveling escapades. After this year, I don't really expect to see much more of Darkh in either Legends or Arrow.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

Of course, I was right that Damien would end the year back in '87 with no memory of his time travels. I guess I was wrong that we wouldn't be seeing him again, though. He is already confirmed to be appearing in Legends season 3. Seems a little weird to me--eventually, you kinda want your dead characters to stay dead. In any case, Neal McDonough is always fun, so I'm sure his appearance will be fine.

Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash

Verdict: Either imprisoned, or stranded somewhere/time

This one's not so clear-cut. It's possible that the Black Flash catches up with him and kills him--fixing the paradox of his existence, but honestly I imagine that the writers want to keep Eobard around for potential future appearances on both the Flash and Legends. I could see him using the Spear of Destiny to somehow repair his paradoxical timeline, getting the Black Flash off his back. Frankly, there's a million and one psudeo-science-y explanations the writers could come up with to get him out of this.

My guess is that they want to keep him alive, but leave him in some situation that explains why he isn't an immediate threat. For example, maybe the Legends defeat him and put him in some sort of prison. Alternatively, he could be stranded in some time with no ability to use his speed (We've seen that happen to Eobard before in Flash season 1, but recall that this particular instance of Eobard diverged from that timeline before he was stranded in the year 2000. Perhaps he's predestined to lose his speed soon?). In any case, I predict we'll be seeing more of Eobard in Flash season 4 and beyond.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

Frankly, as good as Legends season 2 was, I was a little disappointed by the finale. The gimmick of having the Legends interacting with their past selves wasn't mined for quite as much comedy and drama as it could have been, and everything just built to an overly ambitious, poorly choreographed fight in a big empty field. Thawne summoned a bunch of time remnants, and then the Black Flash showed up and killed erased him. All-in-all, not a bad finale, but not as inspired and creative as the season had been up to that point.

I am a little irked by the decision to put such a permanent finish on Thawne's story arc. In general, I've got no problem with characters being killed off, but in this case you just know that the Reverse-Flash is going to be showing up more on the Flash in future seasons. As long as you're planning to use the character again, better to set up a cool continuity between the shows than to simply resort to some tired mumbo-jumbo about remnants and the dangers of time travel, like will probably end up happening. Just my opinion.

Update after episode 3x09 "Beebo the God of War":

Well, was I right or was I right? Damnit, Crisis on Earth-X: so good in some ways yet so frustrating in others. Now what is the continuity of the Reverse-Flash supposed to be? Honestly, I think I'm ready to stop wasting my energy trying to work it out--obviously the writers have.

Leonard Snart / Captain Cold

Verdict: Back to 2017 to form the Rogues and face the Flash

We know that Snart is going to be resurrected and join the Legion of Doom in the back half of this season. We also know that Wentworth Miller (who plays Snart) has signed some kind of multi-show contract that lets the writers put him in any Arrowverse show where they want him. I doubt they did that just for his one small guest appearance in the Flash episode "The New Rogues," so I expect he'll be back on the Flash for good soon.

If you ask me, a return to a villainous Captain Cold would be great news for the Flash. At the end of Flash season 1, they were clearly setting up some big Rogues storylines for season 2 (see "Rogue Air"). It seems like that all got preempted when the decision was made to shift Snart over to Legends of Tomorrow. Now they have a chance to get the Rogues back on track as Barry's premier adversaries (let's all try to forget about Mirror Master...ugh).

The Flash is really, really lacking some good recurring villains who aren't all the same-old, same-old speedsters. Gorilla Grodd is one good option and Captain Cold is another. Let's hope that Flash season 4 is the first year that doesn't have a speedster as Barry's big bad.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

Bad news. Very, very bad news. I guess at this point the writers have just given up on ever doing the Rogues on the Flash. It's a shame, especially since Wentworth Miller does just a good job with Captain Cold. After Mick and Leonard's little heart-to-heart at the end of "Aruba," it started looking pretty unlikely we would ever see the Rogues in full force. After Snart's totally un-villainous role in "Infantino Street," it seems all but impossible.

At least the Thinker will finally be a non-speedster main villain for Flash season 4. Of course, if I know how the Flash writers operate, they'll opt for giving him some kind of equivalently super-overpowered metahuman abilities, instead of going with the interpretation of the character that simply outsmarts the Flash. We all know that for the last couple years the only way Barry solves any of his problems is by running real fast. God forbid anyone on Team Flash has to actually, you-know, think.

Malcolm Merlyn

Verdict: Back to 2017 to form his own Legion of Doom

I feel that my first 3 predictions are pretty reasonable. Let me tell you right now, this one is a lot more out there. So let's start with the easy part: I think it's a safe bet that Malcolm's days on Arrow are not over. Sure, maybe, he dies at the end of this year and Team Arrow never sees him again, but I think he's probably too important a character on Arrow to be killed off so unceremoniously... on another show. He is practically Oliver's arch-nemesis after all (discounting Slade who we're never gonna see again anyways).

So imagine this: Malcolm gets plopped back in 2017, and--inspired by his time traveling adventures--resolves to form his own team of super-villains--just without the time travel stuff. What would their goal be? Oh, I don't know... they can come up with something. Who would be on the team? Really, the sky's the limit. For starters, the names Gorilla Grodd and Black Siren come to mind.

In any case, this new Legion of Doom pops back and forth between Arrow season 6 and Flash season 4 for a little while, before eventually being defeated in a Team Arrow/Team Flash team-up. Hell, throw the Legends and Supergirl in there and this could even be the plot for next year's episode 8 mega-crossover! Sounds pretty good, right?

Now, I've got no real argument for why this is definitely the writers' plan for Merlyn going forward. On the other hand, I can't really think of any reason why they couldn't pull this off. Seems like something they would do, right? Here's to hoping.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

Quick sidebar: "Lian Yu" was so, so, so good, wasn't it? I was kinda expecting a trainwreck what with about a gazillion characters being lined up for the episode, but the writers knew exactly what they were doing. They allotted good time for meaningful dialogue to the characters that deserved it (Slade and Oliver, most prominently), and knew how to give the players we already know well (like Diggle and Felicity) good-enough character moments in very sparse, economically-worded lines. Bravo.

As for Malcolm, he got to go out as a hero to his daughter, which I guess is what he cared about above all else in the end. Of course, they left it open for him to pop up in a couple years and turn out to be alive ("The League didn't call me the Magician for nothing"!), but for the time being he's going to be out of the picture. He certainly won't be around to head up the Legion of Doom 2.0 next year as I was hoping.

But fear not! I have devised an alternate plan! Talia quite likely survived the razing of Lian Yu, right? The character was frustratingly underused in Arrow season 5 (one of my few nit-picks with the back third of the season), so I can only assume that the writers have some big plans for her for next year. What could be bigger than heading up a team of the Arrowverse's premier baddies? Call it the Secret Society of Super-Villains and then follow the basic plan I laid out above, culminating with a showdown between the Society and the newly christened Justice League in the week 8 mega-crossover. It practically writes itself! (Just kidding. For the record, I do know that this is very wishful thinking.)

The Legends

Sara Lance / White Canary

Verdict: Not going anywhere

Let's start with the easy ones. Legends of Tomorrow is an ensemble show, but if you had to pick one person to call the main character, it would be Sara. Bottom-line: she's a fantastic character, and she's crucial to the show. As for an in-universe explanation, she's got no real connections back in the present, and it seems like she's having a hell of a time playing Time Master.

Whether or not she remains captain of the Waverider is a little less clear. I hope she does, but it's gonna depend on what they want to do with Rip Hunter next year. For more on that, see his section below.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

No surprise here. "Aruba" only solidified Sara's role as the true lead of the show, what with the whole climax hinging on her resisting the temptation of the Spear. No change in my previous assessment: Sara is the quintessential Legend and she's not going anywhere.

Mick Rory / Heat Wave

Verdict: Nowhere else to go

As the primary comedic relief, Mick is as indispensable to Legends as Felicity is to Arrow. On top of that, his relationships with his teammates are simultaneously the most entertaining/hilarious and most interesting/emotional on the show. I can't imagine that the writers would want to dump him.

Yes, this means that he would not be joining Captain Cold's Rogues back in the present according to my theory above. At this point, the character of Mick seems firmly set on his path to becoming a hero. His inclusion in the proto-Justice League during "Invasion!" demonstrates that pretty clearly.

Furthermore, he's almost certainly going to be siding with the Legends against his old partner Snart at the end of this season (perhaps after some back-and-forth, though). Once he burns his bridges with Snart (see what I did there?), the Legends will truly be his only friends/family, and he'll have no reason to go back to 2017.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

Nothing too unexpected for Mick. Though he did have a very brief fall from grace when he decided to join the Legion, that only set him up to perform his most heroic deeds yet when he single-handedly risked his "perfect" life in the Doomworld to save his friends and restore reality. Unlike past heroic actions, where he pretty much would just go along with whatever group he was in because he had nothing better to do, here he made a decisive and admirable decision all on his own, with no selfish ulterior motive for doing so. Heat Wave is officially a superhero in the Arrowverse, and he is a Legend to stay.

Nate Heywood / Steel

Verdict: Here to stay

I cannot overstate how much I love Nate. He's a member of a rare but wonderful breed in the world of superhero fiction: very smart people who aren't scientists. He's the super-expert on history that Rip kept claiming to be, but never actually was. On top of that, he's just a down-to-earth, likeable guy. Honestly, I give the character of Nate Heywood (in other words, the show's writers and the actor, Nick Zano), a lot of the credit for season 2's dramatic improvement in quality.

As for in-universe explanations, it sure seems like he's having fun being a Legend. Additionally, he doesn't seem to have anyone/anything he's in a hurry to get back to in the present. As Oliver very astutely pointed out to him, Nate's practically been waiting his whole life for a chance to do something like this. I don't see Nate leaving the Legends anytime soon.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

Yup, not much to add to what I said before. The Steel costume needs a little work though; that helmet especially looks pretty dorky. Just fix that, and Nate's got all the makings of one of the Arrowverse's best superheroes yet.

Update after episode 3x09 "Beebo the God of War":

It does seem like they've ditched the helmet in season 3. Good choice. Nate looks pretty good in costume without it. Besides, why would he even need a helmet when his head, you know, turns to steel.

Ray Palmer / Atom

Verdict: Probably sticking around

In my mind, Sara, Mick, and Nate are sure things to stay Legends. Ray is just one notch lower--right around 90% confidence. His relationships with the other Legends are fun, but not irreplaceable. Since he's presumed dead, he doesn't have much waiting for him back in the present. However, if he did want to return, he could probably build up a pretty nice life for himself pretty quickly after revealing his survival to the public.

I can't imagine him coming back to be a series regular on Arrow. That boat sailed as soon as they brought in Curtis to be his approximate replacement. That means that if he was to leave Legends of Tomorrow, he would probably cease to be an Arrowverse regular. Still, he would be a great candidate to sign a multi-show contract and start making fun guest appearances on Flash, Arrow, and Legends every once in a while. Unlike the Hawks, the Atom is a beloved Arrowverse character and I don't think the writers would want to ditch him completely.

All that being said, I really think it's most likely that he stays where he is on Legends. I just find it interesting to think about the possibilities for him if he were to leave.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

Again, nothing much to add. This is a little off-topic, but Ray had some really stand-out episodes this year, didn't he? "Moonshot" in particular was quite memorable and entertaining. I'm very confident he'll be sticking around for all of next year.

Amaya Jiwe / Vixen

Verdict: Back to 1942 with her

Amaya really doesn't particularly want to be a time-traveling Legend. She wants revenge for Rex Tyler's murder. Just like how Kendra and Carter hit the road after stopping Vandal Savage, Amaya seems like a made-to-order, plotline-satisfying, one-season Legend (that's a lot of hyphens!). Unlike most of the other Legends, who are social outsiders, she has friends and a team back in the 40s where she came from. Sure, she's friendly with the Legends, but mostly just in a polite, coworker-ly kind of way (that is, until she hooked up with Nate out of nowhere!).

On the out-of-universe side of the coin, Amaya is really just not a very exciting character. Don't get me wrong, it's not nearly so bad that it detracts from the show in the way that Kendra did. It just seems like there's no strong reason to keep her around when the story is clearly set up to get rid of her at the end of this year. I'm pretty confident that Amaya's gonna land back in the 40s.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

I guess I made this prediction just a week too early. After watching "Camelot/3000" (great episode, by the way), I knew that Amaya's fate had to change. She had learned too much about the future--specifically about the future of her friends in the JSA. Also, by interacting with the future versions of the JSA members, she had participated in events that were predicated on her having left the timestream and never returned. If she were to go back to 1942 now, she would rewrite half the story of Legends of Tomorrow season 2, which obviously isn't gonna fly.

On the other hand, Amaya has a certain destiny back in the past: she must give birth to Mari McCabe's mother. Don't take anything for granted, though: bear in mind that that can happen without Amaya every actually going back and living in Zambesi. After all, we know very little about the life of Mari's biological mother. Circumstances could quite possibly arise whereby she simply drops off her newborn baby back in her home with the Anansi totem. That wouldn't contradict anything we've seen in Vixen, the animated show. All we can really be confident of is that she's not gonna die before giving birth to a daughter.

All that being said, I'm at a bit of a loss when I try to anticipate the plan is for Amaya. Her name is notably absent from the synopsis they released for season 3, whereas every other Legend on the show is mentioned specifically. Like I said up above, I think that she could be written off the show without any great loss if they want to free up some real estate for new characters. On the other hand, the writers certainly telegraphed an ongoing romance with Nate, but it hasn't really gone far enough that they couldn't just say they broke it off over the summer break. All this is a long-winded way of saying that I really don't know what to expect.

Update after episode 3x09 "Beebo the God of War":

And after 9 episodes of television... I still don't know what to expect! Well, that's not quite true. They're doing some story about her totem acting up (surely related to Mallus) and the fact that her totem is connected to Zari's totem (it still isn't clear to me whether or not it's supposed to be one of the 5 Lost Totems of Zambesi, too). But these storylines are clearly being saved for the latter half of the season, so after setting them up in the first couple episodes, Amaya has just sorta hung around and done nothing of much consequence. Hmm, whatever.

Martin Stein and Jefferson Jackson / Firestorm

Verdict: Well, it's been a good run...

They've got to get rid of more people than just Vixen. Process of elimination leaves Firestorm as the most likely candidate. To be clear, I like Jax and Stein as characters, I just think they may have run their course.

Both characters have good reasons to go back to 2017. Stein has his new daughter Lily (who may have been introduced in part to facilitate a Firestorm exit) and wife Clarissa (whom he supposedly loves so much, but doesn't seem to be too broken up about not seeing for months at a time). Jax has his mother, whom he mentions from time to time, and more importantly he has his whole life ahead of him. Seriously, Jax is a bright and vibrant young guy who hasn't ruined his chances for a normal life yet like Sara and Mick have. Sooner or later--probably sooner--he ought to go back to the present and start building a life for himself. Also, he's real horny and doesn't seem to be having much luck on the time-traveling circuit.

Of course, it's all speculation, but Jax and Stein really do seem like the most expendable Legends right now. My hope is that they give them one really strong, Firestorm-centric episode before the end of this season, and then ship them off to the land of Flash guest appearances and off-screen adventures in Pittsburgh (...that's probably confusing if you don't get the reference, huh?).

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

I guess I was wrong. Or I suppose they could still get written off near the start of season 3--no reason character departures can only happen at the ends of seasons, right? Then again, they were named in the season 3 synopsis (whereas Vixen wasn't), which certainly seems to indicate a continuing place in main cast. If Amaya and Rip are both gonna be off the Waverider, there is certainly room for 2 new Legends onboard without getting rid of anyone. It just seems like it would be more dynamic (less formulaic) to occasionally cycle out some old characters, instead of just annually piling on new characters and dumping the ones that don't fully land at the end of the year. This is just nit-picking, though. I have no big complaints. I really do like Jax and Stein.

Update after episode 3x09 "Beebo the God of War":

No, no, me of the past! Have more confidence in your prediction! You were right after all!

Yup,  Martin and Jax are gone: in Martin's case, rather more permanently than I expected. Victor Garber wanted to be done with the show, so instead of giving him some boring open-ended goodbye, the writers chose to go all the way with it. I approve of the decision. In fact, Stein's death and the emotional fallout from it was perhaps my favorite part of the crossover (and L3x09).

As for Jax, we will of course be seeing him again in some capacity or another. As I wrote above, I rather like the idea of Jax having himself a normal, happy life instead of being a full-time superhero, but there's no reason the Legends can't call on him once in a while, as he himself told Sara as he departed. We could even see him crop up on The Flash, in theory, though I wouldn't particularly expect that. In any case, well done to the Legends writers for how they handled this whole business with Martin and Jax leaving.

Rip Hunter

Verdict: Oh, who the hell knows

Let's get one thing out of the way. I really, really don't like Rip Hunter. All through season 1, he was the most whiny, incompetent time captain you could ever imagine. Meanwhile, everyone and their brother kept going on about how he was the most brilliant, legendary Time Master in history. I guess other fans of the show don't all feel so negatively about him, so for the sake of objectivity I'll admit that I have a strong anti-Rip bias (I think it's something about English accents that rubs me the wrong way).

Then again, I must say that they've done much better with Rip this season than last. Of course, I probably think that largely just because he hasn't been around for most of the season (and when he did return, he had an American accent, haha!). Even besides that though, I do feel that Rip is better used as a lone-wolf time-traveling man-of-mystery (that's a lot of hyphens, again!), as opposed to an actual member of the Legends who hangs out on the Waverider. The real question is whether the writers can keep coming up with interesting storylines for him in that vein for another year. I'm not sure if there's really too much there.

The alternative is that Rip returns to Waverider and the Legends. Frankly, I don't know what the hell he could do that would be useful, though. Sara and Mick know how to pilot the ship, Jax knows how to service and fix the ship, Nate knows more about history than Rip, Martin understands time travel on a theoretical level, and Mick knows the intricacies time travel on a practical level (from his Chronos training). Even if Jax and Martin leave the show as I predicted above, Rip is pretty much dead weight from my perspective.

If it was up to me, I'd kill him off. Of course, I don't think that will happen. For whatever reason, the writers seem to have convinced themselves that he is a major and crucial character on the show. As long as he doesn't swoop in and usurp the captain's chair from Sara, I really don't care what they do with him.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

Well, hey! I guess the writers agreed with me on how best to use Rip (you know, besides killing him). The season 3 synopsis says that he will be starting his own time-policing organization called the "Time Bureau" which he presumably intends to be a replacement for the defunct (read: all dead) Time Masters. Honestly, it doesn't sound like the most entertaining idea to me, but the Legends writers have bought themselves some political capital in my book after their successes in season 2. I'm sure they'll make it fun.

Closing Remarks

So there you have it! Now you know how Legends of Tomorrow season 2 would end if it were up to me. Of course, it's not up to me, but I feel pretty confident that at least some of these predictions are sound nonetheless.

Let me know in the comments if you think I've overlooked anything or you have an alternative theory for any of these characters. Also, let me know who you think should join the show next year! Connor Hawke, H.R., and Wild Dog as new Legends!?!?! Hey, one of those is within the realm of possibility (the first)! And who should be next season's big bad(s)? Honestly, I have no ideas, so I'd love to know what you have in mind.

Update after Arrowverse year 5 (Summer 2017):

So, Adrianna Tomaz, eh? Well, they can't call her Isis, that much is for sure. Back when Guggenheim hinted that they were gonna adapt a character who wasn't originally from the comics, I had it pegged as one of those 4 superheroes they created to add diversity on Super-Friends. You know, the ones who were adapted very broadly into the Ultimen on Justice League Unlimited and then as the Runaways on Young Justice. I had certainly never heard of any live-action TV show from the 70s starring Shazam, much less a female spinoff Shazam named Isis.

The details they released about the character didn't really excite me to be honest, but as I've said several times, I trust the Legends writers enough to give them a chance on whatever they want to try. My main concern is that they're gonna go overboard trying to make the character politically relevant. If "Spectre of the Gun" taught us anything it's that the Arrowverse writers lack the finesse to make any kind of political comment without tripping all over themselves. Oh! And also that we shouldn't read into it too much when an episode happens to have the same name as an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. Yeah...there was no connection...

Update after episode 3x09 "Beebo the God of War":

I actually kinda like Zari! They definitely haven't made the character too political, as I was worried. For some reason, in my head, I imagined her coming in and inciting a full-blown mutiny against Sara. Which still may happen, I guess, but I think it's realistic that she would take things easy at first as she is getting the lay of the land, what with time travel and everything.

As for her personality, she certainly isn't as... bombastic as most of her co-stars (did I really just use that word unironically...), but that doesn't really bother me. I like the fact that she's a bit more understated. She feels like a real person (which Sara, for example, no longer does). Though the eponymous episode that introduced her was frankly weak, her character moments since then in "Phone Home" comforting young Ray and in "Helen Hunt" sympathizing with Helen of Troy have done a lot to humanize her as a both compassionate and strong-willed person. Speaking of Zari and Ray, am I the only one that detects a romance inbound? I'd be down--poor Ray deserves some romance after all these years (I refuse to count Kendra).

Hope you enjoyed!
Phillip