The Flash Season 3, Episode 17 Recap: “Duet”

By Tim Adams | Mar 27, 2017

Supergirl makes a special appearance on The Flash as the super friends must escape from Music Meister’s musical wonderland.

If you thought The Flash was done with crossovers in The CW Arrowverse think again. “Duet” begins with a flashback to a young Barry Allen watching musicals with his mother. Jump to the present and Barry is still watching them on Cisco Ramon’s couch when he’s down in the dumps after breaking up with Iris West.

An alert sends the duo to S.T.A.R. Labs to find a breach in the midst of opening. As #TeamFlash ponders who is coming through, Mon-El and Martian Manhunter appear with an unconscious Supergirl. She was attacked on their Earth and they’ve come to the Flash for help. The person responsible for Kara Danvers’ current status, Music Meister, appears in S.T.A.R. Labs and Flash races off to face him. Kid Flash is hesitant after what he went through in the Speed Force, but HR Wells encourages him to get back on that horse and ride again.

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Music Meister is aware of everyone’s secret identities and quickly takes out Flash and Kid Flash while putting Barry under his spell. Barry finds himself at a nightclub where Supergirl is the main attraction singing on stage. Once she’s done, our heroes regroup to share stories and are greeted by familiar faces Malcolm Merlyn as the owner of the club, Winn Schott as the keyboardist, and Cisco Ramon as a waiter.

Since both the Flash and Supergirl love musicals so much, Music Meister decided to trap them in one. Kara grew up on the Wizard of Oz while Barry viewed Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra. Music Meister gives them one warning: if they die in the dream world, they die in the real world. They must follow the plot in order to escape.

This leads Barry and Kara to mobsters Martin Stein and Joe West, who sends them off to find a missing Iris West and bring her back. Our heroes are successful in finding Iris, but she’s in a liplock with Mon-El!

Back in Central City, it appears that Music Meister has stolen the Flash and Supergirl’s powers to rob a bank. Kid Flash, Vibe, and Martian Manhunter take off to stop him and are triumphant by using their powers together.

Iris and Mon-El declare their forbidden love for one another. Their fathers don’t approve of their relationship, which is the reason they ran off together. Barry gives a speech that convinces Iris and Mon-El to return home and tell their fathers the truth. Both parents, Martin and Joe as Iris’ gay fathers and Malcolm as Mon-El’s father, are furious at this news and declare war.

Image Courtesy of The CW

There’s only one way to stop an all-out war from breaking out: a song and dance! Barry and Kara give their best rendition of “Super Friends” but even that isn’t enough from stopping their own blood shed. As they lay dying in the streets, their physical bodies are deteriorating at S.T.A.R. Labs. Cisco cleverly thinks to vibe Iris and Mon-El to the dream world to save Barry and Kara. As they both lay dying, kisses from their true loves (Iris and Mon-El) are enough to resuscitate them.

As everyone celebrates, Music Meister reveals that he did all of this to mend two broken hearts. The trickster fades away to teach other unsuspecting foes more lessons. We end the episode with Barry singing to Iris in their apartment as he proposes one final time to her. She happily says yes.

Next: NEXT: Catch up with a recap of 'Into the Speed Force'

Highlight

As special as this episode was for being a musical, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Sure it was fun to see the Flash and Supergirl displaying their vocal chops, but the random guest appearances didn’t do much for me. I’d rather have seen more follow-up with Savitar.

Closing Thought

Things will thankfully get back to normal next week with the introduction of another great Flash villain from the comics in “Abra Kadabra.”