First of all on Supergirl and with an episode titled, Star Crossed, it was mostly a standalone episode. After months of the blindingly obvious simmering in the background, Kara (Melissa Benoist) finally found out that her boyfriend, Mon El (Chris Wood) was actually the Prince of Daxam when the latter was reunited with his parents, Rhea (Teri Hatcher) and Lan Gar (Kevin Sorbo) and needless to say, it put something of a spanner in the works. Even with Mon El somewhat evolving a little from the hedonistic party boy, Kara found this one lie to big to get past and subsequently ended things with Mon El. However by the episode's end, the Music Meister (Darren Criss) had managed to escape the DEO, put Kara under his spell and jumped dimensions in order to catch up with the fastest man alive.
And then it all continued in The Flash with an episode titled, Duet. Music Meister didn't waste time putting Barry under the same spell as Kara and both super friends found themselves caught inside a musical reminiscent of West Side Story (along with shameless and delightful references to other well known ones) as a pair of singers working for an alternative version of Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) while being pulled in by alternative versions of Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) and Martin Stein (Victor Garber). Of course with this being a musical, there was a forbidden love story between Millie/Iris (Candice Patton) and Mon El/Tommy and a gang war as Barry and Kara worked together to save the day and belt out a few tunes in the mix. Oh and did I mention the alternative versions of Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Winn (Jeremy Jordan) too? Both were on fine form here.
The songs themselves were a mixture of cover versions and originals. Seeing Kara belt out a sultry version of Moon River at the start, coupled with Barry's soulful Runnin' Home To You (penned by La La Land songwriters Benji Pasek and Justin Paul) certainly were high points of the episode but to be honest, I think every song struck a chord. The duet of Superfriends (written by the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Rachel Bloom) was unashamedly cheesy and I loved every second of it along with the fathers rendition of More I Cannot Wish You and the Meister himself trying to get our heroes to Put A Little Love In Your Heart which was also rather charming.
As for the Music Meister himself, Darren Criss definitely seemed to have blast in the role and seeing him, Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin in various scenes together did give me flashbacks to their days on Glee. I did find it slightly odd that Meister's main purpose was mostly to help reunite Kara/Mon El and Barry/Iris but I do think in the context of the episode and it's not so subtle themes that it does work and was satisfying enough. I'm not sure if he's a character who should return though but thanks to him, we got some gorgeous musical numbers, a nice mixture of character team ups (the Cisco/Kid Flash/J'onn pairing was great) and a world where Joe West and Martin Stein are gangster husbands so for those reasons alone, I certainly wouldn't object to an encore to be honest.
As musical episodes go, it's not quite Once More With Feeling but it's definitely one of the more enjoyable ones and easily one of the best episodes The Flash has currently done this season. I do think though that maybe we could've had a few more characters in song (no Caitlin or HR numbers) but other than that, this was a delight to watch.
Running Home To You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoUyrUwDN64
Superfriends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmb_emGkPBs
If you want more of the Music Meister though, you should check out Batman: The Brave And The Bold's Mayhem Of The Music Meister episode.
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