Legends of Tomorrow: Easter Eggs and Other Things You Might Have Missed In Invasion!

REDMOND, OREGON

In keeping with DC's Legends of Tomorrow's habit this year of riffing on real historical events and figures, there was in fact a UFO sighting, classified officially as two separate incidents, in 1951 in Redmond, Oregon.

We're guessing that for the sake of argument, the Waverider would be the second incident?

Anyway, you can read more about the facts and theories on the Redmond UFO at NICAP.

IT'S NOT PERSONAL

"This isn't personal, but that's exactly how it feels."

That's the basic interaction that takes place twice in the episode, first between Oliver and supergirl and then again between Martin and his daughter Lily.

It isn't really a reference to anything that we can think of, although it could be a The Flash callback considering how his relationships have been going lately. But the fact that it's repeated in the same episode so as to set up a parallel between the relationships seemed significant.

WHAT KIND OF PROPULSION SYSTEM DOES IT USE?

Felicity and Cisco's geek-out their first time on board the Waverider feels a bit similar to how Ray Palmer and Martin Stein acted when they first came on board.

HYPNOTIC FUNKY FRESH

Apparently, both Cisco and Felicity are Ciara fans. Duly noted.

STORMING THE CASTLE

Cisco called out the fact that Citizen Steel dropped a Princess Bride reference on him on the way out the door, so it's probably not entirely necessary to acknowledge it. But we will.

CITIZEN STEEL

Speaking of Citizen Steel -- there he is! Live and in costume! This is the first time we've actually seen him wearing the suit, and while it's a bit awkward at times, it does cut a unique figure to help distinguish him from other things in the fight scenes, and it improves his "armored up" look significantly.

THE MEN IN BLACK

Of course, in our headcanon the mysterious Man in Black is somebody like King Faraday...but in the show, he's not named, except that he's Agent Smith.

That's a nice nod to Men in Black, the indie comic-turned-blockbuster movie franchise.

One also wonders, when you're being that precious with the names, whether they chose the 1951 incident in Oregon becuase of the "51" in Area 51.

"YOUR KIND ARE A THREAT"

The mission of the Dominators here is pretty similar to what it was in the comics: they're worried that in a divided and warring society like Earth, individuals breaking out with cosmic-level powers could signal disaster for the rest of the universe.

It's not an entirely unreasonable fear, especially since in the case of the TV show they're drawn to Earth by the universe-altering actions of Barry Allen.

Still, their methods leave something to be desired.

THE DOMINATOR MAP

In the background of a handful of shots, you can see a map of the world on a digital screen. As the attack progressed during the episode, the map started to be overrun with icons indicating attacks.

This is similar to a map of the world used in the Daily Planet, released to comic shops in conjunction with the first part of Invasion!, which you can see above.

The invasion was a lot more involved in the comics, so the different colors represent different races of aliens, while the black hand holding the lightning means that the invaders had seized power in those locations.

THE METABOMB

Again, the gene bomb is something that happened in the comics as well.

After the invasion was turned back, the Dominators dropped a bomb that was meant to kill all of the metahumans as a failsafe after their failure.

In the comics, it successfully detonated -- killing one metahuman, making hundreds sick, and "outing" a number of people with latent metahuman abilities -- while here it's stopped before it goes off.

SUICIDE SQUAD

"What happens when a man like him inherits abilities like yours?" The Dominator rescued by the Legends asks Cisco and Nate.

That means, essentially, that the Dominators' attack is jusified by the same logic that allowed Amanda Waller to put together the Suicide Squad in the DC Extended Universe. The whole "what if Superman had wanted to kill the President?" speech that was on all the ads is twisted around to justify eradicating metahumans altogether.

THE AIRFIELD BATTLE

Intentional or not, the helipad battle with the Dominators in Central City feels a lot like a nod to the airstrip battle in Captain America: Civil War.

The fact that Civil War was widely praised for that action scene, while detractors complained that the choice of a giant, empty space like that only served to show off how small-scale the fight itself actually was, is a slightly less true on both fronts here (a more impressive crowd and a smaller-scale/less-impressive battle due to time constraints).

TRANSMUTATION

Transmutation is arguably Firestorm's most significant power in the comics, but the one that's used the least on TV (it's hard to make it "look good" in a fast-paced action sequence, likely expensive on the visual effects side, and it's such an impressive power that it can complicate the writing when you're trying to come up with something that will be a threat to a large group of heroes, like on Legends.

The only other time he's done this on a large scale was when he transmuted Vandal Savage's bomb at the end of Legends's first season -- so similar circumstances, but on a much smaller scale.

Also: "They can do that?" There's something really funny about the moments where the characters don't know everything the audience knows. And there were lots of them in this crossover.

THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB...

"This looks like a job for Supergirl!" declares Felicity...

...in one of at least two references to classic Superman taglines/catchphrases on tonight's episode.

NOT LYNDA CARTER

During the crossover, fans of The Flash finally met the President of the United States in the Arrowverse -- and it wasn't Lynda Carter.

Carter, who starred in the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series, recently came to Supergirl to play President Olivia Marsdin in an episode that dealt with an "alien amnesty act" that has been a controversial part of the season so far.

And, yes, the producers of The Flash, Arrow, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow wanted to have Carter play the President on The Flash -- but they didn't want to kill her. After the quick death of the (male) President, the plan was to introduce Marsdin as the Vice President who would take his place -- but a studio note actually put the kibosh on it.

"We did, actually," consider making Lynda Carter the President on The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow EP Marc Guggenheim said. "In the first draft of the script, she was the vice president who becomes the President, and we got a note from the studio which we think was pretty fair, which was that it was a bit too confusing. You get into the parallel Earths of it all but she's not the President on our Earth but the Vice President. In the midst of time travel and aliens, it was just one sci-fi problem too much."

Guggenheim said that while he was eager to be on set that day and see Carter at work in the DC Universe, he understood the note and conceded that if people at the studio were confused by the script, it was probably not particularly friendly to casual fans.

EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES

Yep...Supergirl referred to Green Arrow and The Flash as "Earth's Mightiest Heroes."

Not to be confused with The Avengers, who have also gone by Earth's Mightiest Heroes," or with Captain Marvel, Earth's Mightiest Mortal."

CROSSOVER

Cisco tells Kara that the device he gives her is so that if she ever wants to "cross over," she can.

...heh.

JUST LIKE MY COUSIN

Well, this is a pretty obvious reference to Twin Peaks, right? In Cooper's dream, when the Man From Another Place tells him that the pretty blonde "is my cousin, but doesn't she look exactly like Laura Palmer?"

Totally makes sense. Especially with Ray Palmer being a Palmer.

There's even that red carpet behind him, looking like Supergirl's cape.

Not at all this other thing about Superman Returns.

DEO

In the final moments of the four-show, three-night Invasion! crossover that pitted "heroes vs. aliens" on The CW, Supergirl revealed that she had engaged in a heart-to-heart with the President of the United States.

With shadowy men in black covering up the Dominator attack, the general populace will apparently remain generally unaware that there are intelligent aliens in the universe...but that doesn't mean the government has to play dumb.

And so, at Supergirl's suggestion, The President of the United States plans to create a Department of Extranormal Operations -- the DEO -- on Earth-1, to keep watch against alien invaders and help defend the world in the event of another attack.

STRANGE VISITOR

"Strange Visitor From Another Planet," which is how Nate describes Kara to Agent Smith, is another thing that Superman has been called over the years, notably in the introductory monologue to The Adventures of Superman when it was on TV.

IN THE BEGINNING...

Sara points out that "all of this started with us" in a rare moment of nostalgia with Oliver.

That's, of course, a bit meta, evaluating Arrow's role in kickstarting the DC Universe on The CW.

STAR TREK

This one, we totally missed but luckily the rest of the internet is working tonight, too!

Uproxx notes: Felicity, her language center temporarily scrambled by the trip back in time, blurts out a link from "Darmok," the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode about Picard learning to communicate with an alien race that speaks only in metaphor.

Wow, those guys and Drax from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie would NOT get along.