Lesbian and Bisexual Superhero Cheat Sheet: How to Get Caught Up on CW DC TV Before Batwoman Arrives

Valerie Anne July 27, 2018

I have a confession. I was tasked to present you all with an abridged version of the CW DC TV Universe so that you can jump into whichever shows you want this fall and have all the good gay knowledge you need. Superhero TV and movie and comic book continuity can be confusing. And Batwoman is coming, after all! However, I’m a completist. I can’t just skip episodes of a show, or jump into a third season. I can’t do it! I think stories should be consumed the way they were written, for better or worse. In fact, if I was diving into this for the first time, I would watch every episode of every show in the order they aired in real life. Because of who I am as a person.

That said, I know things are terrible in the real world lately so I’m going to loosen my grip on the rules for now so you can get all the joy of Sara Lance doing the salmon ladder while Felicity ogles her and less of the Annoying!Laurel years and still get caught up in time to jump into any show you want this fall.

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very green place to start. (Note: I’m going to separate these watch lists by show, but you might need to do a little jumping around for crossovers’ sake!)

Arrow

I remember really loving the first season of Arrow but as the years went on it became more and more about Oliver pushing people away only to learn he can’t do this on his own, but like over and over again. It’s exhausting. But Felicity is a delight and her and the crossovers are the only reason I watch anymore. But back in the day, things were good, and sometimes even gay.

Get ready, you’re in for a ride.

Season One

While the memory of bisexual badass Sara Lance haunts the first season of Arrow, her corporeal self only shows up in flashbacks in the first two episodes, because she is presumed to be dead. And she might look… different than you think she will if you’ve seen screenshots floating around the internet lately. I think probably only these two episodes are totally necessary to get her backstory, and surely if you watch literally any other episodes of this first season you’ll hear Laurel and/or Oliver talk about her. I would argue that she was fridged, but don’t worry, Sara Lance can’t be taken down that easily. I’m also going to recommend episodes that feature The Huntress because I love her, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.

101: “Pilot”
102: “Honor Thy Father”
107: “Muse of Fire”
108: “Vendetta”
117: “The Huntress Returns”
123: “Sacrifice”

Season Two

This is the season of Sara’s triumphant return, and is also the season we meet her ex-girlfriend Nyssa for the first time. She’ll be important later. Honestly you could watch this whole season, but I’ll try to pick the ones I think make the most sense to watch. And I think this is the last season in which the flashbacks actually matter. From Season Three on you can fully skip them.

201: “City of Heroes”
203: “Broken Dolls”
204: “Crucible”
205: “League of Assassins”
206: “Keep Your Enemies Closer”
207: “State v. Queen”
208: “The Scientist”
212: “Tremors”
213: “Heir to the Demon”
214: “Time of Death”
215: “The Promise”
217: “Birds of Prey”
218: “Deathstroke”
219: “The Man Under the Hood”
220: “Seeing Red”
222: “Streets of Fire”
223: “Unthinkable”

Season Three

This season has more Nyssa than Sara but once again she is an ever-present force driving the narrative. Doing all the heavy lifting without even trying, our Blonde Bisexual Bird.

301: “The Calm”
302: “Sara”
303: “Corto Maltese”
304: “The Magician”
309: “The Climb”
312: “Uprising”
313: “Canaries”
314: “The Return”
315: “Nanda Parbat”
316: “The Offer”
321: “Al Sah-him”
323: “My Name Is Oliver Queen”

Season Four

This is the season I started to realize how amazing the character of Sara Lance really was, I think because the writers finally realized it, and as the emotional depth and complexity of the character grew, so did Caity Lotz’s acting.

401: “Green Arrow”
402: “The Candidate”
403: “Restoration”
404: “Beyond Redemption”
405: “Haunted”
406: “Lost Souls”

Okay let me break our regularly scheduled program to tell you something very important: a new show is about to be born. In one of the best backdoor-pilot-type-situations I’ve ever seen, Flash and Arrow joined forces to ship off some of its characters to a brand new show in a three-part crossover event. So whether or not you watch The Flash (I’d watch the first few episodes to see if you like it, and if you don’t, just skip to the crossover eps that will come up here) you should watch the following episodes in this order.

Arrow 408: “Legends of Yesterday”
Flash 208: “Legends of Today”
Legends of Tomorrow: 101 & 102 (Pilot)

We’ll talk more about Legends for now, but Nyssa still hangs out on Arrow for a few more episodes of Arrow.

412: “Unchained”
413″ “Sins of the Father”
418: “Eleven-Fifty-Nine”
419: “Canary Cry”

Season Five

I only have a few episodes of Season Five to recommend. Honestly this isn’t my favorite season. Things are still so dark and broody, Sara’s gone, hardly an episode goes by that passes the Bechdel test. Don’t be alarmed if you see new faces in these episodes I do recommend, I never warned up to them either.

Actually you know what? You can just jump into Arrow Season 5 with that year’s crossover. Just make sure you’re caught up to this point in Legends first.)

Flash 308: Invasion!
Arrow 508: Invasion!
Legends of Tomorrow 207: Invasion!

Get yourself a girl who can dress up and throw down.

Then just watch the last two episodes of the season:

522: “Missing”
523: “Lian Yu”

Season Six

I’ll be honest with you, I’M not even caught up with all of these episodes yet. It’s… slow. Seeing Katie Cassidy play a version of Laurel from another Earth who is bad to the bone was fun, but overall it’s missing something for me. Too much growling, not enough found family love. So this might be controversial but I think you can start this season with the epic Legends of SuperFlarrow crossover:

Supergirl 308: “Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1”
Arrow 608: “Crisis on Earth-X, Part 2”
Flash 408: “Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3”
Legends of Tomorrow 308: “Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4”

Still love that these two met, please don’t hate me.

Then watch 616 “The Thanatos Guild” to see Nyssa and skip the 15 agonizing episodes in which we all wondered if she was dead or alive. And the finale, “Life Sentence” because Sara bops back for a bit.

Legends of Tomorrow

I understand the impulse to skip to the gay stuff, but Legends! Oh, Legends. It’s worth suffering through the douchebaggery of Rip for the first season to watch Sara’s evolution. BUT if you insist, here are the episodes I refuse to let you get away with not seeing.

Caw caw, motherfuckers.