Flash/Arrow Crossover 2015 (REVIEW)

Written by Jacob Chimilar (@sweetlows)

Another season, another crossover between The Flash and Arrow and man was it a doosy! I'm seeing some bottle episodes in the near future to cover the costs of that epicness that was this two part action extravaganza. 

Flash: Legends of Today

We begin the episode with Barry trying to regain his speed with no progress being made. Wells has a trick up his sleeve that he was working on on Earth 2, a speed force serum that would give the person who was injected a temporary speedforce boost. He had apparently tried it on Jay Garrick several times but every incarnation so far has failed. This time Caitlin gets involved and uses her background in biochemistry to help synthesize the drug. Jay however refuses to take what Wells is offering and warns Caitlin not to give it to Barry. Wells frustrated goes for a walk. One that proved to be more eventful than it should have been. Patty spots Wells and follows him back to STAR Labs and shoots him in the chest. Caitlin rushes to his side and tells Patty to call in Joe. Together they find out that the bullet is not retrievable by traditional medical means, the only option is to get Jay to take the serum and phases his way into Wells and remove the bullet. Caitlin's pleas literally force Jay's hand and he uses the serum and removes the bullet without incident. It's a tense scene, with solid drama and gives us a look at what what Wells could potentially force on Barry to make him go faster.

Not feeling "Wells"

Meanwhile a ship containing a mysterious prisoner has docked at Central City. We soon find out he is in the same league as Damien Darhk, a mystical maestro, he removes his cuffs and takes down all the guards watching over him. He proceeds to seek out his main target, who just happens to also be in Central City as it turns out. It is none other than Cisco's new lover Kendra, who he refers to as Chay-ara who was an ancient Egyptian royalty. He tells her that he has been looking for her and that she must die. Cisco activates his distress beacon and Barry manages to fight off the mystery man who uses throwing knives to try and take Kendra and Cisco out. After the encounter Barry came to the conclusion that what happened wasn't meta human but mystical and when it comes to the mystical there is only one person you call....

Don't mess with the Dracula cosplayer

Team Arrow is out fighting the Ghosts and Damien Darhk himself. Darhk has Oliver right where he wants him and is about to suck the life out of him saying with a grin "I could do this all day" then Barry zooms in and takes the team to safety. But not without Darhk, almost giddy, wondering what the heck just happened? Who knew he had a sense of humor. Barry fills Oliver in on the situation and Oliver agrees to house Kendra where he can watch over her. Barry, Cisco and Kendra work together to help Team Arrow  get up to speed and put together a plan on how to stop the new baddie, firstly by having Felicity track down who exactly he is. Using a speedy drawing from Barry she manages to find out at least what he looks like but also that he hasn't aged in years. This leads the team to believe he could very well be more mystical and powerful than they first realized. Oliver, ever the detective tries to coax an information out of Kendra as to why she is being targeted. She is drawing a blank, stating that she only moved to Central City not long ago and for no real reason. Barry tries to play it off and tell Oliver that they will figure it out. Oliver loses it and blames Barry for putting everyone at risk. Felicity being the voice of reason stops Oliver in his tracks and invites them all to dinner to relax and bond a bit before they start going after their newest enemy. 

We get some lovely banter between everyone involved and everyone sort of gets up to speed on how everyone else is doing. It's a nice scene and I think it plays well with the cast who all seem to genuinely enjoy each other company and I'm guessing also enjoy the crossover episodes as much as the audience does. Their lovely evening is rudely interrupted by the dracula look alike and a fight breaks out. Barry uses his speed to once again stop the knives and Oliver and Thea blast him full of arrows sending him flying off the balcony, but nowhere to be found.    

Gee it's good to be together again.

The team returns to STAR Labs and are greeted by Malcolm who fills them in on exactly what they are dealing with. His name is Vandal Savage and he is an immortal who has been a lead advisor throughout the centuries to various military leaders and now he has his sights on Kendra and he believes there is no stopping him from getting what he wants. Kendra refuses to accept this and leaves the lair. Cisco hot on her trail tries to calm her down but she is picked up by a birdman with real wings and is flown away. Now on top of a building he tells Kendra about their past lives originating with Chay-ara and he himself as Khufu and tries to get her to remember. But before she can Oliver and Barry show up and start a fight with Khufu AKA Hawkman and Barry using his lightning attack takes him down. So it goes for a comic book show that wears that badge proudly as it's blazing emblem. They return him to STAR Labs for questioning on what exactly he was doing. He explains that  he and Kendra drawn to each other for centuries and over the years they have been teammates and have done all they can to stop Savage but have failed every single time, 206 to be exact, not exactly the greatest odds. Malcolm fills in the fact that he is looking to come into the possession of the Staff of Horus, an ancient weapon that can destroy anyone. Khufu begs Kendra to find her true self and emerge, wings and all to help take him down. He tells her that the only way to do that is by jumping off the roof. Barry is wholly against it but Oliver, who is the more mystically enclined, thinks its not such a bad idea. of course it is but hey, don't know until you try! Kendra leaps off the building but doesn't transform and Barry saves her in the knick of time. They call it off and work on the other phase of the plan, geting the staff, conveniently located in Central City before Savage does.

You know it's bad when The League shows up

Oliver and Barry arrive at the church where the staff is being held but come to find they are too late. Savage as stolen it and uses it to blow up the church, trying to kill the two of them. Barry manages to get them both out unharmed but it's clear that they are in big trouble, now that he has the staff and they have seen what it can do. Meanwhile Cisco and Kendra return to the roof for a chat and this time, with no Barry to save her, she feels like she can fly, she can be her true self and she freely leaps of the building for a second time. As she free falls she sprouts wings and soars through the air and arrives safely back atop the roof, much to Cisco's amazement. Looks like Hawkgirl has come to life!

Finally we see Oliver and Barry in CC Jitters going for coffee when Oliver sees someone from his past, with a son that looks an awful lot like him.

Arrow: Legends of Yesterday

The start to this episode finds us back in Ancient Egypt where Khufu, Chay-ara and Savage all are in the midst of a fight dealing with the offering to Horus as he has brought meteor storms down upon them on a monthly basis. Savage later finds the two of them snuggled up together in bed, something forbidden by law, he uses his staff to kill Khufu and Chay-ara and the temple is obliterated by the meteors, now that his job is complete he vows to come back and do it again and again for he is immortal, and it seems as though he is right.

There never was a story of more woe...

Back in the present Hawkman is trying to train Kendra on how to unlock her full potential and see her past. She is not having much luck, that is until Cisco helps her accept her feelings and new powers just as he has and this allows her to focus and she sees the transgressions between her, Khufu and Savage during their first lives. Cisco clearly cares about Kendra and it really shows in this scene, and highlights his own struggles for acceptance for his own powers.

 As this is happening, Malcolm, Oliver and Barry go to confront Savage about what exactly it is he wants. On his way there Barry sees a ghost of himself much like the time last season when he had to go back in time to save everyone. A skill that he has lost the ability to do due to his speed decrease recently. Once the group meets up and finds Savage, He gives them an ultimatum. Bring him Kendra in 24 hours or he will destroy all of Central City. Things aren't looking so good for Team's Arrow and Flash. The only chance it seems to stop Savage is to get a hold of the staff of Horus before Savage and use it to disintegrate him before he disintegrates them.

And if that wasn't enough we get to see the side story of how Oliver is investigating who he believes to be his son of a former lover. He manages to extract a hair from her off of a hat and has Barry run the DNA on it. Barry confirms his suspicions and goes to confront her about it telling Barry not to tell anyone. He tried his best but Felicity catches him with the file and she, knowing Olivers DNA signature from the various blood tests puts two and two together and is furious he didn't come to her with this information immediately. 

Oliver IS the father!

Oliver, now at her house finds out that she had kept secret from Oliver because his mother told her not to tell him and offered her a million dollars to do so. That's a lot of money to keep one's mouth shut for so long. That is until she reveals she never cashed the check. Shaken by all this news he goes back home to find a very angry Felicity. They have a big fight about trust and keeping her out of the picture, something he has been known to do time and time again, and once again it seems as though their relationship is on the rocks. 

Cisco in the mean time has put together some gauntlets that should protect Barry and Oliver from the harmful magical rays that the staff is able to produce when they steal it from Savage and turn it on him. However when they meet up, Oliver is still preoccupied by the fight and his newly discovered son, so that when Barry, Oliver, Hawkman and Hawkgirl go to confront Savage, not only is Oliver not on his A game, Cisco's gauntlets don't work and they can't destroy Savage. He is able to retrieve the staff and sends out a huge energy blast, that only Barry manages to escape from, running as fast has he possibly can, he once again travels back in time like he saw earlier.

Avengers Asse... wait...

With a second chance at the fight he tells Oliver about the child and how everything went down and instead of running the DNA Barry just tells him, so that Felicity wont know. Oliver knowing the outcome he, ever the idiot (in my opinion that is) decides to keep the information from Felicity now that there is no proof (yet) of his connection to his son.

Oliver then goes and tells Cisco to double and triple check his gauntlets to make sure they work and now its time for round two for the Savage take down. Up until this point Kendra had not seen her original life so now with Cisco's help having seen her first life, tells them that the staff had the same glow as the ones given off by the meteors that had been falling from the sky and wiped them out. Felicity, Barry, Caitlin and Cisco conclude that if they are able to get a hold of a piece of it and infuse it into the gauntlet they could better harness the power of the staff when they turn it on Savage. There just so happens to be one on display at a near by museum, Barry zips over and back and Cisco gets to work on enhancing his gauntlets. This time around they run the same play but instead of getting fried to a crisp, the gauntlets hold up and Barry and Oliver vaporize Savage thanks to some extra help from the Hawks. 

Oliver goes and once again meets with his former lover and asks that he be able to see his son every now and then as a sort of "Friend of his mom's" she agrees and he has a nice father son moment with him as he plays with some Flash toys. its a nice scene and a bit heartbreaking seeing as though he wasn't able to be more included earlier in his life. 

I bet Oliver wishes he had an action figure too

Meanwhile Kendra has decided to go off with her new boy toy but not before wishing Cisco goodbye. Poor guy, he never gets a break. 

Finally we are left with Malcolm at the scene of the fight, scooping up the ashes of Savage into a jar presumably to keep him at least somewhat alive in spirit. could this mean he knows of a way to bring him back? only time will tell.

Wow, what a crazy jammed packed episode that was! I thoroughly enjoyed that episode. Lots of action, a decent sprinkling of drama, time travel, ancient Egypt, setting up the final pieces for Legends of Tomorrow. It all comes together in this "giant size" episode. I for one can not wait to see another one of these epic cross over episodes and hope its just as good as this one was.