A review of the Flash Arrow Crossover 2 [spoilers for both episodes]

[Tonguez]

The Flash Arrow two part crossover is again upon us and this year is serving to introduce Vandal Savage into the Arrowverse so that he can go on and be the villain in Legends of Tomorrow. Unfortunately Vandal Savage iss nowhere near imposing enough and when compared to Damian Dark came across as a bit naff.

The Flash episode was first up but the pacing seemed a little off to me, maybe even jumbled and I am hoping that it will make more sense tomorrow with the Arrow episode. This episode really served to get us better acquainted with Kendra, and as she is currently Cisco's kiss friend also allowed him to take some of the limelight. Cisco was probably the character of the day and importantly he has come out as a meta and even if his powers are still limited, it does set things up for more Vibe.

As things continued we also got to see the introduction of Hawkman, initially as a minor foil for Barry and Ollie and then as a plot device to get Kendra to throw herself off the roof. There was a lot of that this episode, characters being shoehorned in as plot pieces. Indeed the entire Arrow cast was superfluous and it was terrible to see Merlin being used just to provide exposition on Vandal Savage.

Really the best part of the team crossover was the drinks at Ollie and Felicities house - the domestic lives of 30-something superheroes was a fun interlude and perhaps served to underline the more established and mature state of the characters now Flash is in its second season (heh). Best fight of the evening was here too

Outside of that there were some fun battles and the Arrowverse has really gone unapologetically comicbook, not only embracing weird science and time travel but now magic and reincarnated lovers linked by destiny.

Interestingly Caitlin and Wells remained firmly in a Flash episode and spent their time creating super serum Velocity 6, which was a nice easter egg. Also Patty now knows that Joe is involved with Star Labs and that Wells is still around.

oh and who was the mystery child Ollie bumped into at the end...

review for the Arrow episode

 

[Richards]

I can't believe Cisco "outed" Barry as the Flash to Kendra like that. So now Cisco's girlfriend Kendra knows Barry is the Flash, but Barry's girlfriend Patty, the cop, who is assigned to the task force to fight metahumans, does not.

Johnathan

 

[Morrus]

Really? Vandal Savage really impressed me. he exhibited far more charisma and menace than Damien Dark. Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but I think he's excellent.

My main quibble was "oh, somebody threw a knife at us, we have to go ask Arrow for help!" from folks who didn't ask Arrow for help against Grodd or Zoom, both of whom did far more aha throw a knife at somebody. It felt *very* contrived. I get that the excuse was "this is magic, not science", but that didn't sell it to me.

Other than that - yep, much fun! I enjoyed it. I'm so glad Arrow is lightening up. Not because I think all superhero stuff should be bright and identically Whedon-quippy (a common view round here) but because that contrasts him with Batman. Still loving these shows.

Is Supergirl a different channel over there? Can they crossover? I know Constantine was on a different channel before it got cancelled?

 

[RangerWickett]

Supergirl is on one of the major networks. Flash is on CW, which is sort of a second-tier network.

The episode was pretty rushed, and I could quibble with some script choices, but overall I had fun.

 

[Raunalyn]

oh and who was the mystery child Ollie bumped into at the end...

From an earlier season, Ollie's mom paid off a girl who got pregnant by Ollie, asking her to disappear and never tell Oliver about her pregnancy. The girl with the child at the end of the show was the one who was paid to disappear...

 

[Morrus]

From an earlier season, Ollie's mom paid off a girl who got pregnant by Ollie, asking her to disappear and never tell Oliver about her pregnancy. The girl with the child at the end of the show was the one who was paid to disappear...

In fact it was right there in the "Previously on..." intro.

 

[Tonguez]

From an earlier season, Ollie's mom paid off a girl who got pregnant by Ollie, asking her to disappear and never tell Oliver about her pregnancy. The girl with the child at the end of the show was the one who was paid to disappear...

yeah I remember that episode, I'm more interested to know if his name is Connor and whether he will have any relevance moving forward. I guess I'll know in 4 hours...

 

[Tonguez]

Really? Vandal Savage really impressed me. he exhibited far more charisma and menace than Damien Dark. Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but I think he's excellent.

My main quibble was "oh, somebody threw a knife at us, we have to go ask Arrow for help!" from folks who didn't ask Arrow for help against Grodd or Zoom, both of whom did far more aha throw a knife at somebody. It felt *very* contrived. I get that the excuse was "this is magic, not science", but that didn't sell it to me.

I'm hoping he grows on me Vandal Savage in the comics is 50000 yr old, is exceptionally strong, has a genius intellect and advanced technologically savvy. He was the first conqueror and is suppose to have either advised or been every great conqueror in history including Khafre, Alexander, Genghis Khan, Vlad Tepes and Hitler. He was also Jack the Ripper and Blackbeard.
May be it was too much expectation on my part but nothing of the comicbook Vandal Savage character came across in the knife throwing assassin who appeared on screen - the way he was portrayed in the show made him seem just a villain of the week antagonist like Bullseye or Capt. Boomerang, even his menace had to be hammered in by Merlin telling us he's really bad. He didn't feel like the immortal schemer who is going to conquer the whole world as big bad on a whole new show.

and yeah the motivation to get Arrow involved was contrived.

as to Cisco revealing Barry's identity, I can believe that, he had just been miliseconds from being stabbed in the heart (again) so a momentary lapse of decorum in front of people he trusts is to be expected

 

[Tonguez]

"A bunch of super heroes in a farm house? I feel like I've seen that in a movie before"

the Arrow half of the crossover was a far more coherent story which gave some great touchy feely moments, good acting from Ollie and Cisco and allowed everyone involved to develop a bit more personality.

We start with a flashback to faux Egypt 4000 years ago where Khufu, Chay-ara, Hath-Set and Ramses the Wise are doing their thing. The set design was pretty but the acting stiff and unconvincing, this was not two lovers bound by destiny. I'm also kind of bummed that they used Hath-Set's origin story for the villain but called him Vandal Savage. Vandal Savage immortal caveman is so much cooler .

back 'today' we see the combined crews heading for an old farmhouse outside Central City to hideout. They're all in civilian clothes and we get the best line of the episode, Theas'"bunch of superheroes in a farm house" quip - which was amusing. Later when Felicity asks Ollie why he's all distracted now they're in Central city we get another nice line when Ollie says "Well, maybe it's too bright and sunny for me here?!"

The episode gives us some technobabble and geek time between Cisco and Felicity and some dramatic tension for Cisco and the Hawks and also between the distracted Ollie and his past. These were well acted by Cisco and Ollie respectively and helped to give a bit more character to Carter as he tries to get Kendra to embrace her past and be the warrior priestess. Kendra isn't sure she wants to embrace her past and Cisco is on a downer as his new girlfriend apparently is destined for other things.
We get references to St Roch University via a betamax tape from 1975 which Felicity says will take a while to decode. 5 seconds later they are watching Dr Boardman (who apparently will be a Legends regular) discuss the Vandal Savage legend and making reference to an object that can stop him. Meteors and what Cisco names Nth metal (yeah um sure)

In the Arrow centric story we see Ollie go off to find out about his son who we learn is named William rather than Conner. He also doesn't tell Felicity, she storms off in a tizzy and that sets up for the mini-climax. The child of Ollie story fits here as a side tangent which may have consequences in later episodes.

Vandal Hath-Set gets more development in this episode too, being a bit more credibly menacing than before as he makes his threats and demands that the Hawks be handed over (another nice line here when Barry says they are not defending Hawks out of hubris but for hope.
Anyway the JSA team up happens but Ollie makes a bad call and Ciscos gadget doesn't work. Everybody dies - but not really because the Flash finally runs fast enough to time travel (understandably as he was outrunning a magic nuclear blast of total devastation). This gives the team a chance to do things better the second time, especially as Barry can now warn them about the booboos.

So we get to see things happen again but with better calls that finally sees the team apparently vapourize Vandal Hath-Set. They go off releived and Cisco gets a goodbye kiss as Kendra and Carter Hall head off to their home city St Roch. It all ends with the sinister Merlin collecting the Vandal Hath-Set dust and telling it that "you owe me one buddy"

Anyway watched in a single run the Flash/Arrow crossover was okay, with some well acted drama, nice action scenes and some fun nods and easter eggs. It did have some large logic holes and the Hawks lack chemistry. It was also more a backdoor pilot for Legends of Tomorrow but didn't entirely neglect the host shows even if many of the supporting cast were either shoehorned in to the first half and then entire missing in the second. Thats a concern and may highlight a problem thats going to plague the 10 core cast members of Legends.

 

[Staffan]

Is Supergirl a different channel over there? Can they crossover? I know Constantine was on a different channel before it got cancelled?

Regardless of channels, I think Supergirl is set up as a different universe. In the Arrowverse, metahumans are a fairly new thing, at least in the public eye. In Supergirl, Superman has been around for quite a while, and has an established history of fighting other supers (e.g. "Not even Superman could defeat Reactron!")