The Flash and the Arrow meet again!

Last week, two Flash and Arrow crossover episodes aired in the shows’ respective timeslots. I know we haven’t been covering The Flash here at Agents of GUARD, mostly because our agents are already working overtime on their own projects! However, that does not mean you shouldn’t watch it or that it’s unworthy. On the contrary, it’s one of the best things I’m watching right now. Sure, you won’t miss much if you’re only watching Arrow and you only see the second part of the crossover, but I think the first part has some great content and I highly recommend getting your hinies over to Hulu to take a peek.

Plot: Guys…there’s not a lot of plot here. It’s really not a story-driven episode, which is why this here section about the story is going to be so short.

Basically, we see a new metahuman that can, just by looking at someone, cause them to ragequit anything they’re doing and just be really angry and are prone to mind control by said metahuman. And their eyes turn red, that seems important. Joe is almost killed while pursuing the criminal and the Flash isn’t able to do anything when…the Arrow appears in the nick of time to save him! The Arrow team gets together with the Flash team and explains they followed a lead to Central City, so the two hero teams agree to work together on each other’s cases. Oliver submits Barry to an extensive training regimen that he came up with, but Barry gets impatient, goes after the ragey metahuman and ends up almost killing Iris’ boyfriend, Eddie, and (as the Flash) completely loses Iris’ trust.

Meanwhile, Felicity and Dr. Wells play mind games about the Arrow’s identity and he eventually figures it out, Iris fawns over Oliver Queen, and Eddie plans a task force to take down the Flash.

Review: Okay, now that the pesky plot summary is out of the way…I have very mixed feelings about this episode. On one hand, there are parts I love. Some of it is SO silly and great. For much of the episode, I was wondering if it was just going to be crazy, ridiculous things happening right and left with no story behind it. I was practically crying from laughing and thinking “how long can they keep this up?” But then the story hit really hard. It was like…I don’t know, being sucker-punched by a clown or something! I guess I have to say that I like this episode for what it is, although I do wish it was a little more balanced and even instead of so extreme at both ends of the spectrum of funny and serious. It’s so fun to get the teams together. When Felicity and Barry are in the same room, you know that something really weird is going to happen (like Caitlin and Cisco walking in on a half-naked Felicity with Barry standing there awkwardly.)

It was also fun to watch the interactions between other characters. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Iris and her obsession with Oliver Queen. She talked about how she has him on “the list”, which is…a thing people apparently do where they make a list of three people they would allow themselves to hook up with despite other monogamous commitments because they don’t believe they have a chance with them. And now that I’ve written that out it sounds creepier than it was in the show, so I’m just going to move right on.

When the episode closed out, I kind of felt like Eddie was justified in creating his Flash task force. The Flash literally just proved himself as a public menace… usually I really dislike these story lines about superhero registration or task forces but I guess I’m okay with this one for now. Maybe it’s because Eddie is a good cop and is really just trying to do the best thing for everyone. We’ll see.

Favorite episode moments:

• Cisco’s Yoda Impression. I was in the middle of eating a piece of pizza and thought I was going to choke because I was laughing so hard. Basically, this makes the entire episode for me.
• Barry stealing the chief’s lunch. Not nice!

• Iris practically falling all over herself when Oliver Queen came to her coffee shop. Don’t you have a boyfriend?! Iris flirts with waaaay too many other guys. Darn kids.
  Flash: “Iris.”
  Iris: “Flash. It would be great to call you by your real name.”
  Flash: “You mean like…Ralph?”
  Iris: (skeptically) “…Is your name Ralph?”
  Flash: “What did you want to see me about?”
  Iris: “My boyfriend…he’s—“
  Flash: (eagerly) “Did you guys break up?”
• Diggle becoming a total mess when Barry shows up

 

• Banter between Oliver and Barry:
  Barry: “Hey, thanks for showing up back there but I had that.”
  Ollie: “Uh-huh.”
  Barry: “What? I was getting ready to make my move!”

• Felicity overcompensating when Caitlin asks her about Barry. “No. Not Barry. This? Not happening. We looked down that road and said no, thank you.” Ouch. Barry can’t catch a break!!!

Overall episode score: B. Fun to watch, I’d watch it again for sure!