'The Flash' Recap: 'The Rules Keep Changing' in an 'Arrow' Crossover
Warning: This recap for the “Legends of Today” episode of The Flash contains spoilers.
It’s now officially a tradition: Every December, Arrow and The Flash get together for a charming holiday romp.
It’s basically an opportunity for both casts to rub elbows and remind us what it is we love about each show by setting them side-by-side: Barry will be a little too cheerful and Oliver will be a little too dour, but Felicity and Cisco will nerd out and remind everybody that we’re all on the same team. Really, the only thing better will be next year, when there will be three shows’ worth of characters cramming into the tiny Arrow Bunker.
The Plot
Vandal Savage makes his appearance in Central City and leaves a trail of bodies behind him. He interrupts Cisco and Kendra’s date by trying to kill her, only to be stopped by Flash. Sensing they’re out of their depth, Cisco, Kendra, and Barry visit Star City, where they meet up with Team Arrow and find out that Savage is millennia old.
Kendra is kidnapped by yet another metahuman, Carter Hall — aka Hawkman — who reveals that Kendra is actually a reincarnated Egyptian priestess. He convinces her to throw herself off a building, which triggers the emergence of her wings. Meanwhile, Harrison and Caitlin collaborate on a serum to make speedsters faster. Patty stumbles across Harrison and shoots him, thinking that he’s the murderous Earth-1 version. Caitlin convinces Jay to try the experimental serum, which returns his powers long enough to remove the bullet lodged in Harrison’s chest.
Related: Ken Tucker Reviews the ‘Arrow’/’The Flash’ Crossover
‘The Rules Keep Changing’
It can sometimes get repetitive when Barry has a crisis of faith every single episode, but the events of this episode are so overwhelming, it seems perfectly reasonable for him to be flustered by all the accumulating weirdness: reincarnation and immortality and gorillas and time travel and alternate worlds. Vandal seems to be at least as powerful as Zoom with that staff; he can probably be forgiven for sounding a little like Jay Garrick when he tries to stop Kendra from jumping off a building.
Cisco Can’t Catch a Break
He can’t even have a nice sit-down dinner in a closed-up coffee shop with his girlfr… sorry, with “my new, beautiful friend who kisses me occasionally” without some immortal butting in to ruin things. Then they run off to Star City where another immortal butts in. To be fair, it’s not like his significant other was sucked into a wormhole or anything, but it still hurts.
Tight Lips Sink Ships
How many times will Joe have to learn that, when you keep secrets, people get hurt? Patty is smart and inquisitive and a police officer, so of course she’s eventually going to stumble onto something she shouldn’t and make things worse because she doesn’t have the info she needs. You could also argue that Harrison’s arrogance leads to his getting shot, but it’s not fair to blame the guy for using his superpower. (Harry’s metahuman power is being a jerk, right?)
Photos: 9 Gift Ideas for TV Fans Who Love Comic Book Shows
Science vs. Magic
It’s interesting that, in addition to their tone, the producers are also separating these shows along the Science/Magic divide. Where will Savage and Legends of Tomorrow fit into that paradigm? He’s an immortal ancient Egyptian, but trailers for the show are full of lasers and giant robots. One of the fun things about these crossovers is it accentuates the difference between the sister shows, and judging from what we’ve seen, the split will be Flash science, Arrow magic, and Legends batpoop crazy.
Quick Observations
* Of course Zoom is going to get his hands on Velocity 6. Will it be his downfall, speeding him up so much that he vibrates right out of existence? Or will he get so fast that he has time to go around and personally break the back of every resident of Central City?
* Line of the night: “Is that the only way this guy knows how to enter a room?” Not that Barry has any room to talk: Later in the episode, he laments Oliver’s cautious entry into the church. “I just like to speed into rooms, usually.”
* Currently odds-on favorite for the identity of Zoom: Earth-2 Henry Allen. The reasoning is based solely on the fact that it would be the meanest choice for the writers to make. Want to place your bet now?
The second half of the crossover, Arrow’s “Legends of Yesterday,” airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on The CW.