#FlashxArrow Part Two: Arrow Season 4, Episode 8 Review
It's a Flarrow superhero mega-teamup! Justice League, anyone?
A full-on fight scene with all the heroes on both shows, masked and unmasked, working together to take down immortal Hawk-stalking Vandal Savage: now that's what I call a crossover!
Although there's never 100% agreement on tactics with this opinionated crew, they came through for each other when it counted, captured the mythical Staff of Horace, and reduced Vandal Savage to dust with its blue laser beams, which was the only cool thing that came out of having to watch that comical ancient Egypt scene.
So, the city is safe for another day, no small thanks to Barry's time traveling hindsight (or foresight?)
But as time-traveling Rip Hunter would say, make no mistake: there are plenty more bad guys where he came from, and we haven't seen the last of him yet, either. (Especially since Ra's Al-Ghul, the Malcolm Merlyn version, kept some of Vandal Savage's ashes in a creepy little box for some future evil incarnation.)
Vigilance, Legends.
Although the Arrow half of the crossover was significantly better than The Flash half, there are still some things I just don't buy:
1) Vandal Savage as a legitimately scary villain, even though to be fair he did turn Oliver, his friends and family, and the entire city to rubble in an alternate timeline. Annoying and persistent, yes. Fights dirty with no sense of honor, oh yes. Damian Darhk-level terrifying? Not a chance.
2) Carter and Kendra as lovers. Brother and sister maybe. (Their arguments sound like sibling squabbles, with Hawkman as the bossy and self-righteous older brother.) In ancient Egypt, they were sometimes one and the same. Ew.
3) The need for the unapologetically evil Malcolm Merlyn to drop by all the time, but it seems maybe Legends of Tomorrow might sub-contract some of their "wet work" to the League of Assassins? (Did he really just threaten Oliver's life for putting Thea at risk? That man has no shame.)
4) That Cisco and Kendra are really over. Given their emotional breakup - props to Cisco on his great performance - and her lack of chemistry with Hawkman, I can see the writers giving that romance another shot in a future crossover.
(With 3 interconnected CW shows in 2016, what will crossover even mean?)
But it's Oliver Queen, father to adorable superhero fan William all this time but never knew it, who will drive the storyline once the Legends of Tomorrow friends and foes move on and Arrow becomes Arrow again, which can't happen soon enough.
(William prefers The Flash and Captain Cold. Maybe his mom doesn't let him watch Arrow.)
What we saw in this episode was the Oliver from season 3, episode 20 "The Fallen": confused, lost, sad, and regretful to the nth power.
Regretful for all the years of his child's life that he missed and is desperate to make up for now, but going about it all wrong. Regretful and guilty for lying to Felicity. Twice. (Look at her expression in their last scene together. She knows.)
Stephen Amell once again makes the transition between badass Green Arrow and broken Oliver Queen believable and painful to watch.
Just goes to show how engrained certain behaviors are, or how eager the Arrow writers are to torpedo Oliver's hard-won character development: even after finding true happiness with Felicity, he falls back into that old season 3 habit of keeping secrets from her, shutting her out, and blaming himself for bad decisions other people made for him long ago.
Barry warned you, my friend. Hiding your son from Felicity will not end well for you. (If you have to lie to someone, lie to Samantha and tell Felicity anyway.)
That, after everything they've been through as partners in work and in life, Oliver would still underestimate Felicity's ability to understand this and be in his corner, no wonder in the alternate timeline she drops him like a hot rock.
Time travel would've been very useful at many points in Oliver's past life. Too bad he didn't have that option on Lian Yu! But do-overs only work, Oliver, if you don't make the same mistake twice.
Which you just did.
