"Major Case of the Feels."
The Hype
Well this is the moment we've all been waiting for, the (not so) long awaited and much hyped crossover of The Flash and Arrow. Not only will our two biggest TV heroes be teaming up but following in the footsteps of Avengers, Superman, Guardians etc. They will first be duking it out. Speaking in terms of comics and history the fastest man alive would make quick work of the best bowman alive, but keep in mind The Flash is in it's freshmen season and Berry Allen has only had these powers for 10 months or so and is very much still a rookie. Both shows, but more so Flash have been hit or miss for me this season. So maybe they have been holding back? Maybe they've been saving all the best moments for this huge two part, season defining crossover. One can only hope.
The Crossover event starts off strong with a charming into/reintroduction to the Flash. Right off the bat this episode feels like a standalone movie/special. Flash continues it's one-off villain of the week trend this time with Rainbow Raider, a fairly obscure DC rogue with the power to control emotion. Team Arrow (Minus Roy) is in town investigating their own villain, Captain Boomerang, a much more well know bad guy teased at the end of the last episode of Arrow.
The comedy is really highlighted this week, The jokes are better and more frequent. I found myself laughing out loud several times especially when Diggle was on screen. His shock at Berry's powers added a much needed dynamic. It's hard to appreciate the fantastical among the mundane when there's a new meta human every week and plenty of super speed puns. I'm sure the scene with a shirtless Felicity was also a big plus with most viewers.
The whole mind-control, good guy turns evil concept has been done to death, but somehow feels fresh here and fits well into the show. Bivilo was a serviceable villain, but the Rainbow Raider name should have never been brought up, its too comic booky and cheesy, even if it was just a passing joke. Unfortunately the villain is well underdeveloped. Even though he is the cause of most of the conflict this week and causes Berry to become enraged and fight the Arrow in the first place, we never get to see him brought down. After the commercial break he is conveniently already captured in the Star labs meta human prison. I guess this is about the Flash and Arrow, id much rather have more time with them but it was still jarring and felt incredibly out of place in the series.
Even with all this juicy crossover action The Flash doesn't lose sight of the fact that it's a stand alone series and that it still has its own characters to develop. Eddie Thawne now not only believes in the Flash but wants him labeled as a public menace, this idea is only cemented by his rage outburst making Iris take Eddies side. The Flash was Berry's outlet for impressing Iris and connecting with her on a romantic level as he was no longer seen as her little brother. But now that's gone, and Berry has lost what he sees as his best chance to be with the woman he loves.
It was great to see the casts mixed up and interacting. Felicity and Caitlin Snow's connection was cute, but would have been a lot more meaningful if Snow was more developed as a character. We didn't really get to touch on any of the current love-triangles in both series, but that's okay because of everything going on there wouldn't have been time to do it well anyway. Wells is no stranger to doing sketchy things but he really pissed me off this week, even if he felt compelled to find out The Arrows identity, he didn't have to share it with everyone just to be a dick and prove a point to Felicity. Then again from his perspective it makes sense, and they had to find out sometime. I guess this shows i'm still a little biased being a long time Arrow fan.
Outside of our big final battle there wasn't much action. However the episode was still exciting and had great pacing, I also really like how its going to fit in the the crossover as a whole. The Flash's villain has been taken down the whole hero vs hero who would win pissing match is over and now Berry and Oliver are free to team up against a much more interesting villain tomorrow on Arrow.
The Verdict
One of the Flash's Best, and a great start to our crossover event
8.5/10