Can we get a crossover of Arrow and The Flash every week? Just saying. The latest episode of Arrow brought us the conclusion of the two part “Heroes Join Forces,” the epic Flash/Arrow crossover event. And it was funny, too. Team Arrow/ the Flash head back to Central City where they come up with a plan to get rid of Vandal Savage for good, Oliver contends with a personal issue that could thwart their plans, and more on Arrow: “Legends of Yesterday.” Spoiler alert.
Legends of Yesterday
On this week’s episode of The Flash, aka part one of the Arrow/Flash crossover event, after an unfortunate introduction to Vandal Savage, Barry, Cisco, and Kendra went to Star City to solicit the help of some old friends to deal with their new problem. Team Arrow and the Flash had their first run with Vandal Savage, which technically was a fail, but we’ll go with Barry’s “draw” assessment, and we met a Khufu. Part two of the crossover event occurred on this week’s episode of Arrow, “Legends of Yesterday,” which picked up with Team Arrow, the Flash, and Cisco heading back to Central City so they could buy some time away from Vandal Savage to come up with a plan to take him out for good. Bearing in mind, of course, that he is immortal, so it was pretty much good luck with that; especially with Malcolm Merlin—ahem, Ra’s Al Ghul—lurking around. More on that in a minute.
To kick things off, we had a good old fashion Arrow flashback. But don’t roll your eyes just yet, this one was really good because it revolved around Hawkgirl and Hawkman’s—that’s Chay-Ara and Khufu’s—origin story. While en route back to Central City Kendra had a flashback to her first life in ancient Egypt with her long time love Hawkman aka Knufu aka Carter Hall. After being called a priestess numerous times, she finally got to see herself in that role, and of course, she was gorgeous and smart…and mouthy, too. We like. As we tagged along voyeuristically in her flashback we also got to see that Khufu was of a lower station than Chay-Ara, but that didn’t stop the two from hooking up. Hey, what can we say, the guy likes a woman who can speak her mind. We also like. Apparently, so did Vandal Savage, who had a thing for Chay-Ara, but since she didn’t return the affection, he went all red with I’m-gonna-kill-you-both-cause-if-I-can’t-have-you-nobody-will vengeance. You know, the good stuff that real love is made of. And there you have it, the real reason that Vandal Savage wants Hawkgirl and Hawkman dead, unrequited feelings. Why does it always come down to that?
There Goes the Savage
Back to present day, Oliver and company try to come up with a plan as to how they could possibly take out an immortal. That’s when Malcolm Merlin shows up, practically begging Oliver and Barry to concede to Vandal Savage, because he’s Ra’s Al Ghul and if he’s scared then they should be too. But stubborn Oliver wouldn’t concede; no way, no how. Unfortunately, though, it is his plan to take out Vandal Savage that resulted in an epic fail, killing everyone. Yes, everyone. Well, except for the Flash, who was able to outrun the blast radius, just barely. But it was during his mad dash to escape being cremated that the Flash “ghosted” himself again. Remember, the last time he ghosted himself he time traveled, so that could only mean the same this time around, right? It did and he went with it, for obvious reasons. With everyone dead because of Oliver’s poorly executed plan, Barry had no choice but to mess with the timeline and go back and change things. Can we say take two?
With a second chance to get it right, Barry had no choice but to use prior knowledge from the last attempt to take out Vandal Savage as the blueprint for what not to do. It also meant that he had to let Oliver, at least, in on the time travel thing and clue him in all the information that went into him being off his A-game to begin with, like Oliver learning that he had a son and then seemingly breaking up with Felicity just prior to the showdown with Vandal Savage. Seriously, how did he not know that you don’t go into a fight unfocused? You could die. Which he did, hence the reason for take two. Luckily for everyone, the Flash time traveled and we still a have a show to watch because no one died except Vandal Savage. But it also looks like Vandal Savage’s death won’t last for long as the man we love to hate, Malcolm Merlin, was last seen collecting some of the remains of Vandal Savage and monologuing how his “friend” was going to owe him, presumably for bringing him back to life to once again kill Hawkman and Hawkgirl. And there you have it, yet another setup for DC’s Legend of Tomorrow. Bravo for a spectacular crossover event!
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8:00pm EST on CW.