That. Was. So. Cool. The latest episode of The Flash was jam packed with action and surprises…basically it was everything. When DC immortal villain Vandal Savage shows up in Central City to once again kill Hawkgirl, the Flash has to enlist the help of Team Arrow to help protect their new friend on The Flash: “Legends of Today.” Spoiler alert.
Here Comes the Savage
Last week on The Flash, Gorilla Grodd resurfaced with both some unsettled daddy issues and the goal to make more Grodds. And after the Flash sent him into one of the breaches to Gorilla City, it’s safe to say we probably haven’t seen the last of him. This week’s episode, “Legends of Today,” part one of the The Flash/Arrow crossover event aptly titled “Heroes Join Forces,” picked up where we left off prior to Grodd’s episode, with Barry trying to increase his speed after the whole Zoom-bested-me-cause-he’s-faster ordeal. Luckily, his current speed just so happened to be fast enough for what was to come. Enter Vandal Savage.
In a classic case of date interruptus, Vandal Savage showed up in Central City to take out Chay-Ara—that’s Kendra Saunders aka Hawkgirl—while she was just about to enjoy a meal with her new beau, Cisco. And since Cisco’s powers aren’t really that developed, he hadn’t yet told her he had them to begin with, and she had no clue what she was working with, neither one of them were in a position to take on the knife wielding, ancient Egyptian speaking weirdo with bad manners. So, naturally, Cisco placed a distress call to none other than Barry/the Flash, who showed up just in time to help Cisco avoid a knife the chest and remove them both from the situation. A thank you to his friend Barry ended up resulting in Kendra learning the Flash’s true identity. No big deal, they had bigger issues. Vandal Savage issues. That’s when Barry realized they needed some help with their potential metahuman this time and a safe place to keep Kendra while they handled this new problem. Off to Star City the three went.
The Flash/Arrow Team Up
No one has better timing than the Flash, that’s for sure. His arrival in Star City couldn’t have come at a more perfect time, as the Green Arrow needed help avoiding a meeting with his maker at the hands of Damien Darhk, literally. Once the business of saving Oliver was behind them, Barry, Cisco, and Kendra were then ostracized by Oliver about their intentions for being in Star City in the first place. Oliver had a good point, but his rapid fire interrogation of sorts didn’t help ease the tension in the room, nor did it help when Malcolm Merlin aka the new Ra’s Al Ghul showed up with the League of Assassins and his own brand of advice. League of Assassins visit aside, during some downtime so that everyone could catch up, Cisco finally explained his vibing Kendra dressed like a bird. Then Vandal Savage showed up. Of course, the Green Arrow’s bow and arrow were nearby as was Speedy’s—interesting—and they immediately began to engage the immortal with the help of the Flash’s speed force. It appeared that Team Arrow/the Flash had won that round or as Barry called it a “draw,” but that didn’t mean that Vandal Savage was gone. With Vandal Savage nowhere to be found, it was time for another surprise, Hawkman. Out of thin air, Hawkman appears to, well, rescue his woman. Little did Team Arrow, the Flash, and Cisco know at the time Hawkman is one of the good guys.
After their initial whose-more-badass showdown in the streets of Star City with Hawkman, the Flash and Green Arrow were able to finally get some answers to many of their questions about Vandal Savage. Not that they were necessarily prepared for the answers. Basically, Hawkman aka Carter Hall explained that Vandal Savage is not only trying to kill both him and Hawkgirl, but has already succeeded in doing so 206 times in the past. It’s kind of his thing. Hawkman also mentioned that Vandal Savage’s life force is tethered to theirs and that he was likely looking for the Staff of Horus—some powerful and ancient weapon—to take them out this time. The only thing left to do at that point was to get Kendra to emerge…as Hawkgirl. Eventually, she did. With a little coaxing from her longtime love—whom ironically she just met, sort of—Kendra finally embraced who she is and transformed during a jump off of a roof. Of course, when she returned, it was Cisco who officially named her Hawkgirl.
Also, on The Flash “Legends of Today,” Jay Garrick returned and he wasn’t happy about the circumstances, either. In an attempt to help Barry increase his speed force, because let’s face it he’s nowhere near where he needs to be to take on Zoom, Wells—with Caitlin’s help—came up with a plan to create a drug that would do so. Originally meant for Jay, Wells succeeded in concocting Velocity-6 just in the nick of time. But Wells and Caitlin’s plans were slightly derailed when Patty showed up and shot Wells because she still doesn’t know about the whole Harrison-Wells-from-Earth-2 thing. Jay Garrick to the rescue, everyone. After Jay reluctantly ingested the Velocity-6 he was able to use the speed force to remove the bullet lodged in Well’s pulmonary artery. Talk about space age surgery. You would think that Jay saving Wells’ life would have helped mend fences between the two, well think again. It was business as usual when Wells awakened, and with Jay being sort of a big brother to Barry even went so far as to warn Wells to keep the speed drug away from his fellow speedster. Something tells me Jay will regret that decision when Zoom comes back around. Just saying. Then, too, Oliver might be a daddy as we saw him spot an old flame in the coffee shop back in Central City with a kid, who coincidentally—not!—had just bumped into him. Things are definitely getting more interesting.
Part two of The Flash/Arrow crossover airs on this week’s episode of Arrow. The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8:00pm EST on CW.