A SPECIAL Flash/Arrow Double Feature: "Legends of Today" and "Legends of Yesterday"

It's the big, crossover tiiiiime of the yeaaaaaar.

This week was the now annual The Flash and Arrow crossover. While last year's episodes were two standalone episodes, yet connected in small ways, this year's episodes form one huge story that sets up the events of Legends of Tomorrow, as one could probably tell from the titles.

Team Flash and Team Arrow, well, team up to protect Kendra Saunders and Carter Hall, aka Hawkgirl and Hawkman, from the immortal Vandal Savage, who, to keep his immortality, must kill both of them in every one of their reincarnations (long story).

So without further ado...

The Flash: "Legends of Today" (Season 2, Episode 8)

Our introduction to Vandal Savage was pretty great. He's been caught stowing away on a ship bound for Star City, and he's being handed over to police when he just wastes everyone. I loved the moment where he somehow gets the handcuffs on the ship captain. Casper Crump certainly made Savage intimidating performance-wise, but I fail to see how he could be this huge threat to the Flash and Arrow crews. His go-to fight move is knife-throwing, and both teams have met and defeated criminals who can do that or can do more than that. 

As always, it's great to see the two casts interact. There's obviously some friction between a few of the characters, including the Oliver and Barry, but for the most part, the conversations we see between members of both shows are treats. Highlights: Diggle throwing up after Barry speeds him away from a fight, Barry and Felicity's reunion, Cisco and Felicity's awkward high-five, Thea and Cisco arguing over her codename, and Barry and Oliver's fight with Hawkman.

The introduction to the Hawkman/Hawkgirl lore and the reincarnation stuff was pretty heavy, even for this universe where there are multiple versions of Earth and magical resurrection pits, but I think the writers handled it fairly well. Ciara Renee and Falk Hentschall both gave good performances too.

The subplot involving the rest of the Flash characters felt really out of place, though. It had no impact on the main plot/ It did move the Zoom plot forward a bit, but I felt like it could have been kept for another episode or put in an earlier one. Also, it's nice to see the relationship between Harry and Team Flash begin to warm up.

Other Thoughts:

• For once, I didn't like Neal McDonough's Damien Darhk performance. It was cool to see him pop up here, but he seemed a bit too crazy. He was giggling when Oliver was zipped away by Barry. The Darhk we've gotten to know so far would be pissed. He's not the Joker. 
• I did like Barry calling Darhk "flock of seagulls." I wonder if that's the reason why Darhk was so amused when Barry ran, ran so far away. 
• So, like, where do Hawkman and Hawkgirl's wings go when they're not using them? Do they just appear when they do need them and disappear when they're done?

Rating: 8.6/10 League of Assassins entrances

Arrow: "Legends of Yesterday" (Season 4, Episode 8)

TIME TRAVEL, Y'ALL! 

The Arrow portion of this year's crossover was the better one, since it not only included some sweet, yet morbid time travel, but it also managed address one of the show's longest-running, yet hardly mentioned, subplots.

I got so excited at the moment Barry once again saw himself next to him while speeding through the city. When it was announced last year that The Flash would be introducing time travel, I wondered how it would affect the characters in Arrow, or if it ever would. And now here we are.

At a meeting with Savage, arranged by Malcolm, Savage demands Carter and Kendra be brought to him in 24 hours or he destroys Central City. When Barry and Oliver's plan to outwit him goes belly-up, Savage basically wipes out the whole town, along with every character on both shows save for Barry, who manages to run fast enough to reverse those events. Though I'm sure everyone watching knew what was going to happen, it was still pretty intense seeing Central City be destroyed and Oliver, Diggle, Thea, Cisco and the rest get incinerated. Oliver's reaction to Barry's explanation of time travel was great. Not only was it kind of meta, since Arrow's a bit more "realistic" than The Flash (but not by too much, especially in recent seasons), but Stephen Amell also gave a mix of disbelief and fear in his performance. 

The subplot concerning Oliver's child finally made a huge comeback. Oliver learned he had a son and how his mother bribed Samantha (the girl who Oliver made pregnant) with one million dollars to tell Oliver she lost the baby. It was emotional to see Oliver grapple with his feelings on the matter and how his impulsive secrecy about severed his relationship with Felicity, though that was in a now-botched timeline. Unlike The Flash's half of the story, Arrow manages to find a way to fit this all in to the main plot, tying it into the time travel stuff. The ending shows Oliver choosing to not heed Barry's warning about his secrets and still deciding to keep it from her, which should definitely have repercussions.

Other Thoughts:

• I liked the scenes between Cisco and Kendra, since you could feel a genuine bond between the two. You can sense a bit of attraction between her and Carter, but not enough that you would believe these two are star-crossed lovers
• With no Lazarus Pit, how is Malcolm going to resurrect Savage? We'll probably learn in Legends of Tomorrow somehow.
• "A bunch of superheroes at a farmhouse. I think I've seen that in a movie once..." The Age of Ultron similarities don't stop there, Thea...
• The heroes are having a party at the beginning of the story when the villain crashes it (literally in Savage's case).
• Both Barry and Stark see "glimpses" of a future where everything has gone wrong, then everything snaps back to normal.
• One of the characters has a family/family member no one knew about.
• Both Savage and Ultron seek to maintain their immortality and are after staffs that glow blue.
• Both villains also have complicated relationships with two other powerful beings.
• Both the Avengers and the Flash/Arrow crews defeat the villains using TEAMWORK!
• Oliver: "I'm going to be visiting every once and a while. Is that okay with you?" William: "Here you get to play as Captain Cold. He's a bad guy." Oliver: "Yeah, I - wait, what are you trying to say?" *William smacks the Captain Cold figure with his Flash figure*
• I'm starting to think it's either Samantha or Will who's in that grave now...

Rating: 8.8/10 speed pocketings

Overall, a great second crossover. I'm hoping they keep using the big interconnected stories from now on.

Next week on The Flash, it's a Rogue team-up...and Mark Hamill's back!!!

And next week on Arrow, Darhk makes a move against Oliver...

Noah