The Flash/Arrow Season 2/4 Episodes 8-9 - Legends of Today/Legends of Yesterday/Running to Stand Still/Dark Waters

We have another Flash Arrow crossover as the setup for Legends of Tomorrow continues, plus we have the mid-season finale of Arrow reviewed by the guy who's only watched 4/9 episodes, fun awaits.

Legends of Today

So it’s time for the big Flash/Arrow crossover, horray or something... Look, I’ve watched all of 2 episodes of Arrow this season, 1 because I was bored and the other because John Constantine was there. But I’m reviewing both of the final 2 episodes of the mid-season.

So, we’ve had the obligatory fight out of the way last season, now it’s time for Legends of Tomorrow setup. This is probably the strongest episode of the season thus far, but thus far this season has lacked any real great episodes.

Great moments do not equal a great episode. Enter Zoom whilst the finale was f*cking epic, the rest was not and it barely made good to me. But this episode was an interesting little episode. Last week we saw Cisco get his ‘vibe’ about Kendra and it’s time that plotline went to the forefront

This week, we’re introduced to Vandal Savage, the all-powerful immortal who can do anything because he’s had millennia to practice (ala Ashildr in Doctor Who except… actually, there’s not much of a difference anymore) he’s hunting Kendra aka Shayera Hol because… because… That’s his purpose in life. That is pretty flimsy

So, seeing somehow that there’s magic involved, team Flash decide to involve team Arrow (I know there was a mention of Zoom, but it’s more flimsy) and one liners, great action and some nice character interaction ensues until Malcolm Merlyn shows up for no reason to drive the plot forward, twice

Yeah, I said this was one of the strongest episodes of the season, right? I’m glad this plotline got room to breathe, it would’ve been a lot to establish everything they needed to in 1 hour, I also though Carter Hol’s character was a nice addition. The story mostly worked

Meanwhile in Central City Patty finds Harrison Wells and shoots him as he’s making a formula with Kaitlin called Velocity 6 to make Barry faster. They want to test it on Jay, but he refuses (man, the only main hero not in this is Laurel, and she will be in the next one) until he needs to take it to save Harrison’s life. It’s fairly standard affair, hopefully we can pass Patty’s naivety sooner rather than later.

So, is it written in the contract that we get another hint about Oliver’s kid in this episode. Feels like this drama would’ve been better done on Arrow. Like instead of all the League of Assassins bullsh*t. Ah well…

This episode was fun and entertaining and that’s the reason why I can more easily forgive its many, many flaws.

Rating 8/10

Legends of Yesterday

So, I haven’t watched many episodes of Arrow, I’m pretty much only watching this because of the crossover… So here’s my take on it, this was actually very, very good

So, Vandal Savage wants Shayera (I’m not calling her Shayara) and Carter Hol dead and threatens to wipe out both Central and Star City with the weapon I forgot to mention he stole last week. Melodrama ensues as the Flash realises he may yet be their only hope of success

Time travel is involved in this one, and just like in the last one, the future version of the person entirely replaces the past one, that doesn’t make any sense to me but I made peace with the show’s time travel bullsh*t after venting my rage on it in the first review of the first season of the Flash.

But let’s look at the Melodrama, Ollie finally knows about his son, twice in fact. And we finally get the name of the mother, Samantha who if you remember the season 2 flashbacks, you’ll know was paid a substantial amount of money to move away from then Starling City and raise the kid on her own.

She is less than happy about Oliver, knowing the crazy life he leads without explicitly stating that she knows he’s the Green Arrow. If Oliver wants to see her, no-one else can know, not even Ms I-can-figure-anything-out-in-5-seconds Smoak.

I want to mention Malcolm Merlyn, I’m not entirely sure what his motivations are in this. He arranges a meeting somehow between Savage, The Flash and Green Arrow (plus himself) for some reason then proceeds at the end to take a sample of his remains, likely so he can be alive in Legends of Tomorrow. He seems to be a tool to just move the narrative along and it’s not pleasant

Kaitlin, Thea, Laurel and Diggle really don’t have much to do in this episode, which is fine; There are a lot of characters and we have essentially 6 getting the bulk of the focus. If Cisco’s is only because of his relationship with Shayera and Felicity because of her relationship with Oliver

Speaking of that relationship. When Felicity had discovered Oliver had a son (in the aborted timeline) I don’t understand why Oliver didn’t just tell her the truth, that the mother had agreed to let him see her providing he does not tell her. The bit she didn’t want you to tell is already out, you had nothing to lose.

Kendra/Carter were OK, the Flashbacks looked sh*t and had sh*tty dialogue. Their relationship is uninteresting to me thus far, Carter keeps saying that he loves her but has done little thus far to show it.

But it’s otherwise a very enjoyable second half of the crossover, possibly to the extent of being better than the first half

Rating 8.5/10

Running to Stand Still

Christmas time, Murder and Crime, Children waiting for Santa in Line, with logs on the fire, and bombs on the tree, time to rejoice in the evil we see.

You know, most mid-season finales kick it into high gear, but this one was surprisingly slow paced all things considered. The threat, despite its intrigue didn’t really amount to much and there was barely any progress on the Zoom front at all

I’ll get the good out of the way first. Finally, we get Wally West. I may not be happy that they’ve gone the New52 route and subbed red hair for being black, but it makes sense given the rest of the cast and honestly, it’s about how they play it out. I won’t dwell on this subject unless they give me a good reason to (or if I do a rage review of the Flash Annual that introduced him – which is a real possibility). I’m also glad they didn’t overdo the melodrama on this because it could’ve damaged the episode which already was too slow for me.

Mark Hamill stole the show as the trickster once again, got plenty of laughs for what was actually fairly limited screen time. And I kinda like the Harrison Wells subplot, and what it means for the Flash.

But my issues, let’s start with Patty. I don’t give 2 sh*ts about her character, no episode has come close to making me care about her or her relationship with Barry and now we have an episode where she gets more focus. I’m actually OK with what they did and remembering something they established.

We get Cold out of prison because he’s in legends of Tomorrow. I want to see a full Rogues episode but we need Mirror Master for that. Come on Flash, you know you want to… And we get the subplot with Wells, that’s it. Oh and we get some closure regarding Wally which was a c-plot at best.

The episode would’ve served everyone better as a regular episode but as a mid-season finale it doesn’t quite work with me. I’ll give it credit for being a fun ride, with some memorable lines. But it doesn’t feel like much was accomplished

Rating 7/10

Dark Waters

This has absolutely f*ck all to do with Legends of Tomorrow, but I said I’d review it so I’m reviewing it anyway, lucky me…

OK, so this episode had a fair few things I don’t really understand because I’m not regularly watching the show. We have Felicity’s mother back as a regular? Thea’s new boyfriend/election manager, the fact that Damian Dahrk is a member of a sort of council, Diggle’s brother being in a cage and we have dead meat woman on the Island

So, to try and bring Damian Dahrk down team Arrow decide to publically unveil him. But naturally Damian Dahrk strikes back in a big way, forcing tough choices for everyone involved as they plan to rescue them before it’s too late.

Right so I have 2 issues with this episode, the first is minor but REALLY: A SHARK, are you f*cking serious?! I mean, really? Sharks do not hunt that close to land, I don’t care if the water was deep enough to dive into into, it’s still barely off shore.

The second is Malcolm Merlyn, who is really is just the plot convenience tool now. He arrives at the hideout and chastises them for their security allowing it despite the fact he did that last week. Gives cryptic warnings about Dahrk, warns Thea to be careful and erm… dresses up as Oliver Queen for some reason. OK, I guess he didn’t want to be seen as Ra’s al Ghul, since he didn’t want to pit the League of Assassins against Dahrk but…

But I’ll say the good far outweighs the bad in this episode as we get some interesting developments in Oliver’s Mayoral campaign, which Damian Dahrk seems hell bent on attacking at every possible opportunity. I say this because it gives something to do other than be the arrow. Both Arrow and the Flash suffer from this problem. In that even when it isn’t about the mask, it’s about the mask.

I mean for the Flash, we never see him doing a lot of detective work outside of his Flash cases. He doesn’t work on a case incidentally ties him to being the Flash, he’s talking to people about being the Flash whether it’s Cisco or Joe or Iris or whoever. Yes, the romantic side works but it’s usually to set up drama regarding his alter-ego.

You want an example of this done well, look at The Spectacular Spider-man. There Peter Parker ends up caught dating Liz but really loves Gwen. Neither of these people ended up finding out about his secret identity, in fact they didn’t even really cross over. It felt like there was some separation between the man and the mask.

I refer to the Flash a lot because I haven’t really been watching Arrow this season. It’s interesting that Dahrk considers both Oliver Queen and the Arrow enemies without knowing that they’re one of the same (hence his lack of surprise when Green Arrow/Merlyn shows up)

So, as we head into a midseason break until January, this a far stronger finale that the Flash, and Agents of SHIELD if I’m honest.

Rating 8.5/10

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Images used in this review are from The Flash and Arrow and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.

PS. Star Wars Rebels review coming tomorrow