YAY! Part 2 of the the Flash/Arrow crossover. Hopefully the first of many and boy was the concluding half a doozy. Whilst the Flash episode was a little weak (you can read my review of that here), Arrow provided a fantastic follow-up with a great mixture of the superhero fun from The Flash and the grittiness of Arrow.
So the baddie this time was Captain Boomerang; a character whose reputation is a bit of a joke. I mean, he throws boomerangs at people. But Arrow has managed to put their spin on it, making him quite a tough nut to crack for the whole team. They gave him a strong origin, even linking it back to ARGUS and the Suicide Squad. The only thing missing was the trademark Australian accent. They did make him ex-ASIS, but that didn’t seem like enough. Slade (who was also ASIS) had an accent thanks to Australia/New Zealander Manu Bennett (sidenote. yay he’s back this season!!!!). The accent aside, he was probably the best villain to come up this season. But I’ll hold that on account of seeing what Merlyn and Ra’s have in stall. And it was probably not the smartest move to make Deathstroke and Captain Boomerang roomies, even if you have a super max prison like that.
As a crossover, the episode provided a reasonable amount of continuity. I think this episode was set a week after the events of The Flash. Cisco was easily my favourite part of the crossover (yeah sorry Flash), but he is just represents all us fanboys inside TV land. He called their base the Arrow Cave and mentioned Arrow-mobile. The latter of course a joke on Batman, after all Arrow is quite close to what Batman would be like. Barry being able to tie up everyone before Oliver even walks through the door was cool though, I’ll give him that.
While the Flash episode had a darker tone, Arrow (which is usually the darker one) was the lighter side this time. Mainly thanks to Cisco, so maybe it’s still technically the lightness of The Flash. This was a nice change from what we’ve seen through the season, with the pilot beginning with Sara’s death and all. They also returned to Oliver’s internal conflict about whether he could still be Oliver Queen whilst the Arrow was such a big part of his life. Having Barry there as a fellow hero confidant let him open up and it brought him closure which was nice. It was also clever for them to use Oliver’s speech about inspiring people from way back.
The fact that ARGUS was involved and Oliver’s interrogation methods was a great way to pave into the flashbacks, which they surprisingly had room for even when they’re busy with a crossover. My only issue with them was that Waller was angry at Oliver for failing to interrogate the guy when he had no prior experience to torture and she expected him to get the information so quickly? Even if he did, the bomb exploded like 5 minutes into his interrogation, they might not have had time to get to it even if he found out the location. But otherwise, the flashbacks were very effective in bringing to light the person that Oliver’s experiences have made him, which is one of the best features of the show.
Now it’s not a full on superhero event without some easter eggs! Captain Lance dropped the name, Bart Allen, who in the comics is the grandson of Barry Allen and also the fourth to take the mantle of The Flash. The name Suicide Squad was brought up. Barry and Ollie were said to be in a ‘league’ of their own. And Ollie thought Lyla meant Roy when she said ‘Speedy’. And finally, not really an easter egg, but I’m not sure where else to put it, Oliver got a new costume!
The second half of the Flash/Arrow crossover event was executed brilliantly. The first half may have been a little weak, but this more than made up for it. They got obligatory Flash vs Arrow fight out of the way already, so we didn’t really need one, but I wouldn’t complain if they did a second. It would be a totally different type of fight anyway. The villain was fantastic, very eager to see what he gets up to later on with Slade inside the prison. Is that how Deathstroke returns? Really looking forward to seeing another crossover event in the future.
SuperTeamAU 