Review: The Flash & Arrow – Legends Never Die, Kind Of

One week, one storyline and a lot of action packed in this weeks special crossover between the Flash and the Green Arrow. With Vandal Savage in town, Barry enlists the help of his friends from Star City in a battle that has been raging for more than 4000 years.

Just when Cisco gets his chance with Kendra Saunders, his vibes begin to unravel the tale of her sudden appearance in Central City. Also in tow is her on again, off again soul mate (literally – till death do they part) in Hawkman, or by his alias in Carter Hall.

Following Savage’s first attack on Kendra, Flash and the rest of the team move her into a pseudo-protective custody in Star City, hoping that Oliver and Team Arrow have a plan to draw out Savage and hopefully end this horrific losing streak that makes the Buffalo Bills’ playoff drought seem like nothing.


MFR ON YOUTUBE (latest video)
Help us reach 5K Subs!

Seriously, over 200 times Savage has shown his face to Kendra and Carter, only to kill them, suck the life out of them and proceed on with his daily routine until the next meeting down the road. (Rinse, repeat.)

Being that it is still a Flash-centric episode, we are still looking into the drama that surrounds Barry. Obviously, with all that is going on, Zoom is still in the background somewhere, and the lack of his total speed is one thing that is holding Barry back.

Whilst in Star City, we are finally introduced to the one and only Hawkman, who sweeps Kendra up and in turn comes face to face with Team Flash-Arrow, namely the two stars of the group. After a successful rescue of Kendra and capture of Hawkman, they interrogate the mysterious adversary and discover the story deeper than one could imagine.

Now partnered with Hall, the focus was turned to the malicious Vandal Savage, largely unknown except for the giant wake of bodies he left. His apparent draw to Kendra is interesting, seemingly tethered almost telepathically, but why is he just surfacing now?

So what does a haphazardly assembled group of scientists, tech geeks, Egyptian gods and superheros do with a woman suffering from the worst case of amnesia? Well, let’s throw her off of a building. In an attempt for her to regain her former self, the team, with Hall in the lead, have to find a way for Kendra to remember her past, which had begun to return to the forefront of her memory. Bits and pieces slowly hit her, but she was still a long way from rediscovering her true power.

Back in Central City, Harrison Wells and Caitlin were busy trying to find a way for Barry to return to full Flash. Through different processes and procedures, the duo formulated a serum designed to push large amounts of oxygen to Barry in order to trigger a chemical reaction and combust the gas to increase his speed output. Without Cisco to christen the formula with a name, the pair decided on a name that would be music to their ears, but a horrifying ring to others – Velocity Six.

With the primary subject away at the present moment, Caitlin and Harrison called upon Jay Garrick, who magically answered the call to return to S.T.A.R. Labs. Upon the revelation of what Snow and Wells came up with, Jay’s reaction told a bigger story. Obviously distraught by the concept, he warned them to keep it away from Barry, in fear of what could happen if dosed with with unsafe amounts of the otherwise unknown substance.

With the creation, the need of supplies is important, since nobody has exactly what they would need for every situation handy at the drop of a hat.

With Hall, Oliver, Barry and the rest of the team trying to get Kendra to remember her life, the real solution, however drastic it may be, was simply throw her off the roof and just hope for the best. Much to Barry’s disliking, eventually, Kendra warmed up to the idea and threw herself off. While falling to what is normally a sudden death, Kendra’s wings emerge, and thus, we have our first view of Hawkgirl, minus the outfit.

Setting off on a small shopping trip, as fate would have it, Wells would be spotted by Miss Patty Spivot, still in the dark about her boyfriends night life and double duty as a famous hero. So when she sees a man who she assumes is dead, despite the report of Wells breaking into the lab earlier in the season, she does what a cop does best and investigates.

Upon completion of the first round of V6, Patty confronts and shoots Wells, leaving him helpless on the floor as Caitlin walks in and realizes the horror that is playing out in front of her. In a rush to save Wells, Snow urges Patty to call Joe, knowing that he will know how to handle it. Joe tells Patty to leave, clearly creating question after question of why Joe is protecting Wells and how in fact he is alive after the events of last season.

With his life hanging in the balance, Snow quickly sets off to try and help remove the bullet lodged in Wells’ heart. Panicking from the crisis and no Barry to lend a phasing hand, they turn to Jay one last time.

Although entirely against the use of the serum in its entirety, Jay doses himself and instantaneously sees the effect. Some electricity flowing, he “phases” his hand into Wells’ chest and pulls the bullet out, allowing Caitlin to patch him up. Bothered by the effects of the Velocity 6, Jay clearly has something else going on. When Wells awakens, you can see the bothered look as he tells Harrison to keep it away from Barry. At this time, we hear that the chemical has run its course through Jay’s body, but are we really sure that it is gone? Some may still linger, giving Jay sporadic bursts and just the kick he might need to start running again.

Ending the setup episode was the final scene in which a long lost storyline finally reemerges. I was happy to see the prospect of Oliver having a son being revisited, but I firmly thought that was something that they would venture down the road with further down the line. His view of his former girlfriend and her son in CC Jitters is brief, but it’s still worthy enough to warrant a search by Oliver. It’s obviously his, given the payoff from Moira way back when after

While Tuesday’s Flash was nothing over the top in terms of action, but it served as a great setup story with a lot of moving pieces that furthers the crossover as well as feeds into the season.

In an effort to expose his weakness, Barry and Oliver set off to find the Staff of Horus, knowing that it’s power is nearly unmatched, and costly if in the wrong hands. After discovering it’s location after being consecrated in a Central City church, the duo met its first match with Savage in possession of the staff. Clearly a whole new power on it’s own, the staff creates it’s own energy, far beyond the capabilities of the team.

In the last scene, we see the former Samantha Clayton, now Sandra Clarke in CC Jitters, with what we can again assume is the son of Oliver. Almost a mirror image to last season’s crossover, where the two bumped into each other in the same coffee shop. You can see the realization come to Oliver’s face, that he could be a father.

However, the story ends there for Tuesday. With The Flash setting the stage for last night’s Arrow, we saw an episode that started quick and didn’t slow down in the least bit.

Kendra still fought with her emergence of her power, Carter tries to get her to embrace it, Cisco is jealous and Oliver and Barry have their own demons to tussle with.

Starting off with a flashback of 4000 years ago, we see ancient Egypt as the setting for the start. In their first life, we see the clergy of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II with Carter (Khufu in Egypt) and Kendra (Chay-Ara) talking about offerings. Only after a pan, do we see Savage is also in the conference. The scene changes and we see Carter and Kendra exchange secret pleasantries and a kiss, followed by Savage reappearing around the corner.

Last night’s episode took away the Oliver on Lian Yu sub-story in exchange for a few flashes to Egypt, in an effort to bridge the gap of 4000 years.

With the team in full knowledge of Savage’s link to Kendra, the team moves her back to Central City for the purpose of getting her out of Savage’s wide sight. Taking residence in an isolated farm house for their operations, Carter attempts to train Kendra, albeit a little too rushed as he more or less just threw her to the ground a couple of times. To no success, Kendra refused to accept her role and still remained shrouded for the most part.

Barry and Oliver continued down their path of self-destruction. With the thought of his child, Oliver became too preoccupied with his head swirling in different directions. Barry, reeling with his predicament outside of the episode, is still battling with his speed issues and his inability to counter Zoom. Throw in the resistance from Malcolm Merlin of Vandal Savage, and the web becomes more complex than ever. Knowing that they are against a force stronger than they could ever imagine, Merlin counsels the two against Savage, but leaves an interesting tidbit of plot twist. Adding to the mix is the subtle hinting that he “ghosted” and is feeling another time jump, Barry hesitantly proceeds. Utilizing Cisco’s design for gauntlet’s that will work against the energy emitted from the staff, the team rushes into their first encounter with Savage that goes horribly wrong incredibly quick.

Distracted and beaten up by the revelation of his child and Felicity finding out through the DNA test run by Barry that proved the truth, things were not clear in Oliver’s head heading into this matchup. After just Barry and Oliver attempting to “hand over” Carter and Kendra, as if they were a Trojan Horse, they quickly fell to a stronger Savage. Oliver told Barry to run, knowing then and there that this was about to get ugly. Falling victim to the sheer unmatched energy from the staff, the gauntlets failed and Oliver was unable to possess it. Savage grabbed the staff and released a massive blast on Central City. Imagine a nuclear blast and anything in its wake was obliterated, including the entire team.

Except for Barry.

Running as fast as he could, Barry experienced the same “ghosting” and continued to push forward. Pushing all the way back to their meeting with Merlin and Savage, Barry quickly realized what he has to do, regardless of the outcome. With the necessary explanation, both Oliver and Barry took the risk of tampering with the future in order to preserve it. Having a second chance is a rare thing for a hero, but it became useful in this case, and Oliver was not going to miss the chance to fix the wrongs.

The chain of events:

Barry flat out tells Oliver of the revelation of his son, yet Oliver still refuses to tell Felicity.

Oliver urges Cisco to triple check the gauntlets and find whatever would make it fail. Upon that, a discovery is made regarding a new crystal that will overpower the staff and help the effort.

Cisco barges into Carter and Kendra’s conversation and motivates her to accept her fate, regardless of if it means losing her altogether.

Oliver chooses to have the entire team lead the charge, instead of just him, Barry and the Hawks.

Four changes with a massive outcome. With the help of everyone’s abilities and specialities, the group regained control of the staff and vaporized Savage, presumably killing him. After that, all seems right in this tale of two cities, setting the stage to resume to the forerunning arcs and opening a door to the Legends of Tomorrow, getting ready to premiere in just over a month.

My thoughts:

While it is the first time that we have Carter and Kendra the victors, so the next step is a new one for them. We assume that they take some time to soul search and eventually join up with the rest of the Legends of Tomorrow. It is definitely a new feeling having more power-oriented heroes in the fold and I’m excited to see the result of them coming into the fold.

Oliver just can’t learn, can he? Obviously, when it comes to his son, he is going to do everything he can to create a relationship with him. At the expense of not revealing to everyone, I feel this is going to cause some issues with trust, a massive underlying tone that constantly gets flirted with. This new story is bigger than many can imagine, so it’s a wonder how a new Queen will mesh into the overall story. We have seen the outcome of what happens when he holds back the truth with Felicity, so it’ll be a big story arc when the second time this comes about. When will we see it? This season? Next? One thing is for sure, time travel always complicates things, and it’s still a mystery what chain of events are created when Barry jumped.

Finally, are we really supposed to expect anything less than Vandal Savage being anything else other than a pile of dust bunnies? Not in the least bit. Malcolm clearly has a motive, muttering the Egyptian words and holding his “old friend” close to him. Savage will also make his return to the villainous route in January when Legends of Tomorrow kicks off it’s run.

Last week marks the last episode for the fall season before going on hiatus following the midseason finale, where we will finally get a look at Wally West, who makes his entrance in Central City.

 

Sean McGrath
Sean McGrath
2015 Journalism graduate of State University of New York at Fredonia. Loves sports, movies, TV, video games, cold drinks on hot nights and hot drinks on cold nights, and anything thats classified as nerdy. Married with two cats.