Check out Violet’s recap of Season 1 Episode 8 of The Flash, titled Flash vs. Arrow, which is a crossover episode where Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle from CW’s Arrow make a trip to Central City! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode!
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Episode Recap of The Flash, Season 1 Episode 8: Flash vs. Arrow
This Flash/Arrow crossover episode begins with the Flash using his power to go around helping people. Then in a bank, we see a man’s eyes turn red, and every time he looks at someone, causes their eyes to turn red, and they comply with whatever he says, and every time they make eye contact with someone else, their eyes turn red as well. The man robs the vault, and walks out unnoticed, as everyone in the bank has begun fighting each other. Cisco alerts Barry about the bank robbery, and the Flash reaches the bank just in time to save a man from a girl shooting him. A few moments after the bank robber leaves, everyone comes to their senses.
Eddie and Iris wake up in bed together, but he has to get to work. Before he leaves, she shows him a picture of the Flash that just came in, but Eddie thinks it’s just a hoax.
Barry arrives at the bank and tells Joe what happened. He tells Joe he thinks the people in the bank got “whammied.” Later, Eddie and Joe meet with Captain Singh. Eddie tells Singh that the red blur was spotted at the bank, saying that they need to figure out who this guy is, and what he wants. As Barry waits outside Singh’s office, Iris comes up and asks what’s going on. He tells her he thinks Eddie is trying to convince the Captain that the Flash is a public menace. Iris angrily confronts Eddie as he leaves the office, but he tells her that the Captain shot him down. Iris tells Barry that Eddie’s just jealous of the Flash.
Barry tells his friends at STAR Labs about how the people at the bank were acting angrily. Caitlin has gotten her hands on CT scans done on everyone that was at the bank, and is going to try to figure out how the meta-human manipulates that part of the brain that controls executive functions. Just then, Barry sees a message from Iris to the Flash asking him to meet her at Jitters. Caitlin advises him not to get involved, either as the Flash or himself, so that he’s not the one responsible for her and Eddie’s breakup.
The Flash goes to Jitters, where Iris warns him that Eddie is trying to convince his boss that he’s a menace. Cisco radios to Barry that the police have located the bank robber thanks to a tracer that was in the money. Joe and a few guys confront the robber. As one officer approaches the man, he flashes his red eyes at the officer, who turns around and shoots at Joe and the others. But the Flash gets there just in time, and saves them from the spray of bullets. Just as the Flash pushes Joe out of the way, the Arrow shoots two arrows into the shooter, tells Barry “nice mask,” then leaves.
Outside of town, Barry meets up with Felicity, Diggle, and Oliver. Felicity tells Barry they’re working a homicide case, in which the murder weapon is a boomerang. Barry suggests they team up, but Oliver doesn’t want any more people knowing his secret identity. Felicity says she’ll help, so Barry picks her up and runs to STAR Labs. When they get there, her shirt is on fire, and she takes it off just as Caitlin and Cisco walk in the room. Caitlin quickly finds a shirt for her to wear though. Felicity shows Cisco the boomerang, and he is excited to start running tests on it. Caitlin reports to Barry that she thinks the meta is inducing rage via the ocular nerve, and tells him that Dr. Wells wants to see him.
Dr. Wells and Joe have a talk with Barry about Arrow. They don’t trust him, but Barry defends him. Just then, an accident occurs in the lab with the boomerang. Joe says he wants Arrow out of the city — tonight.
Meanwhile, Arrow goes to a storage unit and points his bow and arrow at the attendant to find out the name of the man who rents the unit.
The next day, Barry meets with Oliver and Felicity at Jitters. Oliver tells him that the name of the bank robber is Roy G. Bivolo. Iris brings their coffee over and seems smitten with Oliver. She pulls Barry aside and gushes about the fact that he knows Oliver Queen. She also confesses that he’s on her “3 List” – the list of 3 guys she can cheat on Eddie with. Meanwhile, Felicity convinces Oliver to help Barry with his case, even though Oliver thinks that Barry doesn’t really want his help. Oliver tells Barry they’ll help him, and they shake on it as partners.
Barry meets Oliver at the abandoned warehouse outside of town. Oliver begins training Barry about the importance of casing a location. He shoots an arrow at Barry, while Barry runs and easily catches it. But Barry didn’t notice the crossbows set up behind him, which shoot two arrows into his back.
When Barry goes to the police station, Joe tells him that Eddie is making another case for his task force, based on the fact that the Arrow made another appearance last night and shot the storage unit guy in the leg. Joe doesn’t approve of the Arrow’s tactics.
Meanwhile, at STAR Labs, Caitlin and Felicity geek out about the case. Dr. Wells calls Felicity over for a private talk, and asks her the Arrow’s identity, to help him trust the Arrow. However, she says that’s not her secret to tell. Just then Barry returns, and Cisco reports that facial recognition has identified the location of Bivolo. Barry goes to check it out by himself as the Flash.
When Barry gets there, Bivolo uses his red eyes on Barry, giving him “real anger.” When Barry returns to STAR Labs, Caitlin examines his eyes, but it doesn’t look like Bivolo’s power affected him. Oliver calls Barry for another training session. When Barry gets there, Oliver tries to emphasize the importance of continuing to train and learn. Barry accuses Oliver of being jealous, and says he’ll never be as fast as him, and runs off.
At the police station, Barry explodes at Captain Singh in anger. Joe tries to cover for him, saying he’s having a bad reaction to medication. Then Barry gets angry at Joe too, and Joe sees Barry’s eyes flash red before he walks off.
Oliver calls Felicity at STAR Labs and tells her that Barry is acting strangely. She reports this to Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and Cisco. Just then, Joe comes in and tells them all that Barry has been whammied. Caitlin says it’s possible that his body is fighting off the effects, so it’s hitting him slower. The others realize that the longer he suppresses his rage, the bigger the explosion. They wonder how they can stop Barry. Dr. Wells tells Felicity to call back Oliver Queen to help them — revealing that he has figured out the Arrow’s identity.
As Iris and Eddie drive along, they argue about the Flash. Iris admits to Eddie that she has seen the Flash a couple times. Just then, the Flash runs up and pulls Eddie out of the car, throwing him to the ground. Eddie tries to shoot at him, but the Flash dodges the bullets. Meanwhile, at STAR Labs, Diggle is there now, and Felicity reports that facial recognition software has identified Barry’s location. They watch him on the monitor, while Eddie tries to attack him, but the Flash throws him to the ground again. He crawls away in pain, while Iris tries to talk Barry down. Barry goes to choke Eddie, but the Arrow shows up and captures Barry with an arrow that binds Barry with a rope. He tells Iris and Eddie to run.
The Flash runs down the street with Oliver still hanging on to the rope. Meanwhile, back at STAR Labs, Caitlin and Cisco are betting on Barry’s speed, while Diggle’s money is on Oliver’s experience. Oliver shoots a couple of arrows behind Barry, which explode. Then Oliver shoots Barry with a large dose of horse tranquilizer. However, Barry speedily shakes it out of his system before it can affect him. They fight some more, until Oliver is able to distract Barry long enough to throw an arrow through Barry’s leg. Oliver holds Barry still for few moments, while Joe and Dr. Wells drive up in a van and flash some different colored lights for Barry to watch. It seems like this gets Barry back to normal.
Somehow (we aren’t shown how) Arrow and the Flash work together to capture Bivolo and stick him in the underground prison. Then Oliver warns Cisco, Caitlin, Dr. Wells, and Joe not to let his secret identity get out. They say their goodbyes, and everyone seems to be on good terms. However, as they leave, Oliver comments to Felicity that there’s something off about Dr. Wells.
Eddie comes to see Iris at Jitters and tells her that Captain Singh approved the task force. They make up with each other. Barry apologizes to Oliver. Oliver tells Barry that he should let Iris go, and that guys like them don’t get the girl. On the way out, Oliver runs into his the mother of his child that he thought was miscarried, and they talk briefly.
The Flash comes to see Iris later that night, and apologizes for what he did, saying it wasn’t him. Iris tells him not to contact her anymore.
In the final scene, we see a homeless guy underneath a freeway. It turns out to be a meta-human that can light up with fire. Then we see who it is — Ronnie, Caitlin’s fiance that she thought was dead.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 8 of The Flash: Flash vs. Arrow
This was a fun episode! It was great seeing the Arrow team in Barry’s element, and seeing Barry and Oliver interact again, now that Barry is the Flash. I did find it a little weird that we didn’t even see how the Flash and Arrow worked together to capture the meta-human, and that instead, the big build up of this episode was the Flash and Arrow facing off against each other. Yeah, I know, I know, the title of the episode was Flash vs. Arrow, after all, but still. We don’t want to just see them fight against each other, we want to see them working together to take down the bad guys! I found it kind of funny how Cisco and Caitlin were going against Diggle, as each of them supported their own “team member.” I think Cisco and Caitlin were right though, Barry has his super speed, so Oliver was the one they should be worried about. Diggle was on the side of experience — but Oliver didn’t exactly have experience against someone with super speed! Nor has he ever actually had any experience with any meta-humans. Sure, he’s had to face the Mirakuru super strength, but that’s about it. Barry is actually more experienced in the meta-human department.
I was also taken off guard by Dr. Wells and Joe’s “intervention” with Barry about not trusting Arrow. I guess from all these years of watching Arrow and seeing him as the “good guy,” I never fathomed that people still saw him as a bad guy. But at the same time, it doesn’t take much for them to suddenly want to work with Arrow. Maybe it was because Dr. Wells found out he was Oliver Queen and that changed his opinion on him? And at the end they’re all like a happy little family. Kind of quick for such a drastic change in attitude, but okay.
It was annoying how right when Barry happens to get “whammied” is exactly when Eddie is trying to convince Captain Singh to create a task force against the Flash. And right when Iris is defending the Flash to Eddie is when the Flash decides to pull Eddie out of a moving vehicle and beat him up. Convenient. After all the times Barry has saved the city. Sigh. Now what will Iris think of the Flash? Will she cease to write about him? Will Eddie cause her to turn against him? How will this affect Iris and Barry’s relationship? Definitely curious to see how the story will progress with an anti-Flash task force!
Also, will we be seeing Oliver’s child anytime soon? They teased us with the meeting between Oliver and his “baby mama,” followed by a phone call from her to the kid, to let us know that the kid is in fact still around. Will this come up anytime in the near future, or was it just to remind us about the possibility of this kid popping up sometime down the line, when the writers feel like writing the child into the story?
In any case, overall, I enjoyed this episode, and can’t wait for more Flash/Arrow crossovers!
Josh’s Thoughts: The Flash, Season 1 Episode 8: Flash vs. Arrow
First of all, I have to start off by saying that this crossover episode was just about as good as I thought it would be, and I thought it would be awesome! CW is firing on all cylinders with Arrow and The Flash, and this bonus crossover two parter really exemplified that. These episodes really had the reminiscence of what Batman V. Superman should be, in that you have Oliver, and ordinary guy, that has very good combat skills forced to take on The Flash, a “meta-human” (to borrow the phrase from The Flash) with the ability to essentially evade anything that Arrow could throw at him. Given the huge discrepancy in powers, I thought the episode did a great job of trying to show that Oliver had the experience and combat prowess while Barry had the abilities.
Despite my overall praise for the show, this crossover did have a few problems, and actually opens up problems in the future for further crossovers. Let’s go over these problems. Firstly, Oliver’s secret identity is quickly falling into too many hands. And on top of that, If we keep seeing Barry visiting Starling City and The Flash keeps appearing there, and then Oliver keeps returning to Central City to help Barry, how do people NOT figure out who they are? It seems like it would be pretty obvious, at the very least to people that are close to both Barry and Oliver such as Iris. It seems like their identities are at more risk when they work together.
Secondly, the villain was a pretty boring villain this episode. Clearly he was used in this episode as the crux to eventually pitting Barry against Oliver so we could have their showdown (I’ll discuss that more in depth later). This villain’s ability though, was a really great one which could have been used much more effectively I thought. What is worse, is the villain is captured and we don’t even know how it happens…After Barry is “fixed” he is suddenly captured, and locked up in Wells’ prison.
Thirdly, I will reiterate–I thoroughly loved the episode, and especially the fight between the two heroes, but the episode was a little on the nose in terms of how they would approach the battle. The entire episode plays up Barry as a bumbling klutz with superpowers while Oliver is the un-powered “veteran”. It seemed like every other line out of Oliver’s mouth was yelling at Barry about how untrained he was. It certainly makes sense, because Barry is really new, but I thought it was a little overplayed for the episode. As for the fight itself, it was done really well. I enjoyed the misdirection that Oliver attempted to use to subdue Barry, and how Barry powers certainly gave him an advantage of the “experienced” Oliver. I didn’t like how the episode (via Cisco) made sure to let us the audience know that it was a tie. I thought it should have been left unsaid, and let people draw their own conclusions of the fight. It would be a great debate to see!
But finally, which I think is the longest term problem with this episode, is that Barry is slowly gaining experience in crime fighting, and honestly, is fighting much more difficult villains for the most part, since they are all “meta-humans”. This means the one advantage Oliver has is slowly fading away. So if the show decides to try to keep their fighting ability “equal”, either Barry has to remain a bumbling klutz forever, or the realization that Barry is a stronger hero, and Oliver will have to accept it. This again, is very similar to Batman and Superman, and in my opinion, 9 times out of 10, Superman wins that fight. But given the right circumstances and preparation, Batman could beat Superman. I think if there is another face off between Oliver and Barry, Oliver needs to lose pretty badly, and even may have to regroup in order to take him out–if he is even able to. Reintroducing something like Cisco’s freeze gun might be another alternative, to give Oliver the edge might be another alternative.
But having had that long winded speech, I thought the episode was really good. I definitely look forward to even more crossovers, and given what CW has done so far with both shows, I have high hopes that the next ones will be good as well. I just hope the minor issues with this episode don’t explode into big ones the next time around.
Scenes from The Flash, Season 1 Episode 9, The Man in the Yellow Suit
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Flash, titled The Man in the Yellow Suit:
