Josh recaps Season 2 Episode 8 of The Flash, titled Legends of Today, which is actually the first episode of a two episode crossover with Arrow! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The Flash, Season 2 Episode 8: Legends of Today
For the first crossover episode of the season, which started off on The Flash, the episode begins with Barry training to get faster and faster. Wells is concerned he isn’t faster either. Wells says that Zoom is about 3 to 4 times faster than Barry. Barry seems optimistic about improving speed and heads out for a date with Patty. Wells seems to think there is something they can try to increase Barry’s speed…but doesn’t tell Barry yet.
At a dock, we see something going down with a captive, who uses some sort of power to remove his handcuffs. He takes down his captors, and puts on his coat, which has all sorts of knives in it. He makes an ominous claim about a sacrifice that will be made.
Barry, Patty and Joe investigate this crime, and Barry says 1 person did this attack. They get a lead with one of the man’s knives.
At the coffee shop, Kendra and Cisco have dinner after hours. The two seem to be hitting it off well. But the mystery “magician” man shows up, and makes hints towards Kendra having multiple lives. Cisco calls for Barry’s help. Barry shows up, but the man throws a knife at Cisco. Barry is able to stop it, but the mystery man took off.
Back at STAR Labs, Kendra learns who the Flash is. But they can’t figure out what this new villain is after. Barry suggests they have Team Arrow keep an eye on Kendra. Barry and Cisco discuss this magic man, and Cisco thinks Barry might be insecure about Zoom.
Moving over to Star City, we see Darhk stealing a bomb, but Team Arrow shows up, and uses a nifty trick to disarm the soldiers. The soldiers and Team Arrow get their fighting on, and Darhk gets his hands on Oliver. Barry shows up in time to save Oliver though. Barry tells Oliver as he recovers from Darhk’s touch that he needs help protecting Kendra.
Back at the Arrow Cave, the two groups chat, and the new parties are introduced. They get down to business about Kendra, and Barry does a very quick sketch of the man after Kendra. The man’s photo comes up in facial recognition from 1975, and he looks the same. Oliver tries to figure out what is going on, and Oliver gets a little worried about this unknown assailant, and a bit testy with Barry about it.
Back at STAR Labs, Wells seems to be working on a speed drug for Barry to get faster, but so far hasn’t had luck. Caitlin thinks she can provide help though. Wells summons Jay Garrick, and offers to use the new drug on him as a trial run. Garrick isn’t really wanting to try it out. Garrick gets pretty rough with Wells and leaves. Caitlin now thinks this drug is a bad idea, and thinks this Wells is sounding a lot like the old Wells…
In Star City, the group then moves the party to Oliver’s place, and the group catches up. During the party, Cisco tells Barry about the vision he had regarding Kendra’s wings. But they are interrupted when this mystery man shows up coming through a window. He tosses a bunch of knives and Barry uses his speed to stop them. Oliver goes on the attack, and nails him with an arrow. Thea adds a couple of arrows, and the man tumbles over the balcony. But he doesn’t hit the pavement, he disappears.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Barry’s next idea is to use Cisco’s power to try to “vibe” about this guy. Cisco tells Kendra about her bird wings. Then we get another visitor — Malcolm Merlyn shows up, with some soldiers in tow. Merlyn says that this man is Vandal Savage–an immortal. Kendra gets worked up and leaves, and Cisco tries to calm her down. Then we see “birdman” show up–and he takes Kendra to the air as Cisco looks up hopelessly. Barry, Oliver and Felicity use their various skills to look for Kendra.
Meanwhile, the “Hawkman” who took Kendra talks to her as if he knows her, and tells her she will remember eventually. Hawkman takes off after Oliver, taking him down from his motorcycle. The two do some hand to hand combat, and Barry shows up. Hawkman grabs Barry and drops him. Oliver manages to save him from certain death. When the two work together, Barry and Oliver are able to take Hawkman down from the air. Barry uses his lightning attack to strike Hawkman unconscious.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Hawkman is chained up, and he claims he is the love of Kendra’s life, and he is trying to save her. Hawkman explains that he and Kendra reincarnate every time they die and try to reunite again. Meanwhile, we learn that Savage has killed these Hawk people over 200 times, and gets stronger every time he does. Malcolm shows back up, and says that Savage is after some staff that will increase his power exponentially.
Hawkman tells Kendra she has to jump off a building for her to make her change into Hawkgirl. Oliver is buying it, but not the rest of the group yet. Kendra is given a nudge off the ledge, and Barry saves her. Oliver seems a little concerned with Barry, and thinks Kendra should be allowed to jump. As they talk, Oliver seems to think that this staff Savage is looking for might be in Central City, thinking Kendra might have been drawn to it. The team prepares to head to Central City to look for this mystery artifact.
Cisco and Kendra talk alone, and Kendra tells Cisco she needs to figure out her past lives alone. She decides she is going to make the jump again despite Cisco’s pleas. As she falls, she makes her transformation.
Inside a church, Oliver and Barry look for the staff, but Savage already has it. The two heroes attack Savage, but aren’t having success. Savage gets a big explosion going with the staff, and Barry swoops himself and Oliver outside. Barry decides to call this battle a draw.
The rest of Team Arrow and Flash decide to head to Central City, to stop Savage. Meanwhile, at Jitters, Oliver runs into his son, and the mom….
Back with Patty, she sees Wells outside of STAR Labs, and gets suspicious. She heads inside to arrest Wells, and Patty shoots him. Caitlin comes back and tries to save him. She then tells Patty to call Joe. Caitlin seems to think she needs Garrick’s help to save Wells. Garrick shows up and Caitlin thinks the only option is for Garrick to use the speed drug to gain speed to phase into Wells and get the bullet out. The plan is a rousing success. Wells wakes up, and thanks Garrick for saving him. Garrick swears to never take his serum again though.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Flash, Season 2 Episode 8: Legends of Today
So it looks like this crossover episode is going to be another episode set up for Legends of Tomorrow. It is getting a little tiresome dealing with all this set up for a future show. Having said that, it was still a pretty good episode. Vandal Savage is an entertaining villain. He definitely comes off as a menacing villain. I think Barry shouldn’t be having such a hard time with him though; he seems more suitable for an equal fight for Arrow and his team. I think that if the Flash were to truly meet Savage, he would run circles around him.
We also meet Hawkman and Hawkgirl this episode, and learn their intriguing lives of reincarnation, and how their lives are directly tied to Savage. Again, this seems to be more set up for Legends of Tomorrow but it is still pretty interesting.
The biggest downfall other than this being a big trailer for Legends of Tomorrow is that Arrow seems significantly weaker than Flash. The show tries to even them out as best it can, but it can only do so much. Last crossover it seemed to be playing up the inexperience versus the metahuman, but that ship is starting to sail. It does seem the show is trying to deal with that, with Oliver discussing how powerless he can feel, and that is appreciated.
Overall I really enjoyed the episode, I just had a few quibbles. The action scenes were great, and the way the two Teams work and hang out together is interesting to see.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 8 of The Flash: Legends of Today
I love these crossover episodes! They’re so fun! I’m not sure how fun they are for people who don’t watch both The Flash and Arrow though. If you watch both shows, you get the best of both worlds, whereas if you only watch The Flash, it might not have as much of an epic feel to it. But I wouldn’t really know, since I do watch both, which makes it that much more fun to see the characters from two shows that you like interact with one another, and put their heads, and powers, together to save the day. Of course, this was technically an episode of The Flash, with it airing the normal night and time of The Flash, so it seemed to showcase Barry’s powers quite a lot, having him use his speed to save the others several times. I’m wondering if the second crossover episode, which is technically an Arrow episode, will have Oliver as the more dominant superhero.
Speaking of superheroes, we were just introduced to two more superheroes, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, as well as one supervillain, Vandal Savage. We know that Hawkman and Hawkgirl will eventually join the Legends of Tomorrow, so it’ll be nice to see them in action before Legends of Tomorrow begins in January. I feel bad for Cisco though. He finally gets a girl, but it turns out she’s someone else’s soulmate. Tough break. Also, it was kind of annoying how Kendra got to find out really quickly about Barry’s identity, while Patty is still in the dark — and she and Barry are dating! Seriously, everyone gets to know who The Flash is, except whoever Barry’s romantic interest happens to be at the time, hence why Iris was not told for so long, until she figured it out on her own. He should just tell her already.
Oh, and there’s also the side story about Wells. Which, by the way, maybe if Patty was let in on everything, then she wouldn’t do dumb things like shoot Wells. Anyway, so he calls upon Jay Garrick to help, and I’m wondering where has Jay Garrick been hiding? He like pops in and out randomly. Isn’t he supposed to be helping Team Flash do stuff? But yeah, so the main purpose of this was to prove that Wells’s serum actually works. So I guess the next step is to get Barry to test it out so he can use it to defeat Zoom.
Also, at the end Oliver sees his baby mama and it looks like he puts two and two together, doing the math to realize that the boy she’s with is his son. This could be interesting. But for now, onward to the conclusion of the crossover!
Scenes from the second episode of the crossover episodes, Legends of Yesterday
Scenes from The Flash, Season 2 Episode 9: Running to Stand Still
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Flash, titled Running to Stand Still:
I wonder what’s the next big time hero they’ll introduce next, besides those going on to Legends of Tomorrow?