The thing i'm most conflicted about with this episode is whether or not that Age of Ultron reference was funny & cool or lame & badly delivered. This is the yearly Flash and Arrow crossover, this time round Legends of Today and Yesterday, Team Flash and Team Arrow discover the truth behind Cisco's girlfriend Kendra, that being that she is the reincarnation of an Egyptian priestess along with her life partner (Literally) Carter, the two are fated together along with Vandal Savage, an immortal who has dedicated his life to hunting them down and killing them over and over again.
It's strange how the charm of seeing these characters together has worn off so quickly, but even stranger is that i like that. The fact that this group of characters from two different shows can appear in episodes together without it feeling gimmicky or distracting just shows how well they blend and how good the chemistry between the actors are. Even more so is that one episode doesn't draw more focus to one team than the other, yes the Flash episode had more Flash characters and the Arrow episode had more Arrow characters but in terms of focus and individual stories they split them down the middle very well. Lots of Flash's episode took place in Star City, lots of Arrow's episode focused on Cisco and there are plenty of other examples like that making it feel not just like "Flash featuring Arrow" or "Arrow featuring Flash" but "Arrow and Flash" together.
With that being said there were still individual story arcs that took place across these episodes, let's start with the most prominent one, Oliver's son, a storyline i have wanted them to address since it was set up back in season two and for what we got, i wasn't disappointed. As of right now this only got a small bit of development, Oliver has set up the stepping stones towards building a relationship with his son and a friendship with the mother, also as a little note i respect that the mother didn't cash the cheque that she was given to leave Oliver but rather leave for her own good and the good of the child. I also like that Oliver's son is more a fan of Flash than he is the Green Arrow. SIDE NOTE: Surely Barry should be getting some royalties money in someway for those action figures, otherwise that's a lawsuit on their hands. Also Oliver's choice on not telling Felicity about his son is an enigma, on one hand this was supposed to be Oliver turning over a new leaf, being honest and not keeping massive secrets between his friends, especially the woman he loves. But on the other hand, a man is entitled to his own secrets, especially when they don't actually involve anyone but himself, but of course Felicity is going to find out eventually so then it becomes a question of how she finds out. If she goes snooping and learns it behind his back then she's a total bitch, if he tells her and she reacts negatively then she's still a total bitch. Frankly if she in anyway considers it unreasonable that Oliver did not tell her then she is absolutely, positively a total bitch
Then there is Barry who didn't actually get much to do in this crossover apart from be a plot point, he travelled through time again...yay, because that doesn't dissolve any tension this episode had going for it and exploit a plot device that Barry only used once before and using it any other time would be seen as redundant, cheap and lazy. But seriously, why do this? This feels like it was there to fill up time rather than for any actual plot change or character development, after all, learning that their plan to fight Savage will fail means that they're going to...do pretty much the exact same thing? The only difference is they brought more people with them, which it didn't make any sense why he didn't bring them along in the first place, nor would it signify enough of a difference in the equation to change the outcome, in fact the fight ended the exact same way, the only difference being Oliver "wasn't distracted" what!?
I suppose I should also probably talk about Hawkman and Hawkgirl seeing as they are officially introduced to us in this episode. To talk about my prior history with the two characters, i don't care for them. Hawkgirl i know better because she was in the Justice League cartoon, yeah she was good in that show but she was my least favourite of the team, as for how she was portrayed in this show, she was fine, and Hawkman just seems like the biggest bore on the planet. So ya know, give em points for accuracy. So yes neither characters were that good but neither were that bad either, but you know something? That ain't enough. If they were just a character of the week then i would have no problem, but seeing as they are two of the main characters for Legends of Tomorrow i would expect more and now that they are the last two to be introduced apart from Rip Hunter they are so far my least favourite of that team. They don't have interesting personalities or super powers, their backstory is interesting enough but honestly the more detail we got the less i found myself caring.
Then there was Cisco's part to play in this as Kendra's (Hawkgirl) boyfriend, a relationship that was incredibly rushed, pointless and not nearly as effective as it should have been. Cisco's speech to Kendra to make her more comfortable in her destiny honestly feels like it shouldn't have had the effect that it did because him and Kendra don't know each other well enough, he doesn't know what she's like as a person to know she can get through this and handle it nor would he know what's best for her. Also when Oliver implied that the two were in love is absolute bullshit, they've been dating for about 2 weeks, cool your jets.
Vandal Savage was...a little better? I say that because at least he left an impression on me and seemed threatening to an extent, having a 4000 year old immortal villain is a great set up, they say it takes you 10,000 hours to master something, i feel like this is a man who has had more than enough time to master a few tricks. But at the same time, Team Flash and Team Arrow teaming up to take him down seems like more than enough. I don't care how long you've been training you can't beat a man who runs faster than you've been alive. And then he is killed but Malcolm takes his ashes and is planning on bringing him back an-oh god i do not care, shut up Malcolm, i'm mad at you for not making a single Jack Harkness joke, seriously you were up against an immortal man, not one reference? You got the damn Age of Ultron reference but not Doctor Who?
Also there was a subplot in the Flash episode involving Harrison getting shot by Patty and then Jay has to save him. It was meh, it was pretty pointless and got such little focus that it feels like it should have been saved for another episode, mostly because Patty now knows Harrison Wells is alive! Also Harrison and Jay are on their way to becoming friends, yay.
So to sum up two episodes worth of plot it was...meh. You know how Iron Man 2 was just a set up for Avengers? Well this feels like it was nothing more than a set up for Legends of Tomorrow, while Oliver's story with his son, Patty shooting Harrison, Cisco's relationship with Kendra, Hawkman & Hawkgirl's relationship get underdeveloped while Caitlin, Laurel, Diggle, Thea, Barry, Joe & Iris almost get shoved to the side with how little they have to do in the story. 6/10.
-Danny
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