As seen in last night’s episode of “The Flash,” a new super-villain, Vandal Savage, has arisen and proven too much for the combined forces of both Teams Flash and Arrow. Will more heroes in the mix be able to stop Savage? Meet me after the jump for my thoughts on the second part of this crossover event, “Legends of Yesterday.”
Where We Stand
After another unsuccessful clash with Vandal Savage, this time powered by the ancient and magical Staff of Horus, Flash and Green Arrow have retreated with their teams to a farmhouse outside Central City. This is an intriguing switch as the Flash portion of this team-up took place in Star City, where else to go for the Arrow side but Central, right?
While Hawkman tries to help Hawkgirl ’emerge’ into her reincarnated life, he comes off as quite the jerk. In the comics this is a fairly new personality quirk. The duo are usually likable trustworthy heroic equals, but I guess you can’t always get what you want. One thing is consistent however, in “Arrow,” sometimes soap subplots trump major storylines. So as the team’s set up in the farm, Oliver is stalking his ex and her son.
Negotiating with Terrorists
After Oliver gets a DNA sample and is rebuffed by his ex, he gets a call from Merlyn the Magician. He has arranged a meeting with Vandal Savage. Our title heroes, and the two villains meet ominously at an old warehouse. It is less a meeting and more of a recap of already-knowns, just for the viewers who missed or slept through “The Flash” last night.
The important stuff – Vandal Savage is 4000 years old, kept that way by killing Hawkman and Hawkgirl every time they reincarnate. Unless Green Arrow and Flash hand over Hawkman and Hawkgirl to him, Savage will destroy Central City, and then Star City. Green Arrow and Flash stand their ground, but Merlyn adds that if they don’t relent, he and the League of Assassins will destroy Green Arrow. Uh huh. And that’s what negotiating with terrorists gets you.
Deadbeat Daddery
So while millions of lives in two cities are at stake, Oliver reverts to his normal selfishness and has Barry give him a paternity test, swearing the naive scientist to secrecy. Then with proof in hand he goes to visit the baby momma. He fully expects to pop in and start being dad, not even thinking about anyone else, especially Felicity. Sigh. Oliver is an animal whose spots will never change.
Samantha, the baby momma, has never cashed Oliver’s Mom’s extortion check. That means she’s a good person. And she gets extra points for not wanting Oliver around her son. He’s also a huge jerk for letting this secret keeping break him and Felicity up. Of course there’s one detail that happens that may fix everything…
Flashback
Folks who watch “Arrow,” but not “The Flash” might not have picked this up and known what was coming. You see, the Flash lives in a world of super-science whereas Arrow sticks to the closer to reality streets. You don’t expect time travel to pop up here. The Flash has done it before, changed the past, and made it stick. So when Arrow’s plan goes belly up and everyone dies – we know that’s not what really happens.
The Flash makes it back to the past, just before the meeting with Arrow, Merlyn, and Savage. They now know the original plan didn’t work, so they try another way. Kendra remembers her original death, including key elements like Hath-Set (now Vandal Savage in the TV version) and the nth metal (the original anti-gravity metal from the planet Thanagar), and our heroes get a second chance. This time with a focused Green Arrow and better weapons.
And in The End
The battle with Savage goes much better the second time around. Everyone but him lives. Oliver and Felicity are still together, although he is taking to his old secret keeping ways again, it’s status quo for the moment. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t surprised to hear that someone was making Captain Cold action figures!
Hawkman and Hawkgirl are off to St. Roch, a city they operated out of in the comics. And just before we hit the credits, we see Merlyn sweeping up Savage’s ashes, saying that he’s owed one. I guess it’s a no brainier he’s going to dump those ashes in the Lazarus Pit…?
Next on “The Flash,” the combined forces of Captain Cold, the Weather Wizard, and the Trickster!
