Reality gets warped and the worst thing that happens is that Barry Allen and Oliver Queen swap bodies? That could’ve been worse…
Previously on THE FLASH…
Really, none of that matters, because Barry isn’t Barry anymore! Oliver is Barry and Barry is Oliver and everyone thinks that things are the way things are supposed to be because a crackpot professor in Gotham named John Deegan rewrote reality and the only thing he did was swap The Flash and Green Arrow.
What?
Stephen Amell kicks us off as Oliver Queen wakes up in Barry Allen’s loft with Iris making breakfast, with no idea what was going on. Once he gets his bearings at STAR Labs – with none of Team Flash believing his protests that he’s not Barry Allen, he runs off to Star City where Barry is sparring with Diggle and completely confused by his waking up in ARGUS. I am, too. Oliver is a consultant with the SCPD now, not ARGUS. IT JUST HAPPENED LAST WEEK! No one on Earth-1 believes either of them, so after they escape Barry’s secret STAR Labs prison by giving each other tips on how to be themselves, they head off to Earth-38 for some help from Supergirl.
Kara is at the Kent Farm in Smallville – using the Kent farm from SMALLVILLE and the “Save Me” theme by Remy Zero to set the scene – with Clark and Lois, as Ms. Lane is explaining why she needs to write the story about their trip to Argo City. Kara, thankfully, recognizes Barry and Ollie as Barry and Ollie, not Ollie and Barry, and the two Earth-1 heroes do some training and argue a little before Cisco shows up and begs them to come back to Earth-1 to help them battle killer robot AMAZO. Kara and Clark tag along because it’s a crossover. Also, we need more Superman on the CW. More on that later, I’m sure.
The Flash, Green Arrow, Supergirl and Superman team up to take down AMAZO, with Barry and Ollie embracing not just the other’s powers but their mindset, too. With the threat defeated, Clark heads back to Earth-38 while Kara decides to stick around. Cisco, having Vibed the meeting between the Monitor and John Deegan from earlier in the episode, shows Barry and Ollie what he saw and Oliver sketches out the meeting at superspeed, sending the team to Gotham to find out what was going on based on the Wayne Enterprises logo in the drawing.
I’m not gonna lie, I was marking out so much about Superman in this episode that I completely forgot about Batwoman, who shows up at the end of the episode.
The first episode of the crossover was good – so good that I’m a little worried about them keeping up the momentum with ARROW and SUPERGIRL over the next two days. But the interactions between Barry and Oliver, along with Kara, Clark and the introduction of Batwoman, should manage to keep everything enjoyable no matter what.
And for Gods’ sake, can we please get Tyler Hoechlin signed to a SUPERMAN TV show? He has been pitch-perfect every time he’s appeared on-screen as the Man of Steel, and he could perfectly carry a show based in Metropolis. If not on the CW, they should put it on the DC Universe app! There is literally no reason to not do everything they can to make this show happen. And as much as Hoechlin channels Christopher Reeve in all the best ways, Elizabeth Tulloch, who debuted as Lois Lane, gave was a modern-day Margot Kidder with her performance in the episode.
She has a ways to go to unseat Erica Durance from SMALLVILLE as my favorite Lois, but I thought Tulloch did a great job in the role.
I cannot wait for PART 2 – and I also can’t wait to watch the whole thing again once the crossover ends.
Show Notes
- While Barry and Oliver are training at the Kent farm, Barry tricks Oliver with automatic crossbows and shoots Oliver in the back, the same way Oliver got Barry the first time the two heroes trained together.
- When Cisco arrives on Earth-38, he asks Clark, “Who are you?” The Kansas farmboy responds with “A friend,” another nod to the 1978 SUPERMAN movie (which just celebrated its 40th anniversary – none of the principle actors in this crossover were even alive when that movie debuted).
- While AMAZO is an established villain in the comics, the term is also established in the ARROWVERSE. It was the name of the ship Dr. Anthony Ivo used in ARROW’s second-season flashbacks. The company that created AMAZO here? Ivo Industries. Maybe reality is a little more warped than we realize.
- Oliver and Cisco both question whether Barry went back into the timestream to screw things up again. Barry is never going to live down FLASHPOINT.
The 2018 ARROWVERSE crossover continues in ARROW and then finishes up in SUPERGIRL. Stay tuned for more!