Arrow Review: Legends of Yesterday (Season 4 Episode 8)

It’s official: If you don’t plan to watch all three superhero shows on The CW, prepare to be left behind!

The epic conclusion to The Flash and Arrow‘s two-part crossover was Legends of Tomorrow heavy, which is both a good and bad thing.

Let’s start with the good! Legends of Tomorrow is setting itself up to be the next BIG thing on The CW, especially when you consider that it’s bumping CW sweetheart, The Vampire Diaries, right out of its Thursday night slot. The two new Legends characters, Kendra and Carter, are pretty much the stars of this crossover, with their eternal love story taking center stage.

This decision is a smart one for a lot of reasons. We now have a solid connection between pretty much every major DC character on The CW. They have all met each other, fought with each other, and occasionally died with each other (more on that later), meaning that crossovers from this point forward should be pretty seamless. No stilted introductions, no ‘getting to know and trust you’ stuff. “Legends of Yesterday” was also a great promo to get fans queued up for the new spinoff. We meet Vandal Savage, the big bad of Legends of Tomorrow, and learn a hell of a lot about his history. We’re raring to go to see how the heck he comes back from a pile of dust when Legends premieres in January.

Now let’s chat about the bad…

Focusing on the crossover elements means that the Arrow elements of the episode take a major backseat. Okay, who am I kidding, they were practically non-existent. Laurel pretty much stands around chewing scenery, Star City is left in the dust, and Damien Darhk barely gets a name drop. I constantly found myself wondering if anyone remembered to feed Andy Diggle, seeing as he is still presumably locked in that cage in the Arrow cave. Everything Arrow has been working towards this season gets swiftly and soundly dropped in favor of time-traveling with Barry and protecting new characters we’ve never met.

If you don’t watch The Flash, or worse if you didn’t watch Part 1 of the Flarrow crossover, the sudden shift is beyond confusing.

Now, I’m not naive enough to think that this was an accident or a mistake. It’s a clear choice on the part of the writers to put everything on hold for these crossovers and hope the audience plays along. And I’ll admit, it’s DAMN FUN to watch it happen, so I can’t be too bothered.

Another problem with this crossover is that it pretty quickly — and vaguely — introduces the concept of time-travel. Arrow has been getting decidedly mystical this year, but turning back time without any preamble stretches that concept to its limit. It’s not that I’m not glad that everyone didn’t die in a fiery explosion that leveled the city, but perhaps there was a more graceful way to incorporate that story for those fans that had no clue Barry was capable of ghosting through time?

In the end, your opinion of whether or not this crossover was a good episode comes down to your preference on how you like to be entertained. If you love action, team-ups, shocking twists, and crazy endings, then you were probably having the time of your life. If you prefer to focus on a linear story with a lot of build-up, continuity, and payoff, then this was probably not the one for you. I’ll go ahead and say that I enjoyed the episode for what it was and leave it at that.

Aside from a lot of Egyptian backstory, magical wings, and time travel, we did get a few quick peeks at Arrow-centric plots.

The shoe that fans have been waiting to see drop for two years now has finally crashed down with a resounding thunk. Oliver is a daddy! A daddy to a 9-year-old kid named William, who is a major Flash fan and kind of too cute for words. The down side? He’s got to keep this secret from everyone — including Felicity — at the request of William’s mother.

Understandable, when you factor in that Oliver’s family members have a bad track record of ending up dead, in jail, or spread across the tabloids. She just wants to keep her son away from all of that. It’s even more understandable when you factor in what she doesn’t know — Oliver’s time beneath the hood could put William in even MORE danger.

However, I can’t help but think the mandate that Oliver keep William a secret from his family and future-fiancee girlfriend is a little transparent. Not to mention a teensy-bit unfair. Drama for drama’s sake always is. Oliver’s lies are sure to catch up with him when it comes to Felicity, as we saw in that potential future that never was. We can only hope that he chooses to clue her in soon, preferably before he gets a ring on her finger!

Other Thoughts:

• A ‘Best Of Flarrow Quotes’ post is coming. Look out for it!
• Cisco is the squishiest squish to ever squish. I love him.
• Can Malcolm just once not do something super evil and mysterious? Just once!
• I had no idea there were so many white people in Egypt’s Middle-Kingdom…

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Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.