Wow. It’s been two days since the epic crossover between The Fastest Man Alive and the Emerald Archer blew up the internet and we are still thinking about it! Even though Christelle and Connie dropped 5,000 words combined on both episodes, we still have more to say. So we reconvened the Roundtable and brought in some of the other Nerds to talk through their Flarrow Feels.
RODRIGO: I thoughtĀ The Flash was better than Arrow. It seems that Ollie always needs to find his humanity. It was a good episode — the ending was better then Flash with the whole “let’s see who is better,” and I loved #Snowcity. Those two can carry an episode or two by themselves.
I can’t wait to see the mid season finale for both. Let’s see how it plays out.
CONNIE: Hmm… I feel like, sure The Flash was hyper with more action, especially between the two heroes, they both were in tone for their respective shows, also a lot of two-part episodes have a more action packed and a more emotionally driven episode (I learned that during lots of early Grey’s Anatomy episodes), and I think that was the same here. Arrow is the darker show and focuses on the deeper issues, while The Flash is the one that gets the sunny special effects. They note this particularly in the episode itself, so it was very meta in that way. I think the Arrow half feeds into their current arc stronger than The Flash episode did — Eddie’s taskforce and Iris’ disillusionment are important but hold less weight in these early stages of the series. The Arrow moments come from a lot of long term themes: marriage/love/family, protecting those things, humanity, finding your light, etc. So this episode will affect the Arrow team as a whole more than the Flash team.
I can’t wait to watch them back-to-back to get the full effect. But I think, yes, The Flash episode was more spazz/nerdgasm inducing. But two nights in a row of that same level would have been exhausting I think! I appreciate that they start us off with flailing and then hit us with the deeper stuff, before giving us such great banter at the end.
RODRIGO: The Flash team got a dose of reality: that bad guys will do anything to win. I wonder if they will keep on giving cute names to metahumans.
CONNIE: Probably. They’ve learned a lesson, but it won’t be taken as much to heart in the every day. Perhaps in the mid-season finale though… when things get really real. But in a typical every day episode, I assume it will be business as usual. Also that kind of levity will help push away the darkness when it does threaten to overwhelm our brighter Flash team.
RODRIGO: The Flash has the better nerds. Just saying. Cisco is becoming my favorite, too. I wonder if S.T.A.R. Labs will add one of those salmon ladders?
SHAWN: Freakin. Firestorm. Gawd. I meanā¦
I feel compelled now to draft something over the break. This was literally my first comic seriesā¦ever. Ever.
CHRISTELLE: I liked seeing the differences between Barry and Roy as Oliver’s mentees. When Barry was Impusive, Red K, Scary Barry and being mean and hurting everyone (emotionally and physically to Ollie), I was nervous about how he’d feel once he snapped out of it. I thought he’d feel guilty (a la Mirakuru Roy) and get down on himself, but he is A PUPPY DOG. He made a joke. And in the next shot they were smiling and he was like, “Whoa that was weird.”
SHANNON: They started out with one heavy episode and then ended Flarrow with a lighter one, which I thought was a very good idea. I also liked how they gave each character the chance to see how the other and their Team fared in the alternate universe of the other… Starling City is no Central City, that’s for sure. And all the characters made a strong case for why environment determines identity and character. And does anyone else kinda hate the Arrow flashbacks device? I feel like you can do that as long as the backstory makes the current story more alive and interesting… and for me, it doesn’t do that at all. Mostly, it just makes me hate Oliver’s whiny self.
CONNIE: I feel like the flashbacks work in some episodes, but not others, but that it worked in this one more than it has maybe all season. It directly tied in to the story in the present and showed us a real turning point in flashback!Ollie’s life. Other, especially recent flashbacks, haven’t hit it on the head so much, as I think they were getting us here. Perhaps the island had more immediate danger to it, so it had more interesting episodes, plus all the Slade character development, esp once season 2 hit, but right now, yeah, I think they’re the weakest part, but they can’t get rid of them since they are so woven into the story — find out how Oliver got to the pilot. So I just think the story in the past needs a definitive goal. On the island, it was always the next way off the island. Here, there’s no goal, nothing to lead to a turning point, very little stakes. Hopefully when they return from hiatus, there can be a point we can look forward to — maybe Amanda offers a deadline “you’ll be done by such and such date” and we can see him trying to reach that point, and then obviously fail. So, they need some work, especially this season but we’re stuck with them.
SHANNON: Also honestly not loving the whole Amanda The Bitchy Heartless Overbearing Black Woman thang either… I watched this panel with the program creators and actors and everyone was all, “We just luuuurvvve the flashbacks — they’re our favorite part of the whole show!” and I was just like, “Umm…Are we watching the same show??? You need to cut that shit loose!”
One more thing I’d cut is Oliver’s sister. She no longer serves much of a plot device (especially cause sorry, I cannot see her as the next League of Assassins Rockstar… her roundhouse kick looked like it was going to kill her in a recent episode). Plus, does anyone else just find her annoying?
Sorry, don’t mean to hate on the Arrow tip. I obviously really dig the show or wouldn’t watch it. Things I dig include: Felicity, really great fight scenes, special effects, Diggle not getting killed off yet, arrows taking out both bad and good guys with much sexier tech, sarcasm, the League of Assassins.
CHRISTELLE: Oh yeah, last night I realized, “OH I GUESS I CARE ABOUT LYLA.” Straight up thought Lyla was a goner.
SHANNON: Really, I care about Lyla just cause I care about Digg still being functional… But yeah, I thought she was dead, too.
RODRIGO: I want Diggle to wear a costume. I am not gonna lie i also want the old Black Canary back. Also, did anyone notice who the lady was that Ollie ran into as he was leaving the cafe? Was I the only one?
KEITH: It was in Christelle’s recap. The most obvious theory is that she’s Sandra Hawke (aka Connor’s mom) but I really hope not since Anna Hopkins (the actress) is neither Black nor Asian while Sandra is both.
RODRIGO: I hope so too. But Arrow also had the vatos and eses episode (ugh), so it wouldn’t be far fetched if they did go that way. Also, PAPA JOE is the best dad in both Flash and Arrow.
ALICE: Love the Papa Joe/Barry relationship!! I’m not familiar with The Flash canon, but did Iris have a mom while she and Barry grew up?
CONNIE: This is something I just started wondering! What happened to Mama West!? I feel like she died or disappeared long before Barry’s mom died, but there’s no basis as far as I can remember for any theories on what happened to her. I want to know where she is!
CHRISTELLE: She’s in the future š
CONNIE: I was actually thinking that but wasn’t ready to commit to the theory… buuuttt…. yeah. I definitely agree.
SHANNON: But wait… if Papa Joe is Barry’s PAPA, wouldn’t that technically make Iris his, um, sister?
CHRISTELLE: YUP. It’s weird. It’s totally weird.
SHANNON: Okay… I’m not the only one. I mean, I think the depiction of this close bond between this kinda dorky cute white guy and fly black gurl is really sweet, and something we don’t see on TV that often… but the incest barrier’s kinda weirding me out.
