What They Said: The Flash, “Legends Of Today” and Arrow, “Legends Of Yesterday” 

Two nights of Arrow + The Flash = what more could we ask for?! I don’t know what it is about blending these shows, but I can’t help but feel that every time they come together, they somehow become greater than the sum of their parts. And that’s saying a lot because both are already pretty great on their own! Obviously with the episodes being so interconnected, I can’t possibly talk about one without talking about the other so consider this an official Tuesday/Wednesday Flash/Arrow super-crossover recap.

While both episodes mostly revolved around Kendra (aka Hawkgirl) and setting up her character for the new Legends Of Tomorrow spin-off, we still got a solid dose of our favorite characters and I couldn’t have been happier.  Oliver was funnier. New characters interacted. Heartfelt moments were shared. And total disaster was averted. For now. Overall The Flash brings humor and lightness to Arrow and Arrow brings some snark and a sense of mysticism to The Flash and everything just works.

But if I had to pick one thing that really upped the ante of these episodes for me, I would have to say it was the dialogue. It was witty. It was smart. It contained fantastic pop culture references. And the delivery was spot-on. I couldn’t have asked for more. And so, I’ve decided to highlight a few (okay, more than a few) of my favorite conversations.

First, I have to start off with Barry and Oliver. Not only because they are the main characters, but also because I could literally watch these two quip all day. The hug scene at the end — brilliant.

{Barry goes in for a hug}

Oliver: Hahaha, I’m not really a hugger.

Barry: Yeah, tell me something I don’t know. But the thing is, I am fast enough just to hug you without you knowing so you might as well let me.

{HUG}

Barry: Wasn’t so bad, right?

Somehow Barry manages to call Oliver out on his BS in a way that no one else can and in doing so, allows Oliver to take himself a little less seriously. I honestly don’t think we’ve ever seen Oliver smile or be as self-deprecating before. And I LOVED it.

Barry: Look, I’m sorry I’m laying all of this on you, I know it wasn’t fair.

Oliver: That’s okay, I’m sorry earlier if I was a little….

Barry:…snippy?

Oliver: I have been called worse. No, but I’m glad you’re here, I’m glad you reached out. It shows a real maturity and I would know that because I’ve never been that mature.

Sometimes I forget how funny Barry is until I see him in a world where funny is few and far between.

Oliver: Barry, you’re late.

Barry: Sorry, turns out it’s not easy finding the ass end of nowhere.

And even when he’s being honest at Ollie’s expense, it still adds a dose of much-needed levity to the direness of the situation.

Oliver: We need to utilize your new ability.

Kendra: My ability?

Oliver: It may give us an advantage.

Barry: Whatever you do, don’t let him train you. I’m sorry, but when it rains, I can still feel where he shot me with those arrows.

But it isn’t all humor and lightness. Sure, Barry lightens Oliver up (finally!) but on the flip side, Oliver forces Barry to dig deep and face whatever is it that’s holding him back, which is crucial to getting over this slump and being a good superhero. These two do an amazing job of balancing each other out and keep it darn entertaining in the process.

I also LOVED seeing Barry and Felicity again. I sometimes forget that there was a spark between these two when he first came to town and that she visited him in the hospital after his Flash-ified accident. But seeing them together reminds me of how that spark turned to solid friendship and how cute these two are together.

Felicity: Barry, so good to see you {hugs him}

Barry: Felicity, aww, good to see you Felicity

Felicity: {Hits him} How come you didn’t tell me Zoom broke your back?!

Barry: I….

Felicity: {Hugs him again} Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay.

Barry: So this is what it’s like dating her?

Oliver: More bruises from her than from Deathstroke.

Seriously, could they be any cuter?!

Barry: So the CEO of Palmer Tech is living with Oliver Queen. It’s insane how much life can change in six months, isn’t it?

Felicity: But you would know better than anyone considering there is another Flash, another Dr Wells from another Earth…? I mean…

Barry: No, I know, it’s been trippy lately.

Felicity: I wonder what Oliver’s doppleganger would look like. Bald. Pot belly. Agreeable.

Barry: Haha.

If it wasn’t for Olicity, I would definitely be rooting for a reignited Barry-Felicity romance.

Moving on. On top of familiar duos, we also got a chance to see new pairings come together, which I loved and definitely left me wanting more.

Thea: I’m not changing my nickname. I like Speedy.

Cisco: Are you familiar with my body of work? If you are, then you know I can come up with something so much better than Speedy.

Thea: Why don’t you get a haircut and then maybe we can talk about it.

Cisco: I think you’re just mad because my conditioner game is on point.

These two. Spin-off. Crime fighting duo. Hair-models. Whatever it is, I want it now. As far as I’m concerned, Cisco was on top of his game this week in both the one-liner department and the lady department, even if he did need a little nudge from Oliver.

Oliver: I need you to talk to Kendra.

Cisco: Oh, I get it, you shoot arrows, you give love tips, it’s like you’re cupid or something.

Oliver: What Carter is doing with her isn’t working. We need her power to fight Savage and we need her to be able to use it reliably.

Cisco: Carter is a jerk, but he’s supposed to be with her because destiny says they’re supposed to be together and he’s supposed to be her soul mate so I’m not even sure what I can say…

Oliver: We need to do something, Cisco! We need to reach her.

Cisco: Reincarnation is not in my wheel house.

Oliver: Kendra is going through accepting who she really is. Who better to help her do that than a guy who is clearly in love with her.

Cisco: I don’t know if we’re at the L-bomb stage yet. {Oliver gives him a look} I’ll talk to her.

I don’t entirely think Oliver gets Cisco or his brand of humor…after all, he’s more used to his tech nerds being cute, blonde and bubbly…but I still love watching these two together. It reminds me a little of Cisco and Professor Stein, which is equally as entertaining as it is awkward.

Speaking of entertaining, because I know all the characters in both The Flash universe and the Arrow universe, I sometimes forget they don’t all know each other, which ultimately leads to new and amusing interactions.

Green Arrow: Thank you for coming, I know this is more than a little crazy.

Flash: Yeah, well, your friend with the creepy ring asked so nicely. Please tell me we’re not going to negotiate with terrorists or you know, 4000-year-old bad guys.

Green Arrow: Just think of this as more of a fact-finding mission. Maybe Savage slips up and gives us something we can use to our advantage.

Merlyn: Ha, Thea said you were being a little more humorous lately.

All of Barry’s clever lines about Malcolm Merlyn, especially the quip about his shady entrances, got me. I mean, most people would know not to make fun of Ra’s al Ghul, Head of the League of Assassins, Dark Archer, City-crumbling bad guy. But without any backstory, Barry has no reason not to throw a few jabs his way, which I loved. And I also loved that with all the talk of Season 4 of Arrow being “lighter,” that the writers gave that a quick nod as well.

And last but not least, we had a few fantastic conversations with characters we always see together but were still elevated due to this crossover event.

Barry: Last night, I think I ghosted. I….

Cisco: Don’t say it.

Barry: I think I’m in a time jump.

Cisco: I just told you not to say it.

Barry: Sorry, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

Cisco: Barry, the first rule of time travel is you don’t talk about time travel because by having this conversation, we are screwing history.

Barry: Look, I know that time travel has consequences. The last time you vibed….

Cisco: Well, I’m not vibing anything right now. Ok, umm, look, don’t panic. A) you don’t know that you time jumped for a bad reason, it could’ve been a good one, right? B) Now that you time jumped, you might not do it, right? So knowing the future might change the present which might change the future.

Barry: What?

Cisco: My head hurts.

Fight Club. Time jumps. Same difference, right? Ultimately, I loved that these two were wrong and the time jump worked. Well, for now. And I love how Cisco is so smart that he even confuses himself. But more than that, I love that Barry is honest with Cisco, which is more than I can say for Oliver and Felicity.

Felicity: We have to clear this place up, unless you’re ready to tell me what you said you’d tell me.

Oliver: Felicity, umm…

Felicity: Oliver, we have a life together. We’re a team. If something is bothering you and I don’t know about it, I can’t help you fix it. I can’t be a good teammate. And I love you and that makes me want to be the best teammate ever. Not in a Lance-Armstrong-performance-enhancing-drugs kind of way, more in a positive-sports-analogy-if-I-knew-anything-about-sports way. What had you acting so strange when we got to Central City?

Oliver: Doesn’t matter, it’s over. And I am back in Star City. With you.

As much as I loved this last interaction because Felicity’s analogies are a home-run (see what I did there?), I hate that Oliver lied. Hate it. Even after Barry told him not to, even after he knows it resulted in disaster in the first go-around, even though he knows secret-keeping always comes back to bite him in the ass, he did it anyways. Messing with the timeline or not, I can’t imagine this ending well and having seen how much it hurt Felicity the first time, I’m not ready to see it again.

That being said, we haven’t seen the potential (and inevitable?) fall out of the do-over and with Malcolm scooping up his “old friend” Savage, I have a feeling this will come back to haunt both teams down the line. And if it means they have to come together one or two or ten more times to take down the bad guys, I’m okay with that too.

Be sure to catch The Flash on Tuesdays at 8/7c and Arrow on Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.