Night 2 of the CW Crossover is also the 100th episode of Arrow!
What would Oliver’s life have been like if he had not been lost at sea for five years? Old friends and villains return for this special episode of Arrow.
Spoilers Ahead…
Oliver Queen (Stephen Amnell) starts his day with a run. His fiancee speaks to him from the shower. When she steps out, it’s Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy). (*Laurel died in Season 4 after a fatal gunshot wound.*) Oliver and Laurel are getting married! It’s a dream come true! In fact, it is a dream. Oliver, Thea Queen (Willa Holland), John Diggle (David Ramsey), Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) and Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) are all in a sleep stasis aboard the alien ship.
In the dream world…
Everyone is preparing for Oliver and Laurel’s wedding. Moira (Susanna Thompson) and Robert Queen (Jamey Sheridan) are happy for their son. Everyone is sublimely happy. Sara arrives and reacts strangely to the canary necklace that Laurel is wearing. It’s like she got a shock or something. She hugs Laurel tightly.
Oliver and his father are talking about Oli’s future at Queen Consolidated. Oliver wants to make a name for himself. His father says if Oliver doesn’t take over, the company will be sold to Ray Palmer. A thief bumps into Oliver and holds the two at gunpoint. Someone in a hood stops the robbery. Thea and Laurel hear about what happened to Oliver and his dad. Oliver begins seeing more memories and has to go find out why. His curiosity takes him to the Arrow lair.
Felicity is there and freaks out when Oliver enters. John jumps down from the rafters and starts to fight off Oliver. Oliver tells him that something isn’t right.
Sara meets Ray Palmer at Oliver and Laurel’s rehearsal dinner. They both have memory flashes of their time together as Legends. Sara insists that she doesn’t know Ray. The next day Thea starts to have memory flashes when she hugs her mother. John finally has memory flashes as well. He finds Oliver to try and figure out what is going on.
Back in real Arrow’s lair…
The Team Arrow newbies Rene Ramirez/Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez), Curtis Holt/Mr. Terrific (Eco Kellum), and Rory Regan/Ragman (Joe Dinicol) are waiting around to help with the Dominator situation. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) returns with Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes).
Cisco, Felicity and Curtis devise a way to hack into the alien mainframe, but it doesn’t work because the technology is too different. They need a regulator that one person has. This person, Dr. Laura Washington, stole the regulator. She is using it to give herself powers. Felicity calls in The Flash (Grant Gustin) and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) to help the newbies take on the doctor.
Rene doesn’t like metas or aliens. He tells Flash and Supergirl that they have God-like powers and all they do is put on a suit to make the world a better place. Rene says metas showed up with the Flash and aliens showed up with Supergirl. He thinks powers are evil and he wants nothing to do with anyone who has powers. They encounter Dr. Washington, but quickly defeat her and get the regulator. Rene changes his mind about The Flash and Supergirl.
In the dream world…
Oliver and John figure out that they are not living in the real world. As they are talking about how to figure out what is going on, Deathstroke shows up. A fight ensues and it’s Sara that ends it. She questions her ability to fight. Oliver is starting to remember more, but Sara is skeptical. Oliver jogs her memory. The figure out that the one thing that is not real in either world is Smoak Technologies. That is the way they get out.
They look for Ray and Thea to wake them up. Sara talks to Ray and Thea. They both remember the other lives, but Thea doesn’t want to leave. Thea says she is happy because everyone they love is alive in the dream world. She says the only thing waiting for her in the real world is pain. Oliver tries to persuade her, but she is insistent on staying. Oliver tells her goodbye and leaves with the others.
When Oliver and his team walk outside, villains they have faced in the past show up to stop them from leaving the party. Thea changes her mind and she joins the fight. The heroes win the fight, but John is hurt. They have to get to Smoak Technologies as soon as possible.
Laurel appears to stop them. Sara quickly says goodbye to her sister. Oliver takes his time to say his goodbye.
At Smoak Technologies, there is a portal waiting for them. They walk through except for Oliver. He turns around and see everyone he has loved and lost…including his best friend Tommy Merlyn and his friend Roy Harper. Both were an important part of the Arrow saga.
They wake up on the alien ship. Ray looks out the window and see that they are in outer
space.
Back on Earth…
The Tech Support Team, Curtis, Felicity, and Cisco were able to use the regulator, but the translator did not work. Rory recognizes the alien script as gematria, the numerology of the Torah in which each letter corresponds to a number. From this they get negative coordinates of the location of the ship…indicating that Oliver & Co. are in outer space!
Oliver & Co. are trying to find a way off the alien ship. They take a wrong turn and encounter the Dominators. Oliver finds a gun to defend everyone and the run. They find the loading dock and lots of pods to choose from. Once inside the pod, Thea figures out how to start the ship. It’s on some kind of autopilot. The Dominators follow the pod, trying to destroy it.
The Waverider saves the day! The pod is locked in a trecker beam and the group is recused. Once aboard the Waverider, Nate Haywood (Nick Zano) is waiting for them. He tells them that the nerd army figured out where they were.
The group starts to question why they were chosen. It is determined that the Dominators took them because none of them are meta humans. The Dominators are using some kind of nero morph technology to get intel from their minds. (Ah! Science!)
Ray keeps repeating a phrase that he heard the alien say. Gideon translate the phrase as “we are nearing completion of the weapon.” The Dominators are headed for earth and the team rushes home.
Thoughts…
This was really a nice way for Arrow to show what Oliver’s life would have been like if he had not disappeared for five years. I’m sure audiences have often wondered what life would have been like had The Queens and Laurel had lived.
I will admit I was very sad when Oliver said goodbye to his parents since he didn’t get the chance the first time around.
I’m also very happy that Arrow went back to being more about crime fighting and less about supernatural forces that they have to face …like Damien Dark. That was not my favorite.
One person that was notably missing was Artimus, Evelyn Sharp. At the end of the previous episode it was revealed that Evelyn is actually a traitor to Team Arrow. We have not yet seen who she is working with. No one in Team Arrow seem to miss her though.
And one last thought I loved the nerdiness of this episode. Felicity, Cisco, and Curtis were so much fun to watch in all of their excitement about the big team up ever and getting the opportunity to study alien technology. I would be just as excited as they are. Loved it!
The Crossover week ends on the next episode of Legends of Tomorrow.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
- INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Recap: (S02E07) I Could Not Prevent It - June 24, 2024
- INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Recap: (S02E06) Like the Light by Which God Made the World Before He Made Light - June 17, 2024
- INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE Recap: (S02E05) Don’t Be Afraid, Just Start The Tape - June 10, 2024
