Last week, Supergirl, Arrow and The Flash all had the same end scene that begins this year’s CW crossover event, Elseworlds. On Earth 90, a blast goes off in the night, killing several known heroes lay. The Flash (John Wesley Shipp) is still alive and crawling toward a large book. A man named Mar Novu (LaMonica Garrett) also known as the Monitor, takes the book away from the Flash. Flash asks him not to do ‘this,’ but Mar Novu says they brought this on themselves and now they will all perish. Mar Novu opens the book and a bright light emerges. The Flash runs away before anything can happen.
On Earth 1, Gotham City, Dr. John Deegan (Jeremy Davies) gives a lecture to a room of psychiatrists. The room quickly clears when he starts talking about making mortal humans ‘super.’ Dr. Deegan meets Mar Novu at his car. Mar Novu gives him the book so he can reshape the world. Mar Novu says Dr. Deegan has vision and the book is the key to his transformation. His only advices is to use it wisely and think big.
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Central City
Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) wakes up to the sound of Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton) calling for him to eat breakfast. He is very confused because Iris keeps calling him babe and she kisses him. She thinks he’s worried because they haven’t Cicada and calls him Barry. Oliver realizes that she thinks he is Barry Allen.
They get an alert about a break in at Ivo Labs. Iris gets ready to leave so Oliver tests out his speed. She gives him the suit ring, so Oliver activates it and puts on the suit. His only reaction to wearing the Flash suit is to wonder what the real Barry Allen did this time.
Oliver, as the Flash runs to Ivo labs and attempts to stop the break in. He is able to knock out the culprits, but he is doing everything…very…un-Barry like. He even uses his Green Arrow catchphrase, “you have failed this city!” Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) is on comms and tells the Flash to get back to the lab and let the cops take care of everything. In the process of knocking out the bad guys, Oliver wakes up a robot.
Afterward, Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) checks out Oliver and can’t find anything wrong. Iris gets all touchy feely, making Oliver uncomfortable. He apologizes, but Ralph Dibny (Hartley Sawyer) says the team is used to it. Oliver decides to leave and the team follows him, saying he’s acting weird. He assures them that he is fine and says he needs to talk to Oliver Queen.
Star City
Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) is in the middle of a sparring match with John Diggle (David Ramsey). He’s confused, wondering why they decorated the bunker. Diggle says they are at ARGUS. They continue their fight, and Barry is overpowering Diggle. He realizes that he is Oliver Queen.
Barry asks to call STAR Labs, but Diggle asks for his help fighting off Diaz’s guys in the Glades. They’re the only ones available, so Barry says okay. Diggle gives him the Green Arrow suit, but Barry doesn’t know how to put it on. When they get there, Barry immediately jumps into the fight. He has Oliver’s strength and precision and he’s having a lot of fun being the Green Arrow.
Diggle is almost attacked from behind, but Oliver/Flash shows up and save him. Oliver takes Diggle and Barry/Green Arrow to safety, making Diggle sick in the process. They go back to ARGUS to assess what is going on. Barry calls it a “Quantum Leap” and he’s having fun, saying it’s cool. Until he hears that Oliver woke up in bed with Iris.
Nanites!
They go back to STAR Labs to fill in Team Flash on what they are experiencing. As Sherloque (Tom Cavanagh) goes over the facts, their story becomes harder to believe. Caitlin scans Barry’s brain and finds no sign of hypnosis or psychic interference. Cisco says the tachyon meters are clear so no one is messing with the timeline. Iris says there’s no way she could be married to Oliver Queen…he’s not her type. Barry gets a little upset that Iris only has eyes for Oliver.
Oliver and Barry discuss how they can convince the team to believe them. Barry says Oliver only has to convince Iris, by calling her his lightning rod. Oliver doesn’t like the wishy-washy stuff and won’t do it. Oliver talks to Iris, with a drink in his hand. The Flash can’t get drunk so that’s not going to do any good.
Iris tells Oliver that Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) called her and told her how Oliver made a secret deal with the FBI. Felicity had no knowledge of it. She was completely blindsided. She’s says Oliver’s life is defined by anger and vengeance. That’s why she is lucky to have Barry in her life.
Oliver asks her to consider that what he’s telling her is the truth. Reality might be broken. Iris agrees that it is possible which is why she is sorry that she drugged his drink with nanites, courtesy of Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh). She says they have to get him to a safe place until they can figure out what happened. After Oliver goes down, Ralph approaches Barry and knocks him out with a punch.
Bad Vibe
Barry wakes up with Oliver in the pipeline. They need to find a way to convince everyone that they are not crazy. Oliver doesn’t know how they will do that because everybody on Earth thinks they are each other. But maybe it’s just Earth 1. If they can get to Earth 38 and find Kara, she can help fix whatever has happened.
Cisco tried to get in touch with ARGUS, but a red cloud is blocking their signal. The skies over Central City are all red. Caitlin runs Barry and Oliver’s scans again to see if they were affected by the weather. While she does that, Cisco has a vibe of Mar Novu and it scares him!
Lightning Rod
Barry and Oliver come up with a plan. First, they have turn off the power dampener, by backing up the toilet. Barry has to dislocate his thumb to reach the valve. Barry is scared at first, but because he is now Oliver Queen, his body has been conditioned in the art of escape. Once the power dampeners are down, Oliver has to phase through the cell door.
Of course, their plan totally works. They go to one of the workrooms to find an extrapolator to get to Earth 38. Iris has it and doesn’t want to give it to them. The real Barry tries to convince her to give them the extrapolator by using a memory that only they can have. He calls her his lightning rod and she hands over the device. Barry promises to fix everything.
Super Farm
Kara Zor-El retreated to the Kent Farm after being dismissed from the DOE. Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin) and Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) have just returned from Argo City. They are debating whether or not Lois should write about her visit to the alien planet. She leaves the super cousins to catch up.
Kara asks if she did the right thing by walking away. Clark says their secret identities protect the people the love from being threatened by their enemies. There’s nothing more important. Kara is sad she has to leave the DOE and feels like she let Alex (Chyler Leigh) down.
Clark feels bad he left her alone to deal with the Children of Liberty. Kara is happy he got to see Argo City with Lois. He has never seen Krypton. So every experience he had for the first time was Lois’ first time too. He says he feels selfish, but Kara says love is the most unselfish thing on any world. That reminds Clark that he has something to talk to her about, but they are interrupted by Lois’ scream.
Barry and Oliver show up in the barn. Kara has to get in between them and Lois before she hits them. Kara recognizes them for who they really are and introduces them to Lois and Clark. Oliver puffs up his chest just a little in the presence of Superman. They tell Kara about their issues on Earth 1 and asks for her help.
Trouble in Star City
Team Flash is called out to Ivo lab that is being destroyed by the robot that Oliver woke up. Elongated Man (Ralph) and Killer Frost (Caitlin) answer the call, but are no match for the robot. The robot absorbs their powers and flies away.
The robot is called AMAZO. It was procured by ARGUS and designed with the capability to find meta humans. It copies the meta human genes that gives it the powers of his targets. Ralph asks if they can let out Green Arrow and Flash to fight AMAZO.
Sherloque announces that Iris let Barry and Oliver go. She tells the team about her talk with Oliver, real Barry, and she felt like she was really talking to Barry. Cisco believes her, saying everything is weird right now and tells them about his vibe in the speed lab. Ralph exclaims that it’s not even Tuesday! There’s no time for speculation because AMAZO has just entered the city limits.
Barry vs. Oliver, Take 2
Back at the farm, Oliver trains Barry to use the bow and arrow and in combat training. Barry reenacts a situation when he first met Oliver. Oliver told Barry to run at him and then shot him in the back with remote control arrows. Barry says he’s not like Oliver, but he is. Barry has been waiting four years to get Oliver back for that one.
That initiates an argument. Oliver is angry and tells BArry to try and hit him. Barry doesn’t want to train with anger. Oliver keeps talking, saying Barry can’t do anything without Iris in his ear or a motivation speech. Barry walks away and Oliver runs toward him. Barry is able to duck when Oliver tries to hit him, causing Oliver to fall on his back. He says if Oliver knew how to use the speed, Barry would never be able to lay a finger on him.
I Am You, And You Are Me
Oliver attempts to apologize to Barry. Barry knows that he was trying to help in his own way. Trying to help Barry fight like Oliver. Oliver says when he is the Green Arrow, he channels his painful memories and draws on his darkness. It made him mad to see Barry laughing and joking with his abilities.
Barry is the opposite. He lets go of his grief and guilt when he runs. He focuses on what the joy that he’s running toward. Barry runs faster when he’s happier. Just like when Oliver phased, he was having a good time. Barry couldn’t dislocate his thumb until he got angry. They are going to have to start acting like each other if they are going to use the other’s abilities. Something that Kara already figured out. They have to act the part.
Cisco arrives and tells everyone that they believe Barry and Oliver now. He apologizes for locking them up. He asks for them to come home and help with the killer robot. Kara asks Clark if he wants to tag along, to which Cisco asks who he is. Wait! Cisco doesn’t know who Clark Kent is? Well, he’s about to find out.
Super Team
The Flash, Green Arrow, Supergirl and Superman circle AMAZO, blasting him with hits. Superman hits AMAZO into the ground, but AMAZO comes back and quickly scans the superheros, duplicating their powers. Exactly what they didn’t want it to do. Iris asks if Cisco knows of a way to stop AMAZO. Sherloque gives a very simple answer…it’s a computer. Just turn it off. Cisco and Caitlin leave to work on a device to turn AMAZO off.
AMAZO runs away and Flash (Oliver) runs after him to lead AMAZO back towards the other three. Green Arrow (Barry) tells Supergirl to knock AMAZO down when they return. He can’t run and phase at the same time. Flash and AMAZO run on an amazing chase sequence where AMAZO uses the powers of Superman, Supergirl, Killer Frost and the Flash to try and stop the Flash.
Barry calls into STAR labs for an update. Cisco and Caitlin reverse engineered AMAZO’s operating system to create a virus to wipe the CPU. Sherloque reminds them that AMAZO has duplicated super strength and in penetrable. Iris suggest they use the superheroes’ weaknesses to stop AMAZO. Barry wants to send the robot straight to Hell! He tells Oliver to counter phase AMAZO’s phase to help Supergirl and Superman hold him down. Then he asks Cisco to bring him the virus. He’s going to attach it to an arrow and shoot AMAZO.
Oliver runs past the Super cousins and Supergirl hits AMAZO. They hold him down as Cisco attaches the virus to an arrow. Barry uses the Green Arrow catchphrase, “AMAZO, you have failed this city,” and shoots AMAZO in the eye with the virus. AMAZO shuts down.
Still Oliver Queen, Still Barry Allen
Team Flash commend Barry and Oliver for their heroic performance and suggests that maybe they keep things the way they are. Except Iris who says they need to find out who did this and how they can fix it. Clark says his goodbyes, but before he leaves, Sherloque asks him to give his third ex-wife an alimony check. Sure.
The real Barry checks on Iris. She says she let them go because she started listening with her heart. Barry Allen will always be the man she loves. Barry says he will always show his true face to her. She asks him to promise her that he will return to her. She heard the things he said when he was the Green Arrow. Iris asks Barry not to become Oliver Queen. Barry promises that he won’t.
The Next Step
Cisco shows Barry and Oliver the vibe he had earlier. They see Mar Novu give the book to Dr. Deegan. Mar Novu then looks directly at Cisco. He never thought the men of Earth had Cisco’s ability. Mar Novu tells them to give up now, saying nothing they do can alter what’s about to happen. Cisco ends the vibe because it drains him.
Oliver draws what they saw in the vibe. They don’t recognize either individual, but Oliver recognizes the name one one of the buildings. Wayne Enterprises. They are going to Gotham City.
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Thoughts
That was fun to watch. I was giggling through the entire episode. We knew switching identities would be a challenge for Barry and Oliver. They are so opposite. So it will be enjoyable to watch Oliver lighten up. But seeing Barry’s dark side…I know I’m not going to like that. We saw that when Savitar came along. I wasn’t a fan.
I did cheer when Clark revealed he was a super friend to Cisco, but how does Cisco not know about Superman. They know about the Hulk but not Superman…come on! Overall, this is a great start to the crossover. And I have to admit, it is easier to keep up with all of the characters since there aren’t that many. But I still miss the Legends!
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.
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