Arrow

Arrow – Elseworlds (Part 2)

  • Title: The Flash – Elseworlds (Part 2)
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Arrow - Elseworlds (Part 2) television review

“Elseworlds” continues as Barry (Grant Gustin), Oliver (Stephen Amell), and Kara (Melissa Benoist) head to Gotham City in search of the person responsible for the changes to reality. Who they find is Batwoman (Ruby Rose). As with Part 1, this episode has plenty of Easter Eggs for DC Comics fans including John Wesley Shipp in his classic Flash costume appearing in a vision (not unlike the Flash did in Crisis on Infinite Earths). The episode also cements a couple of points that, up until now, the Arrowverse has been coy about discussing: Batman exists on both Earths, although he’s been absent from the Gotham City of Earth-1 for quite some time.

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The Flash – Elseworlds (Part 1)

  • Title: The Flash – Elseworlds (Part 1)
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The CW begins its latest crossover event on The Flash with Part 1 of “Elseworlds” as Barry (Grant Gustin) and Oliver (Stephen Amell) awake to a reality where they have each other’s powers and skills and everyone treats Barry as Oliver and vice-versa. The goofy Freaky Friday set-up provides some humorous moments such as Oliver struggling to deal with the affections of Iris (Candice Patton) and Barry getting some long-waited payback. There are nagging issues here in how quickly both are able to get up to speed, but the episode’s idea that the abilities/skills are inherent to them and just need to be tapped into does the bare minimum to gloss over the plot hole. Also troubling is Team Flash’s reaction to the pair. While throwing them into the pipeline allows for a nice escape sequence, and offering a reason to tie-in appearances from both Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and Superman (Tyler Hoechlin), you would think that Barry and Oliver (who still have their own knowledge) should have been able to prove who was who simply by talking things through.

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Arrow – The Demon

  • Title: Arrow – The Demon
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Arrow - The Demon television review

The season’s theme of unexpected alliances continues as Oliver (Stephen Amell) finds an old frenemy on Level 2, and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) enlists the help of both Laurel (Katie Cassidy) and Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) to discover what off-the-books experiments Dr. Jarrett Parker (Jason E. Kelley) is doing with inmates on a facility the prison doesn’t even admit exists. Although the show has really short-changed the character, the return of Talia al Ghul (Lexa Doig) offers some nice prison escape fight sequences and helps give closure to Talia’s storyline (and continue to tease a Batman connection to the Arrowverse that The CW has shown no actual interest in ever exploring). The torture Oliver endures also opens a new possible legal recourse to get him out of prison.

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Arrow – Level Two

  • Title: Arrow – Level Two
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Arrow - Level Two television review

Like many of his previous plans, Oliver (Stephen Amell) getting thrown into Level Two of Slabside Maximum Security Prison doesn’t go exactly according to plan as he spends the episode in a battle of wills with Dr. Jarrett Parker (Jason E. Kelley) who uses a variety of methods including starvation, sound torture, drugs, and shock therapy in an attempt to break the prisoner’s will. It sounds like the good doctor hasn’t done his research about just who he’s dealing with (didn’t he watch the first six seasons of the show?). While presenting himself as someone trying to help Oliver, there’s more than a little of Dr. Hugo Strange in Dr. Parker’s methods.

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Arrow – Crossing Lines

  • Title: Arrow – Crossing Lines
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Arrow - Crossing Lines television review

“Crossing Lines” is the weakest episode of the new season as Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) gets jerked around in prison, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards, whose over-acting nearly sinks the episode) blurs lines in her hunt for Diaz (Kirk Acevedo), and Diaz makes a withdrawl from the CDC (which looks a bit like Mirakuru). More of a transitionary episode than anything else, “Crossing Lines” says farewell to Agent Watson (Sydelle Noel) while leading both Oliver and Felicity down potentially dark paths to get what they want. The episode is notable for no flash-forwards, instead we get an A.R.G.U.S. B-story involving Diggle (David Ramsey) and Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) lying to each other once more. Ain’t marriage grand.

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