The big crossover event/ backdoor pilot concludes this week as the showdown with Vandal Savage comes to its conclusion… in this time period at least…
SPOILERS AHEAD
We open in what seems to be Ancient Egypt where some of the back story of Vandal Savage, Kendra and Carter, aka Hawkman and Hawkgirl, is revealed. It is a little weird that Ciara Renee is the only non-white person in the room, but I digress. We come back to the present where Kendra awakes from her dream as her memories of past lives are coming back to her.
Oliver and the team have sequestered the reincarnated heroes at a remote farmhouse in order to keep them protected until they know what to do about Savage. Everyone takes over a role to hunt their immortal nemesis and the game is afoot. Oliver still has other things on his mind now that he found out he has a son which causes some conflict with Felicity. Cisco tries to salvage his romance with Kendra despite having learned that she’s a reincarnated Egyptian priestess whose soul is tied to her soul mate for all time. Carter shows up to help Kendra get a full reign on her abilities and he hands over her armour… which looks pretty cool if I can be honest.
Oliver starts bordering on stalking his ex, looking to talk to her about her son who is inexplicably the right age to be his, which she denies is his. Being the Oliver we know and love, he takes a moment of a dropped hat to grab one of the boys hairs for DNA testing. Malcolm calls to tell Oliver that he’s arranged a meeting with Savage, Flash and Arrow in order to negotiate a deal. Malcolm fears that Savage will lay waste to the city in order to get the Hawks. While Barry runs to the meet, he sees a ‘ghost’ of himself running beside him which we can all remember is what happened last time the timeline got funky.
So the meeting goes about as well as can be expected. Savage threatens to do exactly what Malcolm said he would (word for word if I’m not mistaken) and the heroes now a choice on their hands. No one wants the city to be taken down, especially Kendra and Carter, but Barry and Oliver have never been known to back down and this time looks to be no different. Barry talks to Cisco (who’s in fine annoying form this week) about how he ghosted and now Barry is terrified about time jumping again. Kendra and Carter talk about their fight and he convinces her to take on the mantle of Hawkgirl.
Diggle, Thea and Laurel return with a Betamax that shows a professor who studied Savage back in the 70’s who has a theory on how to destroy Savage. Kendra’s memories come in to play and they put together that the Staff of Horus will ultimately be Savage’s undoing. Seems odd that he wouldn’t keep that in his possession for all time and lets it be handed around museums and private collectors, but I again digress. Barry runs the DNA test for Oliver which comes back with a resounding positive that he is the father. Felicity shows up and manages to drag the test out of Barry which doesn’t take much for her to piece together what’s going on. Oliver goes and confronts his ex and the secret about his mothers bribe comes out which is understandably difficult for Oliver to wrap his head around. Despite Oliver’s attempts to dissuade her, she demands no one know about this as the only condition to him being able to get to know his son. Cause that seems reasonable and doesn’t feel like a forced plot point in any way.
Felicity confronts Oliver about the whole thing and Oliver tries to not tell her about it, cause of plot or something. Fortunately, Felicity has all the information she needs and the relationship blow-up ensues. Oliver preps the team for their confrontation as Cisco hopes that the gauntlets he’s prepared can help break the energy field that the staff generates. Oliver won’t let the rest of the team come along, keeping as many people out of the line of fire as he can (is that why Sarah and Ray aren’t here?).
They meet with Savage, the Hawks in cuffs as they present Savage his prize. The fact that the both of them are in full armour doesn’t seem to be an issue for Savage who is just happy to get them, I guess. As he comes to kill his victims, Green Arrow bursts into action and the fight begins. So, Savage beats the crap out of Flash and Arrow and very easily slays the Hawks when Kendra can’t access her powers and then uses the staff to kill Oliver (very graphically) and destroy Central City. Good thing Barry ghosted earlier!
So, Barry ends up travelling back to the first meeting that he and Oliver had with Merlyn and Savage. Barry is obviously a little off put by the time travel (why doesn’t he just do this every week?) and fills Oliver in on the whole ‘the past, in the future’ business he’s dealing with. He tells Oliver that it’s on him since he’s focused on his personal problems instead of the fight. Barry tells Oliver about his relationship blow up which helps Oliver make the right choice this time around.
Oliver gets Cisco to double down the work on the gloves since they didn’t work the first time around but he also asks him to talk to Kendra to help her get a grip on her powers. Cisco is even more frustrated by this since everyone has pushed him to the side for Carter up until now but he agrees anyway. After a little one on one time, he helps her realize how to fully tap into the well of her powers when she taps into her memories and discovers how the three of them have become entangled in the first place. This, of course gives her the insight she needs to beat Savage.
So, they deduce that the staff has meteorite in it and they need a sample to counteract the effects of the Savage’s weapon. Barry races off and finds a piece (they really need to set some rules on Barry’s speed) for the gauntlets to work properly. It’s time for round two against Savage, but this time, Oliver isn’t leaving his dependable team behind (still don’t know where Ray and Sarah are).
The fight starts off pretty well the same but Kendra goes full Hawkgirl and the rest of the team shows up to help fight. Savage is making pretty short work of them when Barry races and nabs the staff. The new gauntlets let him use the staff and everyone races for cover as he hits Savage with his own staff. Arrow and Flash both grab hold and together overwhelm Savage with the staff and both he and the staff disappear.
So, we start wrapping as the Hawks try to figure out what to do now that Savage is gone. Kendra and Cisco have their breakup talk which is a little lighter than usual given that she’s a 4,000 year old, winged warrior priestess. Oliver and Barry discuss the paternity test that never really was in this timeline and Barry is worried about chrono-backlash. The battle with Savage and the time travel has changed Oliver’s mind though, and he doesn’t plan on keeping his son separate from the craziness that his life has become. Barry offers some advice that Oliver’s son would benefit from Oliver being in his life, which gives the Arrow some food for thought.
So we replay the same scene with Oliver and the mother of his child, but he goes ahead and makes the same choices as before but there’s no paternity test to incriminate him this time. Oliver meets his son and begins to start a relationship with him. Felicity and Oliver return to the disaster of their apartment and they have a touching ‘we’re in this together’ talk and Oliver decides to keep it a secret… cause that won’t come back to bite him in the future.
And our stinger scene shows Malcolm Merlyn collecting the ashes of the defeated Vandal Savage for whatever dastardly plan the every so evil Ra’s Al Ghul has in store for the future.
So, did the crossover meet expectations? Kind of. I was expecting more Legends of Tomorrow and less Hawkgirl origin story, but it actually turned out to be a good episode. Vandal Savage proved himself to be a pretty good villain and was played with enough panache to be the main villain in the LoT show when it finally kicks off. I did kind of want to see the events that lead up to our heroes and villains being collected for time travel crime fighting, but I guess I’ll have to hold off for a couple of more weeks to see that. Next week, we should be back to focusing on Barry and Oliver, so as their fall finale arrives. Who knows what that will entail!
P.S. Can they go ahead and make Damien Darhk a real villain now?