Arrow: Elseworlds, Part 2 (7x09)

I have a confession to make. I refuse to watch the crossover DC events. When I was binging Arrow, I just watched the "previously on" and jumped right in. And I did the same thing here. Some day I'll get around to watching The Flash and maybe some of the other shows, but for now I'm not dipping in to these other wells. So just keep that in mind. I didn't watch part one, I won't be watching part three.

Cons:

The thing about these crossover events is that Arrow and The Flash are tonally different shows. Whenever Barry and Oliver are onscreen together, the tone bends heavily Flash-wards. That would be fine, if it weren't for the fact that things like Felicity and Oliver's relationship troubles are being resolved in the context of a much goofier episode that honestly doesn't feel like a continuation of the same story. There are moments when we get jokes about Oliver cheating on Laurel with Sarah, for example, and it felt very unlike Oliver to react with comedic indignation at the mention of one of the most traumatic elements of his life.

Because I don't watch the other shows, I'm not really connected or interested to a lot of what's going on in the other character's stories. So when Ruby Rose (Batwoman) has a conversation with Kara, I'm not connected to Kara, so she's not helping me connect with the new character. Or when there are scenes with the girl who can freeze things, whose name I never remember, I don't really care about what's going on. When Barry and Oliver confront each other's villains, I gasped out loud when Malcolm Merlyn appeared, but I don't know who that other dude is. This isn't really a fair critique. This is obviously not a crossover event designed for me, a person who stubbornly only watches one of the shows. But I'm just being honest about how I reacted to the episode.

Pros:

All that said, even though the comedic tone feels kind of awkward in an Arrow episode, I must confess that the comedic tone does work as... comedy. Seeing Oliver a little more silly and relaxed is nice, and Barry as a bit more of a bad-ass was also pretty fun. Kara seems like a great character, and the one big benefit of these crossover events is that it gives me tastes of shows that I really do plan to watch some day. I like that Barry and Oliver have this friendship that crosses the boundaries of their shows. This week, they have a typical moment that always comes up in "Freaky Friday" scenarios, where they each realize that they've unfairly judged the other, and learn that they both have more going on than they could have imagined.

Like I said, Malcolm Merlyn appearing really did a number on me. I miss that crazy bastard, and seeing him made me miss Thea too. As underwhelmed as the flash-forwards this season have been thus far, I missed Roy and the others as well. The fight(s) between Barry and Oliver and their nightmare enemies were really interesting and well-choreographed. We see how Oliver, unfamiliar with Barry's speedster powers, is able to use them against Barry, but not as well as Barry could have.

Also, while I won't be watching part three, at least not any time soon, I will admit that ending scene was a real kicker. Seeing Diaz try to arrest Oliver was fascinating. You can see the hatred seething within Oliver, and you can tell that the rules of this world are going to be even harder for him to adjust to than the world where he was Barry Allen. Superman appearing was also pretty fun, and made me pretty darn curious about watching Supergirl.

It was odd to have a reconciliation scene between Oliver and Felicity while Oliver was in the Flash getup, but I did like it, because it felt like an important conversation, but not the end to their problems. Oliver says that no matter what else changes, he will always love her. They have that, no matter what. It's not enough to erase the stress and pain of all they've been through, but it's a block that they can build off of, and I like that a lot.

Okay. I think that's all I'll say. It's weird to review one part of a story, and I know that the "professional" thing to do would be to watch the whole Elseworlds event so I'd have all the context, but... I'm lazy.

7.5/10