Recap: Vandal Savage Takes on the Heroes of ARROW & FLASH

Episode 408 “Legends of Yesterday”

[Photos: Diyah Pera/The CW]

We are just three months away from DC Entertainment’s eagerly anticipated Legends of Tomorrow.

To commemorate this milestone, this year’s annual Arrow-Flash crossover dealt with introducing three characters that will be important to the Legends of Tomorrow opus: Hawkman, Kendra Saunders (Hawkgirl) and the villainous Vandal Savage (who will be the main antagonist for the new CW superhero series).

During Part One of the crossover, fans learned that the immortal dictator’s fate was tied with the legendary star-crossed lovers.  We also learned that Savage killed the duo — 206 times!  Luckily for our winged warriors, help arrived in the formative forms of Green Arrow, the Flash and from the shadows — Ra’s Al Ghul.

Tonight, the battle between Teams Arrow and Flash against Savage concluded! Did the two teams score a victory? Or did Vandal Savage kill his longtime nemeses?

You are now entering the Spoiler Zone!

Just as Kendra was remembering her time as Chay-Ara, Teams Arrow and Flash arrived at Central City.  While Felicity, Cisco and Caitlin prepared to counteract Vandal Savage’s power, Oliver separated from the group to find out about his recently discovered son.  Oliver corned his ex-girlfriend and wanted information about her son, William. William’s mom, Samantha, swore back and forth that her son was not Oliver’s.

Malcolm interrupted Oliver’s side-mission to tell him that he arranged a meeting between them and Vandal. The immortal villain warned the trio of the upcoming destruction he plans for Central City and Star City if the Emerald Archer and the Scarlet Speedster did not step aside and give him Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

Oliver shared Vandal’s threats with the team. Kendra wanted to hand herself over the villain, while an annoyed Cisco decided that they should turn over Hawkman to Savage. Malcolm also confronted Oliver and warned him that if any harm comes to Thea, he would hit him so hard that the Star City Mayoral Candidate would be begging for Vandal Savage to slay him.

Laurel and Diggle retrieved a conspiracy video that warned them about Vandal Savage. The professor featured in the video advised the heroes that his staff could weaken and defeat him.  Felicity tracked down the heroes to tell them of their find, but managed to get a hold of Barry, who revealed that Oliver is William’s son.

Oliver confronted Samantha with the truth and his ex spilled that it was his psychotic deceased mother blackmailed her into faking that she lost the baby. After showing Oliver the check, the Emerald Archer begged Samantha to let him into William’s life…however, Samantha told him that she did not William to be in his chaotic world and would only let Oliver in under certain conditions.

When he got back from Samantha’s, Felicity confronted Oliver about William and accused him of lying to her again. Felicity yelled at Oliver for not trusting in her and almost broke up with her longtime love. A heartbroken Oliver suited up with Barry, Carter and Kendra to face Savage head on. However, Kendra failed to act and Savage killed the lovebirds once again.

Unable to stop Savage, Barry performed a time hop and went back in time to the moment that he, Oliver and Malcolm met Vandal Savage. Barry revealed his action to Oliver and what went wrong in that alternative timeline. Oliver started pushing Cisco back to Kendra’s orbit. The scientist told Kendra to focus on the priestess and gave her a superb pep talk that would help the others in the future.

The quartet, Laurel, Thea and Diggle faced Savage head on and this time, they were successful as Savage was turned into dust! The crime fighting duo said goodbye to Oliver, Barry and Cisco. As Kendra kissed Cisco, Barry warned Oliver about the repercussions of their time travel adventures and the Emerald Archer disregarded his forewarnings and started to spend time with his son. Unbeknownst to our heroes, Malcolm collected Vandal’s dust.

My take on “Legends of Yesterday”: The 2015 FlashxArrow crossover delivered! This was an epic two-part night that brought back old friends (longtime no see, Malcolm Merlyn and the League of Assassins), new faces (Hawkman and Vandal Savage) and surprising twists (Patty shooting Harry and Oliver’s son) and perfectly weaved them together for an epic two-night event.

Casper Crump’s Vandal Savage was menacing as hell and made a great impact on the audience as the future Legends of Tomorrow villain. I particularly loved his showdown scene with Green Arrow (Stephen Amell), Flash (Grant Gustin) and Ra’s Al Ghul (John Barrowman). Crump commanded that scene in a terrifying and mesmerizing way that I have not seen since Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance as Joker in The Dark Knight.  He is definitely going to be one of Legends of Tomorrow’s scenery chewers.

Meanwhile, I wish there was a way that they could have included Zoom in this crossover (not just mentioning his name). It would have been an interesting sight to have a baddie stare down between the Wicked Speedster, Savage and Damien Darhk, Arrow’s main nemesis for Season Four. Not only did they lose a potential moment that would have broken the Internet, but it would be interested see how they would have responded to a “Stay Out of My Way” request.

Another shocking matter that I found in the episode was Oliver not revealing to his team about his son’s existence and his mother’s manipulations. I found it extremely odd that our favorite Emerald Archer did not to tell Felicity about his son’s existence especially since that lead to their big break-up brawl. Something tells me that it might be either Malcolm or Darhk that might force Oliver to reveal the truth to his team. When this secret breaks out, I have a feeling that not only Felicity will kick Oliver to the curb, but Moira Queen’s wrongdoings might send Thea over the edge and back into her bloodlust state.

On a much more positive note, one of my favorite scenes from the Arrow episode was when both teams, plus Hawkman and Hawkgirl, temporarily relocated to the farm outside Central City. I would like to commend screenwriters Marc Guggenheim and Brian Ford Sullivan for creating the rapid-fire dialogue that was peppered with snarkiness, sarcasm and great jokes. I particularly loved Cisco’s line about roaming charges.

Speaking of the Star Labs scientist, I am definitely excited that Cisco (Carlos Valdes) will not be forced to separate from Kendra! Both Comic Book Resources and Entertainment Weekly have reported that Valdes will be joining Legends of Tomorrow, but it is unknown what role Cisco will play with the team. It would be interesting to see how Cisco-Kendra-Carter love triangle develops and how the future Vibe’s character could evolve after his experience with Legends of Tomorrow.

Now that the stage is set for the CW superhero ensemble show….the only question remains is how Arrow will pick up the pieces from its Legends of Tomorrow process. True, we have Darhk’s threat and Oliver’s mayoral campaign on the horizon…but the show needs another main villain (or villainess) that could shake up the show.  Maybe it’s time to get Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) back in Star City.