‘The Flash’ episode 8 review: The ‘Arrow’ crossover goes full tilt

There is something almost funny about the “Flash vs. Arrow” episode of “The Flash” that aired on The CW last night. Even though we saw almost every little move in the episode coming, we still found a way to enjoy the surprises just as much regardless.

We begin here, of course, with the night’s biggest reveal: Ronnie Raymond is alive, and now has some built-in powers, as well. Firestorm is in the picture! This obviously complicates the picture for the show, and you also have to wonder what Caitlin Snow will think about this. Our guess here is that Ronnie is oblivious to any other metahuman, and is staying clear of his fiancee out of fear that he will hurt her. Somehow, this move will likely hurt her in a different way.

We’re almost certainly going to have more of this twist discussed on next week’s new episode, and this operates with a rather nice contrast in comparison to the other big surprise of the night: Oliver Queen is in fact a father, and the mother of his child is still in Central City. This was a story that originated on “Arrow” last season, but he still does not know anything about this kid. It’s not entirely a given that this story will even surface much the rest of this season, but this was another reminder that it is out there.

Now, we turn to the action of the episode, which was completely and utterly awesome for the most part. Great dialogue, great action, and a whole lot of fan service thrown in there. Seeing Oliver and Barry Allen go toe-to-toe was also all sorts of epic, and it proved that superpowers don’t always end up being the most important thing to winning a fight.

The only thing that was somewhat of a bummer? The lack of a real face-off between Barry, Oliver, and the Rainbow Raider, which mostly happened off-camera. This felt like a symptom of the show simply not having the time to put this all into an hour with commercials, but it would have added another layer of cool to it. Also, we’re surprised that there was so little on Captain Boomerang, given that this is the reason why the characters were moved into this setting in the first place.

Minor issues aside, this was so much fun that there is so much more to talk about, including the foundation of Eddie Thawne as a villain with motivation, lots of great Harrison Wells stuff, and also more reminders that Barry just can’t those feelings for Iris go. Hopefully, the “Arrow” half of this can match it in terms of awesomeness. Grade: A-.

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