THE FLASH "ELSEWORLDS, PART 1" REVIEW

Season 5 Episode 9:

Hey everyone, we are here with the annual CW DCTV crossover, with the first part of three on the Flash, which is directed by Kevin Tancharoen. In this episode, we see the basis of the crossover and out main characters coming together to stop this Freaky Friday twist. So spoilers ahead lets recap.

On Earth-90, the Flash is crawling towards a book on the ground among his fellow fallen heroes, however, the book is picked up by the Monitor. The Flash runs away as the Monitor uses the book. On Earth-1, Gotham City, the Monitor hands Dr. John Deegan the book to rewrite reality as he wants. In Central City Oliver Queen wakes up in Barry Allen's apartment, confused that Iris is calling him "Barry Allen". Oliver plays along with Iris as he is called in to be the Flash, as Iris hands him the Flash ring. Oliver struggles to use the powers of the Flash and stop a robbery at a laboratory. Back at STAR Labs, the team notices that something is up with who they consider Barry.

In Star City, Barry finds himself training with Diggle at an Argus facility, and he learns he is the "Green Arrow". Barry has the suit up as the Archer and stops a situation. Oliver then runs in and saves Barry and Diggle. Oliver and Barry have a talk about their "Quantum Leap" as they decide to go to STAR Labs to attempt to fix this situation. At STAR Labs, Barry and Oliver try to tell team Flash that reality is broken. Cisco has a vibe of the Monitor in the training room. Barry and Oliver are knocked out by team Flash and are locked up.

The two escape the cell and steal an extrapolation from Iris to get to Earth-38. On Earth-38, Barry and Oliver go to the Kent farm where they meet Kara, who is with Clark and Lois. The two tell Kara what is going on before they go to train with each other's powers, season one crossover style. Back on Earth-1, a meta robot from the facility earlier emerges and takes down Ralph and Killer Frost. Cisco vibes to Earth-38 where he tells Barry and Oliver what is going on and the team believes them. Kara and Clark decide to tag along as well. Central City, Earth-1, the Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, and Superman team up and fight Amazo, with the robot copying all of their abilities. Barry comes up with a plan which has Oliver take Amazo for a run, and Kara to punch is down.

At STAR Labs, Sherloque tells Cisco and Caitlin to build an off switch for Amazo, which they do. Cisco vibes to Barry and places the switch on his arrow. Barry takes aim as the three other heroes hold down Amazo, as Barry says "You have failed this city" and shoots Amazo, blowing it to pieces. Back at STAR Labs, Clark goes back to Earth-38, while Cisco gives Barry and Oliver the vibe he saw of the Monitor. Oliver speed sketches the Monitor and Dr. Deegan and finds that they are in Gotham City. In Gotham City, we see Batwoman on top of a roof looking down.

Overall this was a brilliant episode, in the way that it was made. A lot happened in this part off the crossover, but yet it was very streamlined to create an exciting episode of the Flash. I do appreciate how this is distinctly a Flash episode, with the focus on Oliver as Barry and team Flash. The episode has it standard Flash staples and the status quo dynamics in the team. If you were wondering where Nora (Barry and Iris’ daughter from the future) was, she went back to 2049.

I do have to say that one of my favorite parts of this episode was Barry and Oliver training on the Kent farm. There was the call back to Barry being stabbed with Arrows in the back in the first crossover, but this time the roles were reversed. The conversation after that was also brilliant, with the characters pointing out the flaws in each other’s show. It was very meta, and very true, and was great to see. “You can’t go nine hours without a sappy motivational speech”.

Kara, Clark and Lois’ inclusion in the crossover was great. On Supergirl, Kara was forced to give up identity, which she didn’t, so it makes sense for her to hang out at her cousin’s farm. Seeing Superman on screen with Barry and Oliver was amazing, and something which I have wanted to see since these shows have started.
The Amazo fight at the end of the episode was great and featured some interesting sequences with these heroes all together. Barry and Oliver acting as each other were dealt with in an interesting manner and something which added to the characters a whole. The two actors, Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin respectively, acting as each other’s character were emphasized and it was great seeing Barry acting a little darker and more mature, while Oliver could be a little more relaxed.

The cast in the episode was great and all acted in an exciting way to make this freaky Friday scenario to feel natural. Starring in the episode we had Stephen Amell (Oliver as Barry Allen/ The Flash), Grant Gustin (Barry as Oliver Queen/ Green Arrow), Melissa Benoist (Kara Danvers/ Supergirl), Tyler Hoechlin (Clark Kent/ Superman), Elizabeth Tulloch (Lois Lane), Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon/ Vibe), Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow/ Killer Frost), Hartley Sawyer (Ralph Dibny/ Elongated Man), Tom Cavanagh (Sherloque Wells), David Ramsey (John Diggle/ Spartan), Jeremy Davies (Dr. John Deegan), LaMonica Garrett (Monitor), John Wesley Shipp (Barry Allen/ The Flash [Earth-90]), and Ruby Rose (Kate Kane/ Batwoman).

Overall, this episode was arguably the best of the season and a strong start to the crossover. I loved of the episode was streamlined to feel like an episode of the Flash while being a pivotal piece the crossover, which was held up with Stephen and Grant being exceptional at playing each other’s character. The threat of Amazo was also exciting, bringing in the super cousins for a fight which was worth it. I will give this episode of the Flash a 9 out of 10. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your favorite scene, or character down in the comments. You can click on the left for part two tomorrow, on the right for the Endgame trailer, and also subscribe. As always thanks for reading, take care.