by Chelsea Dee, Editor-At-Large
I didn’t hate Ray in this episode, which makes me think that he could do well on a different show. Maybe one that works better with his goofiness. I always liked the Atom in the JLA, and not always as much in his solo series. Some characters are better on a team. This is the second Arrow-Flash crossover and it worked fairly well with what they were doing. Although it led to things that annoyed me, but more on that soon. Previously on The Flash, Barry figured out that Wells is actually the Reverse-Flash. We saw a Flashback where Eobard Thawne killed and replaced the real Harrison Wells fifteen years ago. In one timeline, Cisco figured it out and was murdered by Wells. That timeline was erased when Barry went back in time and unknowingly fixed it. Last episode Barry and Joe told Eddie about Barry being the Flash, and yet again, said that Iris can’t know. Meanwhile things to know from Arrow: Felicity and Ray are dating. Ray’s still trying to put together his super suit. I can’t figure out in the timeline when this is, because it would be weird for Ray and Felicity to leave Starling City when Roy/Oliver were arrested. Was this before Ray got injured? Someone tell me if they know the answer, I missed it.
Let me just get my biggest pet peeve out of the way early. I mentioned in my last recap how much I hate the “my beloved can’t know my secret” trope that is extremely overdone. Decades now we’ve been force fed it. If Arrow and Flash have proven anything, the people who are in the know of things end up being safer than the ones ignorant. Making Iris literally the only person who doesn’t know the truth is offensive to me. The fact that her father believes he can make this call for her, and implies the only time Eddie gets to make the call is when he’s her husband, as if her husband and father and “brother” can only decide things for her, makes me see red. Patriarchy rage! Right now Ray, a complete stranger, knows Barry is the Flash and not Iris. This is ridiculous. Everyone else on the show knows and they are safer for that information. Leaving her oblivious will not make her safer, it’ll make it so she has no idea there’s a target on her, or that she has resources if bad things happen. Completely disgusting. I’m also annoyed Felicity didn’t mention it too. She pressed Barry to tell Cisco and Caitlin about Wells, but she’s seen first hand that it’s better when people in Arrow know the truth. This is the major thing keeping me from loving this show.
With the ranting out of the way, on to the actual recap. Eddie and Iris are having problems because she knows he’s lying to her (oh she can sense he’s lying but not sense that everyone else is also lying okay whatever). Barry tries to tell her that it’s because Eddie’s a cop and can’t share everything with her, but she’s not having that. Ugh forced drama I hate you. This leads to an awkward dinner with Felicity and Ray when they get there, where she storms off. The love triangle nonsense always makes everyone seem less intelligent and more annoying. Let’s get her back to trying to find her boss. Ray jokes about how he bought Felicity’s company to get her to work for her and that it’s not creepy, but ha ha, it definitely still is. Barry confesses to Felicity about Wells, and that he’s afraid of telling Cisco and Caitlin because they could be in on it. She insists he should anyway, but not that he should be honest with Iris, so whatever. In any case he does say so in the end, and Cisco believes him because he’s been having “visions.” NO. THAT WAS ANOTHER TIMELINE. They are practically separate universes. He does not get memories of things that never actually happened. Ugh comics logic, okay fine.
The case of the week is that this woman got fired for weaponizing her bee robots and she’s having them go kill people. I’m not making this up. In the comics she’s the Bug-Eyed Bandit, and she does seem more lethal here than I expected. Her bees even manage to “sting” and kill Barry, although he’s brought back. She kills a few people before the two team up, and Ray manages to distract her bees into the ocean. Cisco nearly dies because of a bee, but Barry uses his new vibrating powers to restart his heart. Cool! Barry manages to stop Brie because Felicity is a better hacker than her, and gets to do a hilarious drop the mic reference. Wells knows all this stuff is happening, he might not know exactly, but he can tell how withdrawn and weird Barry’s been acting. With the other two on board it’ll be worse. The head of Mercury Labs tells Barry that she did know Harrison Wells before the accident that killed his wife, the one we know also killed the real Wells, and he was a completely different person. So it looks like they’re ready to do some detective work. It wasn’t a bad episode, but it wasn’t a great one. I still am not a fan of Ray, although he was more tolerable here. Felicity always interacts well with the Flash cast, so that’s nice. It continues the story along, but it’s a little forgettable as far as team-ups go.
A note that is necessary, this title is called “All Star Team Up.” It’s a wink to the DC comic series that teamed up all the famous DC characters in a storyline together. It made me smile.
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives The Flash Season 1 Episode 18 3 out of 5 Weak Villains and Guest Stars
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