The Flash is back in, “All Star Team Up,†with Felicity and Ray Palmer making their way to Central City. I’m never one to turn down a crossover episode, and once again, it was another solid episode.
“All Star Team Up†assumes two very contrasting tones. On the one hand, the addition of Felicity and Ray adds for a great amount of comedy, but with Barry having to deal with the whole Wells issue, the episode takes on a very tense tone.
The show starts off innocent enough for Barry and the crew. Barry is arresting criminals at lightning speed. He’s taking out handfuls of criminals, just being a night’s work for the crew. But, since she is a reporter and all, Iris is giving Eddie the fifth degree. She knows he is keeping a secret, but lying to Iris is something with which Eddie is terrible. He looks just as uncomfortable as Barry does. The tension continues throughout the entire episode, which may put those that hate Iris off of this episode. Having said that, the way her character acts may be petty and annoying, but we have been given a glimpse into her point of view. No one is telling her what’s going on, and similar to how Barry is on dates, Iris is the fifth wheel. I honestly am not sure why Barry hasn’t told Iris his secret as well.
The tension among Iris and Eddie is only amplified with Barry battling demons of his own. Ever since finding out that Wells is The Reverse Flash, he hasn’t been all together there. Grant Gustin has done a spectacular job as The Flash, and it continues in this episode. Those small mannerisms that he does when around Wells is spectacular. It really makes you feel uneasy in every scene. Even after Barry’s first confrontation with Brie Larvan (Emily Kinney), where he they had to remotely trigger the defibrillator in his suit, Barry expresses his frustrations towards the group by angrily keeping with their planned date night.
The dinner was just about the most tension-filled date ever. Iris and Eddie went at it the entire time while Barry had to excuse himself entirely. Luckily, Felicity, having gone through this same ordeal back in Starling City, knew how to deal with it. Barry explains that Wells is the one that killed his mother, and he doesn’t know who to trust. But, Felicity explains that she knows Caitlin and Cisco can be trusted, and the only way to get through this is with your friends. Felicity is one of the most effective characters to cross between shows. She doesn’t ever seem to be too melodramatic, like Iris can be at times, while still making her presence known across the two shows, soon to be three shows since The ATOM is going to be a part of the hopefully upcoming spin-off.
Speaking of, is there really a character better than Ray Palmer? He’s one of the goofiest most likeable characters on both shows. With him and Felicity now a couple, you get a comedic duo filled with laughter and double entendres. Caitlin even notes during their first encounter with the new couple, “God, there’s two of them.†The whole reason the duo made a trip to Central City was to get Ray’s ATOM suit fixed. As Ray put it, “I am having problems keeping it up.†It was such a great comedic scene that he had Wells cracking a smile. Later ,Felicity quips that, “[It’s] kind of like I’m dating Barry but in Oliver’s body.†Straight comedy gold.
In this episode, we finally get a nice look at The ATOM suit, and man does it look great. I was worried about how flying would look on The CW, but my fears were washed away as he was flying through the sky.
The villain, Bug-Eyed Bandit, was nicknamed jointly by Cisco and Ray. A budding bromance is definitely growing between the two, and it’s great to see. The villain controlled robotic bees and was going after people that killed her project, which was initially supposed to help crops. Ray got a swarm of the bees to follow him, and in order to kill the robotic bees, he had to take a dive underwater with the suit he was trying to enhance. Of course, this made the suit useless, but at the end of the episode, we learn that Ray is actually going to use the technology from one of the robotic bees to enhance his suit. Meanwhile, Barry was face-to-face with a swarm. Felicity, hacker extraordinaire, beat out the Bug-Eyed Bandit, easily dispatching another foe.
As for the other S.T.A.R. Labs crew, Caitlin wasn’t in the episode much, but Cisco was pivotal. When Cisco and Ray were talking by the trap he made for The Reverse Flash, he was having some memories crossover from the other timeline where Wells killed him. These continue throughout the episode up until the final scene. Final scenes are always spectacular in The Flash, and this one was especially so. Barry takes Felicity’s advice to tell Cisco and Caitlin about Wells. Caitlin vehemently disagreed, while Cisco stood there stunned. Caitlin asked why Cisco wasn’t saying anything to defend Wells, and that’s when he drops the bomb about his memories from the other timeline. This changes everything as the two worlds as somehow inherently connected. Who knows what could come of this, but Cisco is right in the middle of it.
