‘Arrow’ Recap: ‘The Flash’ Barry Allen Arrives To Romance Felicity
Barry Allen has finally hit Starling City! The Dec. 4 episode ‘The Scientist’ served as the grand debut for the comic book staple, who was immediately swept off his feet by the charms of one very sexy, bespectacled IT girl.
Holy cliffhanger, Batman. Err, sorry — wrong DC Comics vigilante franchise. Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) finally came to Starling City for an explosive episode that ended with Oliver (Stephen Amell) lying motionless on a table, fighting for his life. Something tells us he’ll pull through, and with a new, adorable member on his team to boot — which is good, because shooting Roy (Colton Haynes) in the leg wasn’t a great move for that whole “Arrow playing nice” objective. Oh, and did I mention that Moira (Susanna Thompson) knows about Ra’s al Ghul? Yeah, this one was pretty major. Read on for more!
Oliver’s Bloody Beatdown
“The Flash” would never just show up in Starling City for any old reason — a very suspicious break-in at Queen Consolidated drew Barry’s attention from all the way over in Central City (I have no clue where that is). A massive, Hulk-like villain busted open a giant, unbreakable door and broke a guard’s neck with one hand to steal an industrial centrifuge, and the hot-shot CSI agent was immediately flown in to help with forensics, since he was working on a similar case and all.
That is, the not-so-hot shot CSI assistant broke the rules and called out sick to investigate the Queen Consolidated case without permission. But we forgive him, and not only because he was so damn adorable with Felicity. Barry showed up and immediately sized up the entire “Hood” operation, which just makes Detective Lance and co’s ineptitude even more hilarious.
“Why green?” he asked a flustered Felicity. “Black would be better for stealth and urban camouflage. Me, personally? I think that he trained in some sort of like, forest or jungle environment, and the green is a nod to that… you want to know something else? I think that he has partners. Definitely someone with a background in computer sciences.”
Well, that pretty much sums it up. But of course Barry didn’t put two and two together right away — it took a roofie and a mortally wounded Oliver to make that happen.
Oliver being Oliver, of course he has history with this sort of Hulk-smash character who has invaded Starling City. Back on the island, Oliver, Sara (Caity Lotz), and Shado (Celina Jade) encountered a serum meant to create larger-than-life human weapons while they were on a mission to save the mortally wounded Slade (Manu Bennett). The evil Dr. Anthony Ivo (Dylan Neal) used his time on the island to create and perfect this serum, though he kind of sucks at his job because the serum makes everybody’s eyes bleed, and then they die. (“Why couldn’t you have been marooned on Aruba?” Felicity quipped. Hehe.) Slade took it anyway, and promptly died. Right.
Nowadays, Brother Blood (Kevin Alejandro) has been injecting the serum into the citizens of Starling City via his blood drives, which is pretty s–tty because those people are just being good samaritans and all. One of its newest victims was Roy’s short haired girl friend’s friend Max, which is why Oliver shot him in the leg — he didn’t want his kid sister’s boyfriend butting in. I mean, I get it.
Another person Oliver didn’t want butting in was Barry, who Oliver easily sussed out because he’s a billionaire and has unlimited resources and what not. He confronted Barry for lying, but Barry’s reasoning — that his mother was killed when he was eleven in a similarly impossible case — was pretty legit.
“My dad has been serving a life sentence,” he said. “They didn’t believe me. One night, something just came into our house like a tornado — a blur. Somewhere inside the blur, I saw a person. My dad went to fight it. I went to get him, when suddenly I was 20 blocks away from our house. Nobody believed me. They thought I was trying to cover for my father. But what I saw that night was real. As real as the man that ripped down that metal door with his bare hands. That’s why I look into cases like this — the ones nobody believes are possible. Maybe if I could just make sense of one, I might be able to find out who really killed my mother, and free my dad.”
So basically, shut up, Oliver.
But Oliver isn’t one to let things go, so Barry headed back to Central City — that is, until Oliver tracked down the beefcake and was injected with yet another mysterious serum. Felicity and Diggle came to his aid, but it was already too late. Oliver was on the brink of death, and with the options being “dial 9-1-1 and blow up this entire operation” or “roofie Barry and drag him to our secret lair because maybe he knows about science,” Barry quickly became the newest person to learn Oliver’s secret.
“Please save my friend,” Felicity said, in tears, before the credits rolled.
Boom!
Moira’s Mediocre Return & The Death Of Ollicity
Meanwhile-ish, Oliver threw the lamest rich person party of all time to “celebrate” Moira’s return to Queen Consolidated. Pretty much nobody showed up — much to Isabel Rochev’s (Summer Glau) bitchy delight — but it did provide the perfect excuse for Felicity to ask Barry out on a date.
“Um, no. I do not… like… Oliver,” Felicity stuttered, when a clearly disappointed Barry thought that the two of them were dating. Felicity, who suddenly has acquired some game, used this awkward moment as an opportunity to ask Barry to the big dance. “I was thinking you would make a really good plus one,” she said.
“There isn’t going to be dancing, is there?” Barry replied nervously. “I’m just not too good on my feet.” (Get it? Because he’s going to be The Flash?)
Barry was (briefly) called back to Central City during the party — right before what could have been their first kiss — but don’t feel too bad for Barricity. Or for Moira, who revealed herself as a total boss b–tch at the end of the episode.
Malcom Merlyn (John Barrowman) was a major thorn in Moira’s side throughout most of the night, demanding to take Thea (Willa Holland) away from her as collateral for saving her from a lifetime in prison. But Moira gave Malcom (and the audience) the shocker of a lifetime when she revealed her biggest secret yet — she knows about Ra’s al Ghul!
“The League of Assassins, however twisted their aims, believes very deeply in a code of honor,” Moira said when Malcom came to collect Thea. “Your undertaking betrayed that code… and [Ra’s] so very much wants to kill you himself. My advice to you, Malcom? Run.”
Wow. That was a lot to take in for one night. What do you think, HollywoodLifers? Is Barry a solid addition to the team? Is Moira BFFLz with Ra’s? Is this really the end of Ollicity? Let’s all freak out in the comments!
— Shaunna Murphy
Follow @ShaunnaLMurphy
More ‘Arrow’ News:
- ‘Arrow’ Season Premiere Recap: Oliver Queen Returns To Save His Family
- ‘Arrow’ Season Finale: [Spoiler] Dies & Leaves Oliver Devastated
- Stephen Amell: ‘Arrow’ Star & Wife Welcome A Baby Girl — Congrats