As Barry runs around Central City helping out people with a case of “The Feels,” a man enters a bank and everyone loses their minds. It’s like 28 Days Later in there as people start punching and hitting and strangling each other. Just as our new meta-human leaves, Barry enters and saves a young man from getting shot by a gun-toting mother. Over at Eddie’s nifty bungalow he and Iris talk about The Flash, who Eddie isn’t quite convinced is real despite Iris’ insistence. Barry re-enters the bank to start his official investigation and discusses with Joe what happened with the people inside, who he says were “whammied.”
At CCPD, Eddie is in full J. Jonah Jameson mode trying to convince Captain Singh that The Flash is someone they should be trying to stop, which annoys Iris and causes a rift between the two of them. Barry heads over to STAR Labs where they reveal that everyone inside the bank had the emotional sides of their brain overwhelmed during the robbery. Seeing that Iris wants to meet The Flash again, Barry tells the STAR crew to let him know if they find anything, but Caitlin warns him to not get involved with Iris and Eddie’s feud, it’s not his place. He doesn’t listen and runs off to Jitters anyway where the two discuss, of course, Eddie and how he doesn’t trust him. No sooner has the conversation begun when Cisco tells Barry they’ve got a ping from the tracer inside the stolen money.
As our mysterious bank robber shuffles through his money, he finds the tracer himself, just as the CCPD busts inside the warehouse. They find him and prepare to arrest him just as he whammies one of the other officers who does an about-face and aims a shotgun at Joe and the rest of his squad. As he fires Barry runs in and saves the cops from a face full of pellets and then suddenly the cop is subdued by a rope…tied to an arrow….and there he is, Oliver Queen as the Arrow on location in Central City. He compliments Barry on his mask before jumping out of the room, leaving Barry grinning like an idiot.
As Felicity and Diggle wait outside Central City, they spot Oliver on his motorcycle who is very quickly surpassed by Barry on foot. As Diggle continues to be freaked out by Barry’s speed, they explain they’re in Central City working a case involving a boomerang murder. Barry wants to help so he brings Felicity to STAR Labs where her shirt catches on fire because of Barry’s speed. She shows the boomerang to Cisco and Caitlin, who reveal they think the meta-human is inducing rage via the eyes. Dr. Wells asks to see Barry and he and Joe tell him they don’t trust the Arrow and would rather he wasn’t hanging around Central City. The three argue about the ethics of heroism, Barry’s way vs. Oliver’s way that is, and suddenly the boomerang goes nuts and flies around the lab breaking quite a bit of glass.
Diggle continues to be perplexed by Barry’s abilities as Oliver goes hunting for the bank robber, and in true Arrow fashion finds out the name of the culprit, Roy G. Bivolo, which he reveals to Barry at Jitters the next morning. As Iris almost passes out at the site of Oliver, Felicity convinces him to help Barry catch the meta-human. The pair agree and we see the mightiest handshake that has ever appeared on The CW.
Later that day, Barry goes to the outskirts to see Oliver who says he’s going to train him. He’s looked back at all his fights and thinks that while he has good intentions, he’s sloppy, so he sends Barry off in the distance and tells him to run at him and catch an arrow. Barry does just that but then crossbows on the ground behind him shoot him in the back with two arrows. In pain, Barry doesn’t know why Oliver would do this, but had Barry paid attention to his surroundings he’d have noticed this, a tough lesson from Uncle Oliver. Back at CCPD, Captain Singh and Eddie once again talk about this special task force Eddie wants and Joe chastises Barry for working with the Arrow, who he dubs a crazy man.
At STAR Labs, the crew theorizes through color psychology they could reverse the effects of Bivolo’s abilities. Dr. Wells asks to speak to Felicity where he lays out how little he trusts the Arrow and asks her to reveal his identity to her, which she won’t do. No worries though, Wells will figure it out. Barry returns to the lab where they’ve found Bivolo thanks to their facial recognition software, a gift from Felicity. At his secret hide-out, Barry vibrates the lock open and enters where he confronts Bivolo and his creepy paintings, but not before he can put the ju-ju on Barry. They run tests on Barry at STAR Labs but everything seems to be in order. As Caitlin chastises Barry (lots of chastising on this show) he plays the “dead fiance” card which is both out of character and foreshadowing! Oliver messages Barry for another training session where he tells him “You done goofed,” and “I’ve been doing this a while, take my advice.” Effected by the ju-ju, Barry thinks Oliver is just jealous of his abilities before running back into the city.
Barry enters CCPD and gets into a tussle with Captain Singh, who just wants to eat his lunch, but Joe saves him from having the wrath of the boss inflicted on him. Joe asks Barry what’s wrong and Barry quickly turns on him too before leaving. Oliver calls Felicity, who is still at STAR Labs, and tells her something is wrong with Barry just as Joe enters and reveals he was whammied. Wells tells Felicity they’re going to need the Arrow’s help, also the Arrow is totally Oliver Queen, he deduced it (or does he know this because he’s from the future?).
Iris and Eddie drive down the road and talk about The Flash. As Iris reveals she’s been in contact with him, Barry runs next to the car and rips Eddie out of it, throwing him across the street. Eddie draws his gun and fires, but Barry is too quick. Felicity finds Barry through the facial recognition software as he puts the hurt on Eddie. Iris doesn’t know what to make of the situation, The Flash saves people, why would he act this way? Just as Barry goes for the killing blow, Oliver strings him up via his handy rope. Arrow tells Iris and Eddie to flee. Then the moment we’ve all been waiting for happens, the throwdown.
As Team Flash and Team Arrow argue about who would win, Barry takes Oliver for a ride by dragging him via his rope arrow. Oliver blows up a transformer behind Barry and the two start to exchange blows, Barry dodges many of Oliver’s but he gets at least a few good hits in. Oliver fires one last arrow at Barry, which he of course catches, but just like he did earlier Oliver has a back-up plan, literally. His motorcycle fires two arrows into Barry’s back and Oliver sticks another through his leg. He holds him until Dr. Wells and Diggle can ride up in a van and use a large assortment of lights to clear Barry of the whammy. Barry apologizes for what he’s done and the pair decide to take on the meta-human, which we don’t get to see them do.
Bivolo gets locked up in the Particle Accelerator prison and Oliver admires it, given he has his own prison. Oliver asks Team Flash to not tell anyone his secret and prepares to leave. Joe thanks him despite not agreeing with his methods, and Dr. Wells reveals he knew his father and thinks he’d like who Oliver has become. As they leave Oliver thinks there’s something not right about Dr. Wells – at least someone finally sees it.
At Jitters, Eddie reveals he got the Flash task force approved and he and Iris make up. Oliver and Felicity pop in for one last coffee. Barry apologizes once again and Oliver echoes Caitlin’s advice from earlier, let it go when it comes to Iris. As he gets ready to leave, Oliver sees Sandra, the young woman whom he impregnated before getting stranded on the island eight years ago and who his mother told him she had miscarried and moved off to Central City. The pair greet each other but there definitely seems to be some feelings still there. Then the biggest bombshell in the history of Arrow gets dropped as Sandra picks up her cell phone and talks to their child! Barry tries to apologize to Iris that night as The Flash, but she’s not having any of it. She tells him she doesn’t want to see him anymore, but boy will she. Over at STAR Labs, Caitlin looks at a photo of her and Ronnie and in a seedy part of town two thugs try to rob someone they think is strung out on drugs, but is in fact Ronnie Raymond and he’s about to go full on Firestorm.
“The Flash” and “Arrow” crossover continues tonight with the “Arrow” half, titled “The Brave and The Bold.” You can check out the first clip from the episode below!
