"Arrow" and "The Flash" Midseason Review

Of all of the insanely powerful and deadly enemies that the Green Arrow and The Flash have had to go up against on their respective shows, the greatest enemy to both heroes have faced so far on the runs of their shows has been maturity. Barry Allen (The Flash) has a dangerous habit of fixing personal problems by time traveling, thus exposing the entire universe to new dangers, and changing the lives of people around him in irreparable ways. Oliver Queen (the Green Arrow) has trust issues so deep that his secrets and lies have led to the ruin of relationships, friendships, and the death of friends, family members, and innocent bystanders. In both cases, whenever these heroes indulge in their worst qualities, the shows they are on suffer thematically and narratively. If The Flash's "Present" and Arrow's "What We Leave Behind" are indicators of where those respective shows are going, the future may be much brighter for both shows.

This season of The Flash, has revolved around "Flashpoint" and the consequences and threats that have arisen from Barry's choice to once again go back in time and try to save his mother from being murdered by The Reverse Flash. Last week's DC crossover event "Invasion" did a decent job of trying to move the show past that creative mistake, and "Present" was the show's first chance to move in a different direction. For the most part it was a success. Barry finally learned a little bit about who Savitar is and why he's on Barry's earth. He's supposedly the first ever speedster who received his powers from the Philosopher's Stone, and is essentially to The Flash what Apocalypse is to the X-Men universe. Savitar was alerted to Barry's growing power by "Flashpoint" and  seeing him as a threat, has decided to wage war against Barry.

When presented with multiple opportunities to fall back into old habits, Barry ultimately resisted the urge. His first smart move was going to Jay Garrick for help figuring out how to handle Savitar. Barry has a tendency to try to go it alone when he runs into a problem, and the fact that he reached out to Jay is a sign that we might be dealing with a more mature Barry Allen now. Even more telling is that when Barry accidentally travels to the future and witnesses Iris's death, he listens to Jay's advice that the future he saw is just one possibility, and to live in the present, because trying to fix the future will only cause more trouble like "Flashpoint" did. Instead of traveling into the future again, Barry decides to take his relationship with Iris in a big direction by buying them an apartment to live in together. This is the most hopeful sign of growth we've seen from Barry (and frankly the show's writers) all season.

Similar to The Flash, Arrow's "What We Leave Behind" helped point the show in an interesting direction, and show the growth of it's main hero. Through flashbacks, and some present detective work by Oliver, Felicity, and Felicity's detective boyfriend Billy, we learn that Prometheus' vendetta against Oliver and company is somehow connected to Justine Claybourne, a name Oliver "checked off" his list back in his early vigilante days. Though the episode strongly points to an illegitimate son of Claybourne's as the identity of Prometheus, the show is still careful to not show us Prometheus without his mask. In an attempt to hunt Prometheus down once and for all, Oliver falls into a trap in which he kills a kidnapped Billy who has been dressed to look like Prometheus.

The Oliver of the past four seasons probably would have kept this secret from Felicity, so many secrets he has kept from her before. Here, it was refreshing for Oliver to be completely honest with Felicity about every detail of what happened. Arrow is at its worst when these characters are arbitrarily lying to each other. This gave Felicity a chance to take Oliver's word at face value and understand not be burdened with the pain of Oliver lying to her on top of the pain she is already feeling over Billy's death. I'm sure the issue will come up again, and cause tension, but there's much more room for growth with these characters by addressing it in this way.

Both episodes ended with a juxtaposition of both tragic and surprisingly happy revelations. On The Flash, Prometheus' prophesies about the tragedies that will befall Team Flash, and Barry's knowledge that one of those tragedies is Iris's impending murder, set a very somber tone going into the hiatus. That being said, the show purposefully chose final scenes that ended with happier moments like the group acknowledging Wally's Kid Flash status, and Barry and Iris moving in together. Arrow ended with just about everyone on the team's life in shambles. Evelyn's betrayal of the group led to Oliver murdering Billy, Felicity mourning Billy's death, Curtis being attacked and having his marriage fall part, and John being arrested for the false military crimes he is accused of committing. All of that would seem like a definitively depressing ending were it not for the last minute revelation that Laurel is possibly not dead, seeing as Oliver walks in on her standing in Team Arrow's fortress. What any of this means for the future of these shows is a mystery, but both shows seem to be heading in promising directions.

Other Thoughts:

• At the end of last week's DC crossover, John stood on stage receiving praise from the President for his actions in saving the world. So saving the world doesn't earn you a pass on fake military crimes? Why did John run the risk of attending the press conference in the first place?
• Getting Evelyn's betrayal out of the way early in the episode was smart. She's too boring of a character to spend more time than necessary on.
• A fun little Christmas moment was the way Caitlin used her powers to make is snow, but using her powers makes her an evil villain, so maybe not the smartest choice.
• Wally stepping in to save Barry from Savitar begs the question, why did Savitar restore Wally's "Flashpoint" powers if he fears other speedsters gaining enough power to rival him?
• Savitar said someone on Team Flash would betray the group. There are some pretty plausible candidates. Caitlin, since one of Savitar's followers told Killer Frost that Savitar had big plans for her. Savitar could have ulterior motives in activating Wally's powers, knowing he will betray the group in the future. HW is still a bit of a wild card, though having a Wells character betray the group for a third season in a row seems like tired storytelling.
• As far as anyone in the multi-verse has been aware, "Flashpoint" didn't prevent Laurel's death, so how she appeared standing in front of Oliver at the end of the episode is quite a mystery. She could in theory be a figment of of Oliver's guilt ridden imagination. Maybe her sister Sara found a way to save her through her time traveling antics, though I doubt that based on Sara's claims that she knows better than to do something like that. Plus, had Sara saved her, it probably would have erased Laurel's death, not restored her to the current timeline in a way that would surprise Oliver.
• I always liked Laurel as a character, but the show never knew how to properly use her, so if she is back, hopefully they put her to better use this time.
• Oliver notes that the technique Prometheus used against him was a move Oliver himself learned from a woman in Russia. Susan had a bottle of vodka with Russian writing on it, and has been investigating Oliver's time in Russia. The show is obviously hinting that Susan somehow has a connection to his past in Russia.