Flash vs. Arrow

Our crossover event begins in Central City. Rather than doing the usual superhero fare, Barry's simply doing miscellaneous good deeds at superspeed. Giving flowers to a married couple on a date, painting a house, little things that would make someone smile. The feel-good moments come to a halt when a man enters the bank, turning people's eyes red. This makes them all angry and a fight ensues while he walks out with the money. Barry manages to break up the fight before things get too out of hand.
Back at the police station, Eddie is trying to convince the police chief to put a task force together to bring in the Flash, but is shot down. The bank robber is tracked to an abandoned warehouse, but he uses his abilities on a member of the SWAT team, who opens fire on Joe and Eddie. The Flash gets them out of the way, and the angry cop is suddenly taken down by the Arrow. The title card for this episode is unique, with an arrow being shot through the Flash logo, and it then disappears in green lightning rather than its usual red and yellow.

Barry follows Oliver out to an empty farm where Felicity and Diggle were waiting for him. Diggle hasn't seen Barry's speed in action yet, so he's impressed to say the least. Ollie and his team had traced a murder weapon to a manufacturer in Central City, hence their presence in this episode. Roy is the only member of the team not present, and it could be assumed Oliver left Arsenal in Starling in case any trouble surfaces while he's gone. At first, Ollie doesn't want to team up, but still goes out of his way to dig up the robber's real name: Roy G. Bivolo.

Back at STAR Labs, Barry gets a talking to about the Starling City vigilante from Joe and Dr. Wells, and it's understandable considering the Arrow used to kill criminals without hesitation. However, Barry's adamant that they're on the same side, and later meets Oliver for training. Ollie makes a good point that Barry doesn't analyze his surroundings before rushing in, which he gets across by shooting an arrow at him. Barry catches it, only for two turrets to pop up out of the ground and shoot arrows into his back. ("Heard you heal fast.") Later, Barry tracks down Bivolo (who Cisco named Prism), and a short struggle ends when he uses his powers on the Flash and gets away.

At first, Barry seems okay, but gets ruder and angrier as the episode continues. It's believed that his powers were fighting off the effects of Prism's anger eye, which has been causing the rage to pile up rather than come out all at once. This culminates into the Flash confronting Eddie in the middle of the street, right in front of Iris. She tries to talk him down to no avail, and Dr. Wells has to ask Felicity to call in Oliver (having figured out his identity).

The Arrow shows up right before the Flash does something he'll regret, and the obligatory hero vs. hero fight ensues...and it is awesome. (Cisco and Diggle actually speculate which one of them would win.) Oliver can't get a hit on him, but is at least able to stay on the defense. Since the anger was the result of seeing red light, Wells, Caitlin and the others conclude that different colored lights might be the key to bringing Barry back to normal. This could be a nod to DC's various Lantern Corps, each with a different colored ring that's powered by a different emotion.

Barry calms down, our two heroes bring down Prism (off-screen, surprisingly enough), but the damage is done. Eddie gets his anti-Flash task force, and Iris's faith in him is shaken. He tries to apologize to her, but whether or not she believes him, she still doesn't want him contacting her again. It makes me wonder if she'll keep writing about him.

Felicity asks a favor of the STAR Labs crew to analyze a DNA sample from the arrow that killed the Canary. Dr. Wells has a brief moment with Oliver, saying he'd met his father once and thought he'd be proud of him. (Oliver says there's something strange about Wells as he leaves.)

The end scene reveals that Ronnie Raymond is still alive. Caitlin's fiancee supposedly lost his life when the particle accelerator blew, but he's out on the street, his body engulfed in flames.

It's nice to see these two shows come together, showing the similarities and differences between them. The scenes where Barry's getting angry are especially scary, since he's normally so laid back and likeable. It's also a bit strange to see Eddie suddenly turn against the Flash, who hasn't done anything non-heroic until this episode. The story continues in the next episode of Arrow.