The second season of The CW’s Arrow premiered on October 7 with “Green Arrow,” and the weeks since have seen almost an entirely new show as Oliver traded in his brooding and self-blame for cooking and communication. Sadly for Arrow fans, Oliver Queen and Co. have the week off for Thanksgiving. Happily for fans, however, a double dose of Oliver and Co. will be hitting the airwaves next week with the upcoming crossover event with The Flash. Check out the trailer for Tuesday night’s Flash episode “Legends of Today” and the Arrow follow-up episode “Legends of Yesterday.”
Arrow has been different in Season 4 beyond being just a more optimistic hero. Oliver's Team Arrow has expanded to include Laurel Lance as Black Canary and Thea Queen as Speedy, in addition to original members John Diggle and Felicity Smoak. The action dynamic is one that the show has yet to entirely nail as Oliver’s skills have been somewhat diminished for the sake of spotlighting those of his teammates, and the decision to officially resurrect three major figures in the space of seven episodes was dubious, but Season 4 has been pretty fantastic on the character front.
It comes as no huge surprise that Arrow has gotten the week off, and not just because Oliver will probably be too busy cooking up a feast to deal with any immortal supervillains. Viewers in the U.S. are likely more preoccupied with looking forward to their Thursday turkey tryptophan trips to tune in to The CW. In fact, it’s a good thing that Arrow will not be airing a new episode this week, as The Flash too is taking a breather. A scheduling mishap last year saw the timeline between the two shows skewed to the disadvantage of a Felicity Smoak/Ray Palmer crossover, so keeping Arrow and The Flash as close to synchronized as possible is for the best.
Next week’s crossover event promises to be even bigger than last year’s, as Arrow and The Flash come to the climaxes of their ongoing campaigns to launch spinoff Legends of Tomorrow before it actually premieres on January 21, 2016. Immortal supervillain Vandal Savage will be targeting Hawkgirl – currently known only as barista Kendra Saunders over on The Flash - bringing Carter Hall as Hawkman into the fold and motivating Team Arrow and Team Flash to step in to protect the newcomers. Interestingly, the Flash half of the Flarrow crossover will primarily take place in Star City and the Arrow half will take place primarily in Central City. Judging by the looks of the trailer, however, there will definitely be some scenes that take place in the past.
Arrow's “Legends of Yesterday” will air on Wednesday, December 2 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. In the meantime, feel free to rewatch the trailer a few extra times before the tryptophan sets in and try to figure out just how evil Vandal Savage must be to interrupt an Oliver Queen dinner party.
