Glen Winter

“Strange Visitor from Another Planet” keeps it simple with streamlined storytelling, attention to character, and strong setpieces.

This week’s episode of The Flash, titled “Fallout,” capped off a two-part story arc focusing mostly on Firestorm. Last week in “The Nucleur Man,” the team attempted to track Ronnie Raymond’s whereabouts after he makes acquaintances with one Quentin Quale. What began as an awkward conversation between them, ended with Ronnie losing control and unleashing his powers on the Concordance Research scientist. Knowing that Dr. Martin Stein is in control of Ronnie’s body, the Star Labs team devise a plan to find and capture Firestorm who’s becoming increasingly dangerous to the citizens of Central City. It turns out that Ronnie/Martin have been watching over Stein’s wife, so Caitlin and Dr. Wells hold a stakeout at the Stein house using Clarissa as bait. With her help, they bring Ronnie/Stein back to their labs, in hopes of separating them through nuclear fission. Wells uses the hours they have left to find a way to save them both and creates a makeshift quantum splicer out of his tachyon prototype to stabilize Ronnie’s body and separate the two personalities.

We’ve already seen plenty of exchanges between The Flash and Arrow since Barry Allen first debuted in “The Scientist”, but this episode marked the first major crossover between the two shows. The writers focused a great deal on the sheer entertainment in seeing these two heroes square off, and the end result is a fun, lighthearted, action packed adventure that knows exactly what it wants to be and executes it well. As DC and Warner Bros. prep Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice to kick-start their interconnected big-screen universe, “The Flash vs. Arrow” proves their small screen worlds are miles ahead of the game.

Taking into account a DVR playback The Flash series pilot has risen to 6.8 million viewers since it first premiered. That’s The CW’s most-watched telecast in the network’s history. It’s also the network’s second biggest rating ever among adults 18-49. If you count all platforms, the tally rises to 13 million viewers. If anything, “Going Rogue” will only help boost those numbers. With a script that never forgets its heroes’ humanity, and two superpowered set pieces, “Going Rogue” lives up to its hype — and raises the bar for the DC canon. Not only does this episode introduce Wentworth Miller playing one of the Flash’s best-known enemies, but the special guest star turned in a great performance as the famous Captain Cold. And if that isn’t enough to tune in, “Going Rogue” was co-written by Geoff Johns, responsible for his fair share of some of the best Flash comic book stories. Finally, “Going Rogue” is also the first crossover episode, bringing Felicity Smoak over from established hit series Arrow.