The Flash and Arrow were not holding back this year during the two-night crossover event. While the first official crossover last year was simply an episode of The Flash with Arrow characters followed by an episode of Arrow with The Flash characters, this time around, it felt more like a two-hour comic book movie with both casts working together to defeat one villain. And damn, was it epic!

Of course, it also served to introduce the origin story of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, as well as “immortal” villain Vandal Savage before the three of them move on to the upcoming DC Comics spinoff (yes, another one) Legends of Tomorrow. But in addition to the crossover revolving around Hawkman/Carter Hall helping Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders emerge as her true self before Vandal could kill them since his life force only continued as long as they died, it also dropped some major The Flash/Arrow bombshells. Tonight’s episode of Arrow shook things up for Olicity in a way we didn’t see coming. It also set in motion dire consequences for all of Team Arrow thanks to Barry’s time travel escapades. Let’s dive into recapping all the shenanigans, shall we?

Instead of flashing back to Oliver’s time on the island, this week the flashbacks went back way further in time, all the way back to ancient Egypt. We met the first incarnations of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, when Prince Khufu and Priestess Shayera were having an affair, which pissed off Vandal since he was creepily in love with Shayera. He ended up killing both of them when Shayera refused to sleep with him in exchange for him not ratting them out. Meet the world’s first instance of “friend-zoning” a “nice guy,” everybody!

In the present, Kendra’s memories of her past lives as Shayera were slowly coming back to her but she kept that a secret from Carter at first since something was holding her back from accepting her destiny. Hey, if our destiny was to be lovers with a dude that looked like Carter Hall, we would jump in with both feet as soon as we could, but no judgments here, girl. Take your time. Seriously. It’s not like that knowledge can help you defeat the crazy immortal dude hunting you. Nope, not at all.

The rest of Teams Arrow and Flash holed up in a farmhouse (and yes, thank you Thea for that well-timed quip about superheroes in a farmhouse being in some kind of movie) while they tried to figure out a way to get the staff of Horus away from Vandal. That includes the “geek squad” of Barry, Felicity, Cisco and Caitlin building gauntlets that can disrupt the magnetic energy field the staff emits; Thea, Laurel, and Diggle searching for any info on Vandal from ARGUS; Carter training Kendra in her new abilities. Meanwhile, Oliver snuck away to do some recon on his ex-girlfriend’s son whom he saw at CC Jitters at the end of yesterday’s The Flash. Doing the elementary school math (which is pretty much the highest level of math Oliver can do), he was pretty sure the boy was the right age to be his.

But Oliver didn’t clue in Felicity to his suspicions, wanting to make sure he was right before he acted on anything. He visited his ex Samantha Hawke, who is quick to tell Oliver that her son William (cough, not Connor, cough) isn’t his. Oliver got a strand of William’s hair to double check, though, and Barry ran a DNA test on it. Lo and behold, it’s a match! Too bad Felicity caught Barry trying to hide the results. The cat is out of the bag, people.

The whole situation was made even worse when Samantha told Oliver the only way he can get to know William is if he didn’t tell anyone about it. Including Felicity. This is not going to end well for Olicity, folks. When Oliver lied to Felicity about Barry’s favor, she instantly knew it and called him out, leading to one of the biggest and most heartbreaking fights we’ve ever seen between these two. Is this the end for Olicity? Say it ain’t so!

Meanwhile, the ever-helpful Malcolm Merlyn knew that Vandal wouldn’t give up until all of Star and Central City was decimated in his quest to kill Carter and Kendra, so he set up a meeting with Vandal, Oliver, and Barry. On his way to the meeting, Barry saw a speed mirage of himself, and you know what that means: TIME TO TRAVEL THROUGH TIME, Y’ALL!

At the meeting, Vandal gives Oliver and Barry an ultimatum: give him Khufu and Shayera (aka Carter and Kendra) or else he would lay waste to their cities, killing their loved ones. Obviously teams Flash and Arrow aren’t going to do that, so they double down on figuring out how to kill Vandal. ARGUS came through with a videotape of a professor talking about Vandal, and he hypothesized that an object related to an “unearthly calamity” giving Vandal his immortality is the only way to kill him. Since Kendra remembered her first life, she knew the staff of Horus is the weapon that can kill him.

The first time around, only Oliver, Barry, and the Hawks confront Vandal, and things go wrong from the get-go. Kendra couldn’t access her powers and Vandal got the upper hand, killing both Carter and Kendra. Vandal got his staff back and set forth an energy blast killing everyone in Central City, including Oliver, Felicity, Laurel, Caitlin, Diggle, Thea … everyone. Cue the time travel!

Barry ran away so fast from the blast that he found himself back at the meeting with Vandal, Oliver, and Malcolm. Later, Barry confessed to Oliver all about their first attempt at taking down Vandal, and they decide to do things differently this time around. Oliver persuaded Cisco to help Kendra with her powers instead of Carter, and he helped her remember her original death with Carter and Vandal. That led teams Arrow and Flash to realize that to counteract the staff’s energy field, they needed the same kind of meteorite that struck the palace in ancient Egypt at the time of Vandal’s first kills. Barry supersped and stole the meteorite from a museum and they were good to go for round two! And this time, Oliver has everyone suit up for the fight since his head is in the game (and the Olicity fight that distracted him the first time didn’t happen).

This time around, things go exactly as planned: Oliver and Barry are able to use the staff of Horus to vaporize Vandal Savage after an epic fight. He turned to ash and the staff disappeared. But since the Hawks don’t know if he’s gone for good, they decide to go off and find out, and figure out a way to help the world. That also means it’s time for Cisco and Kendra to break up. Awwww. They were just starting to get super cute!

One thing that does stay the same in both timelines: Oliver agreed to Samantha’s terms and won’t tell Felicity about William. Sorry, Olicity fans, but this is one secret that is bound to unravel this relationship when it comes out down the line.

And of course, the crossover didn’t end without one major WTF moment: Malcolm returned to the scene of the fight to collect Vandal’s ashes. He recited the same speech Vandal said when he killed Khufu and Shayera the first time, and ended it with a line of his own: “You owe me one, buddy.” Malcolm, WHAT WHAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

Obviously Vandal isn’t gone for good, since he’s going to cause problems on Legends of Tomorrow, but we did not expect Malcolm to be the one to help him come back to life. What did you think of that final twist, Arrow fans? And how bad is the timeline going to backfire on Team Arrow now that they’ve all cheated death via time travel? Hit the comments section below to weigh in with your thoughts and speculation now!

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Images: The CW
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.