Review: Arrow – “Elseworlds Part 2”

*SOME SPOILERS AHEAD*

With the great chemistry between Amell, Gustin, and Benoist leading the way, “Elseworlds Part 2” took us to the place fans have longed to visit and gave us a look at Ruby Rose as Batwoman while explaining where Batman is at the same time.

goes without saying that they are juggling a lot of storylines here and incredibly, the powers that be manage to keep them all afloat without any falling to the side for no reason, as tends to happen in these CW shows. Barry and Oliver are still struggling in each other’s bodies, Team Arrow and Flash are mostly on the sidelines but have their moments and there is so much Batman stuff going on it probably made geeks around the world smile from ear to ear.

While it was still mostly The Green Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl show Batwoman did make enough of an impact to possibly stake her claim to her own show. Ruby Rose, aka Kate Kane, does an adequate job in the role of Kane/Batwoman but it felt like someone was holding the reins a bit too tight. Maybe it was nerves on Rose’s part as well, who knows, but there was enough there for me to want to see more. The bonding between Batwoman and Supergirl also made for some great moments, especially when their more famous cousins were part of the conversation.

Oh yes, there was an actual story going on here as well. It seems The Monitor is using The Book of Destiny to challenge different worlds to be all they can be in order to prepare for something that is even worse than what is currently going on. The search for the book goes through Dr. Deegan and leads our trio of heroes to Arkham Asylum, which is chock full of Easter Egg goodies. Props, such as Bane’s mask and Fries cold gun, were one thing but the names on the inmates doors, Penguin, Clayface, Poison Ivy, Riddler, made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Not only that, we got an appearance from Malcolm Merlyn and Reverse Flash, thanks to Scarecrow’s fear gas which was just a great way to let these four let loose in some great fight scenes.

With so much going on in these crossovers it would be easy to excuse the showrunners from showing restraint and just letting everything go batshit crazy (pardon the pun). However, things are surprisingly tight in terms of the overall story with enough time being set aside to introduce new characters, such as Batwoman, revisit old rivalries and enjoy the great humor that it created from the chemistry that seems to flow through most of these actors. Ruby Rose seemed to struggle at times with the American accent but carried herself very well as Batwoman, especially in terms of her entrance to the show.

Overall, it was another fun, action-packed crossover episode that kept things moving in terms of plots while keeping things light enough for fans to enjoy watching these actors revel in what they have accomplished.

Four stars out of five