'The Flash' Recap: Felicity and Ray Join Barry for an 'All Star Team Up'

Warning: This recap contains storyline and character spoilers from this week’s episode of The Flash. 

There’s no reason to be disappointed by this Arrow/Flash crossover: As soon as their new spinoff show (starring one of this week’s guests, Brandon Routh as The Atom) starts, we’ll be up to our ears in wacky hero pairings. But Tuesday night’s episode, titled “All Star Team Up,” falls a little short when all the stars aren’t actually there.

The Plot

Felicity and Ray Palmer (Emily Bett Rickards and Routh, both from Arrow) visit in hopes of enlisting Cisco’s help with the Atom suit. At the same time, a mad scientist — Central City could use a few more of those to balance out all the meta-human activity — is using robot bees to exact vengeance on her former co-workers.

Despite literally killling both Barry and Cisco with their supercharged apitoxin, the Bug-Eyed Bandit’s bots still aren’t half as lethal as the looks Iris shoots at Eddie over dinner with Felicity, Ray, and Barry.

Related: Get Up to Speed With Our Recaps of ‘The Flash’

The Iris Problem

It’s easy to blame Iris for being awful to Eddie, but let’s not forget: She’s not the one keeping everybody else needlessly in the dark. Joe’s logic behind the decision to not tell her about Barry never really made sense before, but now that literally every one of the main characters knows but her, it seems downright patronizing. For crying out loud, Barry just convinced Joe to let Cisco and Caitlin in on the whole Reverse Wells secret: Will somebody please tell Iris about Barry?!

Maybe Eddie will do the right thing and propose to her. Getting married simply to reveal a hero’s secret identity isn’t the best way to start a life-long relationship — but hey, his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandkid is going to become Reverse Flash, so it’s not like it was going to end well anyway.

Raylicity > Olicity

Is there anything better than nerd love? While there are Arrow die-hards who swear Oliver and Felicity are meant to be together, it’s clear that Ray and Felicity are the real deal. Caitlin nails it when, as the couple’s tech talk descends into accidental double entendres, she says with awe, “God, there’s two of them!”

Also, how do you ship a bromance? Because Raysco should definitely be a thing. Ray and Cisco tag-team-naming the Bug-Eyed Bandit was as amazing as that name is terrible.

Related: ‘The Flash’ And The Importance of Being Felicity Smoak

Arrow in Four Seconds

“Oliver might be joining the League of Assassins, Laurel is the Black Canary, and Thea is training with Malcolm, so I know about bad times.” Pretty sure Felicity is angling for my job.

Weirdly Specific Commercial Moment

Did everybody get commercials for that epinephrine injector? Do they always have commercials that match the villain of the week? Was there a commercial for dehumidifiers during The Mist episode? Or for handwarmers whenever Captain Cold is on?

Inside Comics Moment

There is no Brie Larvin in the DC Universe. There is a Bertram Larvan, aka The Bug-Eyed Bandit. He created an army of robot insects and was an early foe of The Atom. Emily Kinney (The Walking Dead) turned in an engaging performance, and we’ll surely see her again.

Interesting side note: Bertram Larvan discovered the identity of The Atom in the comics. With those 360-degree cameras on her bees, Brie Larvin got a clear look at the speedster who thwarted her. When she does come back, she may have quite a story to tell…

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.