'The Flash' Gets a Horrifying 'Legends of Tomorrow' Crossover Moment
But it's also totally delightful.
With Barry Allen in prison and Ralph Dibney taking point as the hero of Central City, The Flash delivered a hilarious Easter egg of a brief crossover with Legends of Tomorrow.
Remember Beebo?
The most recent episode of Legends of Tomorrow saw the team reunite with the younger version of Martin Stein just before Christmas, right after the elder Stein died during the “Crisis on Earth-X.” What ensued was a time-traveling version of Jingle All the Way with vikings, gods, and a furry blue Furbie-like toy called Beebo that the vikings accidentally worshipped.
In The Flash, Beebo pops up a thousand years later in Central City to play the unwitting victim to the millennial Trickster that’s the son of Mark Hamill’s character.
When the younger Trickster sets up a maniacal gameshow that makes Rick Sanchez’s fatal superhero game look tame by comparison, he and his mother make a show of displaying the potency of their custom pink acid. Their very first victim as a demonstration?
Beebo, god of war.
Beebo, god of war, circa 1000 A.D.
The Trickster’s acid can harm even Ralph’s seemingly impervious skin. When the insane game show starts running, we have to watch the acid melt a poor Beebo as a demonstration. This stuff is killer.
When confronted with his own mortality — and a squirt gun full of the acid — Ralph gets cold feet about the whole superhero thing, leaving Vibe and Killer Frost to investigate the scene. Frost takes down a small squad of flying Beebo bombs by freezing them, but not before they get captured.
Because of course, The Trickster has a trick planned to capture them. Cisco and Caitlin enter the game show with the imminent threat being a faceful of acid if the prize wheel spins just the right way.
The Trickster returns for more tricks.
Ultimately, it’s up to Ralph Dibney to emerge as “The Elongated Man” to save the day.
As a hero, Ralph channels his best impression of Jim Carrey’s character in The Mask. If you don’t believe me, just watch this clip from the episode, in which Ralph puts a bomb into his belly, blows up like a big balloon, and then burps away the pain. Most of Ralph’s superhero encounters follow this pattern. He boasts a bit and belches away threats, practically pleading for attention.
This is what The Flash becomes when The Flash himself is in prison.
It isn’t until things get really serious and Ralph ruins his first suit that he gets a serious upgrade. We’ve seen Ralph grow in the past under Barry’s tutelage, but in “The Elongated Knight Rises,” we’re finally led to believe that Ralph might have what it takes to become a bonafide hero. Of course, it takes some gentle urging from Barry before he gets there, but he does.
Ralph's new costume finally looks like something a superhero would actually wear.
Ralph’s able to save the day in the end and get formally crowned as The Elongated Man by the local media, but not before a grand total of four Beebos die.
What a tragedy.
The Flash airs Tuesdays on The CW at 8 p.m. Eastern.
