The Arrowverse has grown into a very impressive superhero franchise in its own right. What started out as Arrow soon welcomed The Flash, adopted Supergirl from CBS and added the Legends of Tomorrow and Constantine to its mix. There were even additions of the CW Seed animated character Vixen in a live-action cameo. Along the way, there have been crossover events between the shows and some impressive comic book stories brought to life.
However, with every good episode of an Arrowverse show, there is one that leaves fans disappointed. For every awesome moment that the heroes go through, there is an episode where fans are screaming at their televisions because of the way the story is playing out. With seven years of stories, here is a look at the best and worst episodes of the Arrowverse, with at least one episode from every series included.
Best: "Crisis On Earth-X" (Supergirl)
There have been a ton of great crossover episodes and the Arrowverse has trained fans to get excited about the moments where Arrow, Flash, and company are able to come together. The fact that the Arrowverse brought in amazing moments like the DC Crisis events makes them even cooler. The best of the best has to be one from Supergirl.
"Crisis on Earth-X" brought everyone together to once again save the multiverse from destruction. The villain here was Dark Arrow, who is equal to this Earth's Oliver Queen -- but evil. The Arrowverse set a high expectation for what to expect from the crossover events and this one was even bigger than many fans anticipated. This specific episode had some of the best character moments of any of the crossover events.
Worst: "Schism" (Arrow)
The second season of Arrow saw Damien Darhk as the villain as he wanted to destroy the world. In the episode "Schism," Oliver Queen finally convinces the city to stand up and fight for itself in the face of evil. The problem is that the citizens were rioting for most of the episode and then, in the end, they suddenly turned things around and started to fight.
What hurts the most is that this season finale was supposed to start to turn things around for Arrow, but left fans disappointed and lessened viewer anticipation for the fifth season.
Best: "Beebo The God Of War" (Legends Of Tomorrow)
Legends of Tomorrow is best when it goes completely off the rails and dips into cuckoo land. That is no more evident than in "Beebo The God of War," which went completely bananas and provided fans with the best episode of the show's wonderful run. What is perfect about the episode is that it followed the death of Professor Stine and took the show to a very silly place to lighten the mood before the midseason break.
The mission went to Viking times and saw a group of the iconic warriors who worshipped a doll called Beebo. The story delivered some great slapstick moments, but what helped was the fact this was also where each team member mourned the loss of Stein. The ability to balance fun with sincerity is where Legends of Tomorrow excels.
Worst: "Broken Hearts" (Arrow)
It seems that Arrow struggles most when trying to attack the romantic issues of the cast – especially when it comes to Oliver and Felicity. When Cupid is added to the mix, things usually don't turn out well for the characters (or the quality of the episodes). In "Broken Hearts," Oliver and Felicity had broken up in the previous episode and the fallout was less than stellar in terms of storytelling.
This episode saw Oliver and Felicity pretending to have a wedding anyway, which led to boring and monotonous moments between the two without them ever settling any of their issues, making the entire thing a waste of time. This is one time Arrow was more of a soap opera than a superhero television show.
Best: "Worlds Finest" (Supergirl)
Supergirl has a lot of great episodes that deal with her cast of characters, but the fact is that the best episodes of the series are the crossover episodes and "Worlds Finest" is the best of the best. Named after the classic DC comic book team-up book, this saw Supergirl and Flash meet and team up.
It was also a huge moment since they were still on different networks at the time, with Supergirl still on CBS. The two met up despite living on different Earths, and two of the most positively delightful characters at the time had a chance to share a screen and show how superhero television can make a person smile.
Worst: "Girls Night Out" (The Flash)
The fourth season episode "Girls Night Out" gave The Flash a chance to show off the strong female characters on the show, but nothing in the episode clicked and it remains one of the most disappointing of the entire series. The girls (Caitlin, Felicity, Iris) head out for Iris' bachelorette party while Barry gets his own night on the town.
While it was cool to see Katee Sackhoff make her Flash debut as Amunet Black, even that didn't deliver enough to save this episode. The story dragged, nothing really happened, and this was an episode that added nothing to the storyline at all. Honestly, outside of a drunk Barry, there is nothing to see here.
Best: "Fast Enough" (The Flash)
The finale of the first season of Flash did what every season finale should strive to do – it wrapped up the story, was crowd-pleasing and delivered some great storytelling moments that made people want to see more. Reverse Flash remains the best villain on The Flash to this day, and the race to save the world from irreversible changes was a ticking clock that was perfectly executed.
The Season 1 finale has all the heart and humor that The Flash fans want, plus some amazing action scenes and a perfect conclusion to the battle with Reverse Flash – a perfect goodbye to the man known for most of the season as Harrison Wells. Barry not saving his mother and the final disaster leading into season 2 were just icing on the cake of the best season finale in Arrowverse history.
Worst: "My Name Is Oliver Queen" (Arrow)
When Arrow brought in Ra's al Ghul as a villain, many fans got excited and were ready to see the hugely popular Batman villain in action on a TV show. Then, the season finale saw Oliver finally preparing to beat al Ghul. It would have been a brilliant and exciting moment, except that the entire thing made no sense at all.
Seriously, when a plan takes form, it at least needs to sell the viewers on the mission, and this one is so full of plot holes and coincidences that it is lucky that Arrow even got to the finish line, much less go over it. Add in a final fight that was lame and made a mockery of al Ghul's fighting skills, and "My Name is Oliver Queen" ended up as possibly the worst episode in Arrow history.
Best: "Lian Yu" (Arrow)
Arrow got its start on that mysterious island and when the season 5 finale, "Lian Yu" came around, that is where things returned for one massive battle. After two seasons that seemed lackluster, the fifth season of Arrow ended on a major high note, which could have been a great series finale as well, with everyone merging onto the island for a final time.
The best bad guys–Merlyn and Deathstroke–are back. This entire thing brought Oliver Queen's story full circle and delivered not only the best episode in Arrow's history but one of the best Arrowverse episodes for any of the shows.
Worst: "Finish Line" (The Flash)
Season 3 of The Flash was the weakest of the series and "Finish Line" does little to improve it, delivering a finale that just doesn't work the way it is supposed to. The idea here is that Wally West was getting the mantle of Flash passed on to him by Barry and that was a cool idea, especially considering Wally's history in the comics.
However, through the season, Wally was pushed to the background so that moment lost any of the excitement it should have built up. It also doesn't help that the science in this episode is hokey at best and the defeat of Savitar is not nearly as interesting as previous villains. The Flash hit a low point in this season and had a hard road ahead to rebound.