“All Star Team Up” is episode eighteen of season one of The Flash.
In the previous episode, “Tricksters”, Reverse-Flash – Eobard Thawne – had lost his power to travel in time. He had gone looking for Harrison Wells, who was planning to build S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City with his future wife, Tess. Eobard had caused a car crash which killed Tess. Eobard told Wells that he was going to have an accident with his particle accelerator whi9ch would change everything. But Eobard needed it to be built ahead of schedule. So he connected himself to Wells with some sort of device, which seemed to suck the life, and more, out of Wells. Eobard became Wells, taking his appearance, and perhaps more. Strange. Wells – Eobard – has been really paranoid about the timeline being changed yet he went ahead and deliberately changed it.
So, Harrison Wells is dead. Or is he? Is part of him still inside Eobard? In “The Nuclear Man”, Wells had used the tachyon device Reverse-Flash stole in “The Man in the Yellow Suit” to help save Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein. Which seems a little out of character for Eobard Thawne. Or is there another reason?
Joe and Barry had also revealed to Eddie that Barry was the Flash, because they wanted Eddie to convince Iris to stop looking into the disappearance of Mason Bridge. Who hasn’t actually disappeared; Reverse-Flash killed him in “Rogue Time”.
This episode opens with Barry and Eddie in pursuit of some criminals. Joe wonders whether every criminal in Central City has gone crazy, for this is the third attempted robbery tonight. So Joe calls Barry. Who swaps around the people in the cars before all three go and stop a jewellery robbery. Elsewhere, a Dr Kang gets into her car when there’s a buzzing sound. Bees, many, many bees, come out of the ventilators in the car. The next day, Barry, Joe and Eddie are on the scene. Barry says that Dr Kang’s entire body is covered in wounds. He’s going to examine the evidence in his lab. Barry feels a little awkward at S.T.A.R. Labs currently. Joe tells Barry he needs to behave normally. Barry wants to tell Caitlin and Cisco their suspicions, but Joe warns him not to.
Barry identifies what killed Kang as honeybee venom. It runs out that Cisco really, really doesn’t like bees. Dr Wells says that normally when a honeybee stings someone the stinger is ripped out of its abdomen. Yet there were no dead bees in the car. Plus, the venom the bees carried was much, much more toxic than normal. At this point Arrow‘s Felicity Smoak arrives and asks everyone if they can step outside.
Outside, something is seen in the sky. Caitlin and Cisco ask if it’s a bird, or a plane, but it’s actually a man in a powered suit who comes in for a pretty bad landing. Felicity says ‘No, it’s my boyfriend.’ The suit is the Advanced Technology Operating Mechanism, and the designer is ubergeeky billionaire Ray Palmer. Played by Brandon Routh. Now, the ‘Is it a bird, is it a plane’ spiel is associated with Superman – who Brandon Routh played in Superman Returns.
Barry tells Felicity that he wished she’d called first because things are a bit hectic around at the moment. Not the real reason Barry wanted her to stay clear. Ray wants help with his suit, which doesn’t always work. Cisco is very willing to help, and the others agree, even though Barry throws out some objections related to the bees. Which Ray says are cool. Err, he means awful. Cisco will help Ray and the others will help Barry.
Iris is suspicious and knows Eddie is hiding something from her. Eddie tells Joe – imparting too much information as he does – that he can’t keep lying to Iris. Joe tells Eddie that he’s Iris’ father, and that it’s to protect her. Eddie wants to know when his vote as Iris’ boyfriend outweighs Joe’s – when he’s her husband apparently. Felicity tells Eddie to consider not lying but protecting Iris. With a fib.
Eddie and Iris, Ray and Felicity – and Barry – go out for what turns out to be a pretty awkward dinner. Which results in Barry having to give Iris some relationship counselling where he sticks up for Eddie.
Barry is having his own problems. Not knowing who to trust is making him paranoid and resulting in odd behaviour. Which Felicity notices and inquires about. Cisco is also having problems too. He’s having visions – they can’t really be called flashbacks, as they never happened – of Harrison Wells killing him. Which he did, in “Out of Time”, but this was reset by the events of “Rogue Time”. So, Cisco is having flashbacks of something that never happened. Which is really odd.