The seemingly inexhaustible and irresistible charm of Melissa Benoist and Grant Gustin predictably saved the day in a surprisingly uneven episode featuring the first Supergirl/Flash team-up.

As with most crossovers, the hope is to attract new viewers. And for those Flash fans who hadn’t felt the need to watch Supergirl, I’m not sure this was the show’s best effort to get newcomers hooked.

Barry found himself in another world without a Green Arrow, Black Canary, Firestorm, Atom or even a Zoom, but it did have a Supergirl. The time frame of this episode didn’t quite sync up to events on The Flash. For all the episode’s failings — more on that later — it never got old watching Flash and Supergirl interacting and I definitely want to see Benoist crossover into the Flash/Arrow verse. It was a shame Hank and Alex bailed last week as Flash’s reaction to meeting Martian Manhunter would have been tremendous.

Barry was a little too happy go lucky after learning another mentor betrayed him and he was also in a real good mood if this was a few weeks earlier and another ally was killed. Barry had a gizmo whipped up to help him tap further into his speed reserves, but for some reason, he couldn’t get it to work again to get back home. This was clearly a means to get Flash to work alongside Kara and company, but given Barry’s noble sense of always wanting to do the right thing it wasn’t a stretch that he’d want to help a hero in need. It seemed odd no one mentioned Superman this episode since telling Barry that Kara wasn’t the only alien or superhero flying around seemed like a natural conversation topic.

Winn’s enthusiasm for meeting a visitor from another Earth — complete with raising his hand to ask questions and geeking out over the multiverse theory — was a lot of fun. It also reinforced how amazing a Winn/Cisco meeting would be down the road.  On the other hand, James’ jealousy was ridiculous. Were we supposed to believe James would immediately view Barry as a romantic rival for Kara after they met 10 minutes ago? James often gets stuck in the eye-rolling love interest story lines, but this week was especially bad even before he got a bizarrely timed pep talk from Lucy.

Cat was a mixed bag tonight. She was at her grating name dropping worst with references to Bernie Sanders to Beyonce and channeling her super power of being the most obnoxious character on the show. On the other hand, Cat had some great moments like mentioning how Kara, Winn, James and Barry looked like the non-threatening diverse makeup of a CW show. And although it seemed to be in direct contrast to her otherwise icy attitude in general to Kara, it was kind of fun watching Cat give Kara romantic advice.

This episode felt more like the one we should have gotten last week with Supergirl distraught because she can’t regain the trust of National City after her Red-K wild’n out moment. Before Operation: Good PR could get completed, Kara and Winn had to deal with Siobhan, who stopped herself from plummeting to her death with a sonic beam. I understand the DEO didn’t get any smarter with Lucy in charge, but why would anyone think letting the clearly unhinged Siobhan waltz on out with her new powers was a good idea?

Luckily for Kara, The Flash arrived as her old enemy Live Wire (Britt Morgan) teamed up with the new bad girl Silver Banshee for a tag team rumble. Siobhan’s final evolution to Silver Banshee came across really contrived. While I appreciated the mostly comic book accurate outfit, her ‘makeover’ into a gothic skeleton made little sense.

Even if it was a little on the nose, the writers could have done a little foreshadowing by having Siobhan mention her fascination with skeletons a few weeks earlier. Here, it felt like she went for that look just because that’s how she looks in the comics. That may be the one and only time I question why a character is dressed like the source material. And there was exactly no explanation how Silver Banshee also got strong enough to deck Supergirl with one punch.

The effects particularly in the fight scene looked a little weak, but I greatly appreciated a fight scene that didn’t occur in pitch black so I’ll happily cut the show a break on that front.  Ultimately the citizens of National City saved the day after watching Supergirl get taken out while trying to stop Livewire from zapping a helicopter. The show can be a bit heavy-handed at times with these types of moments, but it seemed oddly fitting the bad girl team up gets stopped by firefighters. Besides, this episode was way more fun just watching Barry and Kara hang out than any fight scene.

Sadly, Barry had to get back home to his Earth. Before he left, he suggested Kara stop taking things so slow and make a move on James already. Taking his advice, Kara plants a big one on James that leaves him shellshocked. While her super kiss doesn’t give James amnesia, it does little to prevent the effects of the Myriad — Non’s ultimate plan for payback on Astra’s behalf.

Rating: 7 out of 10

While not the smoothest crossover, Gustin and Benoist’s easygoing charm made for a fun episode that hopefully is a tease of better team-ups in the future.

Photo credit: Robert Voets/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.