“Don’t bother talking to them, they’re extras, they’re not paid enough to talk.”
For the most part this was yet another boring episode from the Flash with a few moments that captured that old Flash feeling I had at the start of the series. Most of it was more boring family stuff and more Wells “Is he good or evil?” stuff. Stuff they’ve been retreading since mid-season. Meh, I could do without that kind of drama. What bothers me most is the relationship between Barry and Iris which happens to be the exact kind of relationship that resonates on the perfect frequency to piss me right the hell off and its presence sours an otherwise good episode. At least they don’t mention millennials again.
Wells is an out of the closet bad guy now with Cisco discovering the recorded message in the trap they set for Reverse Flash in the mid-season finale that allowed Wells to be in two places at once. With this discovery came the dropping of all pretense on the part of Wells who reveals himself to be Eobard Thawne which cements him as the Professor Zoom incarnation of Reverse Flash. The scene was great and played to perfection by both Cisco and Wells who are probably the best actors on this show and consistently save it from dropping into the trash bin. Sadly it ends with Reverse Flash driving a vibrating hand into the chest of Cisco and Cisco’s last words being a chilling “Dumps like a truck, truck, truck. Let me say it again…” Touching, truly touching. I cried.
Barry reveals his identity to Iris when he is forced to stop a tsunami by running really fast. Running really fast, the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems! He runs so fast however he goes back in time. I’m going to assume they’ll use this mechanic to erase all the cool things they did this episode. They’ll probably retcon the secret identity reveal for both Flash and Wells, reverse Cisco’s murder and the tsunami. It kind of takes the sting out of everything that happened here knowing that it’s probably all meaningless.
It’s no secret that I haven’t been that huge of a fan of Flash since its return and it’s too bad I couldn’t establish my love of the show by reviewing the earlier episodes because this is by no means how I want to come off about this show but it just hasn’t been good lately. I think they’re trying too hard to be Arrow and that’s not what this show needs to be. Let Arrow be Arrow, let Flash be Flash and let the new Atom die in a fire. Sorry, that’s another thing I’m passionate about. There have certainly been worse episodes of the Flash and this one at least establishes some momentum towards being the Flash that I loved before which grants it a watchable score.
Score: 3/5
The Flash 1.15
The Flash airs Tuesdays 8/7 C