This week, essentially the second part of last week’s “The Nuclear Man” episode, the show focuses on how people’s relationships change over time, and how things aren’t always what they seem to be. As always, spoilers follow.
1. Wells as Pragmatist
At just about every turn this week, we see Wells making the most practical and least confrontational decision possible. When he is confronted with turning over Stein or having his lab ransacked, he turns over Stein. But he does so in a way that totally obscures this fact from Stein and his own crew, allowing him to “orchestrate” a rescue and not appear two faced.
At the end of the episode, when faced with having Stein and Ronnie hunted down, potentially leading to inconvenience or trouble for himself, he instead takes out General Eiling, citing a desire to “protect his own,” aka metahumans, but this, too, is Wells having his cake and eating it too – he is posing as a metahuman, but isn’t really one at all (more on that later).
Wells acts on two instincts, and two instincts only: self preservation, and Barry being the Flash. If anyone stands in his way, he has no problem taking them out for the greater good.
2. Iris the Rat
Iris is such a flawed character on this show, and the writers keep trying new things to make her character “work.” This week, she stops trusting her friends in the name of a story – a particularly Lois Lane-ish move – and winds up, for the first time, not just being boring, but annoying, too.
Why does Iris care if Caitlin – one of the people who saved her best friend’s life – has a cousin in town? Why is that instantly a red flag?
At least she has an even more obnoxious running mate in Mason Bridge, who looks like Vincent D’Onofrio in Men in Black (GIVE HIM SOME SUGAR WATER), who is acting as her instigator, pushing her towards investigating S.T.A.R. Labs. Again, why would she want to mess with the institution that, quite literally, stopped her best friend from being a ghost.
The way to fix Iris isn’t to turn her into a lesser Lois Lane.
3. Separate, but Equal, Nuclear Men
By introducing us to Firestorm as a joint unity, seeing the pieces separated gave the episode its most interesting components. Sure, there was a little bit of goofiness, like having Stein suddenly love pizza like every stoner that lived down the hall at college, but more or less, both characters are more ‘normal’ than we’ve seen their comic counterparts. Stein’s ego is huge, and Ronnie is sort of a dick boyfriend – they aren’t simply the genius/jock that sometimes gets portrayed in Firestorm stories.
That said, sending them to Pittsburgh, keeping Jason Rusch in the loop, and Stein having a colleague to “help” them, might lead to yet another spinoff opportunity. I don’t quite know if Robbie Amell has the charisma to carry the show on his own, so perhaps he can be at the center of more of a team-driven show. Or maybe have the Atom move to Pittsburgh, and put that charming ball of wonderful at the center, with Firestorm as the secondary lead.
4. Joe, the Guardian?
I found Joe using the term “Guardian” to describe his role to Barry tonight to be an interesting one. Sure, the word isn’t not true in its description of Joe’s role, but that is a name with some history in the DCU. The Guardian has, traditionally, been a cop (not named Joe West), working out of Metropolis, and being a street-level hero (who isn’t a metahuman, but sometimes is a clone – comics, amirite?) and who in the New 52 is African American. Now, to me, the show shouldn’t mess with Joe West at all – the dude is damn near perfect on screen – but if they are looking to give him more of a comics-friendly role, they could do worse than the Guardian.
Continued below5. Still Don’t Think Wells is the Reverse Flash
I know this episode had Harrison Wells pulling off a yellow mask and saying “I AM THE REVERSE FLASH” more or less, but I still don’t buy it. We know that his powers aren’t naturally given, we know that his DNA wasn’t at Nora Allen’s murder, and we know that he is definitely a shady motherfucker – I just don’t think that every time we’ve seen the Reverse Flash it has been Wells. This time, certainly, but not every time.
Tell me how wrong I am in the comments.
