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Five Thoughts on The Flash’s “All-Star Team-Up” [Review]

By | April 15th, 2015
Posted in Reviews | 4 Comments

This was one of the most mixed episodes of The Flash so far – we had a charm-off, and we also had a total waste of a “name” guest star. Let’s dig into this but, be warned, spoilers abound.

1. Was that Emily Kinney?

I’ll get to snark in a minute, but I honestly couldn’t tell that Emily Kinney, late of The Walking Dead, was the Bug Eyed Bandit. They rarely showed her face, and they gave her a role that required absolutely none of the nuance and skill that she (at times) showed on The Walking Dead.

Plus, she wasn’t singing any Tom Waits songs that no teenage girl pre-apocalypse would be familiar with, so how am I supposed to recognize her?

This was, hands down, the weakest villain of the week yet, and that’s not a knock on the character of the Bug Eyed Bandit. I’m absolutely fine going full-on Silver Age when it comes to just about everything on the show, so goofy villains don’t make me bat at eye. But the character was the worst parts of the freak of the week from Smallville and the campy Z-list villains from Batman ’66. Kinney was screaming and hollering like a maniac in a cheesy lair, with wafer-thin motivation and no real character underneath the domino mask and overacting.

It even caused the moments of genuine fear, like Barry and Cisco being stung by bees, to be totally castrated of all tension – there’s no way that Cisco would die at the hands of such a lame guest star.

2. Eddie, you know the rhyme: bros before hoes, justice before Iris

The other really frustrating element of this week’s show was Eddie and Iris’s relationship being anything more than catnip for Barry. Literally no one cares about their happiness – no one. Hell, even Iris seems not to care about their happiness – how can the child of a cop not be sympathetic to the fact that, sometimes, he can’t talk about his cases? Now, I know that’s quasi-bullshit, as he’s keeping a huge secret from the only person on the show who doesn’t know it, but she needs to be more understanding.

It also makes Eddie out to be the world’s worst secret keeper, a truly terrible trait for a police officer.

Also, aren’t we supposed to like Iris?

3. CisJoe RaySmoak

That’s the name of the new show I want to watch – in case you can’t tell, it is a play on Cisco Ramon, and it features the best four characters on television right now: Cisco, Joe West, Ray Palmer, and Felicity Smoak. Now, I know that this show probably wouldn’t work, because the collective charm and loveliness of the four characters would probably melt the cameras and dissolve the sets, but humor me a bit.

Ray and Cisco are, essentially, the Booster Gold and Blue Beetle of this universe. They’re geeky guys who clearly have a strong friendship for each other, and are surrounded by people who don’t quite get their jokes. Joe and Felicity are the best support team anyone could ever ask for, and they could probably solve any crime ever committed. Seriously, I’d watch CisJoe RaySmoak: Cold Cases all day long.

Call me, CW. We’ll make it happen.

4. Is this Caitlin’s heel turn?

So, fans of DC are aware that Caitlin Snow eventually becomes Killer Frost, a super-villain enemy of Firestorm. But, as this season has progressed, Caitlin has become a much less cold (rim shot), icy (double rim shot), character, and has become one of the more kind people on the show. Remember when she and Barry went to sing karaoke? Remember how adorable she was?

Well, if she’s going to go full on villain, maybe this is the moment that happens – what if she becomes a Wells loyalist? Cisco clearly is on Team Barry, but what if Caitlin decides that sticking with Wells is the best way to save Ronnie? Or, what if Ronnie chooses Barry’s side in a Barry/Wells clash, and Caitlin decides to hell with him?

Continued below

Hear me now – Caitlin and Harrison are going to be the power couple of the Flash Season 2 or 3.

5. End game approaching

All the pieces are coming together – everyone knows what is up with Wells, Wells knows that something is up with Barry and Cisco, Eddie is about to out Barry to Iris, Joe is about to kick Eddie’s ass, and everything is about to boil over.

The one question I have is this: can we please avoid such lame villains in the last 5 episodes? Please?

Hit me up in the comments!


//TAGS | The Flash

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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