This episode of The Flash did its best to resolve a few of the larger issues that have dragged down the second half of the season: a powerless Barry, a lovelorn Iris, and a cranky Harry. It also set the stage for a pretty dramatic final ten minutes.
1. Hologram Barry
One of the fun parts of this last run of episodes is to see how the team is dealing with Barry being powerless. The hologram idea is a pretty ingenious one and, while the specifics of projection are a little spotty (it can’t project in a tunnel but can project inside Jitters?), it was a nice plot point.
It also showed how, unless you’re a metahuman, just the idea/visual presence of the Flash is enough to strike fear in the hearts of petty criminals. Sure, some dummies will try to outrun him, that would seem to be pretty rare. While watching, I asked myself this question: if there wasn’t a Zoom tormenting them, how long could Team Flash keep Central City at bay without giving up the secret that Barry is de-powered?
My best guess is about 3 months, but I can’t really back that up.
2. Henry, portrait of a weird dude
One of the weird decisions that the show made this season was to get Henry out of prison, and then instantly send him into exile. That story, if done well, could have been really affecting. Think about it – he’s trying to get close to Barry, but his institutional living for the past 15 years messes with him. Think of the Brooks scene from The Shawshank Redemption – imagine that with Henry. That’s some compelling TV.
Instead, he goes into solitary confinement in a log cabin. OK.
Anyway, he’s back this week, and while it is nice to see John Wesley Shipp, it seems like the writers forgot that he was coming back this week, because they gave him nothing to do. The crux of the episode is built around Barry having to decide whether or not to let Harry shoot him full of dark matter to re-gain his speed. There are obviously two positions here: Wells, saying do it, and – you’d think – one of his two dads saying “don’t do it.” Instead, both dads are sort of wishy-washy about it, with Henry seemingly being a little more on the ‘don’t do it’ side than not.
But he could’ve easily taken a “Fuck no, you’re my son – I forbid it!” position. Seeing him and Harry at odds would be really interesting, and then you could have Joe as the man in between. But nah.
3. Garrick
Interesting that Henry’s mother’s maiden name is Garrick, and lends credence to some conspiratorial thinking. Could Barry’s great-grandfather have been named Jay? Could he have fought in World War II? Could the Justice Society be something in this world after all?
Or, it’s just a weird coincidence. But why bring it up if their relation isn’t going to be a plot point going forward?
Also, doesn’t this more or less confirm that the ‘real’ Jay Garrick is the man in the iron mask?
4. The Ramon Brothers
Seeing Cisco and Dante have their icy relationship somewhat warmed by the attack by Earth-2 Dante, aka Rupture, was a little by the books familial drama, but the absolutely sincere hug between them went a long way to make the episode feel a little less formulaic. Rupture and Reverb seemed to be thick as thieves on Earth-2, and the show could do a lot worse than bringing Dante into the show more than once a year.
5. The need for speed(sters)
So, let’s get two things out of the way: 1) Barry isn’t dead (I haven’t seen the ‘next week on…’ preview, so maybe they even established that), and 2) as soon as the episode put all the pieces in place, we, of course, knew that Wally and Jessie would be struck by the dark matter and turn out to be speedsters themselves. This, of course, does a few things, including giving the show a family of speedsters, much like the Wally West-era of “The Flash” comics were like. It also gives both Harry and Joe reason to feel shitty – beyond feeling shitty because Barry seemingly died – about forcing this.
Continued belowThe one thing the show did not do, however, was to give enough attention to what would happen if Barry didn’t go through with this. I kept waiting for a “Yes, we might hurt the city, but they’re dead if I don’t do this!” speech, but we never got that.
I hope that Barry is off the table for at least a week, and I hope that we get to see Wally and Jessie explore their powers a bit next week.
What did you guys think? Let me know in the comments!
