Hi folks! Welcome back to our weekly recap of The Flash. This this is the second part of the “Armageddon” storyline, this episode works as a Psychological Thriller and, to be honest, it might be the best one in years, I mean, I love this show, and almost every episode is great, but this one stood out because of its pacing, writing, the plot devices, and great camera work even when filming with COVID-related restrictions! Let’s dive in.
1. “Good luck fighting fate, Flash”
We begin right were we left last week, but before their truce, Despero needs to measure Barry’s strength, not just physical with a sucker-punch, but how well he stands in his mind against what’s coming to him, so he is going to interrupt him wherever Barry goes.
Thinking about it, really, we can’t blame Despero for not cutting Flash some slack, I mean, this is exactly what happened before, when future-Barry became Savitar, in fact, did the writers not realize the relation with the previous story? Well, anyway, more recently Barry put his friends at grave danger when he began using the Speed Thinking, so, at least he does have a record.
2. You can’t just avoid having a bad day
Anyway, Despero reveals that the next day is the day Barry will start breaking, and you just know when you are going to have a bad day, so it’s better to expect the worse, and in this case, exactly that happens.
First, Captain Kramer suspends Barry because he is under a federal investigation, suspected of being a mole for Joseph Carver (by the way, where is Joe); then, S.T.A.R.Labs is being shutdown by the city because of the extremely high radiation levels, which might mean that Team Flash doesn’t have a base of operation now, and while all of this is happening, Despero is lurking, like in Cecile’s office, when she reveals that she is coping with something we don’t know yet.
I mean, how can a man deal with all that when an alien is invading his personal space and mind so incessantly? Oh, and that wasn’t the worst part.
3. Xotar messes Barry up
As they keep investigating, Iris discovers that Xotar is the meta villain responsible for the bank robbery, and when Barry tries to stop her, he suddenly appears at his loft with a gun on his head and the whole team scared of him.
Later, after the confusion is cleared, Barry fights Xotar again, and she uses her telekinetic powers, fortunately, despite having no friction, Barry takes a page out of Miles Morales’ handbook and uses a venom blast that knocks the villain.
Surely, now that the Xotar is defeated and the day is over, they can go with Joe and celebrate with a barbecue, right?
4. Wait, what the fuck just happened!?
This is the big plot twist of the episode, maybe the biggest since “Flashpoint“, because apparently Joe is dead and has been for the last six months. Wait, what!? We se how Barry’s psyche slowly starts to break as he starts processing the information, he even runs to Joe’s house, where he is confronted by Cecile, who asks him to come to his senses because he is hurting her.
And not just that, apparently, Barry attacked some citizens and it made the news, but he doesn’t remember any of that, and it cannot be Xotar’s fault. And at this point I am as confused as Barry is, how can he forget something so important, and he is the only one who doesn’t remember, someone is up to something here.
After Flash’s breakdown, Despero is ready to kill him, and Barry even briefly accepts his fate, fortunately, Chester saves the day with a barrier, so, at least the team stands together and is willing to help Barry with whatever he needs before coming to terms (or solving) Joe’s death.
At the end of the episode Barry goes to the Hall of Justice and to ask Black Lighting some help, with just one word: Injustice. WHAT! I’M ABSOLUTELY IN. I mean, it will probably work as a “protocol” or something, and not the full “Injustice” storyline, but Arrowverse’s versions of other storylines have been great.
Continued below5. Motion Capture
Last week I had a thought about how well animated Despero was, but it wasn’t worthy of mention yet, but in this episode the GCI version appeared briefly, and it was also great, so I just googled it and discovered some photos of Tony Curran with motion capture gear, and that was the answer!
I don’t remember if they have used mocap on faces before, I knew they used it sometimes as guides to animate Grodd or King Shark’s movements, but it seems that this is the first time they use it this way and it shows, Despero’s animation looks great, I mean, it’s not perfect, but it’s great for CW’s budgets.
BONUS: Chester tells a story about how he is a pacifist, the conflict that means building a weapon against Despero, and how he manages to use his tech without it being a weapon. It was a great B plot but I’m gonna put it on the back-burner for now, let’s see how this develops.
And that’s it for this episode, as I said at the beginning, this very well might be my favorite episode in years, it built up the tension, expanded our character’s backs stories and set up the upcoming story with just one word. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take the third part of “Armageddon,” this time, really featuring Black Lighting!
