The Flash continues its march towards a full on “Justice League Detroit” television series, and H.R. gets his ass saved.
1. Earth-19
It is interesting how much we know about H.R.’s Earth, considering we’ve never spent any time there. The show has done a really nice job building the world from afar – we know about the reptiles as housewarming gifts, the lack of coffee, the rules of breaches, the popularity of H.R. Wells as a writer, etc. H.R. can be annoying, but it never feels as if he’s just an info dump for an Earth we will likely never visit.
It is this sort of attention to detail that makes the world of The Flash seem lived in and explorable. This is something that its sister shows have not done nearly as well, and it is surprising just how much difference that makes. For instance, whenever someone on Arrow travels away from Star City, it always looks the same: the Arrow-verse is all about doom and gloom. But The Flash presents a far more nuanced version of the world(s), and that’s a great thing.
2. Gypsy
As I mentioned in the opening, the CW-verse is heavily inspired by the much-maligned ‘Justice League Detroit’ era for the team. On Legends of Tomorrow, we have Citizen Steel and Vixen, on Supergirl we have Martian Manhunter, and on The Flash we have Vibe and, now, Gypsy. Gypsy’s powers have shifted quite a bit from the invisibility/camouflaging abilities in the comics to, essentially, having Vibe’s powers on The Flash. That makes sense in the context of the show, as she and Cisco are pitted against each other to vie for the life of H.R.
The pairing of Vibe and Gypsy was fun for two reasons: first of all, it was nice to see someone crushing on Cisco. The character has been through a lot this season, so to see him get some love was a welcome change. The potential for inter-dimensional romance is a fun one. But more than that, seeing what Gypsy can do with her powers – essentially stopping Wally in his tracks, gives Cisco something to strive for, as well as a potential way to stop Savitar in the future. If Cisco can learn to harness the full breadth of his powers, he is potentially the most powerful meta on the entire show.
3. Iris’s death wish
Iris is clearly trying to take destiny by the horns and show that she’s not afraid of dying/that she knows that her fate is set in May, so there’s no real reason to worry about what might happen if she does something crazy like, say, push a deadly weapon against her chest and threaten a criminal to shoot. The show has done a nice job giving Iris an interesting and nuanced relationship with the news of her impending death. An easier approach would have just been to have her mope around all the time and/or refuse to believe it. The cold acceptance she’s showing is really a surprise, and is elevating her character to places she simply hasn’t been before.
Also, she’s the world’s worst time waster. When she was trying to distract Joe, she was downright awful at it. Hasn’t she ever had to bullshit her way through an oral presentation?
4. Multiversal travelogue
The most fun part of the episode was the Vibe/Gypsy battle through the multiverse. We got a glimpse at Earth-2 for the first time in awhile, and then we had a brief trip to the Catco offices from Supergirl, replete with whatshername (The assistant who replaced Kara) cameo, and then a fire and brimstone planet. Could this be Apokolips? That would mean that either Gypsy can travel not just through the multiverse of Earths, but to distant planets, or that in this continuity Apokolips is simply the alternate Earth in some horrible, horrible universe.
5. Kid Flash’s moment to shine
The show is doing some great, great work with Wally right now. He’s loving his powers, and the show is not simply making him a second rate Barry – they are giving him the potential to be ever better than Barry. The idea that Wally, not Barry, is being prepped to save Iris is great for a few reasons: it gives Wally more purpose than “just another speedster,” it plays on their familial relationship, and it is an actual, reasonable plan. Often times, the show likes to let Barry say shit like “this is my responsibility.”
Continued belowNO BARRY, YOU’VE GOT A TEAM.
Not only that, but I believe we’ve already seen some of the battle between Team Flash and Savitar already. Kevin Fitzpatrick at Comics Alliance makes a pretty smart case for the ‘Killer Frost/Vibe’ battle that Cisco vibed earlier this season actually being the two of them fighting Savitar. Read his explanation here, but I think that’s pretty spot on. So, if Wally can grab Iris, H.R. can use the giant gun Barry/Cisco saw him with via last week’s vibing, that leaves (at minimum) Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin to work towards taking down Savitar while Julian and Joe do non-meta stuff.
See, here is where the show could be really creative – Barry and Kara can easily jump across worlds now, so why not bring out the big guns for this battle? Have Supergirl and Martian Manhunter suit up, along with all the Legends and Team Arrow. Savitar is powerful, sure, but more powerful than the combined powers of 15+ heroes? I think not.
What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments!
