The Flash is back, and begins six months after the season three finale, where Barry stuck himself in the Speed Force Prison. How does Barry get home? What does that mean for his team? Keep reading, but be warned, spoilers follow.
1. Team Kid Flash Vibe Iris
I know I beat a dead horse with this stuff, but I really wish that the CW shows would stick with their big, universe-changing plotlines for at least an episode. The first part of this episode showed Cisco, Wally, Joe, and Iris being an incredibly adept team, stopping a teleporter with a really nice combination of all of their skills. It was exciting to see them working so well, especially with Cisco’s powers being used so nicely. But, of course, we get one bit of this before a robotic Samurai shows up and wants ‘the real Flash’ back.
Now, I know the show is called The Flash and that means Barry, but I wish the other characters would have been given a little more time in the spotlight. There are really interesting stories to be told, from Iris’s sadness and reluctance to hope, to Cisco’s emergence as a leader, to Wally’s confidence as a speedster, to Joe’s integration of the CCPD into the team. Frankly, 3-5 episodes of that would have made Barry’s return feel more special. Hell, one episode of that would have worked wonders. Instead, Barry was back by the half-hour mark.
2. Cisco and Caitlin
Even more than Barry’s return, I think the show really goofed by bringing Caitlin back the way that they did. Cisco finds her bartending, talks honestly with her for five minutes, and then she’s back, part of the team again. This isn’t a film, where there are 120 minutes to cram everything into – there are almost 1000 minutes to fill this season, let some of this stuff breathe.
The end of the episode did a little bit to help the Caitlin story, with her seeming alliance with Amunet Black (or is there another DC Amunet I’m not familiar with?) and her brief transformation back into Killer Frost. But again, the show spent so much of last season building change into the status quo, and by the end of the first episode back, almost all of it was eliminated. It’s hard to be invested in a show when you know that most of your emotional beats will be erased shortly thereafter.
Also, for someone as smart as Cisco, he should be aware that by telling Caitlin that she has “two doctorates and a PhD,” that he means three doctorates/three PhDs. That was a pretty glaring mistake that someone on the writing staff should have caught. We’ll see if it gets changed before the re-airing/Netflix/Blu-Ray release.
3. Broken Barry
Seeing Barry mumbling gibberish was fun and all but again, because the struggle to get him back was so minor, it made it hard to really believe he was truly broken. If the show spent 2-3 hours on getting Barry back, and then had gibberish Barry for 2-3 hours, his eventual return would really mean something. But, again, everything is/was so rushed, you just know he’ll be back to himself by hour’s end.
That said? The redder suit is dope.
4. Samurai
So, the primary driver of the ‘let’s get Barry back’ engine was the fact that a Samurai with a crazy sword is threatening to bring down Central City if ‘the real’ Flash doesn’t return in 24 hours. Now, I wasn’t on the ground, but it didn’t seem like the Samurai was all that much scarier/more serious than, oh, all the other villains on the show? Why was the team so shaken by Samurai? Again, this is just lazy writing to get Barry back – Samurai presented no more serious threat than anyone else, and yet he’s treated like the biggest bad of all time. The team was so scared, they didn’t even do as elaborate of a scheme as they did for the teleporter earlier in the episode!
I was hoping that it would turn out to be this guy:
Samurai from the Super Friends! But nope, it was just a robot that somehow almost destroyed everything? Again, this show decided that its task – restore the status quo – was more important than telling a compelling hour of television.
Continued belowSide note: how did it take the team an entire day to figure out to put Wally in the Flash’s costume? The combined brainpower of that team should’ve done that six seconds in.
5. Wait, WHAT
Is that fucking Metron? Are the New Gods a part of this show now? Wait, for real?
Oh my Granny Goodness. I am suddenly glad no one else on Multiversity wanted to review this show this season.
[UPDATE: It is probably this guy. Bah humbug.]See ya next week!
