So, as the episode began, I asked myself “how is this episode named?… well, I’ll google it later when I do my thoughts,” then at the end of the episode I suddenly remembered, oh crap, this is a two-parter. Hi folks! Welcome back to our weekly recap of The Flash. Today we will talk about Part 1 of “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen,” and it was slow-paced, but oh boy, the payoff was worth it. Let’s dive right in.
1. We are talking about Spyral, aren’t we?
Let’s talk about the b-story of this episode first, Allegra is upset because she feels like everyone is hiding sometingh from her, then, while using Iris’ Mac, she discovers the basis for what is going to be December’s 11th newspaper, including the article in the front page of it, the one that has been haunting us for six years: Flash vanishes in Crisis.
Then Iris comes in and offers her a clue to follow involving that picture of a guy with a spiral pin in his suit, standing right next to Allegra’s cousin’s bed, so she agrees although she thinks it’s weird that Iris focuses on that lead instead of Barry’s upcoming death.
They meet that guy of the picture and he says to them that he works for Maelstrom, a kind of uber for the uber-rich, so the lead was worthless… or is it? Later on the episode, that guy dies in an explosion, like immediately after her spoke to Iris, so, we have a conspiracy at our hands, as I guessed back in the second episode, maybe it’s Spyral related?, surely this will be explored on this season’s second half, after the Crisis.
2. Writing that article
So, Allegra confronts Iris, and reveals that she knows that Barry is Flash, and that she saw the newspaper, and encourages Iris to do the article, telling her a story about how she was inspired by Iris’ first reports on The Streak.
And Iris finally sits down against the blank page and wrote the hardest piece of journalism anyone can write, the loss of a loved one. It was a meaningful moment that we’ve expected for a long, long time.
3. The temptation
Now, the main story, this episode began right where the last one ended, Ralph and Ramsay falling from a building, they have a brief fight where the production team showed off with both characters’ CGI, the fight ends with Ramsay infecting Ralph and fleeing. By the way, I just love Elongated Man as a character, as Ramsay tries to explain himself, Ralph says “You’re evil, I get it,” he is a noble soul, fighting for what’s right without expecting nothing in return, I love Ralph.
Then, back in S.T.A.R.Labs, they come up with a Deus Ex Machina that frankly, I cannot fathom why they have never used it before: Barry is a universal donor of blood, maybe the speed force can accelerate Ralph’s recovery? Well, Ralph stabilizes, and everything seems fine, except for the fact that a tiny little piece of Ramsay’s blood traveled trough the transfusion tubes and now Barry is infected.
I loved how they used a little bit of psychological horror/thriller vibe for this episode, with Barry having a meltdown in his mind, here we see the most vulnerable part of Barry, absolute exploited by Ramsay, he offers Barry things that are obviously not true, like seeing Nora born or giving life back to people, and Barry is very tempted, so tempted in fact that he attacks the speed force, even with his mother’s face.
I blame the speed force, why would you say that what Ramsay is saying is true? I mean, it retained the most meaningful part of the information until very late: yes, Ramsay could save Barry’s life, but that doesn’t include Barry’s autonomy, soul and mind! Cisco tries to inject Barry with Velocity X, and the Speed Force and Ramsay fight for Barry’s soul.
4. The results of said temptation
The result? Barry wakes up, but is he really Barry? Well, obviously he is not himself, Bloodwork won and now he controls Barry, what in the world are Team Flash gonna do against a villain that knows Barry’s every secret? Well, we will find out on next week’s episode.
Continued below5. Killer Frost has panic attacks too
Finally, this is a short one but I feel like it’s going to be important for the crisis and then for the rest of the season: Frost, the former villain, loves her friends, and when she didn’t know what to do she Froze, so, they decided to let Caitlin handle things on the Crisis, because with an event so big coming, they cannot afford to froze in the battlefield, that could mean a life lost.
And that’s it for this episode, it didn’t have a ton of action, but it had a lot of visual effects, a great story and a very enticing ending. What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on episode 608, “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 2.”
