The second half of the season has a bit of a fire lit under it, due to the whole “Iris is gonna get it” storyline. While this episode wasn’t perfect, it did show what the show is capable of doing when it tries to connect all of its own dots instead of just focusing on one specific story.
1. Establishing differences between Barry and Wally
I praised this last week, and I felt more confident in this analysis before the ending, where Wally was able to phase, but I wish the show would attempt to draw differences between Barry and Wally that go a little deeper than just costume color and attitude. Barry is obviously more confident, as he has so much more experience under his belt, but when Wally couldn’t phase, I got excited: maybe they wouldn’t have the exact same powers? Maybe Wally’s speed, as it was granted differently, would behave differently than Barry’s?
But, by the end of the episode, that was bunk. Having two speedsters leads to a lot of fun, but it can also lead to fatigue if not handled properly and, my fear is that the show will get stale if we simply have two people doing the exact same thing all the time. The most boring Green Lantern comics are when the ring-slingers don’t establish a style of superheroics – this this why Geoff Johns did such great work when multiple Lanterns were together. The show needs to show how Barry and Wally are different – and (pardon the pun) fast.
2. All you miss is Kid Flash?
So, we met Joanie, Cecile’s daughter, and Joe’s (maybe) future daughter in law. She thinks she’s awesome and that Central City is totes lame (or however a 19 year old would say something sucks), and she mentions that there is only one thing that she misses about Central City: Kid Flash.
Let’s unpack this.
We know that the show is more or less running in real time, as they keep talking about “five months” to save Iris in May 2017. How long has Kid Flash been a thing – six months? Maybe? Was she packing her bags for college, got her first glimpse of the yellow costume, and swooned? I think, more than likely given the timeline, she was home for Thanksgiving (not Home for Thanksgiving), saw Kid Flash, and instantly put him on top of her ‘favorite Central City’ things. Above, you know, friends, family, her favorite restaurant, the park by her house, the art museum, etc. A yellow blur is her favorite thing from her hometown.
Ok.
3. Caitlin and Julian, sitting in a tree, S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
Julian was a total dickbag this week, and the show tried to soften that a bit by giving him guilt over the fact that the meta-killer was created by him, when somnambulising all over Central City as Alchemy. The show always seems to be trying to put Caitlin into romantic situations, forgetting that she saw her husband get exploded in front of her not all that long ago.
Not only that, but Julian, aside from being nice to her once, has not been exactly a great member of the team. Sure, he was there at Christmas to say “happy” instead of “merry,” and you can see the guy is trying, but I don’t really see the love connection/spark there. Maybe I’m just shipping for Ronnie Raymond to return from an alternate dimension or whatever.
4. Iris is…still interesting?
We are now three weeks into Iris being interesting and, holy shit, she still is! While she got the traditional ‘damsel in distress’ treatment for the back half of this episode, she’s become unpredictable, which is something this show hasn’t really done all that well over its run. It has been good, mind you, but it has rarely really surprised outside of a few big moments (like the Season One finale) or some fun teases at multiversal business.
But Iris, you guys! She actually does things that can’t be explained by “because she’s the female lead!” That is amazing growth for this show. Let’s hope that after she’s saved at the end of the season, she can remain interesting into season 4.
Continued below5. Jesse returns
We knew that Grodd would be back, and we knew we’d probably see Jesse Quick again this season, so it wasn’t a huge surprise to see her show up. And I am not looking a gift Gorilla City two-parter in the mouth, but it does feel like the “have to stop Iris’s death” storyline is just ramping up, and now we get a week off, then two weeks on Earth-2, so it’s going to be March before we get back to this story.
I never thought I would miss an Iris-centric story so much, but here we are.
Anyway, what did you think of the episode? Leave some comments, as we’ve got a week off to discuss the show!
