In two seasons of The Flash, there has rarely been an episode that felt like a major misstep. Well, until last night.
1. Zoom is a lonely Hunter
This episode was a series of moments that were conceptually ok, but executed in ways that just felt forced. Having Zoom, Hunter Zolomon, have a story that is similar to Barry’s makes a lot of sense, but is cliched to the hilt. Of course an orphan who saw his mother killed by his father would be scarred by that, and would potentially be more likely to be violent than a child raised in a loving home. But that makes Zoom such a standard super-villain. When he was posing as Jay Garrick, there were so many layers to his life – making Jay just a mask, and removing any and all sense of interesting character development from Zoom is a really big mistake on the show’s part.
2. Iris is falling in love
Remember that one episode last year, before Barry went back in time, where he and Iris fell in love? Well, that’s happening in slow motion now. Iris is beginning to realize that all signs (outside of her actually feelings) are pointing towards she and Barry being meant for each other, and she’s starting to convince herself that, maybe, that’s what she’s really feeling deep down.
Again, there are ways that this makes sense, and could be effective TV, but last night didn’t achieve that. Over on Legends of Tomorrow, Kendra and Ray are trying to make a love story that is literally doomed work, because their feelings are more important than what fate says should happen. Iris does the opposite – she listens to the world, instead of listening to her heart, and that’s another demerit against her character.
3. The West boys
Seeing Joe and Wally begin to have a more conventional father/son relationship is a nice development, and the show hasn’t jumped off the deep end, in terms of making them the best friends of all time, but rather pacing the relationship between Wally and everyone, which makes Barry’s sacrifice of his powers even more powerful (more on that later).
The one relationship that hasn’t blossomed, really, is the Barry/Wally one, and it appears that this week’s actions will begin to turn that tide. That is, if the show decides that Wally can know who Barry is and, frankly, why wouldn’t it? The show has decided that Barry’s secret identity isn’t important in the slightest, so it makes sense that Wally would find out.
4. Caitlin? More like BAITlin, amirite?
I guess the show feels that Barry losing his powers isn’t a big enough cliffhanger, and so they felt they needed to put Caitlin in grave danger, right?
Now, this could be an interesting development – Caitlin appeared to love Jay, and so perhaps Hunter felt something for her, too. Maybe he tries to turn her into Killer Frost? Maybe she tries to turn him away from his villainy? More than likely, he’ll put her in the same cage that Barry and Wally were in, and she tries to get information out of the man in the iron mask.
Inherently, that’s not a bad plot line – but we’ve seen that before. Hell, we saw it 20 minutes before she was taken. Having Caitlin play a bigger role is a good idea; having her just be bait is a bad one.
5. Anyone else expect a Superman II ending?
Do you guys remember how Superman II ended? Zod ‘forces’ Superman to give up his powers, but he was just faking it? I fully expected that to happen in this episode. In my notes, I wrote “Wells probably has a serum to take away Zoom’s speed, and they’ll trick him into thinking that’s the Speed Force.”
Well, nope.
Look, I get it – as the AV Club said, this is only episode 18 of the season – but this is something we’ve seen a hundred times before. The show has been so good at avoiding, circumventing, and re-purposing tropes that it is a little disheartening to see them just fall into this storyline. This is as classic as you get, but it didn’t earn this spot. Sure, Barry is being the consummate hero by sacrificing his powers to save Wally, but it would’ve been so much more powerful if he did that for Joe, or Iris, or anyone. This was clearly the answer to the question “How can we make sure that Barry and Wally get closer?”
And, ultimately, that’s ok. Part of the problem with reviewing the show weekly is that plot points seem to be bigger deals than they are, and small missteps feel like huge mistakes. So, I could be taking this all back next week. But I don’t think so; I think the show is finally starting to show some wear and tear from doing so much in its first two seasons. Hopefully, it’ll recover before too long, but I don’t think this episode will be redeemed; at least not in full.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments!
