See, this is what happens when
you concentrate on the bigger picture for two consecutive episodes instead of
bringing in a few more one-off villains just for the sake of comicbook
shout-outs: your show suddenly becomes super fun and enjoyable. Or at least that
was the case with The Flash this week, and after watching these last two
episodes I suddenly find myself very much excited for the finale. There’s three
more episodes to go, so hopefully they don’t ruin this great momentum until
then.
Remember that cliffhanger from
last week? It was pretty fucking incredible, wasn’t it? So thank heavens that
the writers decided to the right thing and continue the story right where we
left off, with Barry, Caitlin and Cisco still standing in front of that
holographic article about the Flash’s disappearing, baffled by the fact that it
says it was written in 2024. And the surprises weren’t over yet, as Caitlin
pointed out the name of the journalist who wrote it: Iris West-Allen. This was
followed by them accidentally activating Harrison’s AI, who quickly identified
Barry as Director of Central City Police, CSI Division, also known as the
Flash, founding member... and then she was cut off before she could have said
’Justice League’, I presume. Can they even say Justice League on this show, now
that DC is developing a movie about it set in a different universe, with a
different Flash? I guess it doesn’t really matter because Barry didn’t care
about any of that, all he wanted to know was what Harrison Wells was up to, and
more importantly, why did he kill Barry’s mom? Thank God Barry asked the right
questions because I’ve been starving for some answers. Turns out, he killed
Nora only because he was angry that Barry escaped, buuut he also wanted Barry
to become the Flash? I might have to rewatch this episode to see if I’ve
misunderstood something, because right now these seem like two very
contradictory statements to me. If he was angry that Barry escaped, then that
means that he wanted to kill him that night, but if he HAD killed him, Barry
could never have become the Flash... or maybe he didn’t wan to kill him, just
kidnap him so that he could make him the Flash way before it was supposed to
happen? There wasn’t any more time to find out the details because Wells has
already entered the building and was heading their way, so they had to get out
of there quick and also make sure that the AI doesn’t tell Wells that they were
there. This proved to be the easiest part as the AI apparently accepts Barry’s
every command, because he created him. Wow. Now THAT’S something I would like
to learn more about real soon.
Armed with all this new
information, Team Flash decide to set a trap for Wells and somehow make him
confess to killing Barry’s mom. This shouldn’t be too hard seeing as he’s already
done it once, in that timeline that Barry erased so that no one but him
remembers that it ever happened. He told everyone about his time travelling
adventure which prompted Cisco to realize that his strange dreams about Wells
killing him might actually be memories from that alternate reality. So to be
able to devise the perfect plan, they have to access Cisco’s subconscious to
learn everything about his encounter with Wells. They put him in a coma-like
state from where he can communicate with them, and he manages to remember
enough details so that they can recreate the circumstances. He also remembers
that Harrison DID intend to kill Barry the night his mother died, so I can
continue being confused about that. The plan involved getting Harrison down to
the chamber where they have trapped the Reverse Flash, and make it so that he
catches Cisco right as he pretends to just having figured out that what they
trapped was actually a hologram. Cisco would stand in a kind of force-field all
along that would prevent Harrison from getting to him while he manipulates him
into confessing. My only question about this was, the force-field is designed to
keep out speedsters, so would it be able to keep him out if he just simply
walked over to him instead of using his superspeed? And to think that I almost
got an answer to that! Almost.
Wells arrived right when he was
supposed to but Cisco couldn’t get him to confess, as he just walked right up
to him, raised his hand, and was shot dead by Joe before he could have confessed.
Barry was understandably upset at having lost his only chance to prove his
dad’s innocence, but then it turned out that they’ve all been outsmarted.
Wells’ body turned into Everyman, the shapeshifter metahuman from the previous
episode, and now I’ll forever wonder whether that was the reason he was able to
cross the force-field, or I was right about the simply walking. In any case,
the real Wells called in and told them that he knew all about their plan
because he was monitoring their every move all along, which is kind of a cheap
solution to all this but whatever, I’m so excited about everything finally
being out in the open that I’m willing to roll with this.
In slightly related news, Eddie
has decided to propose to Iris and also to ask Joe for his blessing, and was
about as surprised as me when he didn’t give it. What the hell, Joe? Eddie
later asked Barry to talk to Joe about this and he did, and Joe told him that
he didn’t give his permission because he knows that Iris will get caught up in
the moment and say yes, and then she’ll be trapped in a marriage that she
doesn’t really want, because she has feelings for Barry. Again, what the hell,
Joe? Even if that’s true, and he can’t know it for certain because Iris never
actually talked to him about it, he can’t just decide who Iris loves more and
can marry, what the fuck? Luckily this is the 21st century and Eddie didn’t
actually give a flying fuck whether Joe agreed or not, he only asked him out of
courtesy. So he took Iris out to propose to her and then did this really stupid
thing where he made her decline Joe’s incoming phone call even though he knew
that Harrison has been targeting Iris and that call can be important. And sure
enough, Wells arrived and kidnapped Eddie. That’s what you get for ignoring
imminent danger. But at least Iris wasn’t hurt becaue Barry arrived just in
time, and as he ran off to save Eddie, Iris finally figured out the Flash’s
identity. I couldn’t really squeeze this into anywhere earlier but we saw a
flashback to when Barry was still in a come andy Iris was visiting her, talking
to him about Detective Pretty Boy among other things. It was a very sweet scene
and it turned out to be signiciant too because in the end Iris recognized Barry
when their fingers touched and gave off the same spark they did back in the
hospital. I think we can collectively agree that it was about freaking time
that Iris learned the truth, and I can’t wait for the big confrontation about
it that’s bound to come in the next episode.
Episode MVP: Grant Gustin as Barry Allen
Quotes of the episode:
"Ah, so that's how you get
him to shut up." – Joe West after they put Cisco in a coma
Random tidbits:
- I spoke a bit about Iris figuring
the Flash’s identity out, but I didn’t mention that she also realized the connection
between the metahumans and the particle accelerator explosion. Naturally, she
told this to Barry, and he just kept lying to her.
- Speaking of finding things out,
Wells told Eddie his real name and the fact that they’re related, which was
cool but not really important yet in the grand scheme of things.
- Both Joe and Wells had a
flashback this week. Joe’s was about Wells offering to help Barry and him
agreeing to it, for which he expressed his guilt later in the episode. Wells
also referred to Barry as Joe’s son, which always makes me happy. As for Wells’
flashback, it was mainly about him talking to a comatose Barry about how much
he hates him and is going to kill him eventually.
- Halfway through the episode I
started to wonder when exactly does Barry have time to do his real job. He’s
definitely not fired yet but we never see him working on actual cases anymore.
- Captain Singh telling Barry to
never get married, and then Barry literally bumping into Irisa second later was
pretty hilarious.
- There was also a really pointless
subplot about a fire that Barry had to stop, and I still don’t really
understand it how but he managed to do it by running so fast as to create a
vacuum that would suck all of the oxygen out of the room. And it worked,
despite the fact that the windows were all shattered and there was plenty of
oxygen coming from the outside... it was really stupid, but that whole sequence
was there basically only to fill up time, so I won’t think about it too much.
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