Jessie Robertson reviews the eighteenth episode of The Flash…
Not my favorite episode. Not by far.
This week seemed to center on things that were being pushed, contrived to create storylines as we finish the season. The one the show closed on this week was Iris and Eddie’s problems. As I said in my last review, it seemed a bit unnecessary to include Eddie in the secret; he wasn’t going to figure it out, and there was no circumstance in which Flash couldn’t have gotten done what he needed to without involving Eddie. Yet, here we are because they needed to push forward nice guy Eddie’s devolvement into baddie territory. The opening montage of Flash catching criminal after criminal and Joe loving it was hilarious fun, but you could see Eddie’s not on board. And now, this secret has essentially jeopordized his future with the woman he loves, something he won’t forgive Barry (or even Joe) for. Iris hears Barry’s reasoning for his behavior and agrees it makes perfect sense, but that’s not what she wants out of a partner. That at least made sense. Our only question is will Eddie become full-blown villain by the end of the season? With the way Flash moves, it’s damn sure to happen.
This episode was very light on Wells, as I have have a feeling he will be around a lot as the season comes to a close. Dr. McGee pays another visit to the Star Labs crew and drops a vital piece of information on Barry about Wells being a completely different man. It was so on the nose I’m surprised she didn’t sneeze while delivering it. Drama was created from Joe telling Barry to keep their investigation hush-hush, even from his pals Cisco and Caitlin, so false doubt was put into Barry’s mind and a lot of time was spend on it, as well as Cisco acting seemingly strange when normally he wouldn’t have. Barry’s confused nature about where his allegiances lie seemed a troubling act for Grant Gustin; I wasn’t even feeling his usual chemistry with Felicity this week.
Speaking of Felicity, her and Ray’s appearance in Central City felt like such a natural move, it had to happen. His appearance was classic, with the Superman line fudged over when Felicity shyly states “It’s my boyfriend.” No irony was lost that Brandon Routh was in fact, Superman at one point. Usually Felicity provides the levity in a very dour Arrow environment, but on Flash, she fits in perfectly, if maybe even sometimes feels like there’s too many cooks in the kitchen. But, matching up Cisco and Ray as two guys who seem to love to name super-villains, and Felicity cross-breeding her superhero loves in a Frankenstien-ien way in front of Caitlin are perfect for Flash. As she even says ” I thought Central City was supposed to be the fun one,” in her meta comment of the week. So, Ray’s venture over to Tuesdays is a successful venture, even if there wasn’t a true bad guy for them to “team-up” to face, it does progress his suit and gives Felicity the knowledge that there is a very dangerous meta killer hanging in Central City, should the need for the Arrow and his team to intercede in a true super-hero team up later on.
Other Note:
– Caitlin gets one of the best lines this week when Cisco and Ray double name the meta-human, “God, there’s 2 of them.”
– Our villain of the week is the Bug-Eyed Bandit, comically, a villain of the Atom, but has to have the worst name ever. Emily Kinney (better known as Beth) plays a disgraced scientist who can control an army of robotic bees and seeks revenge on her former employer. It’s a completely stock villain with pun-tastic dialogue. The villain is forgettable, the bees just seemed cheesy as a threat but her lair was pretty cool!
– I love that Felicity states she has always wanted a nemesis- as her and Brie Larvan battle over the bees. And don’t adjust your eyes; Felicity did do a mic drop. I wanted a full-on of Wells reaction to that.
– I like that Ray isn’t fully Iron Man yet; his suit has a lot of bugs (oh yeah, I see what I did there.)
– Interesting that Cisco is having flashes of the alternate timeline, so that stuff isn’t just swept under the carpet like a lot of critics thought it would be.
Jessie Robertson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=pnc360pUDRI&feature=player_embedded
Originally published April 15, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
