Jessie Robertson reviews the tenth episode of The Flash season 2…
Welcome Back, Central City Citizens! Grab a hot cocoa from Jitters, sneak in the front door of Star Labs and hold onto your butts because the Flash is back!
Tonight’s Flash episode felt just like coming back from the holiday break at work; hazy and you don’t want to be there. Wells was throwing stuff and generally pissy, Jay was somber, Joe’s long-lost son Wally couldn’t have been more annoyed to be around and Barry and Patty seemed to be with each other but actually, not really. Patty’s instincts to dig deeper into Barry’s mind are bred into her being a cop and it pretty much centers the whole episode, as she even goes to Iris for some insight into this matter; thank Geoff Johns they didn’t bring up Barry’s feelings towards her. It sort of puts Barry right back into Season 1 mode where he was withholding the secret from Iris but it got to the point where it seemed silly she didn’t know; for Patty to be spending the night at Barry’s house already, it becomes an eventuality. Yet, something keeps holding him back. But, unlike our villain this week, Barry should have stuck with speed. Patty leaves Central City to pursue forensic training and gives a quick goodbye. She was a character with a lot of potential but something just never clicked with her and the rest of the show; her personality was perfect but we switched too quickly from goofy Patty whose a lot like Barry to confused emotionally – girlfriend version Patty and it sort of slowed her growth.
Speaking of slow growth, Wally West (the heir to the throne) is back and sort of thrusted sharply into the West’s domestic lifestyle. It doesn’t take. He skips a family meal and is out racing hot rods to win the car to sell for money to pay for medicine his mom needs for her terminal illness. No, this is not from a soap opera. We know Wally likes things fast (and red from the look of his GT he was racing) so there is that; but the writing of his scenes where he shows up, seems to want to somehow be involved with the family but then uses the first chance to hurl insults is really counter-productive. We do get one nice moment closing where he offers to eat day old Chinese with Joe. I do hand The Flash this; it’s added yet another layer to its father-son motif and I’m intrigued to see how it all adds up.
And is there anything at all for Iris to do right now???
Finally, our baddie of the week; I have to say, as a comic book fan, this is one guy I never thought would make it. The Turtle (Cisco’s White Whale), a man who can slow down energy around him so it appears he’s super fast when actually everything else is super slow. I won’t go into how the logistics of his powers worked (because I didn’t fully grasp them!) but suffice to say the dude was super creepy and the special effects again go above and beyond what I would expect on a TV show. Really awesome job with those. I think even creepier than Turtle keeping his wife in a glass chamber was Barry’s line to him after they threw him in the Prison below: “Now you can know how it feels to be someone’s prize possession”. Very Dr. Moreau of him.
A fairly pedestrian episode with a lot of Barry agonizing and not much else – 7/10
Other Notes:
– Yes, this Wells is also a bit of a sadistic loon. Did anyone catch Wells formula on the erase board? Could it have been 3X2(9YZ)4A? Just checking
– Jay is dying without super speed. Yawn. He and Caitlin bore me currently.
– Reverse Flash is back…..somehow. Stay tuned.
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https://youtu.be/vDx6g5ua25E?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published January 20, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
