Jessie Robertson reviews the tenth episode of The Flash season 3…
The Future is not fixed!! (me wishing I could back to the US Primaries and get Bernie Sanders elected)
Anyways, We’re back! The Flash picks up right where it left off giving us a brooding (and shirtless) Barry Allen unable to sleep, unable to shake the horrid nightmares he has reoccurring watching Iris’ death four months from now. She picks up on this, as any caring gf would and instead of going the route most Arrowverse shows go and holding it back until it just hurts your friends enough and sows just enough distrust amongst them, he tells her. About mid-episode and explains it all to the team, well except Joe, because someone always has to be left out to keep the drama in! It’s a scene that shakes you, watching Candice Patton take in what Barry is saying, inside the sealed time chamber where it’s just her and her lover (He said it’s been three nights in a row! I think we can safely debunk the theory they’ve shagged royally), and she really emotes, and it shows. It’s a quick scene, relatively but one I think highlights the true gem they have in their Iris West.
Speaking of Wests, it’s time for young Wally to shine. Barry has him shadowing him, as in job training, preparing him for what’s to come in the life of a speedster and Wally is taking it all in like a 5-year-old waiting for a Happy Meal as you pull through the drive-thru. His excitement is palpable and adds some character to Wally, who can be a bit of a dull bean sometimes. There’s a bit of manipulation from the teacher to the student as the episode moves along, where Barry, having been to the future, realizes their latest baddie, Plunder, is from his quick jaunt to four months ahead; so he thinks if they stall and don’t capture him, the timelines will change again and maybe, just maybe, Iris won’t be brutally killed in front of him. Wally doesn’t know that and sprints at his chance to steal the spotlight after over-hearing a cop earlier talking mad crap about him. Typical millennial. Once the gang knows the score with Iris’ fate, Barry shifts course and wants Kid Flash (It’s growing on him) to take the credit and he learns some stuff along the way. Sidebar: where does Plunder get his awesomely cool gun from??
HR is still a shining star amongst the sky as his new Star Labs Museum re-opening is headed for a big night, complete with free coffee, cool scenery and Cisco looking like a total idiot in his Sam’s Club gear and fritzing hologram. It’s so good. The museum looks amazing and HR is sparing no expense , John Hammond-style (expect a new sub-plot!) yet no one bothers showing up. Cisco leads the charge by being particularly harsh to him, even saying “You have no purpose” as the show struggles to find ways to give him a purpose because Tom Cavanaugh is so completely amazing, he can’t NOT be on this show anymore. in the end, Cisco manages to market the museum the right way – to kids! and all is good with HR, except a futuristic bounty hunter shows up at the end of the episode with his photo.
This brings us to Julian….Alchemy….okay, Julian again. Where does he fit in? Surely Team Flash does not need another member but he’s a known character actor and a damn good one and he had so much plot so far….yep, I’ll just skip straight to where he becomes the new member of Team Flash. He shares a connection with Caitlin, as she can sympathize with having hurt innocent people when under the spell of powers you didn’t want and she makes an impassioned plea to the rest of the team to let him in, when they are on the fence about it. Surprisingly there’s a lot of good one-off moments with characters this week, emotional scenes and Joe wasn’t one of them.
Heading towards the end of our comeback ep, we get some pretty awesome moments, the kind that make you swoon over this show , again and again; the news broadcast where we get a run off of future storylines still to come this season and the housewarming party at the end; the warmest family on TV made up of geeks, speedsters and cops and it does my soul what chicken soup and pumpkin pie do to my stomach: fills it with flavor and love, all the love.
9/10- Missing The Flash score with a great jump at the whistle to head down the track of season 3
Other Notes:
– Barry phased! Just another new ability we’ve been waiting for.
– “I like the way you dress” one of those one-off HR lines that had me rolling
– “This is not going to happen!” Barry telling Iris he won’t let any harm come to her on the memories of his parents is the for real s*** promise
– Those headlines! Gorilla Invasion! Return of Killer Frost! The Music Meister book deal!!! Please tell me NPH has secured that role??? (quick internet search- Damn! It’s some guy from Glee)
– McSnurtle the Turtle!!! OMG Cuteness overload
Jessie Robertson
Originally published January 25, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
