Jessie Robertson reviews the fourteenth episode of The Flash…
Literal fallout as the episode began. But, the experiment worked. This episode was all about the two elements fused together to make Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein. Firestorm is a very difficult character to bring to screen, because it’s two distinct characters, and how do you show both sides? Time is spent quickly showing that these two halves of this whole do not get along, but the story is zipped along, going through a lot of stuff with these people in a very short amount of time, from the humorous (Ronnie’s first request being he wanted pizza) to the out of left field (immediately wanting to move away with Caitlin; showing a distinct lack of knowing your partner).
When Barry visits Stein with questions of his trip into the past, Stein acts less like Ronnie and more like a teenager, or a Ninja Turtle, craving pizza and jumping around giddy talking about time travel. Ronnie, up to that point, had been fairly stoic and quiet. When confronted by Iris, he’s turned into cousin Sam; which I thought would lead to awkward moments of intimacy between kissing cousins but there wasn’t enough time for that gag. It wasn’t really revealed how much they could feel and infer from each other, even though Ronnie carved a message into his arm and it showed up on Stein’s. I think that could get heady, so I wouldn’t expect many more adventures when the two are separated like that. All this being said, when they did come together to take down Eiling, it was done very well.
Our other sub plots were Joe letting the cat out of the bag that Barry tries, at some point in the future, to go back to the past to save his mother. This dejects Barry badly, and interestingly enough, he doesn’t tell Joe why, instead divulging to Stein. Perhaps it didn’t need to be said; when Joe sees Barry holding a photo of his mother, he feels the burden of what he’s just given to Barry, and lets him know it’s his burden too. Another touching moment between them both. It’s a quick trajectory from solemnly declaring “My destiny is to fail,” then within 20 minutes (and one of those magic pep talks from a side character, ex. Stein), Barry is going to save his mother’s life. I’m willing to bet one wheel-chair bound meta-human will differ with that. B-T-Dubs, how devious of Wells to feed Stein to Eiling!
We also have Iris and Bridge join up as investigative partners looking into Wells. I like Joe digging into his past; he’s tied to Barry, feels responsible for him, and has sufficient evidence. Bridge is coming from left field; almost as if, since we the audience know Wells is up to something, everyone else should figure it out too. But, the warp speed storytelling isn’t always necessary. How crafty of a journalist is Iris? I guess we’re going to find out. She recognized Ronnie instantly as the Burning Man, and only needed a fuzzy head shot to know the truth. She’s throwing in with Bridge when she barely knows him. And where was Linda? I do feel like this precludes a new prediction from me: Iris will know the Flash’s identity by season’s end. And where has Eddie been? I like that they gave Firestorm a ton of time (2 episodes back to back) to really cement on his character, but being up against a wall to really nail this character is still eluding them. His relationship with Caitlin seemed to be fine to them, but her saying she’s not crushed with him leaving this time does not bode well.
Other Notes:
– Clancy Brown returns as General Eiling; a calculating and dangerous opponent, as evidenced by his needle box that completely f***ed The Flash Up! It was cool when he (needlessly) mentioned the last person he tortured was a gorilla. Looking forward to that paying off in the future.
– Whoa! It already paid off! Grodd returns with a vengeance, yanking Eiling into his subterranean lair, with the help of an accomplice, Dr. Wells with mask off wearing the Zoom costume. I guess once he turned Stein over, he had to put himself back in the dominant position. Wow, Grodd still looked pretty good and I loved the hint of psychic powers.
– “Dude, that was like Week 3!” Cisco explaining they have a man-made of poison gas in their prison and Ronnie stunned.
– Barry catching missiles in mid-air will never, ever get old!
Jessie Robertson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqtW2LRPtQY&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E
Originally published February 18, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
