Central City is about to explode!
What They Say:
Plastique – General Eiling and the Army take over the case after a bomb goes off downtown, drawing Joe’s suspicion; after refusing to stop writing about “the streak,” Iris receives a visit from the Flash.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Flash certainly got more serious the last time around with the introduction of Leonard Snart, codenamed as Captain Cold. There was a good sense about it, partially helped by the actor who conveyed him well, to show us one of the more well known and longer running villains for the rogues gallery that exists. The show also progressed a few other things, from some of the relationship aspects such as between Joe and Eddie as well as spending some quality time with Felicity, which just delights me to no end. It was a good character crossover that helped both her and Barry and it was one that again made me feel conflicted as I really like her with Barry, just as I like her with Oliver, simply in a different way.
The cold open for this episode is one that gives us a bit of the social life that’s come up now that Barry has made friends with the folks at STAR Labs and you see how Iris is mixing in with them a bit, and a little bit of Eddie as well. With some of what Iris saw the last time around with Felicity, that’s added a fun little mix to things to complicate it all, though Barry is obviously still smitten with Iris in a big way. The real problem at the moment though is that Barry’s getting frustrated by the fact that his hyper metabolism keeps him from getting drunk at a time when he really wants to forget about certain things in a big way. Playing that out alongside an event elsewhere with a burglary, or more specifically an acquisition of papers that turns explosive, it combines the two nicely as we see how Barry responds to it – and everyone else as well. Watching as Barry tries to figure out how to save a window washer (that works at night?!) that’s about to fall from quite a few flights up is a lot of fun as they try to deal with the math and physics of him getting up there.
The investigation into what happened turns really interesting the next day though as while it starts off as a police matter, it turns into a military matter with the arrival of General Eiling. It’s all very polite and straightforward, though you can see how it rankles the cops, and Joe specifically, to give up the things they’ve found so far. With him revealing that the person involved in all of this is one of Eiling’s people, that makes it a pretty internal matter that’s spilled out publicly. So it’s not a surprise to see Eiling do this, but we know there’s obviously more going on and with Joe’s understanding of the metahumans and the potential of this being another case because of the unusual nature of it, well, that just raises his red flags all the more that Eiling is involved. Barry’s able to start working the case on his own of course, with help from STAR Labs, and there’s a bit of a connection there as well as Wells worked with him on a project for the military years ago that didn’t end amicably.
Barry’s able to find the woman quickly, Bette, but the encounter doesn’t go well as she gets her touch on with him and causes him to explode. He manages to survive of course, and no worse for wear, but the outfit is completely burned to a crisp. Which, amusingly, has Cisco all furious about it until he gets a look at her and realizes she can do anything to him. Because of Bette’s potential, they know they have to find her before Eiling does as that’s not something that you want the military to have. But in dealing with the military, Barry has to deal with some people that are far more skilled in retrieval, which leads to a pretty slick little segment as they close in on her but Barry’s able to sneak in and offer her a route out, revealing that he’s like her in a lot of ways.
The exploration of her abilities – and origin – is nicely done as everyone gets interested, particularly Cisco, but as they start really digging into what makes her tick, they discover that she has a tracker on her. It’s fun to see how that plays out in what they do to get her out of there, but it’s also fun to see how Eiling and Wells deal with each other as there’s a sense that each looks down on the other in a big way over how they operate and where they are in their respective lives. We also get a good little bit that has Bette and Barry talking about their abilities and how life has turned for them. With her feeling like she’ll never be able to touch anyone again, it mirrors – in a bigger way, some of what he’s coping with in how his life is changing because of his powers, such as the drinking problem. Barry’s real problem right now though is that Iris is continuing to do her writing on her blog about The Streak and she’s getting serious about it now, enough so that she’s signing her name to it. Which definitely makes her a big target for other metahumans looking for potential information on him. His attempts at convincing her to stop haven’t worked as Barry, and as we see it play out, even as the Flash it won’t help.
In a not so surprising twist, we see Wells using what he knows of things to set Bette against Eiling, getting her in the mindset that she has to protect the other metahumans out there and do what only she can do since Eiling is a threat to them all. She’s mostly just looking for a mission at this point and seeing this as a good one to take isn’t hard for her to accept. Things don’t go down well with that confrontation, though it plays out in a very quick fashion that really feels rushed. With Bette killed, and falling short of revealing that it was Wells that urged her to do this, the real danger surfaces in that her body is turning into a massive bomb now, which has Barry learning more about his powers. While we saw him run up a building the first time earlier in the episode, now we see him running on water, which is nicely done visually through a few tricks. It’s unfortunate that his learning this trick has to involve the death of Bette though, as she could have been an interesting recurring character at times.
In Summary:
The episode works well when it deals with Bette and all that’s going on with Barry, STAR Labs and the military side of things. It’s weak when it deals with Iris at the moment since it turns into a situation that has her and Barry giving each other space for awhile since he’s trying to protect her as much as possible, but failing to do so. Bette really is a fun character in the short time that we get to see her here, but she has a personality that can work well and I like her powers with how they’re portrayed, as well as how it gets Barry to try and do new things. It’s unfortunate that she has to get dealt with as she does, but there’s a lot to like here, including the small nods to her costume design that is definitely pleasing.
Grade: B+