Enter… The Reverse Flash!
What They Say:
The Man In The Yellow Suit – Barry enjoys holiday traditions with Joe and Iris – and his faced with his nemesis.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Last weeks two part Flash Vs. Arrow crossover event was definitely well received, though it wasn’t a full on crossover in a sense as the story side of it was more about the characters than a singular villain to face. Barry was fun to watch as he was trying to show off for Oliver when Oliver came to visit and we got a lot of good time when Barry went to Starling City and got involved with Captain Boomerang and what he brought to the table. It was also good to see the way the supporting characters connected and blended well on both sides of the equation and the kind of banter that came from it as some little secrets got exposed, some fun was had and we generally got both casts to have a lot of good screen time in a packed amount of time.
With this episode, the mid season finale, there’s a lot of anticipation going into it to be sure. With the cold open here, we’ve hit the Christmas season and get to see the city starting to light up, but it’s also lighting up in a different way as we get to see Barry, in street clothes, racing against the mysterious yellow suited flash. Of course, that has to be a tease with its intensity as we instead shift to the day before with some tree trimming at the West household with Barry having fun in decorating and un-decorating it all in the space of a few seconds. Naturally, work calls Joe away and that means some time for Iris and Barry to spend together, which is pretty natural considering how close they’ve been since they were kids. We also get a little bit of Christmas cheer delivered to STAR Labs with what Barry brings to them, including some fun eggnog.
With some fun there, and a bit of awkwardness between Barry and Eddie when it comes to their relationships with Iris, we get some small progress that works nicely to show some of the changes and difficulties ahead. One of the big moments of the episode comes early though as we see Caitlin heading to her car only to have Ronnie show up, though he was trying to hide from her to a degree. What she sees though is him showing what he is, in as rough a form as he is, and that’s definitely intriguing to see how she handles it. Her curiosity is certainly piqued on a number of levels here. This also plays alongside events elsewhere in Central City where we see the yellow speedster showing up and causing trouble at Mercury Labs, which is working on something big but uncertain at this stage.
Mercury Labs, as we learn from Wells back at STAR Labs, was their major competitor until the accident. They’ve expanded quickly since then and overtaken things in a big way as they supposedly develop technology of the future, under the supervision of Doctor Tina McGee, which is played by Amanda Pays who played a different version of the character back in the original Flash TV series from the 90’s. Wells and Barry make an attempt at getting the device they think the yellow speedster is after, but McGee isn’t keen on doing that for a number of reasons. There’s a good sense of things between Wells and McGee that’s fun to watch, especially since we know that Wells has his own futurist aspects that keep dancing around the edges teasing us throughout the series so far. Barry’s intent on figuring out how to lure the yellow speedster in since he has a really vested interest in getting a hold of this guy because of what he did.
When the show catches up to the opening, we get a great chase scene as Barry sees the yellow speedster and demands answers, giving chase to him throughout the city until they end up in the football stadium where they go all out in a fantastic way visually on a number of levels, especially with the way our yellow speedster vibrates his presence so that he looks and sounds positively creepy. There aren’t a lot of reveals here, but there’s just enough to antagonize Barry and make him believe that there is a lot more going on than he understands. All of this serves to motivate Barry in a big way to getting what they need to put together a trap to capture the yellow speedster, including Barry showing a very different side of himself with all of this. There’s also an amusing twist in that while Barry and Joe are putting this together through channels, we get Eddie inserting himself into it as well since he has his task force to go after the Flash.
While the trap is being set, there’s good reason for Joe and Wells to keep Barry out of it since he’s too close and too emotional about it. So, grudgingly, he ends up going to talk to his father in prison about things, to lay out his own guilt in not getting the yellow speedster and feeling responsible for what his father is going through. The two have a good, if brief, talk about things and just how much his father understands the real Barry. That, in turn, gets Barry to be honest with Iris about his true feelings for her, which is great to see even if it has a cute moment at first that makes you go aww. Having Barry reveal his true feelings is great as he lays it out in a way that feels so honest, and seeing the impact it has on her, is great because it shows the real history these two share. Sometimes, it’s simply overpowering in the need to express it even though you know it’ll likely change everything for the worse.
While that plays out, we get the trap being put into motion which has the yellow speedster captured. That has its own great sequence of questions asked and answers teased that makes it all hugely tense as there’s a subtext to it all that leaves you wanting to know more. The answers are really there though and it’s great to see it unfold with the new twists here. But the real challenge comes in that the newly named Reverse Flash is intent on following through on his promise to hurt Iris. But first we get a good fight between the two Flash’s, which has everything knocked off course by the arrival of Firestorm into the mix, which lets us see his powers in a great way on a couple of levels. It’s one of those sequences that raises a lot of questions but provides a great deal of satisfaction.
Caitlin’s subplot throughout the episode is pretty good to watch as she gets Cisco to help track him down where he’s hiding out underground. That doesn’t go quite so well at the start though as when they do find him, he’s insister that he’s not Ronnie Raymond but rather should be called Firestorm. It’s hard to tell at first if he’s just trying to separate his two lives or if he simply doesn’t remember anything from before the accident. There’s a lot of mystery here for Caitlin to figure out, but it’s a bit of just trying to process it all after that encounter is put aside, especially since she now finds herself starting to regret having it because of the way he doesn’t seem to remember who it s that he was. It’s a good bit that plays out, until it catches up to the Reverse Flash aspect that has him stepping up to get involved.
In Summary:
With a mid-season finale here that has a really big moment in the end sequence that I can’t help but to think is a feint, this is a great episode. There’s a lot of good character material in here throughout, especially between Joe and Barry that truly cements the kind of friendship and family relationship that they have after all of these years. We also get a good sequence with Iris and Barry that makes her realize the truth now that he’s finally said it and is starting to move forward. With the bigger story here, I really liked the visuals for it all, the action was good and it was a very strong mid season finale from a freshman show that is a very polished one. I’m still in the camp that it’s Eddie that’s the Reverse Flash, especially with the way he saved Eddie inside STAR Labs, but there are feints and potentially double feints here that make me wary from being completely certainly.
Grade: A-