Can Barry outrun a teleporter?
What They Say:
Crazy For You – Caitlin takes Barry out to a karaoke bar, hoping they both meet someone new; Cisco tinks about Hartley’s dangerous proposition; Henry’s snooping gets him into trouble.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While some elements of the previous episode were a bit goofy, I really enjoyed having the Pied Piper brought into the show since he’s long been one of the more interesting characters from the comics. This one certainly has a few differences as personality is not quite the same to be sure, but with him there and his connection to the past within STAR Labs and Cisco himself, that gives us some new insights into things with events leading up to the particle accelerator but also for both Wells and Cisco himself. And it provides some nods we can get towards Ronnie and Caitlin as well, as it gives them a chance to play out some time from the past before things went completely south.
With the cold open here, we get soem good stuff in seeing how Barry handles dealing with some of the things that happen in the city as a card accident has him using his powers to get into it before it gets caught up in an explosion that’ll kill its occupants. It’s a nicely tense little sequence overall as he rescues the boyfriend first and it looks like his girlfriend is going to die in it, but natually Barry saves the day. It’s the small moments like that which help to cement him as a force for good in the city and wins the average citizen over more. It’s also a useful event because the team back at STAR LAbs let him know that he’s now moved the fastest he has yet, giving him a good feeling about it but also knowing that he still learn how to go faster as he knows the Reverse-Flash is out there.
This episodle introduces us to another metahuman that uses her ability to basically do small teleport moments. Shawna’s using it to break her boyfriend out of Iron Heights, which is certainly creative and fun as it unfolds, though she doesn’t accomplish it in a professionaly way. Her goal is just to get him out so they can get out of town, but Clay sees how the situation can be used to his advantage since he owes someone a lot of money and Shawna has the ability to get it. It’s a fairly standard setup device to be sure, but it works well enough even if they’re not the most intense of couples from what we see of them at the start. He at least promises just one more heist and then they can blow Central City for good.
The series is working slowly but surely on building Ronnie’s storyline – without Ronnie – as Cisco is continuing to do research even after telling Caitlin that he wasn’t going to do that. Hartley keeps toying with Cisco as he knows more of what’s going on than the others know, especially in regards to Professor Stein. While Cisco shouldn’t trust Hartley, the curiosity factor is huge and he agrees to let him out of the cell so that Hartley can show him what happened to Ronnie and Stein. Hartley plays things superior here as he shows Cisco a “bomb shadow” outside, which explains things a bit for those in the know as to what happened to Stein and Ronnie. Hartley’s superior attitude has him making his play to get free as well, but it’s good to see Cisco has an upper hand trick up his sleeve as well. The two of them definitely have a complicated relationship when you get down to it and you want to get frustrated by the way Cisco is trusting him to some degree.
While they play at that game, Barry has to deal with Shawna and Clay, or as she becomes known, Peek-A-Boo. Barry’s been able to deal with a variety of opponents, and while she’s not fast, there’s definitely a challenge when it comes to her since she can basically jump out his hands once he catches her. And she can put him in some bad positions by doing so. Add Clay into the mix with his gun and surprise is used against him well, which is what usually seems to throw him from the start with any new metahuman he has to deal with. Part of the fun of this is seeing the post-fight aspect of it as the STAR Labs team try to figure out how to deal with it, understanding her powers a bit. It’s also a bit fun this time since it’s Caitlin takes her stab at naming Shawna. The two even go and spend some time out at a few dive bars after everything since all their other plans fall through. Which gives Caitlin her chance at dressing up as the two of them deal with their problematic romantic lives.
While the two of them get their drink on, or at least Caitlin does, Hartley spends his time filling in Cisco on what happened to Stein and Ronnie, showing how the two of them ended up essentially being blended into one person, which explains why when they’ve seen him, he hasn’t been acting like Ronnie. Naturally, Hartley uses the situation to his advantage and knocks Cisco out so he can make his escape. Running that alongside the chaos of the the bar scene itself, as Caitlin draws Barry up for karaoke, works really well. Partially because Caitlin is so bad and partially because Barry is rather good. But what we also get is the debut of Linda Park, as she introduces herself to Barry and plays it confident in giving him her number, starting a potentially interesting relationship there.
The fallout from the time out the next morning has a lot of fun to it – as does the whole putting Caitlin to bed thing – as they have to deal with not just that but also what Cisco did in letting Hartley out. Cisco actually reveals one of his longstanding secrets to Caitlin about what happened with Ronnie when he locked him inside of it when things went south over a year ago, but it turns into a decent bit of tender material between the two of them. Bringing that all to light is hard for Cisco of course, but Caitlin handles it well since she understands what he’s been holding in all this time and how much it’s pained him. The Hartley situation itself is actually pushed to the side, which isn’t a surprise, but the show is doing well in general in handling the multiple villain storylines in a single episode as well as the main cast, though some of them are a bit pushed to the side for the duration.
There’s also some interesting subplot material going on with the Clay and Shawna storyline as their boss that they’re trying to pay off and get away from, Marcus, is getting ready for another heist that they’ll be using Shawna for. But this information comes from the prison itself as Barry’s father is getting information from some of the inmates, which is getting him into a fair bit of trouble as well. Marcus sees the opportunity for a whole lot of money to be made off of Shawna’s ability and it’s good to see that Barry’s father can be useful in an interesting way – once in awhile. It’s not an angle you want to see used often because it gets forced. Barry makes good use of the intel though in order to go after Shawna and Clay, using some of the tricks they figured out about her abilities in order to try and take her down. While he doesn’t exactly take her down hard and fast, it provides a pretty good challenge for Barry with his own abilities and a pretty creative sequence as he finds a way to blind her – and blind her abilities.
Capturing Shawn puts her into a pretty decent cell that will keep hold of her, though it comes down to the main problem of making sure that Cisco doesn’t let any of them out. The whole thing wraps up rather quickly, which is part and parcel with this series in general, but the journey to getting there continues to be a whole lot of fun. Providing some epilogue time to deal with a few of the other issue is good, such as Caitlin and Barry realizing they really do need to get out there again, but also having Barry unable to give up on Iris overall, as he’s going to try and be of use to her as a reporter to help himself and to help her as well. But Barry’s also going to try and move forward in general as he follows through with Linda, who turns out to be a sports writer at the same paper as Iris. That sets up the fun of a romantic triangle and complications in a really amusing way.
In Summary:
The Flash works through a lot of material here with what’s going on and it manages to balance a pretty good sized cast overall. While some of the regulars are kept to the side as Wells and Iris have minor roles and we see Joe and Eddie kept to brief appearances, this lets others step up well, both with the villains and a chance for Barry’s father to have some great moments. There are some really good father and son moments throughout it that helps to really make their relationship even more grounded and real. And naturally, we get the quick end sequence that sets up things for next week with some time in the sewer that teases Grodd, letting us know where he’s been all this time since escaping STAR Labs.
Grade: B+
