Eiling’s come calling and he wants his Firestorm project.
What They Say:
Fallout – Caitlin is thrilled to have her fiance back after an explosion separates Ronnie and Dr. Stein; Mason Bridge tells Iris that something mysterious is going on at STAR Labs; Barry receives important information about time travel.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
A lot of quite enjoyable time was pulled together the last episode in exploring not only the origin of how Firestorm came about, but also Barry’s connections to Dr. Stein in the past, Caitlin’s feelings with Ronnie and some fun bits with the Firestorm abilities overall. It didn’t go as all out as you would in a comic book, but for an action show on the CW with the budget it’s expected to have, it certainly surpassed fan expectations I think and did what it does best – it had fun and did it all in a plausible way within the context of the growing universe here. While we’ve had some good Cisco material recently with his past, we’ve now got a firmer footing with Caitlin and that helps a lot. Add in some fun for Barry with Linda Park and I’m definitely enjoying that side of the series – which was one of the big draws for me in the 90’s Flash comics with the relationships and personal side of it as opposed to the superheroics.
The cold open deals with the nuclear explosion from the ending last time around, with the unsurprising reveal that there’s no radiation in the area so Barry and Caitlin are fine having survived the rest of the explosion that was trying to separate Ronnie from Dr. Stein. That hoped for result looks to have born fruit as Ronnie is back to himself and in control of his body while Dr. Stein is also there physically and mentally in his own body, making it a very successful mission overall considering the scale of the threat that it all represented. It turns into a pretty decent reunion back at the labs considering the loss of Ronnie to start with, but things get on track with Dr. Stein keeping things a bit grounded. But while they’re all celebrating, and in fairly perfect health, General Eiling and his unit have started to investigate the explosion point and realize what’s happened with Firestorm, which speaks to more of what Eiling knows.
While lots of good news all around, Barry gets the unnerving news from Joe back at Barry’s old home with what Cisco had discovered through the mirror and the reveal about the blood itself. While time travel is something people think about, Barry struggling with the reality that some form of time travel had him going back to the past to try and stop the Reverse-Flash is definitely interesting. It’s a familiar piece for comic fans, one I’m still surprised that they went that route with because it asks a lot of the more casual viewers, but it provides a great weight for Barry in realizing that he was there trying to stop it and failed. Of course, it gives him the sense that he could fix it the next time around since it still hasn’t happened to him, but therein lies the fun of the paradox and a whole host of other issues to deal with. It lets the mind wander in fun ways trying to play with it all.
For help on all of it, it turns out that Dr. Stein wrote some papers and research on the concept years ago so that keeps him in the picture for a bit. Amusingly, Stein is dealing with some of the changes in the separation as he and Ronnie are sharing certain traits, such as Stein being very into pizza in a big way these days compared to never liking it before. The issues are all there of course in that the two are very much connected in some significant ways, but it’s taking the mildly slow and straightforward approach in bringing it to light. The conversation goes well, but it has the problem in that Barry realizes that his destiny is to fail in saving his mother then, which is a hard thing to really understand, even with all that his life has changed. It’s a good bit of additional weight for the character to cope with and work through for the remainder of the season, something that’s definitely well done here.
While things are being coped with, Eiling makes his move and goes for a grab on Ronnie first, which goes awry as Barry intervenes, but we also see that Eiling is very proactive as he has a gadget to slow him down for retrieval. It doesn’t go that way, but it makes it clear that the group has to really figure out what the deal is with Eiling as he wants the Firestorm project for himself and the results of it. This just adds to what Barry has to think about and as it goes on, it’s good to see that he is struggling with it all. As Joe tells him, he’s coped with a lot of different things since he became his guardian, but this burden for Barry is unlike the others because of what it means will happen and has happened in a new light. The positive part of it all is that we see the continued strengthening of the relationship between Joe and Barry, but it also kicks at the wedge a bit as Barry still can’t believe that Joe is looking askew at Wells even after all this time. It’s not overplayed, but there’s a kind of positive weariness from Barry about it that angle.
Of course, we have to see that Wells isn’t the best guy in the world right away, which is why Eiling provides the nudge that he needs to have him help in turning over the Firestorm pair to him. The first half of it goes in a simple enough way as Wells basically drugs him through his drink, but since there’s the bond between him and Ronnie, the rest of them know something is up pretty quickly – which gives Wells his out as well. This all plays out in a kind of quick and somewhat chaotic pattern with what’s involved, as I admit that Eiling and his whole angle in all of this just feels very off to me in a lot of ways, but it helps to move everything forward to the final act where the push is made to rescue stein. Having it so that Barry and Ronnie have to work together in this, giving Barry another chance to partner up again, is definitely a good thing. Revealing that if Ronnie and Stein end up merging again that they may not be able to separate is the unfortunate side – but the expected outcome for comics fans.
The difference this time around is that Ronnie and Stein aren’t fighting each other over it but rather accepting it and trying to find a balance as the merge gets underway. It’s done through Ronnie’s body of course, which helps since he has the controlling device on him, and it’s done quite well as he goes all out on Eiling’s troops that come after him, using the nuclear energy as blasts as well as flying a bit just to give it enough superhero aspects. But the two lack experience, which makes it hard for them to succeed all the way; which is why they’ve got Barry in their corner. That said, getting us to the end here where they do have the ability to separate is something that doesn’t bother me since you’re paying actors for their time and you want them on screen. And I’ve been a fan of Victor Garber since Alias, making me want to see him more in the future since Ronnie and Stein are off to someplace else to try and figure out how to deal with their situation.
In Summary:
The Flash brings things to a close here for the Firestorm part of the arc that kicked off a bit ago and it definitely hit most of the right sweet spots for me with what I wanted out of it. Both actors nailed it well in bringing to life what you could consider one of the harder superheroes to bring to the screen, big or small, and it’s open up for plenty more to be done as time goes on. The downside for me is that as much as I adore Clancy Brown, the whole Eiling situation just felt very forced amid everything else. His little comeuppance at the end is perfect though for making it clear to him that he’s playing out of his league. That little taste at the end with Grodd is beautiful and exactly how things needed to end. All of this is wrapped up in what Barry is struggling with as he’s now learned about his time trip to the past that will happen in the future and his grappling with its meaning and weight has definitely made the character not as fun this time around, but it’s expected and well executed. It’ll be a long couple of weeks until The Flash comes back.
Grade: B+
