Even superheroes and their support staff get lonely. Barry Allen AKA The Flash and Kaitlin Snow, both recently not doing well when it comes to their love lives, go for a night on the town to forget their problems. Unfortunately things don’t go as well as they could or should. The problems are just starting, with the debuts of Peek-a-boo and Linda Park, the continuing threat of the Pied Piper, the mystery of Firestorm, a surprise first look at one of the Flash’s most dangerous enemies, and more. Meet me after the super speed jump, for my thoughts on “Crazy for You.”

Peek-a-boo

In the comics, writer Geoff Johns revitalized the Flash in the 21st century. He rebuilt the infamous Rogues Gallery, and even added to its classic Silver Age membership. Among the newer members of this league of evil were Girder, who we previously saw in the episodes “The Flash Is Born” and “Power Outage,” and Peek-a-boo, who is introduced in this episode. Peek-a-boo is a teleporter, a villain with the power of instant movement that is more than a match for the Flash’s super speed.

Lashawn Baez is a med student whose metagene is activated when she tries to donate a kidney to her dying father. Her teleportation kicks in whenever someone tries to touch her. Though altruistic in her intentions to save her father afterwards with her powers to find new donors, she comes into conflict with the Flash. When her father dies she reveals her original intention to become a hero like the Flash, who she had idolized, but now hates him for keeping her from saving her father.

The Power of Love

Lashawn, or Shawna (played by Toronto born Britne Oldford) as they’ve named her for television, operates to the tune of Lykke Li so she’s okay in my book. Nice rock video sequence as she breaks her boyfriend Clay Parker out of Iron Heights. Now that he’s free, she wants to just run off together, but he sees profit in her new powers, obviously gained from the particle accelerator explosion. Yeah, we know where this is going.

Clay’s boss, Marcus Stockheimer, also sees the value in Peek-a-boo’s powers and things could have gone very wrong had the police not shown up. I wonder if this Stockheimer guy will show up again. Much like Clay Parker, he has no comics counterpart but seems like a crime boss with connections. He manages to have Barry’s dad roughed up for poking his nose where it doesn’t belong in prison. This worried me, the fact that Henry Allen is not safe in prison, and that he now knows the Flash’s identity makes me wonder if he has long to live. Still, always good to see John Wesley Shipp.

Playing and Getting Played

The Pied Piper is still taunting Cisco and saying he knows what happened to Ronnie Raymond. While Caitlin is trying to forget and move on, all Cisco wants is to solve the mystery. Piper promises to show him not just what happened to Ronnie but also to Professor Martin Stein, all he has to do is let him out. Curiosity is a cruel mistress, and so is guilt, the guilt that Cisco believes he may have been responsible for what happened to Ronnie.

Keeping the villain on a short leash with a sonic device, Piper shows a radioactive ash shadow of Stein, and Cisco video of Stein and Raymond being merged into one being – yep, the secret origin of Firestorm. I hope it stays as simple as put here, because it’s been waaay convoluted thus far. Sadly however in the end, Piper gets the upper hand and escapes. Not good, not good for anyone. Hmmm… that means there are currently four Rogues on the loose now, five if you count the Reverse-Flash.

Karaoke Night

Under the guise of looking for Shawna and Clay, Barry and Caitlin hit a bar and drown their sorrows. Once sufficiently brave, Caitlin drags Barry on stage to sing karaoke, the most dreaded drunken duet there is in any karaoke catalog this side of Meatloaf’s “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” – yeah, “Summer Nights” from Grease. It is just as one might have expected.

“Wait, what?”

It was nice to see Grant Gustin using the mad skills he had on “Glee.” As for Caitlin, well, Danielle Panabaker was never on “Glee.” I do however wonder how long before we get a musical episode with so many singers in the cast. Not just Grant Gustin, but the actors who play Joe (Jesse L. Martin), Piper (Andy Mientus), even Martin Stein (Victor Garber) all have musical theater backgrounds. With the Pied Piper’s mind control powers from the comics, he could realistically make people dance… and sing. It could happen.

Love and War

The other lady in the picture in this episode has been shown and heard from once or twice in the series before, but only in the background. That’s Linda Park, a very important woman in the Flash’s life in the comics. Comics fans know that Barry Allen eventually marries Iris West and that it’s a love that transcends time, space, life, and death. Barry’s successor, the former Kid Flash, and Iris’ nephew, has a similar lady in his life, and that’s newscaster Linda Park. While tragedy sometimes intervenes, Flash marriages are usually destined and speed force strong. Now here on TV, it’s weird for the comics fanboy in me to see Linda interact with Linda, but it’s all good. The TV universe is a new thing, an open continuity, a blank slate… so I am willing to see where they go with this.

And then there’s the 600-pound gorilla in the middle of the room, ahem, sewers. We have all been waiting for this since that one shot of a broken cage in the series pilot, and the reference in “Plastique.” Finally we see Grodd! The super intelligent evil gorilla, who was obviously affected by the particle accelerator explosion, has been hiding in the sewers. We see graffiti and then finally the super gorilla himself. I can’t wait!

Speed Bumps

At first this seemed like a fill-in episode, but “Crazy for You” had a lot happening in it. There were wonderful hero moments like the Flash’s opening rescue and what he did to the guy who assaulted his father. We got more on Firestorm, or F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. (like I don’t have enough acronyms to type on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.“), with promise of more next episode. There was evil at work as well, with the final count of Flash villains currently loose on the street at six – the Pied Piper, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, the Golden Glider, the Reverse-Flash, and Super Gorilla Grodd. Speaking of bad guys, am I the only one wondering how they feed and care for the prisoners in the Pipeline?

Next: “The Nuclear Man!”

Tease tease tease, after months of hinting around and cameos here and there, will this episode of “The Flash” finally be the one where we see the superhero Firestorm in his full glory? It had better be, because the title says it all. Meet me after the super speed bump, for my thoughts on “The Nuclear Man.”

Firestorm

Since the very beginning, no, even before that, the ghost of Firestorm has drifted through the history of this television version of the Flash. The particle accelerator explosion is very much like the nuclear reactor explosion that created the hero. Caitlin Snow, in the comics, becomes one of Firestorm’s most dangerous enemies, Killer Frost, and don’t forget, the Flash also fought Multiplex earlier this season, another major Firestorm foe. Caitlin’s fiancée Ronnie Raymond, Professor Martin Stein, and even Jason Rusch, are all identities of Firestorm.

We’ve seen all this, but who is Firestorm anyway? I remember picking up the first issue of Firestorm The Nuclear Man back in 1978. Written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Al Milgrom, the hero was a win-win for DC Comics. They had finally succeeded to cracking the code of Marvel’s Spider-Man, a teenaged hero with problems, but who was also popular with fans. The hero was quickly initiated into the Justice League, made a featured character on TV’s “Super Friends,” and became one of the more popular heroes of the time.

Origin and Powers

I remember the comic today, as it left a big impression on me. In a freak nuclear explosion, high school student Ronnie Raymond and physicist Martin Stein were fused into one new super-powered being, the fire-haired Firestorm, who could fly, shoot fusion energy blasts, and rearrange the atomic structure of matter – yeah, he could change stuff into other stuff. Bullets into flowers, brick into dust, or even lead into gold – it’s a good power. The best part of this transformation however was that Ronnie was in charge of this new body, while Professor Stein took a back seat, a disembodied voice in his head that could instruct or inform Ronnie who was ‘driving.’

Here in the television version, after some convoluted explanations, we’ve learned that Ronnie and Stein have been similarly merged, but the new being looks like Ronnie as opposed to a new creature. In this case of ‘the burning man,’ it seems like Stein is in control of Ronnie’s body, an intriguing difference. We see some of his simplified origin here in flashback, as well as a pre-accident meeting between Barry and Stein. When we get to know him/them better, Ronnie and Stein are coming across as quite likable, props to Robbie Amell’s acting.

Speed Dating

We open on Barry getting ready for a date, changing clothes crazily to “Uptown Funk” by Mick Ronson and Bruno Mars. I loved the bit where he rushes to meet Linda Park at super speed and stops to buy a flower from a bewildered flower girl. Granted the actors have good chemistry, but am I the only one creeped out by Barry Allen with Linda Park? It just ain’t right. Linda is Wally West’s true love.

Despite Cisco’s jokes about Barry’s metahumanly accelerated sex drive, they could make a cute couple, but we all know he and Iris are the ones who belong together. Happily she does seem a little jealous. And as creepy as it was before, it was really icky seeing Barry and Linda doing the half-naked make out. Thank goodness for Firestorm. Unfortunately after a brief tiff over Barry’s past feelings for Iris, he and Linda are back together. Sadly it feels like, much like the New 52 DC Comics, the powers that be at this TV series don’t want Barry and Iris together.

Mirrors

Meanwhile Joe and Cisco are on their own investigating the murder of Barry’s mom while the lovebirds make out and Wells and Caitlin track Firestorm. At Barry’s old house they encounter a frisky stereotype divorcee, after all why should Barry have all the fun, and a mirror that might hold some clues. Yeah, a mirror, did any other comics fans get chills? Do not mess with mirrors in Flash comics.

Despite any possible connections to Flash Rogue the Mirror Master, it seems the mirror may have captured images from fifteen years ago. Ain’t super science grand? They find hologram-like projections that reveal they definitely were two speedsters there, and one of them left blood. While Joe suspects one of them was Wells, much to the shock and horror of Cisco, one of them is definitely an adult Barry… but more on that later.

The Future of Firestorm

Once under surveillance at STAR Labs, after a harrowing aerial clash with the Flash, Firestorm faces facts. He’s a nuclear bomb in Ronnie’s body with Stein’s mind. With very little time left before he blows up, Stein gets far away so he won’t hurt anyone. Nicely, this is in character with both Ronnie and Stein in the comics. Wells sacrifices his quantum device to build something that hopefully will save Ronnie and Stein, nicely shaped like the actually symbol of the comics version of Firestorm.

Once the device is affixed, it still looks like Firestorm is going to blow up, and he does. Can the Flash outrun a nuclear explosion? We’ll find out, but not this week, it’s to be continued. And if that’s not enough to get you back next week, General Eiling has also been watching and tracking Firestorm, and he launches a task force into action. We also had a sneak peek at Robbie Amell’s new movie The DUFF, which made me wonder how long he’ll be doing TV anyway. Maybe this is the end of Firestorm…

Speed Bits

There were nods to comics writers Mark Waid and the aforementioned Gerry Conway. One of the biggies in this episode is Barry and Linda going to see jazz artist Mal Duncan on their date, Mal being one of the Teen Titans, and a musician of course. Also the Keystone Combines, Keystone City’s hockey franchise, were mentioned. These little nods and Easter eggs have all but disappeared from sister show, “Arrow,” so I’m happy to see them still being found here.

Next: We finally get the time travel episode we have all been waiting for, and hearing about, we find out how Barry showed up at his mother’s murder, what happened to Firestorm, and who knows what else. This ought to be good, all next week in “Fallout!”

Time travel is a major recurring theme in the comics for The Flash. Two of his deadliest enemies, and even Iris West herself, come from various points in the far future, he even raised a family there. Able to run at the speed of light, our hero could and did breach the time barrier often, and now with DNA evidence that Barry was present at the murder of his mother, time travel comes to the TV series. Strap yourselves in and meet me after the super speed bump for my thoughts on “Fallout.”

Atomic Speed

When last we left our scarlet speedster he was trying to outrace a nuclear explosion in the mother of all cliffhangers. In the last episode, a device had been placed on Firestorm designed to separate the fused Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein before they detonated and destroyed Central City. Just moments before the credits rolled on “The Nuclear Man,” we saw the Flash, carrying Caitlin, running from a very telling mushroom cloud.

Resolution comes very quickly, and almost too conveniently as we open this episode. First, the blast zone is free of radioactivity; second, the device worked as both Ronnie and Stein are found separated and relatively unharmed both physically and mentally; and third, the blast has ridiculously pulled the Flash’s mask off. Cisco better get to work on fixing that clasp. What is it with superheroes who take off their masks all the time? If you’re an actor, taking on the role of a masked hero – get used to the idea that your face will be hidden. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Andrew Garfield.

Fallout

The most startling thing about the return of the real Ronnie Raymond, as opposed to Firestorm, is the change it brings about in Caitlin Snow. Actress Danielle Panabaker burns bright in the role, showing us an amazing sincere smile for the first time in the series. Between this episode and “Crazy for You,” she’s come a long way toward becoming one of my favorite characters. It seems almost a shame she might end up as Killer Frost.

By the same token, it was nice to see Victor Garber and get to know his Martin Stein a bit better. I liked the way Raymond and Stein bickered, like an old married couple – or two men sharing a body for months. One issue was over control of the body. I wonder, if Firestorm forms again, will it be more in line with the comics – Ronnie steering with Stein in the back seat? I know Firestorm has been through many changes over the years in the comics, but I have always preferred the original version – Ronnie in control of the body with Stein guiding his conscience.

Time Travel

As I mentioned in the tease intro to this review, the Flash is no stranger to time travel. The giant treadmill we’ve seen at STAR Labs is the spitting image of a device called in the comics the Cosmic Treadmill. With it the Flash can move not only forward or backward in time, but also cross into other dimensions – but that’s a talk for another time, pun unintended.

When Joe reveals to Barry that he was one of two speedsters at his mother’s death, he brings the dilemma to all of Team Flash. Wells admits that time travel is possible (of course he does) but says he doesn’t know how it could be done. So Barry enlists the help of the other physicist on his speed dial, Professor Stein. The Prof is very excitable in an almost Doc Brown way, but he has ideas.

The General

As also mentioned last time, General Wade Eiling, played by perennial villain Clancy Brown, is also after Firestorm. After scavenging to blast site, they tracked Ronnie to Jitters where the Flash tried to save him. Eiling is ready for him with needles attracted to kinetic energy, giving our hero a decidedly porcupine look, sorta like he has in more than a couple issues of The Flash over the years. Pulling the needles out later is extremely painful because of his healing factor.

As if to prove Wells is not as good a guy as he sometimes seems, he sells out Stein to Eiling, even after finding out the General knows who Barry is. With Stein a prisoner of Eiling, a man who believes that metahumans are the next wave in weapons of mass destruction, the commonalities of Raymond’s and Stein’s blending make it possible for one to find the other. One feels what the other does, whether it’s a pizza craving or pain, they are one.

Misdirection

No matter how much I/we wanted it to happen this week, we’re not getting the time travel episode right now. This was more of a fill-in issue where a lot happened on the side stage, but not so much on the main one. Oh to be sure we got some great character moments between Joe and Barry, and Wells and Eiling, and even Caitlin and Ronnie, but that wasn’t really on the agenda… even though seeing Firestorm in semi-costume and in momentary team-up with the Flash was awesome.

We got set up for future episodes with Firestorm, time travel, and even Grodd, but what was really boiling just under the surface was the Iris subplot. Mason Bridge was pushing her to investigate STAR Labs, and the more he pushed, the more she realized Barry and his new friends aren’t exactly being honest with her. This cannot end well.

Monkey Business

Easter eggs this episode include Barry telling Iris that Ronnie is from Coast City – the home city of Green Lantern, in the comics, Barry Allen’s friend Hal Jordan. When Raymond and Stein leave, the city they’re headed for is Pittsburgh, one where the character had operated in the comics. Then Caitlin slipped and told Iris that he went back to Midway (City), home to both Hawkman, and the Doom Patrol.

And that’s not counting the references to “Friends,” Back to the Future, Terminator, “Game of Thrones,” and the shout out to The Mist from episode three. The best one however was when Eiling mentioned during the Stein torture that the last time he’d done that it was to a monkey. And that leads directly into our final moment, where we not only see Wells in the Reverse-Flash costume for the first time, but he delivers Eiling to Grodd!

“Not God, Grodd!”

“The Flash” returns Tuesday, March 17th, and it just can’t get here fast enough!

The Flash clashed with Clyde Mardon and his weather control powers in the series pilot, and was saved by Joe West shooting the villain dead. Now Mark Mardon, the Weather Wizard of the comics, has come looking for revenge on the man who murdered his brother. Can the Flash stop him? And what has Cisco discovered about Dr. Wells and the Reverse-Flash? Find out after the super speed jump, for my review of “Out of Time!”

The Weather Wizard

Flash’s Rogues Gallery on the small screen is filling out very nicely. We’ve had Captain Cold, Heat Wave, the Pied Piper, Captain Boomerang, and coming up we have Grodd, the Golden Glider, and both Tricksters. We have even seen peripheral Rogues like Girder, Peekaboo, and the Rainbow Raider. Now even though you saw a weather manipulating metahuman sociopath in the series pilot, we have yet to see the real Weather Wizard of the comics, but he shows up in this episode.

Mark Mardon is the original Weather Wizard of the comics, first appearing back in the December 1959 110th issue of The Flash. His brother Clyde was a scientist who came up with an amazing weapon called the Weather Wand, dying shortly after. He’s been a frequent foe of our hero since then, altering his costume, his methods (and in the New 52, changing his ethnicity), becoming more murderous, and eventually gaining metahuman powers of weather control himself rather than depending on the Weather Wand. He remains one of the Flash’s (either Barry Allen or Wally West) most dangerous foes.

Brothers

We open this episode one year ago, as the Mardon brothers are on the run after killing Joe’s partner, Fred Chyre. Joe witnesses the brothers’ escape via small plane, just before the particle accelerator blows up and takes the plane with it. We’re getting it from Mardon brothers’ point of view though, as opposed to what we saw in the pilot, and Mark is established as the older, more protective, better looking brother.

In the series opener, Clyde Mardon emerges to the public with weather manipulation powers right around the time Barry Allen comes out of his coma from the lightning accident. It’s six months later and he’s the Flash’s first adversary, but one he can’t quite beat. Joe ends up shooting him dead. Now, six months after that, Mark Mardon is back. And as if there aren’t enough “Spartacus” alumni in the Flash/Arrowverse yet, Mark is played by the man himself, Liam McIntyre, the second actor to portray Spartacus.

Another Flash?

While Joe is being pursued by a revenge seeking metahuman, our hero has another problem. On his way to the scene of a crime he sees another Flash running alongside himself. He’s in red so it’s not the Reverse-Flash. Wells drops the bomb that it’s perhaps a mirror image or a speed mirage. I think the showrunners know what they’re doing to us comic readers every time they drop a mirror clue. After all, the Mirror Master has to show up sooner or later, right?

But what it really be? Sure, Mirror Master is a possibility, but what if, just think about it, what if it is Barry? What if they are finally introducing Wally West? Granted, he will have to be much older (or is that younger?) but wouldn’t that be cool if it was him? But what if it’s Barry traveling back through time and passing himself? We’ve been promised time travel for some time now, is this finally it?

Barry and Iris and Eddie and Linda

Things have been getting better for Barry and Iris, but getting worse for Eddie and Iris, and Barry and Linda. It’s almost as if everyone in the world knows they belong together… except for them. As someone who knows from the comics that Barry and Iris’ relationship is a love that transcends time and space, and life and death – it’s getting old.

Bowling night is a perfect example. No one is having fun except for Barry and Iris. Both Eddie and Linda know too well what’s really going on. I’m surprised Eddie didn’t slug Barry right there. We know it’s coming. We saw it in the previews, damn you, CW. And as far as Linda goes, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, she belongs with Wally. Maybe… maybe… it’s going to happen… or not…

Assault on Precinct Flash

Some of the strongest scenes in the first part of the episode include Weather Wizard’s assault on the police station looking for Joe. There are some very powerful visuals, but really not much happens honestly. And as long as we’re being honest, the Weather Wizard really doesn’t have all that much to do with this episode’s real story as anything but generic threat A. I am sure we will see more of the Weather Wizard later on, but for now, it seems a bit of a waste of time for Liam McIntyre.

Besides posturing about causing minor destruction, and creating a tsunami that threatens to destroy Central City (although what coast exists in Missouri that could generate a proper tsunami is a mystery), Liam really has little to do. Captain Signh’s injury seems unnecessary to me, but I liked meeting his fiancée, and applaud the nurse allowing him to see the Captain. There is one cool scene where he makes it rain just on Joe’s car, but that’s about it. I’d love to see him play against or alongside Wentworth Miller’s Captain Cold though, that would be some cooool chemistry.

Harrison Wells Revealed

Iris’ editor Mason Bridge has started to push her to investigate Dr. Wells. He’s suspected by him of having something to do with Simon Stagg‘s disappearance. Not only that Bridge claims to have digital footage that ‘explains’ Wells being in a wheelchair. Well, we already knew that. Cisco is also still haunted by the bugaboo of his trap not holding the Reverse-Flash back in “The Man in the Yellow Suit.” There’s something up with Wells and Cisco is determined to find out what it is.

While Kaitlin takes Wells to breakfast, Cisco starts his own investigation, discovering that his trap is not only in perfect working order, but that it also seems to have caught a ghost – the reverse-Flash is still in there, or at least appears to still be in there – a speed mirage. Wells arrives, and in true James Bond villain style, reveals his entire plan. He’s Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash from the 25th century, and yes he was there at the murder of Barry’s mother, but was there to kill Barry. And now, Barry is his only way back to his own world – we know he means time, but he says ‘world.’

Killer Vibe

Here is where I began to suspect something was up with this episode. There were just too many game changers in play. When Wells left his wheelchair at Jitters to confront Cisco’s research alone at S.T.A.R. Labs, I knew where this was going. Yes, the death of a major character would be tragic and mind-blowing to viewers, but let’s face it – it’s ratings suicide to kill off everyone’s favorite character just for dramatic effect. Ironically, Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne takes Cisco out with a super speed vibrating hand.

My first thought, outside of this being the time travel episode, or the set-up for the time travel episode, was that this vibrational death might lead to Cisco’s comic book fate – the superhero known as Vibe. I actually thought that earlier in the episode when Wells and Cisco were watching silent films, and talking about the latter’s family, I thought we might get a Vibe name drop. We did get a great line from Wells however about having never seen these films – they were before his time.

Out of Time

Speaking of time, I hit the nail on the head with this one. Say hello, time travel. After Cisco was murdered, and Barry not only kissed Iris, and revealed himself as the Flash, I knew we were going to see a massive ‘restart’ button. That was Barry passing himself earlier in the episode, because as he races up and down the shore at a faster and faster rate to stop the tsunami – he pops out of time and appears where and when he was just after he saw the speed mirage.

Now we know the Flash will change time, correct all the bad things that have happened in the last day. Cisco won’t die, Joe won’t be kidnapped, Wells won’t be revealed, he won’t tell or kiss Iris, Eddie will punch him, and… but wait, things could also get worse… Aren’t Captain Cold and Heat Wave back next week? And aren’t they bringing Cold’s sister the Golden Glider? …and do they know Barry’s secret identity??? Do not miss next week’s episode!

Next: “Rogue Time!”

The last episode of The Flash was the king of the cliffhangers. The Weather Wizard was about to destroy Central City with a giant freak tsunami. Barry had revealed his heroic secret identity to Iris. Cisco was dead at the hands of Dr. Harrison Wells, now exposed as Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash of the 25th century. At this moment of crisis, Barry finds himself thrown backward in time. It can only get worse as Captain Cold and Heat Wave return, with the Golden Glider in tow. Don’t miss my thoughts on “Rogue Time,” after the super speed time jump!

Groundhog Day

Now in the comics, the Flash is no stranger to time travel, he does it all the time. He battles the Reverse-Flash in his 25th century home. Iris West is originally from the mid-30th century (looong story), where the two of them actually spent decades and raised a family, whose children later become involved in the Legion of Super-Heroes. He races back and forth through time so much, he even has a machine with which to do it, the Cosmic Treadmill, of which a similar looking device has been seen on the TV show. This however, is the first time he’s done it in his television incarnation, and so far, it looks kinda like Groundhog Day.

After accelerating to stop the Weather Wizard’s tsunami, Barry has broken the time barrier, and come back a day earlier. The afterimage of himself he saw last episode actually was himself. Now he has a chance to redo a day that had its good points, and its bad points, as I outlined in the introduction. Scarily, as we re-see events from last episode, and Barry knows things before they happen – veteran time traveler Harrison Wells catches on quickly what’s happened to Barry – which in itself is very creepy.

Tempus Fragile

Wells, who is somehow dependent on a future where the Flash vanishes during the mysterious Crisis ten years from now, warns Barry not to deviate from anything that happened yesterday today. Time is fragile. Anything different could shatter the timeline, and we know how Wells needs this timeline intact. However, Barry knows what is going to happen, and knows he has to stop it. He sees Captain Singh, he sees Joe, and he knows what he has to do. Barry captures the Weather Wizard, catching him unawares, and puts him away at the S.T.A.R. Labs pipeline, yet another member of the who-feeds-them-and-don’t-even-ask-about-the-bathroom-situation club.

Wells warns Barry, rather sharply, that messing with the timeline is dangerous, any tragedy that is averted could be replaced by something even worse. He puts him to work trying to break the down barrier, ironically on the Cosmic Treadmill-looking device, but Barry can’t do it. Meanwhile, something even worse happens. Captain Cold and Heat Wave are back in town, and beginning a new reign as the heads of crime in Central City by taking out the old godfather. This cannot be good.

Family Reunion

This subplot was touched upon a couple times in the last episode, but Cisco’s brother’s birthday is coming up and he doesn’t want to go. Apparently he’s the black sheep of the family, and his brother Dante, the bum, can do no wrong. He finally ends up going to the party, with Caitlin. Dante is a dirtbag, and yes, everyone likes him, and no one likes Cisco. This is so far off anything we have previously seen in the comics with Cisco, but honestly, I like the TV version a lot better.

This family dynamic, and most of the character by the way, is vastly different from what is in the comics. While loved on television, Francisco Paco Ramon is almost hated in the comics. Former gang member and breakdancer, the hero known as Vibe joined the Justice League at a point when it was known as Justice League Detroit, because it was headquartered in that city, close to the streets as opposed to a satellite in space. Paco affected a stereotype Latin accent and played dumb to hide his intelligence. After he died in action, his younger brother Armando took on the identity of Reverb (don’t laugh), and later Hardline. No sign of Armando here. But as Cisco is drowning his sorrows, a woman named Lisa enters his life…

The Golden Glider

Captain Cold and Heat Wave are back, and this time they’ve brought Cold’s kid sister Lisa along. She has quite a history in the comics. Lisa Snart A.K.A. Lisa Star, the Golden Glider, or just Glider, was the first female member, and the first new member in the Bronze Age, of Flash’s Rogues Gallery. Combining her own gimmicks and skills with those of two other Rogues, as well as her own grim motivation, she’s one of Flash’s more dangerous enemies.

Much like the Silver Age Lex Luthor who blamed Superman for causing the accident that made him bald back when they were teenagers, or the disturbingly Oedipal comic book origins of the Avengers foe Ultron, the Golden Glider plays for keeps, because it’s personal. She blames the Flash for the death of her beloved, so she has one driving motivation behind destroying him – and that is to kill the one he loves most first. In the comics, she caught on pretty quick that the Flash had a thing for Iris West, who by then was Iris Allen.

Two Rogues in One

First things first, Lisa Snart is Cold’s kid sister, and just so you know, the sociopathic ruthlessness does run in the family, as does the technology. In the comics, she uses not only a type of his cold gun, but also has ice skates that generate ice, making it appear as she’s skating on air. Her motif and her former professional career are also skating themed, and with various mind controlling techniques has had a fondness for mimbos with either jewel or cold variants to be her henchmen/slaves.

Glider was also the girlfriend of Roscoe Dillon, The Top, a villain we have yet to see on the TV series. From Dillon she learned the spinning that made her a skating star, as well as his skills with gadgetry and mind control. Just as most of Rogues are obsessed with some sort of theme or gadget, something they share with Batman’s enemies, Glider obsesses on jewels, but never too much to keep her from throwing in a top or cold based trap now and then in honor of her loved ones. Known as simply Glider in the New 52 continuity, her powers are vastly different, involving astral projection and super speed.

Something Even Worse

Peyton List, perhaps better known as Roger Sterling’s second wife from “Mad Men” (loved Cold’s clever ‘sterling’ joke) and the CW’s “Tomorrow People” reimagining, is playing the role of Lisa Snart here, and she’s the honey trap for Cisco while he’s drowning those family troubles at the bar. She leads him into a trap. Now Cisco is at the mercy of Cold, Heat Wave, and Glider, and they’re holding his brother Dante hostage. They want their guns, and one for Lisa as well – something pretty, toxic, and gold. Cisco makes her a gun that apparently turns people and things to gold? I’m neither sure this is better nor cooler than anything Glider has previously had. Seriously, though, Cisco has already invented weapons for other Rogues… if this is real transmutation, has he just created a weapon for Doctor Alchemy?

After one confrontation with the Flash, Snart returns to Cisco with a deal. All Cisco has to do is tell Cold who the Flash is. Cisco holds out for as long as he can, his brother’s piano concerto fingers at frostbite risk, so he tells them what they want to know. Returning to S.T.A.R. afterward, Cisco confesses what happened to the team, and quits. The most chilling part of the episode, despite all that we’ve seen, is when Wells brings Cisco to the place where he killed him last episode to have a heart to heart, saying he’s like a son to him, and convinces him to stay. Was there anyone watching whose heart was not beating at super speed?

The Soap

That punch, the one we’ve been waiting for from Eddie at Barry, came and went, with little real effect. Thinking Iris would react in the same way she did when her father was in danger and the city about to be destroyed by a tsunami, Barry again tells Iris he has feelings for her. She reacts badly and the next time Eddie sees Barry, pow. Somehow, it was just unsatisfying, and even more unsatisfying when it’s resolved with Caitlin telling Iris and Eddie some garbage about ‘lightning psychosis,’ a side effect of getting hit by lightning that causes mood swings and fits of affection. Lame, even if it does explain why Barry is at S.T.A.R. so often.

Also so lame was the break up with Linda. Was this just a tease to infuriate comics readers who knew how blasphemous a Barry/Linda matching was? And speaking of journalists and lame, the Reverse-Flash shows up to kill Mason Bridge just before he broke the story on Harrison Wells. So we have Stagg, Eiling, and Bridge all murdered, but Joe was only warned? I guess Joe’s continued existence is necessary to the timeline. The only good to come of this is that now Barry suspects Wells.

Gentlemen’s Agreement

Now as long as I’m talking about things in this episode that are lame, you might think I should bring up the ending with Captain Cold and the Flash’s final confrontation regarding Barry’s identity. That I’m going to give a pass to, because it makes sense. Cold swears not to kill, and that none of his Rogues (nice touch that Barry names them) will kill either, in exchange for none of them harming Barry’s friends or family, and the Rogues getting to continue what they’re doing.

Although never said, there seemed to be such an agreement in the old Silver Age Flash comics. Oh sure, the Rogues tried to kill Barry, never succeeded, and never harmed anyone around him. But there was a sense of it all being a game, that they were playing, that it was fun – dangerous fun, but fun. There is also the very marked point that the Rogues never allowed Grodd or the Reverse-Flash to join up – why? – because they were killers. Too evil for the game. This also plays on Cold’s Modern Age code of honor. He lives by a code and by his word, so this works just as well with today’s comics. I like it.

Next: Mark Hamill, and not one, but two “Tricksters!”

Now that everyone is in on the revelation that the man we all thought was Jay Garrick is actually Zoom, the Flash is determined to stop him. Can Barry get back to Earth-Two, or what we think is Earth-Two? Will he be fast enough to stop Zoom? All this plus we learn the dark secret origin of Zoom, get ready for what could be the big Flash fight of the year. Meet me after the super speed jump for my thoughts on “Versus Zoom.”

Faster

Just wondering, does it bug anyone else that almost every episode of “The Flash” opens with Barry’s narrative saying he’s “the fastest man alive” and he always seems to be facing off against someone faster than he is? Just asking. So we have Barry testing the tachyon device to run from Keystone City to Central to see how fast he can go, and it’s a surprising trip.

“Wait, they forgot me again??”

Halfway through, the Flash blips out of existence and then pops back in. When he gets back to S.T.A.R. Labs scant moments after he left Keystone, he’s startled, and wants to know how long he’s been gone. In between learning that he was as fast as Zoom and that Wells won’t help the team get back to Earth-Two, we the viewers know that Barry visited Supergirl, but for some reason, no one wants to mention it. Hmmm…

Nature vs. Nurture

We open on more Barry narrative, tracing his own childhood tragedy and thanking the upbringing he had in the West household as saving him from any damaging trauma from that event. Then we switch scenes to Earth-Two and we watch Hunter Zolomon as a child witness his father, just back from a war, abuse and murder his mother. Clinging to his father’s helmet (almost a replica of Jay’s sans the wings) Hunter goes to Central City Orphanage.

As we find out later from Harry, the Hunter Zolomon of Earth-Two is that world’s most dangerous serial killer, turned by the particle accelerator explosion into the unstoppable monster known as Zoom. With twenty-three counts of murder under his belt already before super speed, can the Flash stop him?

Reverberations

Harry Wells has absolutely refused to help the rest of Team Flash get back to Earth-Two, or at least what we think is Earth-Two, so Barry has to find another way. He thinks that way might be Cisco. His doppelgänger Reverb had many powers that Cisco has yet to experience, but Barry thinks one of them might be manipulating multiversal energy. If Reverb could open breaches with his powers, maybe Cisco can too.

Barry and Cisco find the place with the most residual trans-dimensional energy, and it’s an abandoned children’s hospital. Ironically in the comics, Barry first crossed over to Earth-Two, in the classic “Flash of Two Worlds,” from a children’s charity event. At Joe’s request, Wells does help, amping Vibe’s powers with new shades. A portal starts to open, but then he closes it.

As it turns out, Cisco was scared, not of Zoom, but of what it means to have powers. He parallels to Anakin Skywalker quite eloquently but eventually relents and opens the breach. I think it’s much deeper though. Once Cisco becomes Vibe, he may lose the charm he has as Cisco, and I don’t think any of us want that.

Flash Facts with Soap

As the Flash world turns, the subplots proliferate. Joe and Harry get together to discuss how to protect their kids. Wally moves in with the Wests, which will make keeping Barry’s secret identity secret – but then again, isn’t Wally the only one who doesn’t know, yet?

And then there’s Iris. She’s hanging out at S.T.A.R. Labs like a groupie and breaking dates with her cute editor Scott. She confides in Caitlin, who is also looking for stuff to do in the background, that she keeps thinking how she’s with Barry on Earth-Two and she’s with Barry in the future -why fight destiny? It is a love that transcends time and space, life and death, but it’s going to suck if Iris just settles…

I loved the bit with the children’s hospital. Another Flash fact might be that apparently they have better pizza in Keystone City, and I’m just guessing because of its blue collar population and iron industry, but I bet they have good beer too.

The Trap

Back to the action, once the breach is opened, Barry lures Zoom through and the race begins, eventually ending at S.T.A.R. Labs where Team Flash seeks to use Hunter Zolomon’s past against him. Cardboard stand-ups of his parents disorient and make the villain hesitate. Surely he must realize what they’re up to, right? Not soon enough.

Once Zoom is shackled and unable to run, and both hero and villain are unmasked, Barry does an odd thing. He does the James Bond villain thing, telling Zoom how they stopped him. Just when it appears they are going to talk each other to death, Zoom escapes… right after threatening Barry’s family and friends. When will Barry stop making these mistakes?? This is just like when he wouldn’t listen to anyone when he went back in time last episode.

Your Speed for Wally

Yeah, you guessed it, Zoom hits the West home, and the only one home, the only one out of the Team Flash loop, is Wally. When the good guys arrive, they find the house trashed, Wally gone, and the message, “Your speed for Wally,” on the wall. Zoom returned to his Earth and imprisoned Wally across from the tapping man, the man in the iron mask. Could they be doppelgängers?

The Flash makes the deal, but the transfer of speed needs Wells to calibrate the tech. While that’s done, believe it or not, Zoom does the Bond villain thing. Maddening. Less talk, more action – show, don’t tell! Maybe if there had been less talk, they could have wrapped this up by the end of the episode… but they didn’t.

To Be Continued

Wally is free, and quite possibly putting two and two together about his family and the Flash. And also, if my guess is correct about who the tapping man is, was that Wally, or the tapping man? So now that Barry is speedless, and Zoom is on the loose with Caitlin in tow, what happens next? Did Jay care for Caitlin? Or perhaps he cared for Killer Frost? I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

Next: Back to Normal, and the Griffin!

With his super speed stolen by Zoom, Barry Allen is still a hero – but he’s more a police scientist in a red suit than the Flash. Still he’s going to try to stop new villain Griffin Grey, with or without his speed. Does the Flash have what it takes? Find out after the jump, in my review of “Back to Normal.”

A Regular Day

When last we left the Flash he was bereft of his speed by Zoom, who also kidnapped Caitlin. As Barry slowly and painfully adjusts to life without speed, Harry is full of rage and throwing blame around. He’s dead set on finding his daughter Jesse… before Zoom does, again. Without an ally with speed, Wells is on his own.

On the other side of the dimensional barrier, on what we’ve been calling Earth-Two, Zoom has given Caitlin free reign of his lair. Before she can do anything or even try to help the tapping man, Caitlin comes face to face with Killer Frost, who’s also a prisoner. Yep, it’s just a regular day for the folks on “The Flash.”

Griffin Grey

One of far too many times The Flash comic book was rebooted, as comics these days are wont to do, Bart Allen, formerly known as Impulse, the second Kid Flash, and Barry’s grandson, was the new Flash. Getting there is far too long a story for here, just trust me, Bart was the Flash. One of the villains he fought was named Griffin Grey, also known as the Griffin, who was created by Danny Bilson, one of the showrunners of the 1990s Flash TV series.

Bart’s friend and co-worker, Griffin Grey was involved in a plant explosion that gave him superhuman strength and agility as well as energy manipulation. After attempting and failing to become a superhero, long story short, and clashing with both Bart and Jay Garrick, he became the Flash’s enemy.

Coming of Age

Our TV version of Griffin Grey is a little bit different and coming from a whole ‘nother direction. After Wells catches up with and is rebuked by Jesse, he gets a surprise driving back to Central City. A man steps in front of his speeding can, and stops it, yeah, it’s our Griffin. He wants Wells, the other Wells, but gets this one. Griffin needs him to reverse what the particle accelerator did to him.

Initially the particle accelerator explosion granted him cool super strength, but as time went on Griffin discovered it was also aging him rapidly. He wants Wells to fix it, that’s why he kidnapped him. Griffin plays the blame game as hard as Wells himself does. Barry and Iris go to check out the van – and leave it in the street, thank goodness they take Wells’ gun – and also pick up Jesse. Conveniently Jesse is a genius like her dad, so it’s not like the team is missing a scientist.

Heroes and Villains

Jesse and Cisco rig the Flash costume with dwarf star matter they got from Felicity over on “Arrow,” which she got from Ray Palmer on “Legends of Tomorrow.” Pay attention, Zack Snyder, that’s how you do shared universes. Wearing the suit, Barry should be able to take at least one punch from Griffin. Too bad all the tension is sucked from the sitch when Griffin simply dies from old age.

Meanwhile on Earth-Two the concept of no honor among thieves is brought home in a hard way. Danielle Panabaker does a hell of a job playing both Caitlin and Killer Frost, and them in turn playing against each other. Once Caitlin frees Frost, the villainess tries to kill her, only to be killed by Zoom. No honor. And worse than that, Zoom decides it’s time to conquer Earth-One…

Reunions

In the soap opera portions of the episode, which we actually get a bit of as this is our literal and figurative slow-down-and-take-a-breath episode… Wally wants to thank the Flash for saving him last episode, and is intrigued by the idea that the Flash cares for someone who cares for Wally. Bugging his dad, finally Wally gets to thank a powerless Flash at a distance. I don’t know about you folks, but I think Wally’s got it all figured out, and knows Barry is under the mask.

Elsewhere, Wells and his daughter Jesse are making amends, and she’s returned to staying at S.T.A.R. Labs with dad. First things first, are they really staying in such a sparse bare room? I think Henry Allen’s prison cell or The Pipeline would have had better accommodations. And second, and this gets a little bit creepy, are Harry and Jesse staying in the same room? What’s up with that?

Also, there’s only two two-minute episodes online so far, but if you can’t get enough Cisco, check out The Chronicles of Cisco online right here. It’s everyone favorite villain-naming scientist alone at S.T.A.R. with Peekaboo, check it out.

Next: Rupture!

After a week without speed, Barry is barely the Flash anymore. When Zoom sets his sights on conquering Earth-One, Barry and Team Flash must find a way to get his speed back at any cost. Can Barry survive a second particle accelerator explosion? Find out in my review of “Rupture,” after the jump.

The Holo-Flash

As we open, Barry and Cisco are using a treadmill powered hologram of the Flash to scare criminals. It does actually seem to work with the non-powered crooks. Nice Leeroy Jenkins reference from Cisco who’s having a ball running a motion capture Barry like a videogame. Despite the grim situation, this is fun.

Not just fun, but it is keeping crime at bay. The question is however will it fool metahumans or monsters like Zoom? It’s about to be put to the test as Zoom turns his conquering and murdering eyes toward Earth-One, and brings Rupture with him. A real speedster may be needed.

My Three Dads

John Wesley Shipp returns to the show as Henry Allen. Apparently he’s been Grizzly Adams-ing it up out in the woods like a hermit or a doomsday prepper. He comes back to Central City with Barry to join in the tri-daddy braintrust trying to decide what’s best for Barry. He wants his speed back and needs all his dads to advise him. And wait, what, Garrick is Henry’s mom’s maiden name??

Harry is confident he can reproduce the particle accelerator explosion in the lab and regenerate Barry’s powers. Henry is against it, as it could harm or kill Barry, and he believes he doesn’t need his speed to be the man he is today. Joe knows he can’t change Barry’s mind once it’s made up. And we comics fans who read Flashpoint, or saw the animated feature, know what happens when you recreate the Flash origin accident… you get burned alive…

Rupture

Those familiar with Vibe, AKA breakdancing gangbanger Paco Ramone, as he originally appeared in the comics know that Cisco Ramon is a long way from that version. The showrunners have created a wonderful new character from the skeleton of Vibe. But some aspects have seeped into the show, like his brothers.

One brother, Reverb, showed up as his own Earth-Two doppelgänger, now we get Rupture as his brother Dante’s Earth-Two doppelgänger. Here on the show when Cisco vibes on Dante, he goes to see him, make sure he’s okay. Their relationship is as rocky as ever, but gets worse when Rupture attacks.

Like all the other breachers, he’s in the employ of Zoom, and as we learn later… Earth-Two has many, many more metahumans for Zoom to recruit. Like in the comics, the New 52 continuity to be specific, Rupture is a armored badass with an energy blasting scythe, and notably a Vibe foe, as opposed to the Flash. Unfortunately, especially for a villain with an episode named after him, he doesn’t get to do much.

Police and Coffee

In a bit of foreshadowing before Zoom makes the scene, Wally tells Joe that he’s been affected by his encounter with the Flash. He wants to help people. Joe suggests that maybe his need for speed and the urge to help people might be merged in some way. Wow, if he only knew. I’m glad the foreplay is over, but more on that later.

Zoom shows up, and announces he’s taking over. Is it déjà vu, or have we seen this particular bit before, maybe with the Reverse-Flash, and Zoom as well? Zoom also has Caitlin along for the ride, almost as if she’s a pet. It’s more than a little disturbing. She manages to get him to spare the police, but when the police assemble against his orders later at Jitters (what the heck?) Zoom kills them all, including Rupture, but spares Joe, Barry, and Captain Singh conveniently. Regarding poor Rupture, it’s a good thing there’s so many more potential metahuman henchpersons of Earth-Two…

Love in the Age of Zoom

After hanging around S.T.A.R. Labs so much lately, turning dates with her editor, and basically having little else to do on the show, Candice Patton’s Iris West finally talks to Barry. She tells him how she feels about the whole future thing, and the Earth-Two marriage thing. She might finally be down with the destiny of a romance that transcends time, space, life, and death, like in the comics. About time. I guess that’s why she’s been hanging out at S.T.A.R. so much and wearing those sexy leather pants.

On the other side of the coin, it appears there may be love in the air for sociopaths as well. Zoom, Jay, may be sweet on Caitlin, but in a dark and twisted way. He keeps hinting that she should embrace her dark side. Somewhere deep inside of her is the same darkness that was Killer Frost on his Earth. Will our Caitlin succumb and become Killer Frost at last? Or will she just kick Zoom in the cabbage patch as soon as she gets off his leash? I’m hoping for the latter.

Flashpoint

After the incident at the police station, um, I mean, Jitters, Barry decides that Harry is right, he needs his speed, and must try to become the Flash again through a replicated particle accelerator accident. Assured that the experiment will be contained and not affect others, Barry will do it. Once he’s in the chair and wired up for the big event, I know that every comics fan who read Flashpoint was biting their nails…

In the meantime, it needs to be mentioned that both Wally and Jesse have been locked away in the Braille Room to protect them from Zoom’s rampage. I really had to wonder why Iris, Dante, Joe, etc. weren’t also in the room, right? You know what happens next. Jesse figures a way to get her and Wally out of the Room just as the experiment happens…

Boom

In a split second the inevitable happens, and nothing is left of Barry but a burnt costume, but Wally and Jesse… they are hit by the energy wave from the explosion. We know, unfortunately from the scenes from the next episode that Barry isn’t really gone for good. But have we now created two new speedsters? How long before we see Jesse Quick and Kid Flash facing off against Zoom? I hope not long…

If a bit scattered, this was actually a pretty good episode. I’m not sure I like the addition of Henry and Dante to the cast however. More characters mean more fodder for villains to target and kill. I was almost afraid we were going to lose Singh to Zoom that way. On the other hand I loved Cisco’s Harry Potter and “Fringe” references, and especially when Henry asks why a speedster would need a car. I ask the same thing walking through the toy aisle when I see vehicles for the Flash.

Next: What happened to Barry? What happened to Jesse and Wally? And Girder returns in a Kevin Smith directed episode called “The Runaway Dinosaur!”

In the last episode of “The Flash” Barry was blown away in a second particle accelerator explosion leaving only a burnt costume. Now we know he’s not dead, but where is he? What happened to Jesse and Wally? And how will Team Flash survive the return of Girder? Find out in my review of this Kevin Smith-directed episode, “The Runaway Dinosaur,” after the jump…

Aftermath

Once Barry is gone, the team finally thinks to look for Jesse and Wally, not realizing they’d been affected by the explosion. Wally wakes up easily enough but Jesse seems to be in a coma like Barry was at first. Nothing is left of Barry but a burnt costume and Cisco’s vibe of him trapped inside of a vortex – the Speed Force.

Barry wakes up in his childhood bed in his parents’ house after his mom had been murdered. Joe is there, in uniform, but says he’s not Joe. He keeps using the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us.’ Finally Barry gets it, he’s talking to the Speed Force, and it’s chosen a form that he’ll be comfortable with.

The Morgue

Because Jesse is just like Barry after the accident, Cisco and Iris go looking for old medical records down in the basement. They find them, but they also find something else – Girder. The basement is called The Morgue not just because that’s where the old records are, but because it’s also a real morgue, and now, after S.T.A.R. Labs has been hit by multiple lightning strikes and a dark matter explosion, not everything down there is dead.

Dead metahumans from the Pipeline are also stored down there, and one of them, Girder, has been reanimated. Shambling around like a metahuman extra from “The Walking Dead,” Girder makes his way out into the city. His first stop, well, he’s been away for a while and he’s hungry, so Big Belly Burger. That’s where he smashes Jason Mewes‘ mom’s car. Nice cameo. Snootches.

The Gift

The Speed Force keeps talking to Barry in different forms – Joe, Iris, Henry, even Nora Allen. It seems like it’s mad at him, makes him see his mom’s grave, and weigh lives saved against her life. And they keep, annoyingly, telling him to sit. What they really keep telling him is that he has to work past guilt.

The message is almost the same one running through Marvel’s “Jessica Jones” in the later episodes. Guilt can be a power as much as a weakness. The Speed Force wants Barry free of his guilt over his mother. Finally, as Nora, it convinces him of this through his favorite book as a kid, “The Runaway Dinosaur.”

Deja Vu All Over Again

What’s left of Team Flash figures out that Zombie Girder is retracing steps from when he was alive, fighting the Flash, and pursuing Iris. So, with Iris as bait, they lead the rampaging dead villain back to S.T.A.R. Labs… where Cisco’s trap doesn’t work. They need the Flash…

So Cisco tries to Vibe on Barry one more time, this time bringing Iris with, and this time it works, and Barry comes through. He must, her voice will always bring him home. I’m so glad the show is finally embracing this part of the Flash mythos. The love of Barry and Iris is one that prevails beyond life and death and time and space.

Conclusion

Once home, Barry, as the Flash, defeats Girder, and awakens Jesse. I think it’s Cisco who asks, “Are you magic now?” He’d better be because the end stinger shows Zoom at the abandoned police station gathering an army of Earth-Two metahumans to take over, chanting “Our world!” over and over again. There are two episodes left, and they’re going to be tense…

As far as this one goes, I thought Kevin Smith did a great job of directing. It was one of the more emotional episodes and other than the Jason Mewes cameo (which I enjoyed), it had none of the usual Smith baggage along for the ride. My only complaint – I can’t buy a copy of “The Runaway Dinosaur” on Amazon…

Next: Invincible, featuring Katie Cassidy as the Black Siren!

With or without his super speed powers, last episode left Barry and Team Flash – as well as all of Central City, and perhaps the world – in a precarious situation. Zoom has gathered a virtual army of metahumans to conquer Earth-One, who can stop them? Meet me after the jump for my thoughts on “Invincible,” and maybe we’ll find out.

Captain Cold and Company

First things first, if you saw “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” last week, you know (sorry, spoilers) that Wentworth Miller’s Captain Cold died a hero to save the rest of the Waverider crew from Vandal Savage. Just as in the comics though, death is not always the end. Cold will return as a recurring character in what has become known as the Arrowverse (“The Flash,” “Arrow,” and “Legends”).

Speaking of the Arrowverse, not only are all three of the above series been renewed, but CBS’ “Supergirl” is moving from its original network to the CW as well. Maybe through some cosmic circumstances, Supergirl will join the Arrowverse too. The Crisis was mentioned in that holographic newspaper in the Braille room after all. Also just announced, bringing it full circle, is that “Prison Break,” starring Wentworth Miller and Dominic (Heatwave) Purcell, is returning to Fox next year.

The Metapocalypse

Per Iris West, they’re calling the dark days when the metahuman army overran Central City the Metapocalypse. We open on the police under siege by so-far-unidentifiable metahumans and the Flash saving the day, but Iris’ recollection, possibly for a Picture News piece is definitely looking back on the events.

To be honest however, we don’t see all that much of an army laying waste to the city. What we see is more or less one at a time, hit and run, with the Flash and the police putting out fires as they light. I know, I’ve been spoiled by the show and have learned to expect more, despite budgetary concerns. Or perhaps Zoom has something different in mind.

Cooling Caitlin

Caitlin is back, assumedly let go by Zoom, a little traumatized. Add in the fact that she keeps seeing flashes (pun unintended) of Zoom is not good. One could blow it off as post-traumatic stress disorder, but the fact is Zoom is so fast he actually could be there. How’s that for scary? What could stop him?

What if she didn’t just run away? What if she has decided to work with Zoom and her return to S.T.A.R. Labs and Team Flash is a set up and a trap? Perhaps he’s urging her to join him, to become Killer Frost. And let’s face it, promotional pics of Danielle Panabaker as Killer Frost from this episode do not ease my fears.

Invincible

Barry is feeling invincible and overconfident, perhaps a side effect of his visit to the Speed Force, but the rest of Team Flash is worried, “somebody has to talk to him” seems to be their mantra. It’s Henry who finally bites the bullet, and it’s a good talk, not just overconfidence and superheroics, but things that needed to be said between father and son.

Barry finally plays the ‘you were never around’ card, and not in anger or to hurt Henry. And he’s also not referring to his being in jail – that would just be cruel. It’s one of the things that’s bugged me about Henry Allen, how he’s been a deadbeat dad since getting out of jail, going off to play hermit for almost a year, what the heck, right?

Both Joe and Iris, and even Zoom himself take turns firing at Barry’s new attitude after returning from the Speed Force. His friends are worried about him, but Zoom, who seems convinced that he is the same as him, feels this heroism is what will allow the villain to beat him once and for all.

The Black Siren

Just when we were all getting over the death of the Black Canary over on “Arrow,” we are hit with this horror. Her Earth-Two doppelgänger, the Black Siren, played by Katie Cassidy, is the leader of Zoom’s army. With one meta-powered scream she puts the hurt on Mercury Labs, bringing the building down. The Flash’s spectacular save of Dr. Tina McGee is a special effects highlight.

The best part is when Dr. McGee thanks the Flash, calling him “Mr. Allen,” adding when Barry looks astonished, “I’m not stupid.” She joins Team Flash at S.T.A.R. Labs afterward. When the Flash meets the Black Siren face to face later in the episode, he again hesitates, mistaking the doppelgänger for the real thing, and she gets the better of him, beating him soundly. Ha. See what I did there?

The Reunion Show

With Amanda Pays back this episode as McGee and John Wesley Shipp two episodes ago, this is like old home week for the 1990s “Flash” series. I squeeed when they shook hands and ‘met for the first time.’ It’s an added bonus with Katie Cassidy here, as her dad, actor/singer David Cassidy played the villain Mirror Master on that show.

So far we’ve had these two, Mark Hamill as the Trickster twice and Officer Bellows from the old series, Vito D’Ambrosio, is now Mayor Bellows here. Wouldn’t it be cool to have more folks from the old series show up, or better yet, since the 90s series has been established as another Earth, to visit there now, a quarter century later. Come on, who wouldn’t want to see John Wesley Shipp wear the red again?

The Kid and the Quick

A whole lot of guilt and maybe just a little of inspiration has Wally out on the street fighting crime, or at least trying. Flash goes to talk to him again per Joe’s request, and really he does nothing but fan the flames of Wally’s need for speed… um, I mean his need to help people and save the city. Thankfully without this pep talk gone wrong however, Wally wouldn’t have saved Flash from Black Siren. And I loved Barry blurring his face so Wally wouldn’t be able to focus on it.

Meanwhile Jesse back at S.T.A.R. keeps getting her genetic structure checked because she’s waiting for it (just like us), knowing she was hit by the dark matter. My prediction is the season finale will have Kid Flash and Jesse Quick standing side by side with the Flash against Zoom.

Bad Vibrations

For once, and maybe it’s the Speed Force talking, but Barry, who when surrounded by scientists we sometimes forget is a scientist himself, figures out how to stop the metahuman army. Going back to principles set by writer Gardner Fox when he created the DC Multiverse, Earth-Two exists at a different vibrational frequency. So if a frequency could be found on their ‘channel’ to do so, they could all be put to sleep, even Zoom.

The chance to use this frequency comes up at the same time Black Siren is threatening to level another building. So if the Flash creates the frequency, thousands will die at Black Siren’s hands while he’s doing it. Cisco however comes up with his own plan, a stupid plan, stupid on a “Jessica Jones” level. He and Caitlin will dress up like their Earth-Two doppelgangers Reverb and Killer Frost, and confront Black Siren. Yeah, this can’t possibly go wrong…

Do or Dye

My first question when the faux Reverb and Killer Frost approach Black Siren was simple – seriously, how long did it take Caitlin to dye her hair white? That had to be a time exhausting process when time was of the essence. I know it’s a minor thing but I couldn’t get it out of my head. Anyway, their ploy is to keep her busy talking and not destroying and killing, by making her think they could overthrow Zoom.

Meanwhile the Flash begins his run to induce the frequency. Black Siren is no fool however and sees through their ruse. She’s about to do them in before the frequency takes her out. However, not before Cisco is able to manifest a Reverb-like concussive blast in self-defense. Maybe it’s like his other powers, activated by stress and danger.

Family

In what at first seems like a happy ending, all of the Earth-Two villains are rounded up and incarcerated either at Iron Heights or the Pipeline (I wonder if S.T.A.R. Labs has a tab at Big Belly Burger to feed them all?), and Zoom has once again escaped back to Earth-Two. Iris puts together a family dinner and invites almost all of the cast. We watch connections made between Henry and Tina, and Wally and Jesse, and despite poor Wally being the only one there who doesn’t know you know what, it seems like a happy ending.

Then Cisco vibes again. All through the episode he’d been seeing dead birds, this time he turns around and sees he’s on Earth-Two, and sees it destroyed. That would have been enough of a cliffhanger, but no, it gets worse. Zoom shows up, takes Henry, and at his childhood home, in front of Barry, to prove they are the same – Zoom kills Henry. Well, if Wally didn’t know before, he does now…

Next: The season finale, and “The Race of His Life!”

The season long battle against Zoom comes down to a race. That may seem silly at first, and very Silver Age of Comics, but let’s face it, this is The Flash, and really there’s no better way for the Flash to finish this than a race, albeit a very special race, one that could destroy the multiverse… Meet me after the super speed jump for my thoughts on “The Race of His Life.”

Double Death

With the murder of Henry Allen before the eyes of the Flash in his childhood home where he also watched his mother killed by the Reverse-Flash years ago, this is both a déjà vu and an upping of Zoom’s villain game. Barry’s scream last week seems to last all the way until now, when verbally provoked by Zoom, he lunges at him and a pre-race race begins.

Whether than through rage or experience, the Flash seems to be on the winning side of the race-fight, until Zoom shows up and kills himself. Yep, you got that right. Another Zoom shows up and kills the first. It’s a time remnant like that created to fool Team Flash as Jay Garrick for so many months. It sounds like comic book science, and it is, but if you can go fast enough, you can manifest a speed double and talk it into doing your bidding. Zoom laughs, telling Barry that he can beat him, he just has to learn to kill himself.

Eulogy and Challenge

At Henry’s funeral, Barry is just unable to speak, so Joe takes the eulogy. It’s hard to believe that Henry is gone, and even harder to believe actor John Wesley Shipp no longer wants to be part of the show, or character at least, that brought him his most fame. I was concerned by who wasn’t at the funeral though. Barry made time to go to Black Canary’s funeral, no one from Team Arrow could make the time in between dodging nukes to come to Barry’s dad’s send off? Ah, the perils of a shared universe. I wonder if it will get harder or easier to manage with Supergirl joining next season.

Oliver, I thought you were my friend…

Barry has a lot on his mind, besides the funeral. Zoom has challenged him to a race, a winner-take-all race. The geek squad at S.T.A.R. Labs have figured out why a race however. The equipment that Zoom stole from mercury Labs is a magnetar, which can be used to create a pulsar, when powered by super-speed, specifically the speed of Zoom and Flash. This pulsar will cause a chain reaction dimensionally, which will not only destroy Earth-Two as seen in Cisco’s vibe at the end of last episode, but every other Earth in the Multiverse. Bingo, you got it. Holy Crisis on Infinite Earths!

Madness

One of the nice things about this episode is the moments between Barry and Iris. Candice Patton’s Iris has gone from having virtually no role in the series early on this season to approaching her proper place – as part of the romance, the relationship, the love that transcends life and death, time and space. Sadly the first of these moments is marred by a truly bad “Jessica Jones” plan. You probably didn’t believe it any more than I did.

Happy Harry

Joe tries to talk Barry out of racing Zoom, but as usual in these Joe-Barry talks, Barry will have none of it… so Harry tranqs him, and they lock him up in the Pipeline. Madness, total madness. There is just really no reasonable way of rationalizing the ridiculousness of Team Flash stopping Zoom sans Flash, it’s mind-boggling. We have one fun bit before it happens. Jesse wants to go home when all this is over. But Harry can stay – seeing him happy is all she’s ever wanted. Wait, what? This is Harry happy? It’s doubly mind-boggling.

Team Flash Vs. Zoom

Caitlin plays bait, luring Zoom in by attempting to tell him she was wrong, that she should have stayed with him, and that she does indeed feel her dark side, an inner Killer Frost. One could theorize that such a deception is dark already, but I’ll leave that one for the psychologists. It seems as if Team Flash has been taking notes from the last episode of “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” as Caitlin is just a distraction via hologram.

Whose plan was this again?

Her distraction is enough to keep Zoom off guard so Cisco can open a portal to Earth-Two, he can be booted with a neutralizer collar and forced through. I had to wonder at this. Wouldn’t he eventually escape, and can’t he open portals himself? He’d be back in no time. No one thought this through, did they? No matter, something went wrong as all of us probably bet, and Joe is pulled through the portal too. Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, when Wally finds out what they’ve done, he does the only sensible thing, he frees the Flash.

The Man in the Iron Mask

Meanwhile back on Earth-Two, we find Joe is Zoom’s prisoner. Wasn’t Zoom collared? Did Joe take it off? What happened here? Did I miss something? Regardless, while taunting Joe, Zoom is asked about the man in the iron mask, and even though the villain confesses it will be confusing to Joe, he tells him the mystery man’s tale. He’s Jay Garrick, the real Jay Garrick. Zoom kept him as a souvenir after taking over his world, and in a bit of irony, took over his identity to ‘play hero’ for a bit. He also mentions jumping from Earth to Earth and being pursued by the time wraiths.

When we actually see his face later, it’s John Wesley Shipp, makes a bit of sense as Garrick was Henry Allen’s mother’s maiden name. The costume he wears later is a combination of the Golden Age Jay and the New 52 Jay, nice fit for Shipp. Now my question is did I get it right? I had guessed it was Wally under the mask, but earlier on I guessed Henry Allen. It’s still Shipp, does that count?

The Race to Save the Multiverse

So, with the Flash free, the race is on again. He tells Zoom he’ll race if Joe is released. It’s a deal, but when we see the magnetar, the comics fans among us realized what was really up. It’s very similar to the device Barry Allen died on during the Crisis on Infinite Earths… uh oh… Are we ending this season with a death? Nevertheless, the race is on, and the two speedsters are off, not with a “go,” but hauntingly with a “run, Barry, run.”

The Flash and Zoom are off with Zoom, as always, keeping a fair lead ahead of our hero, and then another figure appears on the standing loop track – another Flash. As intimated earlier, Barry has created a time remnant of himself, who, while Barry races Zoom, leaves the track to save Joe. Then the remnant starts to speed around the magnetar to short-circuit it, just like in Crisis, and the faster he goes the more he disintegrates, just like Crisis. The first Barry then jumps track and attacks Zoom. When he hesitates killing Zoom, the Dementors, um, I mean, time wraiths come out of the Speed Force and get him. Bye bye, Zoom.

Flashpoint

Harry and Jesse make their plan known to go back to Earth-Two, safe now that Zoom is gone (and that most of their metahuman villains are here imprisoned), and will try to get Jay Garrick home as well, to a world he calls “Earth-Three.” You see, it’s a naming problem. I think I was right with my theory about Two really being Three and Three being Two. Other than that, this episode, and season, ends on the highest note possible with Barry and Iris kissing and telling each other they love each other.

And then, like last episode and on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” as well, they ruin it. Barry leaves Iris, and speeds back in time to the point of his mother’s murder… and stops the Reverse-Flash from killing her, just like in Flashpoint. We have seen this scene before here, but it played out differently then. Future Flash stopped Past Flash from saving his mom… that’s not what happens here… as we watch Past Flash fade from existence, we have the whole summer to wonder and debate how bad the damage is…

Now that Season Two of “The Flash” is over and speculation for Season Three begins, I’m going to step back and look at the online series “The Chronicles of Cisco” that ran concurrently with the final episodes of the show. Not all Flash adventures star the Flash, so meet me after the jump, and we’ll look at this solo Cisco Ramon adventure.

The Man Behind Cisco

Played by Carlos Valdes, Cisco has become one of the most popular characters in the Arrowverse, and his touch can be felt in all aspects of this world. Whether it’s naming the bad guys or designing the costumes, he is a known entity in the lives of the Flash, Green Arrow, the Legends of Tomorrow, and even Vixen. I’m sure he’ll also make his presence known to Supergirl in her second season on the CW. But who is Carlos Valdes, the man behind Cisco Ramon?

Like much of the cast of “The Flash,” Valdes’ background is actually in music. From appearing in productions of The Wedding Singer and High School Musical in high school to being a stand-in for the national tour of Jersey Boys, Valdes eventually played in the Tony Award nominated Once before joining the cast of “The Flash.” You can check out his own music as Tha Los here. He’s actually quite good, well worth a listen.

Cisco Alone

This four-part series ran over the last few weeks of “The Flash” this season in just nearly-two minute segments. Featuring Cisco alone in his lab with an unexpected visitor, someone I wish would’ve shown up in the regular series, but I’m happy to have this rather than nothing at all – Peek-a-boo. We join Cisco as he works on making the Flash costume bullet proof, and also as he notes that a better antiperspirant is needed for a speedster. Yep, Cisco humor intact.

We have a good idea when this little adventure takes place as Cisco is still afraid of jay’s winged helmet, won’t touch it, and certainly won’t ‘vibe’ it, and he also references the Time Wraiths (although plural, which is interesting as Team Flash has only encountered one, though they know more exist). There’s also his Vibe glasses on the lab table nearby, and the fact that Cisco calls his Dr. Sheldon Cooper t-shirt “Big Bang” when he spills orange soda on it. Heh, yeah, Cisco intact.

Meta-Meet

In the second chapter, there’s a metahuman sneaking around S.T.A.R. Labs, and Barry won’t pick up his cell. Did Cisco say he was at a Justin Bieber concert? In the comics, Barry was always a bit of a nerd, but Bieber?? So Cisco does what he shouldn’t, he investigates on his own at three in the morning. Carrying the gun he was using to shoot at the Flash suit, he goes down into the Pipeline and is met by Peek-a-boo, who of course pops by and takes the gun, switcheroo.

We’re quickly caught up on what she’s been up to since “Rogue Air,” and it comes up that Cisco is a metahuman too. At first Peek-a-boo is impressed until he tells her he has headaches and nightmare visions, not impressive. What she’s after is what Cisco can do for her. She wants a gun. He made a gun for the Golden Glider, and Captain Cold, and Heat Wave, so why not her? Hmmm… Cisco is not getting the rep he wants in the super-villain community…

The Miracle Properties of Orange Soda

So when Cisco refuses to make her a gun, Peek-a-boo settles on raiding the S.T.A.R. storeroom. When our hero further refuses, while confessing she’ll need his phone to gain access as well as his fingerprints and retina scans, she shoots him. He did offer “over his dead body” after all. As I’ve mentioned before, the television Peek-a-boo is much more ruthless than her comics counterpart.

But, miracle of miracles, Cisco’s not dead. It seems that the orange soda spilled on his shirt was what he needed to make the Flash suit bullet proof, and the bullet bounced off. Yeah, that’s where I checked out too. There’s a line where comic book science is just too silly for television. Multiverse, speed force, teleporters, etc., all good, but orange soda science is where I draw the line. Cisco gets up, blinds Peek-a-boo, and gets the upper hand, but she soon regains it, locking him in the Pipeline. Then he wakes up.

Nerd Dreams

Yeah, it was all a dream. Woken by Barry calling, Cisco says he’ll have to call him back, he has to write something in his dream journal. Hmmm… if Barry’s calling at three in the morning, it must be important but that’s besides the point I guess. What is important is the bullet Cisco finds at his feet. Was it the one Peek-a-boo used on him? Or the one he shot at the Flash suit? Hmmm…

All in all, this was a fun exercise in watching Cisco do Cisco, a nerdgasm of so many joys. In many episodes of “The Flash,” Cisco is the best part, and this condenses that fun into a tight eight minutes or so. This kinda reminded me of the old DC Comics animated cartoons from Filmation that fit an entire story in just seven or eight minutes. This was great, if you get a chance to check it out, well worth it.

In the final moments of the last episode of the last season, The Flash did the unthinkable, the impossible, the only thing he thought he could/should do. He traveled backward through time and saved his mother from the murderous Reverse-Flash – he changed time. And when he returned home in the present, everything was different, and maybe not a good kind of different. Meet me after the time-bending jump for my thoughts on “Flashpoint!”

Flashpoint

In the comics, the Flashpoint storyline is a pretty important one. It was a break in continuity between the old DC Universe and the so-called New 52 DC Universe, and blank slate for that multiverse to start fresh. The old continuity was destroyed by the Flash saving her mom from the Reverse-Flash, with repercussions like an Amazon/Atlantean War ravaging the planet, a heroic Captain Cold, Thomas Wayne becoming Batman when he son Bruce is murdered by criminals, the sea pirate Deathstroke, a Hal Jordan who never Green Lantern, and a powerless Barry Allen among other things. Together, Barry and the elder Wayne save the universe, by creating a new one, the New 52.

Anyone who’s seen Back to the Future, especially the second one, knows how this works. Tampering with the past affects the present. Nora Allen might not have been killed by the Reverse-Flash, but really, that’s the only thing that can be sure. As in It’s a Wonderful Life, one can never be sure how one single individual’s actions affect others. It’s a chain reaction effect, for good or ill…

Iris

We open on Barry at Jitters trying to get to know Iris better. You see, with Nora Allen still alive and Henry Allen not in prison, Barry was never raised by the Wests and doesn’t really know them. He’s trying to get with Iris again, which really makes me wonder why Barry pursued this avenue to begin with. After two seasons, he was finally with her, and he threw it away to save his mom. Still, it’s quaint watching the two get together, and Barry is too cute asking her out for an iced tea.

Barry seems happy, and he seems happy in this re-pursuit of Iris. If you’ve read my reviews before, or hell, just read the original comics, you know how important this relationship truly is. Theirs is a romance that goes beyond life and death, time and space. Note how it is she who motivates him, however awkwardly, in the final battle with the Rival. I don’t know about you folks, but my heart was breaking when Iris confessed that she hadn’t known love until Barry came along.

Don’t Call Me Kid Flash

Barry’s first attempts in this new reality to meet Iris are interrupted by TV new footage of the Flash fighting the Rival. Now the Rival is new to television and we’ll get to him in a moment, but this Flash is not at all who we expect – it’s Wally obviously, in a close approximation of the Kid Flash costume from the comics. So yeah, we’ve been given Kid Flash, just not the way we expected. And while it’s obviously Wally, it must be a Clark Kent glasses thing, because it takes Barry half the episode and an unmasking for Barry to figure it out.

When he reveals his origin to Barry he tells of his background in racing illegal cars, and how a lightning bolt hit him in his car, and the mixture of chemicals and electricity gave him his speed. Riiight, but it’s so Silver Age science I love it. As it turns out, Iris is his support system, and she calls him Kid Flash just like Barry does. He hates it, and I like that. I kinda hope this is something that carries over into the remade reality next week.

The Rival

The Rival was the last villain the Jay Garrick Flash fought in his own comic in the Golden Age back in 1949. Sometimes referred to retroactively as the Golden Age Reverse-Flash, Dr. Edward Clariss found a way to recreate the Flash’s speed, wore a darker version of Jay’s uniform and turned to crime. Writer Geoff Johns brought him back as a much more dangerous threat in the 21st century JSA comic series.

Here on the show, the Rival is portrayed by Australian actor Todd Lasance, another casting choice from Starz’ Spartacus, and if you look close, the costume is a black and orange version of the real Jay Garrick costume from last season. At first he just seems to be a random villain of the week, but as we see at the end, in the reformed continuity, there’s much much more to him.

The Real Reverse-Flash

Speaking of baddies with more to them than we thought, there’s also Matt Letscher returning as the Eobard Thawne version of the Reverse-Flash. Since arriving in this continuity, Barry has been unheroically keeping Thawne trapped in a speed-suppressed glass cage, bringing him fast food and sometimes curly fries, just like a prisoner in the old Pipeline.

As we’ve seen in the past (always a fuzzy term when talking about time travel) the Reverse-Flash is smart, and knows his way around the time stream. He knows about time remnants, and paradoxes, and he seems to know about this place too, the new reality that he himself names Flashpoint. The Reverse-Flash knows that Barry is losing his memories, and his speed, and soon the old reality will have never existed. Most of all, he knows that sooner or later, he’s going to get to kill Barry’s mother.

Momma’s Boy

Speaking of mom, the scenes with Barry’s parents were very Stepford Wives and I got the very weird vibe that he was happier to be with them than they were to be with him. Notice how happy they were that he was finally interested in a girl, finally dating… and would maybe move out of the house. I know losing his mom at such an early age probably messed him up, but it’s just weird seeing Barry be such a momma’s boy.

Also in the parent realm, Barry keeps covering for alcoholic Joe West, who doesn’t like him, and doesn’t want him with his daughter. Best line: “I have a hangover and a gun.” With both sets of parents, and yes, Tom Cavanaugh is much missed in this episode as a character and a presence, Barry is seen as ineffectual, and unlikable. Even his parents, with difficulty, tolerate him. Barry should sense the difference.

Getting the Band Back Together

In spite of, or possibly because of, Barry decides that he has to stop the Rival, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because he needs the support structure he once knew in his former reality. Yeah, he gets the band back together. We meet Cisco Ramon, an app billionaire and the richest man in America. He also made a friction-proof suit for (Kid) Flash. I loved Carlos Valdes in this role, and wished we had more time to watch him go like this. We need more fun. I especially loved when he made the unintentional Weather Wizard reference.

Disappointingly, Caitlin Snow is an optometrist in this reality. What does this mean? Is she not important to the team? Do her skills mean nothing? I suspect something may be up here. This is the second alternate reality where her scientific skills are meaningless. Although admittedly, super-villainess is much more interesting than optomentrist. It just seems wrong how useless she seems in this episode. With Barry losing his memory and his speed faster and faster, a plan is quickly put together to face the Rival.

Results

In the battle with the Rival, we learn that the villain is one of the crazy ones, and a murderer. Even with his dwindling speed, the Flash is able to keep just out of his reach, but (Kid) Flash’s recklessness shows through when the Rival impales him through the chest. Then with Iris’ words, Barry pulls out the energy to stop him. In the end, Joe pulls himself together enough to save the Flash, and shoots the Rival as he attacks from behind. Full circle to an extent, except for one thing. It all must come to an end, by reversing this new reality.

Just as the Reverse-Flash had been saying, he’s the hero this time, and he knows that the timeline must be erased. Even though, just to show how evil he is, he makes Barry say it, he makes Barry tell him to kill his mother. Thawne does it, but not without warning Barry first that not everything is the same…

We get only a couple things before the credits roll. Joe and Iris are not on speaking terms, but something tells me there be more to that iceberg than the tip we see. And then we see Klariss in bed with his wife, awoken by a name being scratched on the mirror by unseen hands. It says, “Alchemy.” Could the Rival be Doctor Alchemy in this timeline? But doesn’t that also mean he’s Mr. Element? I’ll leave that right there, with a lesson in psychosis, magic, and science coming next week. All this, plus Felicity Smoak, Jay Garrick and Draco Malvoy…

What we saw at the end of last week’s episode of The Flash was only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the after-effects of fixing the Flashpoint timeline. The Flash learns very quickly that some things can’t be fixed and others just get worse. Meet me after the super-speed time-changing jump to find out the extent of the “Paradox.”

Felicity Confessional

We open on Barry coming to Green Arrow’s headquarters on the set of Arrow to see Felicity. The showrunners use their close relationship as a cheap way of retelling last episode’s event, re-establishing the connection between the two shows, and of course to promote Arrow in a sneaky way. All kidding aside, Felicity is a valuable cast member on The Flash, and God knows she’s treated much better here than on Arrow, and the bond she shares with Barry is just as strong as any of the regular cast members.

Speaking of forgotten cast members, I have to give a shout out to Alex Desert, who played Captain Julio Mendez in last week’s episode, replacing Singh in the Flashpoint universe. I apologize as I missed both him, and his character’s name – both callbacks to the role he played in the 1990s The Flash. He would be the latest in several returning actors from that series here in its newest incarnation, joining Vito D’Amabrosio, Amanda Pays, Mark Hamill, and John Wesley Shipp. I would love to see him back again.

Flashpoint Aftermath

A lot more than Iris and Joe not talking has changed in this post-Flashpoint timeline, other relationships have shifted as well. Joe and Iris are not talking because she won’t forgive him for not telling her about her mom still being alive. At first it seems like it’s small stuff, albeit negative, but really nothing more than the little things at the end of the first Back to the Future movie, but then other details come up, the least of which is John Diggle having a son rather than a daughter in the Arrowverse, and Barry and Iris never kissed.

More devastating is that Cisco has lost his brother Dante to a drunk driver, and Barry refuses to travel back in time to save him, causing a nearly irreparable rift. How can Barry even try now that he knows how such a thing can be mucked up? There is also the mysterious cold powers that Caitlin is manifesting, although it’s probably a good thing she’s keeping that to herself. And then there’s Draco Malfoy.

That Tricky Draco Malfoy

Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in all the Harry Potter movies, joins the cast this episode. He is Julian Albert, a metahuman profiler who works with (or is it against) Barry in his lab, and has been for over a year. Barry is told several times during the episode that he always says of Julian, “I hate that guy,” so there must be some history time traveling Barry isn’t aware of.

The trick is, that like Tobias Church over on Arrow, there is no comics counterpart of Julian Albert. We don’t know what to expect or theorize. The obvious plot trajectory would be Doctor Alchemy, a super-villain who does have Albert for a first name in the comics, which would be amusing because as the pseudo-evil Malfoy, he did have experience with the Philosopher’s Stone, but I think that might be too obvious. I definitely suspect him though, as metahuman profiler was also Hunter Zolomon‘s job in the comics. Too many coincidences. On the positive side, Felton’s good looks and British accent provide a sexiness needed in the show, if only momentary.

The Rival, Again

As long as we’re lining up villains, the Rival is back, because apparently this show can’t continue without some sort of evil speedster. Why? I don’t know, but I do know after the Reverse-Flash and Zoom, I’m a bit speedstered out. Sorry, Mark Waid, I love ya, but I felt the same way about the comics when you got speedster-crazy there too. Seriously, let’s take a speedster-break, because if everyone has super speed, the Flash just isn’t all that unique, ya know?

Awakened by Doctor Alchemy (thanks, Cisco), the Rival has his powers back, and all his memories of the Flashpoint timeline intact. It was interesting that he expected Kid Flash to be accompanying the Flash, and from the looks of things, either by Alchemy’s reawakening, or from the accident last season, he may be soon enough. Both Wally and Jesse apparently. And as far as non-speedster team-ups go, I loved that it took both Vibe and the Flash to take him down. I think that team-up could be a lot of fun once the tension between Barry and Cisco is alleviated.

Doctor Alchemy

In the comics, Doctor Alchemy was one of two identities held by multiple personality Albert Desmond, a friend of Barry Allen. First as Mister Element, who wore a metallic mask and fought the Flash with a gun that changed one element to another, then as Doctor Alchemy, with the magical Philosopher’s Stone that did much the same thing and more, Desmond was one of the more powerful and dangerous villains in Flash’ Rogues Gallery. Later others took on these two identities, but Desmond, in his various evil personalities were by far the most memorable.

Here on television, Alchemy is a bit of a mystery, a cloaked and armored individual with some sort of energy beam who remembers the Flashpoint timeline and has come to ‘prepare the world.’ Prepare the world for what, we don’t know. We do know, or at least are pretty sure, he is behind activating Klariss’ speed and memories, and perhaps Caitlin’s Killer Frost powers as well. Again, like Julian Albert, and this new Rival, this Doctor Alchemy may well be a blank slate for TV to play.

Flashes

One funny bit revolved around Barry planning the disastrous dinner for his family trying to get them all back together. As amusing as it is, Barry simultaneously having a conversation with both Joe and Iris, the dinner ends badly, and he decides to go back in time and try again. Barry is pulled out of the Speed Force before it’s too late and he does something stupid by Jay Garrick, the real Jay Garrick, as played by John Wesley Shipp.

At Central City’s Motorcar Diner in 1998, to the tune of Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train,” Jay does what Jay always did best in the comics, gave Barry fatherly advice, a task given even more credence by Jay being his father’s other Earth doppelganger. They talk about paradoxes and timelines. Jay tells Barry he has to decide if he’s going to be the hero who takes a do-over every time he screws up, or be the guy who learns from his mistakes and moves forward. Either way, the metaphor of the broken coffee cup as the timeline is a frightening one.

Conclusion

There was a lot to like, heck, even love, about this episode. I liked the bigger role of Iris this time out. She follows Barry when he fights the Rival, then confronts him about the truth. It’s not as Lois Lane as it sounds, it’s actually quite good and empowering for her character. The Lois moment goes to Julian however when he almost seems to question Barry about what he’s doing with evidence he’s taken from crime scenes. Does he know he’s the Flash?

The scenes with Cisco are heart wrenching, and I know that water is not going to run under the bridge easily, but hopefully it heal faster rather than slowly. The show needs Cisco’s exuberance. There are still questions however. What is Julian’s connection to Team Flash? Cisco and Caitlin seem to know him. And what are those husks? Is this like an Inhuman thing left behind when someone is ‘prepared’ by Doctor Alchemy?

Next: The Return of Harrison Wells, Jesse Quick, and Magenta!

In this week’s episode of The Flash, we’re introduced to two characters important to the Flash mythos of the comics, and thankfully only one of them is another speedster. Jesse Quick and Magenta make their debuts in my review of “Magenta,” after the super-speed jump.

Barry-isms

Notably, the opening with Barry’s “I’m the fastest man alive” monologue is different. He mentions the Flashpoint timeline and how he screwed up and created new dangers. It’s s nice change of pace that Barry is acknowledging his Barry-isms – dumb mistakes made by acting before thinking. Props to regular Biff Bam Pop! reader Widdershins for coining the term.

But then again, maybe that’s just what speedsters do, so impatient, they just have to make things happen… for better or worse. Moving so fast can make real time excruciatingly slow as shown when Barry waits for the second hand to move so he can go on a date with Iris. Draco, I mean Julian Albert, is a stickler for clocking out on time, making him even more unlikable. We hate this guy too, Barry.

The Date

The date doesn’t go all that well. After some Flash-y showing off with flowers, Iris requests no Flash talk during the date, just the two of them, no red suit or superheroics to ruin the mood. Without it however it’s kind of boring, the only highlight being when Barry runs across the street to stop a robbery. Things only brightened up during the Flash moments.

This actually follows the Silver Age Flash comics. Barry was an easy-going, boring square. Remember, the dude wore a crew cut and bow tie for nearly two decades. And he was also a cop, not a cool street cop, but a nerdy lab cop. Not an exciting guy, except when he’s wearing red pajamas. Learn. Embrace the red pajamas.

Visitors

The date ends with Barry and Iris being called back to S.T.A.R. Labs. Something is coming through the gate from Earth-Two. This would have been a very tense moment had we not been spoiled by coming attractions last week. It’s Dr. Harrison Wells and his daughter Jesse, and it’s great to see Tom Cavanagh again. He’s been missed.

They’re here because Jesse has become a speedster, probably from the dark matter exposure last season. Wally is a bit distressed to hear that – where’s his speed? As we saw in the first episode this season, he fits the Kid Flash suit. Joe figures out something is up with that almost as quickly as Harry knows Barry messed with the timeline. Yep, he was missed.

Magenta

Next we meet Frankie Kane, who may or may not have tried to kill her foster father with metal manipulation powers. In the comics, Frankie is an old, and slightly psycho, ex-girlfriend of Wally West’s who turned to super-villainy after gaining magnetic powers, just so she could kill Wally, whose secret identity she was aware of. There was some discrepancy as to whether her split personality was caused by outside forces, but either way, she hated Wally and was dangerous on Magneto power level.

Here, there still seems to be a split personality, the evil Magenta part symbolized by glowing violet eyes. After discovering a commonality with the Rival’s DNA and that of the other husks, Julian also finds it in Frankie. His bedside manner has to be worked on, because his confrontation with her brought on the Magenta personality and she tried to drop that beautiful JSA/JLA mural on him.

With Great Power…

Julian seems to be on the right track as far as the husks go. The braintrust of Team Flash figure it out as well. Whoever Alchemy is and wherever he came from, he has the ability to recover the powers and memories of those who were powered in the Flashpoint timeline, among them, the Rival and Magenta. It can only be a matter of time for Kid Flash.

In the meantime, Wally still wants power, and Harry doesn’t want Jesse to use hers. As the two bond over Jesse telling Wally how she discovered her powers through an adrenaline moment, he tries to jumpstart his potential by stepping front of a truck. Good thing she was there to save him. She can’t save Wally from Barry’s reprimand though. I’m thinking when Alchemy grants Wally his powers back, after all this, he’ll do the villain’s bidding willingly at this rate.

Run, Jesse, Run

When Magenta tries to drop an oil tanker on the hospital (yeah, she’s that powerful) where her abusive foster father is, the Flash can barely stop it. The relieved sigh of the viewers is almost as loud as the triumphant music when Harry turns to his daughter, saying, “run, Jesse, run” to urge her to help our hero. One quibble though, why aren’t her clothes burning off? Were they chemically treated to be friction-proof? Either way, loved Jesse Quick’s costume… what we saw of it…

I also found the idea of Flash talking Frankie out of her Magenta personality a bit hard to believe. Like in the comics, at first, the good guys try to do right by her, getting her a good home in Keystone, and arresting her father, but…. Something tells me that also like the comics, it’s not going to stick. Magenta will be back.

Conclusion

Even there was a lot going on in this episode, it was very good, lots of great superhero action, and I liked it a lot. Anyone else notice Cisco wearing the much more gloomier Joy Division shirt rather than his usual geek-centric wardrobe choices? Speaking of clothes, I also liked Wally wearing his trademark yellow as well. I also thought the panic buttons on Team Flash’s phones were a good idea.

And, um, did Iris drop the D word in reference to Frankie’s foster father?? That was a bit of a surprise, was not expecting that. Looking forward to the debut of two old school Rogues and more Jesse Quick action.

Next: Mirror Master! The Top! Captain Cold! The New Rogues!

In this episode of The Flash we’re introduced to not just one, but two Rogues from the comics – Mirror Master and the Top. Although there may be some major differences in these villains as they make their way to the small screen. Meet me after the super speed jump for my review of “The New Rogues.”

Three Years Ago…

There is a nice shout out to Silver Age Flash writer John Broome in the opening as we look inside a Broome Industries warehouse at our two new Rogues, ‘three years ago.’ A man, obsessed with his reflection, and a woman are planning a life together. This is Sam Scudder and Rosalind Dillon. They wait twenty minutes to tell us her name, an extra mic drop for the fanboys. Yes, the Top is female. It’s bliss until they’re interrupted by the pre-Captain Cold Leonard Snart and the rest of the gang. I am always happy to see Wentworth Miller III, even in flashback.

There’s seems to be a rift in the gang. The mirror admirer and his girlfriend want out, and to Snart, out means dead. After a scuffle, the event happens – the particle accelerator at S.T.A.R. Labs explodes, and Scudder and his lady friend get the full brunt of it. Scudder seems to melt into the mirror, where he exits today, mad and looking for Snart. When the accelerator goes, we also get a glimpse of the plane where the Weather Wizard and his brother are, nice cameo.

Mirror Master

First let’s take a look at the comics versions of these two villains. Sam Scudder was a criminal always fascinated with mirrors, so much so that he made that his motif, his gimmick, as Mirror Master. A frequent foe of the Flash and stalwart member of the Rogues Gallery, he eventually met his end, ironically as a hero, in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. After that, the government gave his weapons and costume to someone more dangerous, but I’ll get to that. Scudder has shown up in various animated features and was portrayed by David Cassidy in the 1990s The Flash TV series.

Created by Grant Morrison, Evan McCulloch was the Scottish mercenary chosen to take on the Mirror Master’s identity. He was a murderer and used the weaponry in ways Scudder only wished he could. Able to move through mirrors, he discovered a mirror dimension. He has remained to plague more than one Flash since taking on the mantle, as well as other heroes like Animal Man, one of Morrison’s pet characters.

The Top

Like Mirror Master, the Top was one of the original Silver Age Rogues. Roscoe Dillon, like Scudder with mirrors, had always been fascinated by tops, and he took it a step up when he started his criminal career. Not content to simply devise top-oriented weapons and technology, he also taught himself to spin at high speeds, so fast he could deflect bullets. The Top was also the first Rogue to die. After that it was learned that he had dated and trained Captain Cold‘s sister, who then became the Golden Glider. One could say that the Top’s greatest contribution to the Flash mythos would have been the Golden Glider… until he came back from the dead…

While he was spinning, Dillon found that his mind had been altered. Not only did his spinning increase his intelligence, it also granted him powerful psionic abilities – so powerful, they extended from beyond the grave. The Top was able to possess people like a demon or spirit, among them, a Senator and Barry Allen’s father. Once again taking on his own body, the Top continued to menace the Flash and Central City with his mind-over-matter powers years after he’d died.

Relationship Roulette

Apparently there wasn’t enough story in just Mirror Master and the Top rampaging through Central City, robbing banks, and looking for Snart, so the writers gave us some less serious things to worry about. Barry is weird about kissing Iris in front of Joe. This subplot takes up far too much of this episode. Why couldn’t this creepy Greg and Marsha aspect of the Barry and Iris relationship be a fatality of the Flashpoint reflux?

Then there’s the budding romance between Wally and Jesse, where Wally (obviously sabotaging relationships is a West family trait) treats her going back to Earth-Two like a long distance thing, so they’ll just be friends. Perhaps it’s just as well, she leaves at the end. Maybe Cecile will take Joe’s mind off the weirdness and awkwardness, so that will settle that, and Barry getting his own place should help too. I really wish this had been more about the Rogues than the wonky relationships and comic relief.

Common Sense 101

Not only does Wells trump Cisco on naming Scudder the Mirror Master, but he mentions a mirror gun-toting doppelgänger from his earth named Evan McCulloch. His partner (Rosalind rather than Roscoe) gained the power to cause crippling vertigo from the particle accelerator explosion. Cisco gets to name this one, the Top. Nice touch that her eyes flash yellow and green like the Top’s garish costume.

When Flash and Jesse Quick first go after Mirror Master and the Top, they fail miserably.
If you go after a mirror-themed villain, wouldn’t you want to stay away from mirrors and reflective surfaces, duh, right? I don’t get it. They knew their powers before they got there. Don’t get near reflective surfaces and don’t fight the dizzy-maker on top of a building. Flash ends up inside a mirror and Jesse with a headache.

Cold Play

I loved that Cisco uses Twin Peaks special effects to communicate with Flash in the mirror. Sadly once he’s talking, the whole sequence is used for bad jokes and moving subplots forward. Ironically and far too conveniently they need absolute zero to free Barry, so guess who lends a hand secretly? With an episode coming up called “Killer Frost,” I guess it’s just a matter of time… The after-credit stinger indicates that Caitlin is losing control over these abilities. Was I the only one who expected the bathroom mirror to say “Alchemy”?

In the rematch, Jesse and Flash are more ready for their foes, with plans in place to stop them. First, I would have liked to have been there for this planning, and second, why the heck didn’t they think of this before they fought them the first time? The Top has a pseudo-costume of yellow and green, hideous, but still nowhere near as ugly as the villain’s costume in the comics. I was a bit disappointed that no attempt was made to give Mirror Master a bit of villainous design, but perhaps the civilian look is an homage to the David Cassidy version.

Help Wanted

Beyond the Rogues and the relationships, there was also an inter-dimensional job interview going on. For reasons I can’t fathom, with the loss of Harry, it’s determined that Team Flash must get a new Harrison Wells. Using Wells’ know-how and Cisco’s vibe powers, they send a message into the multiverse to alternate Harrison Welles asking for help. Yeah, I’m rolling my eyes, and I read comic books.  And it’s pretty disrespectful to Cisco and Caitlin that they couldn’t possibly get along without Wells…

The first applicant is a Western themed cowboy named Hell’s Wells who is rejected right away. Keeping in mind that the numbering on television are different than the comics, the next applicant is from Earth-17 and seems to have a steampunk motif. Earth-17 in the comics is where the Great Disaster occurred. The next applicant, and the guy who takes the ‘job,’ is from Earth-19, the world of Gotham by Gaslight in the comics, but possibly not here. His name is H.R. Wells. I think they should vetted him more.

I’m assuming that H.R. will add that bit of mistrust that the Harrison Wells character has been missing for a while as well as give Tom Cavanagh a chance to do a little more humor. I’m not looking forward to seeing Caitlin as Killer Frost despite two years of foreplay, but let’s face it, they’ve given her little to do this season, and the idea that she was so much less in the Flashpoint timeline may indicate she’s come to the end of her usefulness. I hope not…

Next: Monster!

Oh sure, there’s an actual monster in this episode of The Flash as the title indicates, but that title is more about the monsters we see everyday and don’t quite perceive as monsters… until it’s too late. Find out who the real monsters are, after the super-speed jump, in my review of “Monster.”

Personal Space

Hearing “Express Yourself” by the Noisettes was a pleasant surprise as we opened on Barry making breakfast for Cisco. Per last episode and Barry finding his own place, he’s temporarily moved in with Cisco. Mr. Ramon is a bit overwhelmed by the super speed breakfast, which has been every day of Barry’s stay, almost as much as he’s annoyed by the new Harrison Wells.

At S.T.A.R. Labs, H.R. Wells has endeavored to make friends, build the team, and do as much for everyone as possible – donuts and getting everyone their own personal favorite coffees. Just as Cisco feels it, so do we, there’s something off about this dude. Too happy? Too eager to please? Too in your face? Too odd? Or perhaps just too unlike Harrison Wells? What is it?

H.R. Wells

HR’s colloquialisms are off and is in desperate need of Urban Dictionary. And what we know of his Earth is sketchy, beyond they have Big Belly Burger and don’t have coffee. But beyond weird parallel movies and tales of alternate superheroics like World War M, there may be something more sinister than just annoying Cisco.

Let’s not forget that this post-Flashpoint Cisco has his own, possibly unresolved, demons, still grieving his brother and possible remaining resentment against Barry, but H.R. is working his last nerve. It appears to be too much as Cisco and Barry rifle through his stuff to find recordings about them. H.R. claims he is also a novelist and their notes for a new book, about his adventures on another Earth, but is there more?

Julian

Notably it’s mentioned that while in this reality Julian Albert has been around for quite some time, our poor Barry has only been dealing with him two weeks as he’s a product of Flashpoint. Barry decides he needs to make friends after Julian reports him to the Captain. When a forty-foot monster starts rampaging downtown, Barry asks to follow along and observe Julian’s work to try and build a working relationship with ol’ Draco Malfoy.

The road is hard, and the Flash has to save the day before Julian lightens up. We get some insight into the Brit’s thinking when he expresses frustration at the metas, so many squandering their power robbing banks and causing destruction. If he were ‘chosen,’ he’d help people, help the world. I had to wonder, do we have the makings of a superhero here, or a villain? Could Julian Albert be Doctor Alchemy, or is that too obvious? His motivations seem awfully close to the comics version of Zoom, which is a bit scary. Still it was nice to see Julian and Barry go out for drinks at the end of the episode, I wonder how long that will last.

Mother

Caitlin takes some off to visit her mother, a woman who at first seems ironically cold. Dr. Carla Tannhauser is the CEO of her own company and a research scientist in cryo-medicine. She’s very busy and one would barely know she and Caitlin were even related by her behavior. Mom’s assistant, Nigel, treats Caitlin better. For a while at least.

Dr. Tannhauser seems more interested in testing her daughter’s power levels like she’s a guinea pig than actually helping her. Apparently Dad’s death hangs between them, while Mom dove into her work, Caitlin ran away. Nevertheless when Nigel tries to contain Caitlin for his own ends, Mom helps her daughter. But is there something else going on, or is Cisco’s paranoia contagious? The kicker is that after the tests are run, Mom gets in touch with Caitlin later, she tells her that the more she uses her powers, the harder they will be to reverse, at hearing this, she freezes the console in anger.

Conclusion

As usual, this is an episode rife with Barry-isms, and for once, Barry isn’t making all of them. Barry, Cisco, Caitlin and her mom, all monsters in one way or another, and in some ways more than the CGI Harryhausen rip-off rampaging in the city, or its young unnamed master. Was it just me or did that look a little bit like the Ymir from 20 Million Miles to Earth? I hope like King Shark it didn’t use up the budget.

Things are going to get bad quickly if, as I suspect, both Wally and Caitlin are to be Kid Flash and Killer Frost and in the thrall of Doctor Alchemy. Make that a triple if Julian is in the mix. How many husks did they find, and how many are accounted for? The Rival, Magenta, who else?

And when the crap hits the fan, what good will this Harrison Wells be? Cisco was right, he hasn’t been helping only repeating and agreeing to what’s already been said. He’s a fraud, not a scientist at all. So much for Earth-two’s Harry’s interview skills. But as I said last time, why did Team Flash need to get another Harrison Wells (other than to give Tom Cavanagh a role), they were doing fine without him.

Next: Kid Flash, and “Shade,” but is it The Shade??

We’ve been given a gift as far as superhero television goes in The Flash. Not only have we’ve gotten a terrific, accessible, and entertaining TV series about superheroes, they have also gone above and beyond when it comes to presenting hardcore comic book mythos on the small screen. After all, who would have ever thought we’d ever get the DC Multiverse on prime time TV? We have the Invasion, Gorilla City, and more crossovers and team-ups coming, but what else could we get? Meet me after the super speed jump and I’ll give you my top ten things I want to see on The Flash!

10. Chillblaine

One thing that we all want is the proper return of Captain Cold, and yes, I know he’ll be back with the upcoming Legion of Doom storyline in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and also possibly crossing over into the other shows. But until then, this would be the perfect time for Chillblaine, or Chillblaines. In the comics, when Cold’s twisted sister the Golden Glider needed a partner or a dispoable boyfriend, she would outfit him as Chillblaine and give him a copy of her brother’s cold gun. When they lost her interest or got in the way, she killed them and got a new one. Yeah, she’s that nuts.

9. John Constantine

We all want it, the CW knows we want it, and Matt Ryan loves the role, so what is the hold up for a new Constantine TV series on the CW? The Flash and Green Arrow, not to mention the Legends, and maybe even Supergirl, need a magical go-to, and John Constantine is our man. And those of us who actually saw the show a couple years back know how good it really was. What else do you have on Friday nights, CW? Let’s do it!

8. Green Lantern

We all remember the hints we’ve seen in the Arrowverse about that missing Ferris Aircraft test pilot in Coast City. We all know it was Hal Jordan, so again what’s the hold up? The only way to wash the bad taste of the unsuccessful movie from 2011 (I didn’t think it was all that bad myself) is to try again. After Spider-Man got wrecked in its third installment with Venom, then ruined again in the second Andrew Garfield try, they got it right with Captain America: Civil War. Keep trying.

And for a television continuity that primarily includes the Flash and Green Arrow, how can you not have the Hal Jordan Green Lantern? Alternately he could be considered either Barry Allen’s or Oliver Queen’s best friend. Green Lantern and the Flash were a team in the comics long before Green Lantern and Green Arrow were even a thing, but both work, and should be given a chance to on TV.

7. Earth-Two Villains

At this point in The Flash series, we’ve seen most of the old school comic book enemies of the hero. Perhaps we should expand a bit. After all in the comics, Barry Allen has fought most of Jay Garrick‘s rogues gallery as well. And we already have a precedent from the Zoom storyline that Earth-Two is full of villains. We’ve already seen Vandal Savage and the Rival, rumors abound we may see The Shade, but what about the rest of them?

I’d like to see either the Fiddler or that updating of the character from Hawkworld. There’s also the original Star Sapphire that could fit in easily with Green Lantern should he be brought in. How about the Thinker? Or the Thorn? The James Robinson version of the Rag Doll from his Starman series that gave the Justice Society such trouble would be a perfect villain here. And speaking of Starman, if we’re not already getting the Shade, we should.

6. Savitar

I’m generally not happy about adding more speedsters to the show, about as happy as I am about more archers on Arrow, but if we were to add one, how about one of the worst of the worst speedster villains? I’m talking about Savitar from the Mark Waid era of Flash comics. This cult leader studied the Speed Force to such an extent he had gained powers no other speedster had, and wanted what the Flash had, unity with the Speed Force, and if he couldn’t have it, Savitar would destroy the world.

If the show wanted to bring other speedsters in, this would be a great opportunity to introduce characters like Johnny Quick and Max Mercury, although that might be overload. If not, there should be a moratorium on speedsters after such a storyline. Of course, that’s not saying I don’t want to see Johnny Quick and Max Mercury, but you know, overload.

5. The Future

So many stories of the Flash from the comics revolve around time travel and journeying into the future. So far, the Flash has only moved backward on the show. Wouldn’t it be cool to go forward to the Reverse-Flash’s time, or maybe Abra Kadabra‘s? Or Mazdan? And while I’m very happy with the West family as is on the show, maybe we could see the Central City of the 30th century where the Iris of the comics is from, and maybe the Tornado Twins or Impulse, after all, we have seen hints of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the DCTV multiverse.

4. The Cosmic Treadmill

What better way to go to the future than the Cosmic Treadmill? We’ve seen a machine that looks like it at S.T.A.R. Labs, but never called such. The machine would not only be good for focusing travel through time, but also through dimensions as well. It’s also classic Silver Age science, so I love it.

3. Mister Element

One of the few Silver Age Flash Rogues we have yet to see, technically we may have already seen, but time will tell. I’ve talked about Doctor Alchemy before, the current big bad of the third season, but in the comics, he’s not just a multiple personality or an evil twin, he’s also a completely different super-villain – Mister Element! Before the discovery of the Philosopher’s Stone, Al Desmond wore a clunky gas mask and used a gun that could change one element to another. I would squeee with nerdgasm if we actually caught a glimpse of this villain this season. That would rock.

2. The Elongated Man

Much like Green Lantern, the Flash was also buddies with this elastic superhero. Ralph Dibny, notable at one time as being one of the few superheroes with a public, rather than secret, identity, was the Elongated Man, and friend to Barry Allen. Later he became a Justice Leaguer, and a ghost, and I’m not sure of his status now, but believe me, this fun character and his perky wife have unnecessarily been put through hell, the less said, the better.

That said, he probably teamed with the Flash more often than Green Lantern for a time. Stories of the character’s creation vary. Some say he was created as a hero to spin off from the Flash, and other sources indicate he may have part of Carmine Infantino’s original Colors of Evil, the template for the Rogues Gallery. One thing is for sure, he might not have appeared at all had DC Comics realized they actually owned Plastic Man at the time of Elongated Man’s creation. Still, I’d love to see what CGI and today’s effects could do with Ralph.

1. Abra Kadabra

Speaking of Silver Age super-villains we haven’t seen yet and the future, there’s nobody I’d rather seen done on The Flash than Abra Kadabra. From the 64th century with science so far advanced that it seems like magic, and with a deranged need for approval, this mad scoundrel from the future could certainly add some flavor to the show. His name alone would make Cisco roll his eyes.

So that’s my list. Who or what would you like to see on The Flash? The Rogues altogether? The evil Johnny Quick from Earth-Three? More of Saints and Sinners? Blacksmith? Mopee? Let us know!

Flashpoint, though avoided, has still caused much damage to the Flash and his friends. Among those threats are those awoken by Doctor Alchemy to their powered Flashpoint selves. Things get worse when Wally starts to realize he was Kid Flash. Meet me after the super speed jump for my thoughts on “Shade.”

Need for Speed

Even before he was hit by the dark matter wave, and besides the point he was Kid Flash and later the Flash in the comics, Wally West has wanted to be fast. Whether as an illegal drag racer or a super speedster, he’s got a need for speed. We saw how busted up he was when Jesse got powers, and also saw him step in front of a car in hopes to awaken his speed, but now as his transformation approaches, it might not be a good thing.

Wally has been having dreams of being Kid Flash, even gets to do the voiceover in the opening sequence. He’s helping people and wearing the yellow and red – but aren’t dreams how Doctor Alchemy brought fellow Flashpointers Magenta and the Rival into his thrall? Will Wally be the hero we all want him to be, or just another of Alchemy’s pawns against the Flash?

Trust

Once Barry tells the team that Wally was Kid Flash in Flashpoint, something he should have done months ago in my opinion, there’s a trust issue with Joe. Barry can have powers and screw up all he wants to, but Joe doesn’t have the same trust in Wally. Once all that’s out in the open however, the team elects to put Wally in the Pipeline for his own safety. Wow, great family you got there, Wally.

Caitlin trusts Cisco enough to tell him about her powers. She asks him to vibe her future to see if she becomes Killer Frost. What he sees is himself as Vibe in his comics costume in full-on fight mode with Killer Frost. Very cool, but not what he wanted to see.

The Shade

Last week in my article, Ten Things I Still Want to See on The Flash, I hinted at maybe seeing more of the Earth-Two villains, the Shade among them. This week we actually have an appearance by the Shade, or Shade as he’s called here, in name only. This villain is a living shadow and a killer with speed-based powers. More of a brute made of darkness than anything else.

In the comics, the Shade is a sophisticated anti-hero who sometimes plays the villain. Seemingly immortal and born in the 19th century, Richard Swift can control and channel darkness for his own purposes. He has fought both the Golden Age and Silver Age Flashes, was a member of the Injustice Society, and later was mentor to Jack Knight, the son of the Golden Age Starman.

The Shining

Joe finally gets to go on that date with Cecile, the woman who has been pursuing him. It’s a group date, the whole cast minus Wally in the Pipeline and Barry and Iris who are watching him. Everyone else is seeing The Shining in the park. Even H.R. is there, with his new face, because the team finally told him he had a murderer’s face.

As H.R. charms Cecile away from Joe, Wally is called by Alchemy. And just before Joe is about to sock H.R., Shade comes out of the movie screen. He’s depowered by light after throwing the Flash around a bit, but it’s obvious he’s one of Alchemy’s husk metas being used as a distraction so Wally could heed his master’s voice. So sad that such a complex and amazing villain was reduced to a minor plot device.

Cold Comfort

In the aftermath of the disappointing struggle with Shade, the team starts doing the math. They found six husks. The Rival, Magenta, Shade… who else is there? Kid Flash could be the fourth, and trying put it all out there, Cisco outs Caitlin as Killer Frost. She reacts badly, and Barry tries to talk her down. I wonder why he didn’t tell her she wasn’t Killer Frost in Flashpoint. It would seem a very relevant point, right?

We are often told that Caitlin and Cisco are friends but we rarely see it. Here we get a bit of that when Cisco apologizes for ratting her out. I really hope we’re not going to lose her. It does seem like she’s being edged out this season. I guess we’ll find out for sure in the next episode, titled aptly, “Killer Frost.”

Bait and Switch

Team Flash makes the decision to let Wally go to Doctor Alchemy, so they can find the villain finally. He’ll have the Flash, Joe, and a S.W.A.T. team full of fodder to back him up. When Wally gets to Alchemy’s lair, it’s a bit more like what we might think another Flash foe’s lair might look like. It’s all culted up like Savitar‘s might be…

The Flash, Joe, and S.W.A.T. move in to capture Alchemy and his hooded cultist henchmen before Wally can get his speed, but it triggers something else. As foretold by Alchemy, something is coming, and it begins to pick off S.W.A.T. guys. When it gets to the Flash, it reveals itself… Savitar, the god of speed…

Waste and Loss

If this is the end of the road for the Doctor Alchemy character, I have to say I’m disappointed, almost as disappointed as I was with the TV version of the Shade. Both are fascinating characters with much television potential, and yet, here they’re wasted. Speaking of waste, again I must repeat I hope we’re not losing Caitlin as well.

There were notes of similar possible loss as well. As a fan of the comics, I loved the bit where Barry says, “There is no Flash without Iris West.” But in the context of how these shows work, it could mean a loss of Iris as well. She’s already feeling like a fifth wheel. Iris went away in the comics for a while. It didn’t work out well.

I don’t mind saying I didn’t like this episode much. So much wasted potential, and still no satisfying final conflict with Alchemy and still no Kid Flash. Savitar was never a character I liked in the comics, so I’m not looking forward to upcoming episodes all that much.

Next: Killer Frost, and then Invasion!

The cliffhanger last episode introduced what is to be one of the major big bads this season, Savitar, the god of speed, but I think the Flash will have his hands full this time with a more closer, intimate threat – his friend and Team Flash mate Caitlin Snow is on her way to becoming Killer Frost! Meet me after the super speed jump for my thoughts on this week’s Kevin Smith-directed  episode “Killer Frost!”

Savitar

I talked a little about Savitar here, but there’s a lot more to this guy in the comics, or his appearance on the television series wouldn’t make so many fans gasp out loud. I don’t think we know his real name, but this third world test pilot was struck by lightning some time during the Cold War. Crashing into enemy territory, he soon found he could move at super speed and used it to defeat his opponents. Obsessed with this new power, he named himself after the Hindu god of motion, Savitr, and began to search for more power.

Savitar ran afoul of Johnny Quick  – in the comics, Jesse Quick’s father – and nearly killed him: he would have if not for the interference and help of Max Mercury. Together the two speedsters hurled Savitar into the Speed Force, where he remained trapped for decades. In the meantime, he learned all he could about the Speed Force, gaining powers other speedsters did not have, while back on Earth, a cult arose in his name, awaiting his return. When he returned, Wally West was the Flash, and it took all the speedsters active at that time to stop him.

Killer Frost

As long as we’re talking super-villains, I don’t think we have ever, in three seasons of reviews, talked properly about the origins of Killer Frost. It’s got her name on it, so this episode’s review might be the place for it. There have been three Killer Frosts, believe it or not, all arch-foes of Firestorm. The first was Crystal Frost, a jilted love of Professor Martin Stein who could absorb heat and project cold. She died at the hands of Firestorm by absorbing too much of his power.

Louise Lincoln was the next to take the mantle of Killer Frost, an associate of the original who blamed Firestorm for her death, and repeated the experiment that created her so she could have her vengeance on the hero. More psychotic and ruthless than the original, she had a long career in evil, serving as a member of the Suicide Squad and the Injustice League, and even sold her soul to the demon Neron for more power.

A third Killer Frost arose while the first was in the grave and the second serving time. This was S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Caitlin Snow. An accident caused by H.I.V.E. in the Arctic merged her body with a thermodynamic reactor, turning her into a heat vampire with the ability to draw heat from people and object, effectively freezing them. We have yet to see the extent of what evil she is capable of in the comics. We have seen the Earth-Two version on the show however, and she was pretty bad.

God of Speed

As well as things were or were not going when the last episode ended, this TV version of Savitar is a bit different than the comics. First off he’s big, like Shade or the monster a couple episodes back, and nobody but Flash can see him (or maybe just speedsters?). When Joe takes a few shots at him, the distraction is enough for Doctor Alchemy to escape.

Then Savitar (with the same type of growling voice Zoom used last season, only not Tony Todd this time) takes Barry for “a run.” He drags and beats Flash as he races across the city, with Team Flash’s tracking back at S.T.A.R. Labs indicating he was appearing and reappearing simultaneously at several places once. Yeah, Savitar is that fast.

Team-Up and Aftermath

Iris begs Cisco and Caitlin to help, to use their powers and help the Flash against this invisible CGI opponent. Neither wants to, but they do, and it’s on. After the build up however, there’s not much to it. Caitlin freezes Savitar and then he escapes. Not even a goodbye or farewell threat.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry is banged up, Cisco has had a mini-stroke, and Caitlin is not quite the same, her eyes turning crazy cold white. Wally however, is still in the pod thing he was put into last episode. Caitlin describes it as a chrysalis, and Barry suggests it might be similar to the coma he was in before he got his powers.

Evil In the Arrowverse

Joe, frustrated he can’t help Wally for the second time in two episodes, falls back on his police work. He starts to hammer out his anger on one of Alchemy’s hooded henchmen. Just as he’s about to get something, Caitlin interrupts, says Wally’s awake, then proceeds with her own icy evil interrogation. Without getting answers, she blows her way out the police station with Julian in tow against his will.

Caitlin is quickly losing it, eyes icy, hair going white, and using force rather than talking it out. She’s making Julian find Alchemy for her. I loved the Flash hitting him to shut him up. Regarding Caitlin though, I can’t help but recall a fan theory from Arrow, before The Flash, that suggested all metahumans were evil. I have even seen it bandied about since then that the Flash and a select few are actually aberrations and that for the most part it’s true. There are only evil metahumans in the Arrowverse.

The Nature of Evil

Yes, Caitlin is turning evil, but it’s a very specific kind of evil. She lies, she hurts, she’s evil in a way that doesn’t need super powers. She’s what some folks in the Trump era might call a “bitch.” She knows how to hurt Barry to stop him (that’s physical) but then she does the same emotionally by telling Cisco that the creation of Flashpoint killed his brother Dante. She’s killing the team without raising a finger.

Catching up to one of Alchemy’s henchmen, Caitlin even gives a super-villain speech about her parents being doctors and “do no harm” while threatening him. At least it’s verified that not only is the Doctor just an acolyte of Savitar, but he can remove her powers. The henchman also said Savitar showed them the future – she’s there as Killer Frost.

Broken

After a brief skirmish with Vibe and Flash, during which Killer Frost gives the Flash her trademark cold kiss of death, they put Caitlin in the Pipeline. Her icy tongue rips the team up and down before they leave her. Anyone who wasn’t sad or got teary eyed either doesn’t watch the show or has a heart of ice. It’s a rough monologue, and would be hard for most folks to forgive. When they leave, the conclusion is that she’s broken.

When H.R. and Joe break Wally out of his cocoon (I guess to take their minds off Caitlin), they need her help to fix him. Barry goes down to the Pipeline to chat with her, and lets her out. When she won’t kill him, he talks her out of being Killer Frost. It sounds hokey and it’s done well, but it’s just not believable, about as unbelievable as Wally’s turnaround into speedster. Odd that all apparently forgive Caitlin, but Cisco might not forgive Barry?? A far too convenient happy ending in both cases. This is two in a row. Perhaps the show is broken?

Gentleman’s Agreement

And then there’s the loose end of Julian, who Flash hit so hard it put him in the hospital. He saw and identified Caitlin, with his fear and hatred of metahumans, he can have the cops on her in seconds. Once he’s awake, Barry gets in to see Julian before Detective Patterson, played by Greg Grunberg, formerly of Heroes and Heroes Reborn, and one of the few actors to appear in both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. Julian promises he won’t tell on Caitlin, but he has a condition.

Barry must resign from the Central City Police Department. Julian insists he is a disgrace to the job, and if he doesn’t resign he’ll tell Patterson about Caitlin. It’s a deal, they shake on it, and magically Julian doesn’t remember what happened. Later when Barry is packing up his lab, Joe and Iris are there to tell him how proud they are of him. Now he can dedicate all of his time to protecting his family and friends, not matter how tenuous those bonds may be at the moment.

Alchemy

Later that night, Julian hears a voice calling him. At first I thought, “Oh no, he’s one of Doctor Alchemy’s metas,” and then I realized the truth. I had been hoping against typecasting, but no, it’s true, Draco Malfoy is once again the petty henchman of a great evil – Julian Albert is Doctor Alchemy. As we close, Savitar is summoning him back to duty. At least they will get a week off, because next week is… Invasion!