Do these episodes count as a two parter? But I just reviewed a two parter didn’t I? You ever get a sense of deja vu – that feeling you’ve done it all before?
Out of Time
Recap: BIG THINGS HAPPEN! But it’s not a mid-season finale so of course it will all be undone.
Muggle Musings: Something I forgot to mention in the previous review that this one reminded me of is that I kind of want to like Linda Park in this show, but is kind of stark how she is far less understanding of her boyfriend having to rush off while Iris does. Especially being a reporter, how does Linda not realize that Barry may have to rush out periodically as a POLICE OFFICER! By far the most powerful moment in this episode is the confrontation between Wells and Cisco. Carlos Valdes really sells being heartbroken and Tom Cavanagh played the role of regretful necessity perfectly. Then we get some confirmations this episode that Wells was beating himself up not by time duplicate, but by literally being so fast he beat himself up. Really it’s a testament to the skill of the performers and writers in this show that we can have what is – on paper – an incredibly silly episode (guy controls weather! vibration kill! dude kicks his own ass!) yet it is played out very dramatically and gut wrenching.
Metahuman Musings: Well I’ll admit I was wrong about who exactly was Evil Flash and now I want to rewatch the season with a new lens on the details. So kudos to the show makers, that’s how you pull off rewatchability.
I especially like the reveal of the evil-flash hologram. There were debates on the boards about the identity of two reverse-flashes because that hologram and the one in the earlier show segment had two different body shapes. At the time I thought maybe it was just a mishap with stunt men, but even if it was, kudos to the show runners for taking a possible flaw and turning it into a strength. By this, Wells comes off looking even MORE clever taking the extra effort to disguise himself as much as possible. A great touch.
Otherwise I don’t have too much to say as the meta & muggle musings intersected this episode with both features of the show coming together.
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Hmm… does this one count as the second part of the previous? But I just reviewed a two parter episode didn’t I? Man you ever get a sense of deja vu – that feeling you’ve done it all before?
Rogue Time
Recap: Not quite a rerun of the previous episode happens now.
Muggle Musings: Ok, 2 big things bug me about this episode (but in a fun way).
1) When Barry ran back into the past, what happened to his past self? Did they merge? Shouldn’t there now be 2 Barry Allens running around? (pun intended)
2) Wells whole “time will wreck vengeance upon you” shtick go increasingly silly by the 3rd or 4th time he said it. I mean Barry was trying to prevent a tidal wave from hitting THE ENTIRE CITY! How do you go bigger than that? Two cities? The country? The Earth itself? Like I said, on repeats it became less dramatic, and more silly.
Still, overall I liked the examination of Barry “doing over” a day, how things changed in subtle, believable ways without being overly Rrube-Goldbergian (which sometimes time shows do too much of). I especially like how Cisco is forgiven and returned to the group’s good graces after being put in a no-win scenario. Too often stuff like that is over-milked for drama that pushes believability (and on a show with a guy that run mach 2, you need all the believability you can get).
And in the end, Barry is the one that suspects Wells, not Cisco. I was somewhat hoping the “dance” between Allen and Wells would continue just a bit longer to really twist the knife into the betrayal, but we’ll see where this goes.
Also, Caitlin patching things up with Barry and his friends with the convienant excuse of mind problems after the lightening? I liked that. It was a very human touch.
Metahuman Musings: I’m not much of a flash rogues fan but it is my understanding that they do know Barry’s real identity though how quickly they know is outside my expertise. So yeah, this episode had a lot of them in it, but I’m kind of ambivalent about the rogues in general so… meh. Why don’t you talk about the rogues in the comments, explain what you liked and didn’t like about them this episode?
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Man, you ever get a sense of deja vu…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2eUopy9sd8