So what did Nate Winchester think of The Flash episodes “Who is Harrison Wells?” and “The Trap?” You’re about to find out!
Who is Harrison Wells?
Recap: The characters in the show catch up with the audience as they reenact Supernatural episode 1.06.
Muggle Musings
I will admit that in a lot of ways, I really liked this episode but that’s because the continuity of “who knows what” is so rarely maintained in many shows (a sign of golden age TV? this trend is reversing) and this show partially touched on the real fact that if superheroes & villains were to arise in real life, it would end up upending our entire society.
Take this episode, here we have a shapeshifter that apparently can’t impersonate anybody perfectly save for the mind. Though not confirmed it seems that Everyman could impersonate fingerprints and possibly DNA as well. So imagine you’re called to serve on a jury trial for Bob Example. Did Bob do the crime? How can you be sure it wasn’t Everyman pretending to be Bob? They were seen in two places at once? Except we know that guilty men can be in 2 places at once: Harrison Wells has proved that. Then – even after that – we know 100% that Bob did the crime – how would you tell whether he had been unduly influenced by Rainbow Raider?
I mean that’s why Bats & Supes never kill anyone, or how nobody stays in jail in the DCU – you can’t convict anybody beyond a reasonable doubt*! (though I would pay for a comic where a judge sentences a crook to travel back in time and undo his crime)
*I was going to rant on more on this, but then I found an old podcast from some comic fans and uploaded it here. The relevant stuff starts around the 50 min mark but you can enjoy the whole thing, the guys can be entertaining.
Though I still can’t figure out why Evil Flash has left his yellow suit exposed in the secret room instead of closing it up again. I guess he figured there was no point in trying to leave ANY denyability? And while I love her (because Danielle Panabaker is SOOOO cute) it would have been interesting to see Caitlin deceived by Wells into working for him, splitting the team into a mini-civil war and setting up her possible future start of darkness. However the team’s still together and the cast has such great chemistry that it all remains very enjoyable to watch.
Metahuman Musings
You can just take a look at <a href=’http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/TheFlash2014S1E19WhoIsHarrisonWells’>the shoutouts and mythology gags</a> on this episode’s TV Tropes page to see how little was going on comic book wise. This definitely seems to be the point where the show is pulling away to stand on its own without its source material training wheels so a good episode all around.
*I was going to rant on more on this, but then I found an old podcast from some comic fans and uploaded it here. The relevant stuff starts around the 50 min mark but you can enjoy the whole thing, the guys can be entertaining.
The Trap
Recap: Hey remember that guy we found yesterday? Yeah…
Muggle Musings
So… again given what I talked about earlier, what good would a confession be?
Ah well, this seems to be the episode where everything finally comes into sync. Eddie now learns what everyone else knew. Everyone else learns what the audience knew. Iris knows that Barry might be the Flash now (which could be a positive since I don’t think a protracted love triangle could work for this show – Smallville proved how wrong it can go when you over milk that trope).
This is what I like to call a very “workhorse” episode. There’s not a whole lot to talk about because there’s not much on deeper meanings here but instead effort to get the plot and characters into their proper positions for the grand, deeper moments. Nothing wrong with any of that and it’s a test of how good a writer/creator can be if they make these workhorse moments entertaining (which this still was).
Though I did have to laugh. Arrow (like Lost and Once Upon a Time and Revolution) loves its parallel storytelling with flashbacks telling us about a tale in the past while we also watch what’s going on in the present. Flash has avoided it for 99% of the run (which is good, not all styles are for all set ups)… until now. And the flashbacks INVOLVED A CHARACTER UNCONSCIOUS. That’s just… kind of hilarious. Though Evil Flash takes things to a whole new level. How bad must a grudge be when you are holding it against someone who probably can’t do the wrong now that you’ve involved time travel – which means you’re holding someone guilty for something which they’re literally innocent.
That’s messed up.
Metahuman Musings
Like the previous episode, there wasn’t a whole lot explicitly comic booky here. I was glad they explained some of the questions I had in the previous episode (like why Wells didn’t bother locking his secret room – because Barry is the skeleton key to Gideon), though I’m still trying to figure out what’s the deal with his speed. Is he having problems with it or not? It seems literally plot powered but given that my big plot logic questions from the last episode were answered in this one, maybe that will make more sense in the next 1 or 2.
