Recap: Guy gets a gun and becomes the Flash’s deadliest enemy. Wait, what?
Muggle Musings
Hard to say because this was an episode all about fanservice! When there wasn’t references to the comics, there were references to DC’s other kickass show: Arrow, where Barry and crew first appeared in season 2 (which I just watched on Netflix). If you’re not keeping up with Arrow, you might be a little confused as to who this devastatingly cute girl is that’s showing up and why isn’t she just with Barry all the time? The show did well enough establishing basics without bogging it all down but if you’re not keeping up with the other show, one wonders how much impact it all had on you. Still, I do like that the DC shows are establishing a shared universe like Marvel’s movies have.
If anything this episode was a little too full as the crossover and villain attention took up time that I thought could have been better devoted to Barry having to deal with death from him failing. I mean he’s already had to deal with death before with his mother but this time he could have done something about it. They should have let Grant try and deliver on that thought more.
The rest of the episode was pretty decent, though the CGI effect when Barry is slow-motion saving people from the train was a bit laughable. There’s also some humor that after two episodes in a row where Barry saved the day by tiring out the villain, this time it was the villain that tired him out. One thing that does disappoint me, however, is that they’re not enforcing the “Barry’s gotta eat a ton of food” motif. Say what you will about the first, 90s series, but they did a good job in that one of having almost every episode a reference to Barry’s energy needs (like a briefcase full of candy bars). I kind of wish we’d get more of that in this series like Barry snacking on beef jerky or something while hanging out at star labs.
Metahuman Musings
What? No Firestorm references this time? Boo, I want my money back!
Nah just kidding. This was an episode FILLED with love for the Flash comic with the debut of one of his rogue-regulars: Captain Cold. I am not quite familiar with them save some bits in crossovers which don’t give you a lot of room for character understanding. Though cisco just happening to have invented an absolute 0 gun (breaking 3rd law of thermodynamics) is such a moment of comic book science I die laughing every time I think about it. Oh Flash, you’re being so delightfully fun and silly, it’s what makes your serious moments have more impact.
All in all I’d say this might be the “worst” episode we’ve had so far, and it’s better than a lot of what’s on TV. That’s a testament to how good this series is right now.
