The Flash is DC’s television adaptation of the comic book of the same name. It airs Tuesday nights at 8/7 Central on The CW. Our writer, Nicole Drum recaps the series each week updating you on the latest episode here in The FlashBack.
Thank goodness the break is over and The Flash is BACK! I’ve been waiting for this to truly signal the start of my new year so I’m extra stoked we get our favorite speedster back. Okay, so the last time we saw The Flash he wasn’t doing so hot up against the Man in the Yellow Suit, aka Reverse Flash aka guy I’m pretty sure is Dr. Creepy Jeans aka Dr. Wells! Of course, our hero got saved at the last moment by his team plus Firestorm, but it was still tense. The opener takes a moment to acknowledge this with our usual voice over being just a touch different: Barry tells us he is not the fastest man alive. Of course, Barry wants to be the fastest man alive so he can beat Reverse Flash so our intro sees him training hard to get back to that. How does he train? Oh, just running from Cisco’s drones that happen to have live ammo and missiles attached, no big. Barry tries to run away from one but that doesn’t work so well and our hero darn near gets blasted to smithereens so he takes a different tack and runs at it, chucking that missile back to the drone like a boss. It’s epic. Creepy Jeans almost stands up, but catches himself. It’s great. So far, I’m digging training.
Image Credit: The CW
This episode isn’t really about training, though, it’s about the Rogues and by Rogues I mean welcome back, Captain Cold. I love Wentworth Miller and I love him as Snart. We also get to see Heat Wave, aka Mick Rory (and fully satisfy my Prison Break reunion dreams). So what are these two up to these days? No good, obviously. They want to lure out the Flash so they break into a fancy car garage which does nothing. The pair leaves before the police roll up and Barry shows up even later than that, doing his science awesome thing where he explains to Joe and Thawne that the wall was frozen, then shattered. Of course the cops can easily tie that special trick to Snart and Barry is clever enough to figure out that Snart set that up as a trap. Of course with that trap having failed good old hot and cold have to be up to something else, and that something else? A piece of art called “Fire & Ice” (how fitting!) that happens to be worth $25 million. Chump change, I”m tellin’ ya.
So clearly Barry wants to go after Snart. He’s wanted to go after Snart since last time, but Wells doesn’t want him to. Wells thinks that Barry should really just keep training because that Reverse Flash guy is just bad news. Yes. He is, isn’t he Dr. Creepy Jeans. Hrmph.
Ugh. Iris and Thawne. We all know by now how much I absolutely hate this pairing and find it creepy and more than a little gross. I feel badly for Barry every time he has to encounter it, such as this time where he interrupts their conversation. How to wash that down? Go talk to Joe about how he’s going to put all his energy towards stopping that yellow suited creep instead of helping with Captain Cold.
More Iris, though now she’s packing up her stuff so she can go move in with her creepy boyfriend and be gross, but there are some cute family moments with Joe here. Iris, for whatever reason, has asked Barry to come over. Is Iris just rude? I feel like she is, but at least she did something sort of nice. She found his old Nerd Survival Kit (dude, is that a Space Ghost comic book?) and wanted to give it to him. She leaves (and leaves a mess) and Barry takes this moment to also have some dad time with Joe, telling Joe that he finally came clean about his feelings. He also cleans up Iris’ box and packing mess which for some reason bothers me more than it should.
And now is the time in the episode where Cisco nerds out! He’s down at the cop shop showing off this totally insane-looking gun thing and explaining to the police that their gear and riot shields have been souped up with a heating thing so they can go up against Snart’s cold gun. Naturally there’s that one guy with a serious question: why the heck should anyone trust S.T.A.R. Labs since they were the ones who nearly destroyed the city and caused a lot of this crazy. Excellent question! I’d ask that, too, but Cisco says they just want a chance to help and make things better. Then he demonstrates the shields and proves that it’s definitely a better idea than becoming human popcicles of death.
Remember how earlier in the episode Barry decided that he was going to focus on the Reverse Flash Prep Course instead of taking on the masters of hot and cold? Yeah, well Barry is kind of having second thoughts. He’s conflicted about it. Joe’s really concerned about Barry and ends up sort of colliding with Wells about it because Joe has Barry’s best interests at heart and Wells is just freaking creepy and invested in his own selfish motives. He’s getting less good at hiding that, too. Iris would have seen through this by now, I bet.
We haven’t seen much Caitlin this episode nor have we actually addressed Firestorm…oh wait, here we go. I guess Caitlin is still pretty fixated about Ronnie because she’s going over one of her former boyfriend’s final computer files which is labelled, naturally, “Firestorm.” The name is a crazy acronym and it’s about dismantling elements at the atomic level so they can be rebuilt as something totally different. I think they call that transmutation, or the whole turning everything to gold business tried so often in history. The whole thing here turns out to be a super long paper and the other guy working on the project just happens to be local. Excellent! Caitlin’s going to go check that out.
Meanwhile, the Rogues and the cops have some face-off time and we discover that Heat Wave really, really, really likes being able to play with his fire. This does not fly with Snart. Snart is focused on his end-goal of defeating the flas and taking over Central City because every good villain wants global or municipal domination. Rory, on the other hand, just wants the money. It is a lot of money. I don’t blame him, but Snart gives him a choice/ultimatum. Ultimately Rory sides with his pal and Rory burns the painting before planning to go after not the Flash, oh no. They’re going after the nerd squad.
Back to Caitlin. She finds the paper’s co-author, Jason Rusch, but he really isn’t keen on talking. He does tell her that Dr. Martin Stein was also involved, but he’s been vanished since right before the Army showed up to take the research. Huh. Stein is played by Victor Garber. HELLO SPYDADDY! I don’t care if Alias has been off television forever he’s still Spydaddy to me. Anyway back to this how, Caitlin leaves to go back to her own lab but she’s kidnapped by Snart and Rory.
Back at the lab, Wells is trying really hard to make himself super tight with Barry because Joe will try to exert fatherly influence and Wells just can’t have that. Cisco is a master of less than optimal timing so he barges in with some information on Heat Wave’s gun. Turns out the cold gun and the flame gun just might cancel each other out if they somehow crossed streams. Science is neat, but how to test it out? Don’t worry kids, Snart and Rory have that covered since they televise Caitlin’s kidnapping! Television is a great way to call out the Flash! Now everyone will know about him and really, sometimes breaking news is faster than Twitter.
So here we go, showdown. Barry keeps the Rogues busy a bit. This opens up space for the police to actually do their job and be heroic for a change in this series and Joe gets Caitlin to safety before she can get blasted, then Thawne makes use of one of those heat shields to protect the Flash, who has fallen. It’s kind of nice to see Thawne not hating on the Flash, though I still dislike Thawne. Even with the cops helping it’s pretty clear that the Flash’s speed isn’t even making a dent in this situation. Wells agrees so Barry tries something totally random and crazy. So crazy it just might work: he walks, yes walks like a normal person, into the two ray guns until the two beams collide. This proves Cisco right as the bad guys are knocked out. Yay, science!
The cops do their thing. Rory is all angry and full of it while Snart remains cool and calm, very focused. Cisco takes the guns and promises to dispose of them. Everyone is in awe of the Flash and suddenly the cops are as much Team Flash as I am. It’s awesome. It’s been a good day.
With the Rogues apprehended, Barry assists Iris in her moving. He continues to be the better human here and wishes her and Thawne well, which sucks a lot. Joe overhears this, but remains supportive to Barry. Is Barry moving back home? Joe could probably use company since his daughter is off being icky. And honesty, Barry could use the good influence since Wells is, well, creepy. Man I’ve missed this show.
But wait! There’s MORE: so Rory and Snart are in their armored police transport on the way to the oh-so-happy Iron Heights jail. They’re fighting because Rory is not cool with how things worked out. That’s okay though. Snart’s sister (Golden Glider!) Yeah, she breaks them out of the transport. Why yes, the show did just get a little meta with a prison break. Boom.
I love this show. Yes, I do. This episode was an excellent return and I’m already excited for next week.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Let us know in the comments below.
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