The FlashBack: ‘The Flash’ – Episode 14 ‘Fallout’

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.

So last week our episode ended with a massive nuclear explosion and what we pretty much thought was the absolute end of RonStein, not to mention a great moment of creepiness with General Eiling. How could they possibly follow that this week? Well as most people know nuclear blasts have fallout and boy howdy does this week’s episode live up to its name: as the dust settles from last week’s explosion Cisco and Dr. Wells inform Barry and Caitlin that Geiger counter readings are normal. This is unusual following a nuclear blast so Barry and Caitlin go check things out. What they find? Ronnie is alive and so is Dr. Stein! They are their own people! They need new clothes.

Back at the lab everyone is happy to see Ronnie and Caitlin checks him over carefully because she’s so happy to have him back. Dr. Wells is checking out Dr. Stein and both Caitlin and Wells discover that the men are running a slight fever just over a hundred degrees.  That’s not the only thing that’s running a little hot: turns out that Ronnie and Dr. Stein aren’t too happy having spent a year trapped together and they can’t wait to be apart. Ronnie goes with Caitlin while Barry takes Dr. Stein home to his wife.

Back in regular, non-metahuman life Joe decides to share with Barry what he and Cisco discovered about Barry’s mom’s murder. How Joe has the keys to Barry’s old house is beyond me and I sincerely hope it’s a boring reason, but whatever it is Joe shows Barry the images from the night of the murder. It’s a really powerful scene, watching Barry literally witness his mother’s death again in still image. Joe helpfully points out useful things, like the two speedsters, then drops the bomb (get it, bomb?) on Barry that the blood sample came from Future!Barry. Barry was there the night his mother died, not as a child, but as an adult.

This revelation begs the question: is time travel possible? Barry decides to ask his nerd friends back at the lab. Dr. Wells helpfully spouts some science and then less-than-helpfully spouts some doubts about time travel. I mean, he has to. To keep his secret, right? Cisco is extra helpful, though, and suggests Barry talk to Dr. Stein. Turns out Dr. Stein feels that time travel is totally a normal and two-way street, meaning that you could go to the future or the past like it was a regular street but you can’t really merge them. Dr. Stein feels that Barry’s superspeed somehow broke that barrier and managed to merge the streams. This is most awesome, except that it makes Barry feel like he is only going to be a failure when it comes to his mom.

Back to Ronnie and Caitlin. They are out on an adorable date having finally been reunited. They’re at Jitters and Ronnie wants the two of them to just up and go start over somewhere new. Caitlin isn’t so sure, but their conversation doesn’t get to go very far because nasty old General Eiling rolls up because he wants to get his grubby paws on Firestorm. He pretty much attacks Jitters to get what he wants, but Dr. Stein is aware. See, he’s been having some weird effects since he and Ronnie split. He’s had a craving for pizza, which he hates but Ronnie loves, and oh yeah he can tell when Ronnie is in distress. He alerts Barry who suits up and zooms off to save the day.

Image Credit: CW

Did I say save the day? I meant tango with Eiling. Turns out that Eiling anticipated that the Flash might show up so he has a new weapon to counter him. It’s some sort of device that shoots electromagnetically attracted needle-like spikes. The spikes embed into Barry’s body and it looks bad for the crew. Fortunately Caitlin shows up in the action van and saves them. Eiling is foiled again, sort of. Is Eiling ever foiled?

With Eiling out to get at least part of Firestorm in his clutches the team decides they need to keep them safe. Barry decides to hide Ronnie at Joe’s. Joe is kind of confused, but then seems fine with Caitlin and the now back from the dead Ronnie staying there. Iris shows up and damn near ruins it all though. Seems like Tuesday is family dinner night so she shows up to cook and hey, doesn’t Ronnie look familiar? There’s some awkward covering by Caitlin and Joe and all is well.

Meanwhile Dr. Wells goes to have a chat with Eiling. The outcome of this chat is Dr. Wells having a drink with Dr. Stein who quickly passes out because Dr. Wells doesn’t want us to forget he’s evil: he’s drugged the drink and when Dr. Stein collapses he lets Eiling’s team drag him off. There’s a catch to that, of course: Ronnie feels it. With Wells pretending that Eiling just stormed in and took Dr. Stein the rest of the team tries to figure out where Eiling has taken Stein by using Ronnie’s connection to him. At first they only know that Eiling has Dr. Stein somewhere cold. Eiling has the doctor in a sub-zero facility where he is trying to force Dr. Stein into having his nuclear powers. Why? He wants to use what Firestorm does to make super soldiers. Dr. Stein is not okay with that, so Eiling has him tortured with electrocution. It’s brutal and Ronnie feels it, but is able to use that as a tool: Ronnie breaks a glass and sends a message to Dr. Stein by carving “where” into his arm. In Eiling’s freezer of doom the wound shows up on Dr. Stein’s arm. Dr. Stein responds by tapping out “27” in Morse code. Cisco figures out that the number matches a decommissioned military base that Eiling is likely using.  Ronnie and Barry take off to go rescue Dr. Stein, but Ronnie takes the quantum splicer with him much to Caitlin’s dismay. Ronnie reassures her though and off they go.

The Flash is there in the nick of time before Eiling nearly murders Dr. Stein. Eiling is pretty prepared for the Flash, though, and this time fires a rocket at him. Barry nabs it but it turn sout that it’s got some crazy chemical that will catch him on fire and can’t be put out. Dr. Wells explains that fire can’t happen in a vacuum and instructs Barry to run. So what about Ronnie and Dr. Stein? Well, they merge again into Firestorm, but this time RonStein merges agreeable and when they combine on good terms they become an awesome unit, working in perfect tandem to fight the bad guys. Perfect tandem, that is, until Eiling uses an ion grenade to disrupt the Firestorm matrix. Eiling is about to execute RonStein, but Barry shows up, a little burned here and there, but able to disable Eiling.

Back at the lab RonStein is actually able to split apart into Ronnie and Dr. Stein, but that doesn’t mean they can just go back to normal life. For starters, Ronnie is technically dead, but more than that Eiling has already breached the lab so the two men need to go somewhere else for safety, but also to figure out their powers. Dr. Stein knows someone in Pittsburgh (cannon home of Firestorm in comics) so they’re going there. Caitlin isn’t happy, but Ronnie again assures her that he loves her and that he will be back.

It’s been a whirlwind day or so for the crew. Caitlin vents to Cisco a bit about how it’s been up and down, and Iris shows up to say hi. Iris has questions about Caitlin’s “cousin” and Caitlin covers badly. You see, they’re trying to make Iris seem like a capable journalist. She and her co-reporter are determined to dig up dirt on Dr. Wells and this Firestorm guy seems like just the ticket. One step closer to discovering all the secrets, that Iris girl. Too bad she’s had like a billion chances already and failed every time.

As the episode draws to a close we also check back in with Barry. Earlier in the episode he felt burdened and sad about the reality that he was present as an adult at his mother’s death, but now that has changed. Barry tells Joe that knowing about his mother’s murder puts him at an advantage. If he knows he is going to fail he can work harder to avoid those issues so when he ends up going back in time again he can save her. Oh Barry.

And now for the time we love the best, it’s Creepy Dr. Wells Stinger Time! General Eiling tries to have a drink to soothe himself from having lost Firestorm and failed to end Barry, but the Man in Yellow? He’s not having it. He snatches Eiling up and drops him into the sewers.  There he takes off his mask revealing himself to be Wells. Wells explains that yes, he is a metahuman and they protect their own. Then he calls on an old friend…GORILLA GRODD! And yes, Gorilla Grodd takes care of Eiling for us. It was the best moment ever for me and I squealed out loud. GRODD!

Next episode we FINALLY get to tie things together regarding Dr. Wells’ true nature and I personally can’t wait.  Too bad I’m going to have to: the Flash won’t return until March 17th. Ugh!  See you guys in a month!