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.
***This recap contains spoilers***
Flash fact: there are only six more episodes for the first season of this show. Six. Fortunately we Flash fans will suffer no more breaks between episodes which is a very good thing because last night’s episode set us up for a wild ride to hiatus. The episode, entitled “All Star Team Up”, opens up with a little bit of fun, crimefighting version. Eddie, Joe, and Barry (in Flash mode) are out chasing down the bad guys from the evening’s third attempted robbery. Of course nothing is easy and in this case there are too many suspects to handle. No problem when the Flash is on the force! Barry zooms about picking up bad guys and putting them in the car. He also manages to catch a flasher in the park and stop some jewel thieves, thus allowing Joe and Eddie to be epic cops and take them into custody. This is how you do a superhero show and this is definitely a great way to fight crime.
Image Credit: The CW
Unfortunately as our good guys are having a blast being awesome a scientist leaves her office, gets in her car and is promptly stung to death by a swarm of bees that come from the vents like some sort venomous fumes. The victim, Lindsay Kang, dies horribly as a result of the anaphylactic shock she goes into from the stings and my already substantial fear of bees goes straight through the roof. Barry does his crime scene thing and reluctantly goes to the secret lab hideout that isn’t such a secret to run tests. Barry is definitely not himself and it’s rather jarring. The nerd squad runs those tests and suspect a metahuman. They don’t get very far with this because Felicity rolls up on the lab and she’s brought a friend, Ray Palmer! And by friend, I mean boyfriend (I’m not okay with this, but I love Brandon Routh so we’ll go with it.) This should make Barry really happy because he and Felicity are good pals, but it doesn’t. Barry is more uncomfortable than ever because having more people around is just making his issue with Dr. Wells (aka, the not trusting part) complicated. Especially since Felicity and Ray are there to get help with his suit and Ray is a bit Wells fanboy.
Then we have Eddie and Iris. We all know that I loathe this couple and that this show has single handedly made me come to loathe a character I loved in the comics (Iris) and tonight continues this. Eddie and Iris are having relationship issues because Eddie can’t tell Iris about something (Barry) and Iris isn’t the understanding type (why Iris, a reporter, doesn’t understand why her cop boyfriend might have to keep some things from her just makes me scream.) Joe wants Eddie to keep up the charade, but Felicity has a great plan: everyone go out to dinner! Because that won’t be awkward at all. Nope.
Cisco and Ray do some completely adorable dorking out in regards to his suit. Seems like they are working on the power source for it. Also hard at work is the person controlling the killer bees. They go after someone else (again, I’m creeped) and then attack the Flash after he responds to Cisco’s flawed directions and ends up in bee territory. The Flash can’t quite outrun the bees and Barry dies. Yes, Barry dies, but Cicso utilizes the suit’s built-in defibrilator and brings him back to life. This doesn’t help Barry’s paranoia, though. Also a random bee slips out of Barry’s suit and is just chilling in the lab.
Barry, Felicity, Ray, Eddie, and Iris go to dinner. Ray bought out a fancy pants place for the night so they could have a private event, but it’s not really going well. Iris keeps pressing Eddie and Barry just can’t enjoy himself. He leaves the table and Felicity goes after him. Barry confesses to Felicity that he knows Wells killed his mother, but he also confesses that he thinks Cisco and Caitlin may be in on it. Before Felicity can sort Barry out, Ray interrupts. Things are getting nuclear with Iris and Eddie. Iris, being childish and annoying as usual, stomps out like a bratty child and for the first time ever I actually feel badly for Eddie.
I also see that they are trying to set up some animosity between Eddie and Barry considering that it’s the whole Flash thing that is causing the issues, but I’ll forgive the show this heavy hand this one time.
Back at the nerd lair that rando bee has awakened and is causing some major trouble. Wells is about to deal with the bee with his foot (and potentially exposing himself) when Barry shows up and captures it. Cisco, who is apparently allergic to bees, discovers that this is no normal bee: it’s actually a tiny robot bee! Felicity does her science thing to tie the murder victims to science, leading us back to Dr. Tina McGee. Dr. McGee is the lady that they got the tachyon device from way back when. It’s really awkward, but Dr. McGee actually knows exactly who they should be looking for: Brie Larvan who Cisco and Ray will ultimately jointly name Bug Eyed Bandit. Nice.
Intermission time! Felicity finally gets to give Barry the pep talk about trusting his friends and then Barry counsels Iris to trust Eddie and for a moment I think Iris might actually have enough brain power to actually listen and comprehend. I’m an optimist at heart.
Intermission over. Larvan goes after Dr. McGee at Mercury Labs with those crazy bees. There’s a kind of half-done villain monologue here where Larvan blames McGee for ruining her, but it works in the favor of our team of heroes: Barry can’t go after the bees directly due to his now-defunct defib, but Ray is totally ready to test his Atom suit. Ray goes after the bees in some awesome flight effects and Barry goes after Larvan. Of course, Larvan has some spare bees and she sends them after Barry. This turns into a science-off between Larvan and Felicity as Felicity hacks the bees and manages to shut them down, saving Barry. Ray, as the Atom, fries out the bees chasing him by hitting water, but that same water also messes up his suit so he can’t really fly and control things well. Caitlin and Cisco, who were rocking it out in the van of science and awesome, actually catch the falling Ray. It’s pretty great and I really love Cisco. I really do.
Which is why the show then decides to give me a mini heart attack: there is a rogue bee. Said rogue bee is going after Ray. Cisco intervenes and takes the sting. Then DIES. Yep. They kill Cisco AGAIN. I’m about to cry, but then Barry shows up and instead of logically flashing Cisco to the hospital he decides to test out whether or not he can be a metahuman defib with lightning hands. He can, it works, Cisco is back, baby! Whew. Everything is awesome!
Oh and Iris goes and gives Eddie and ultimatum. Eddie looks pained. Trust me Eddie, you’ll be better off.
And then…after all the things are done Cisco and Caitlin show up to go karaoke with Barry. Except that’s not the plan. Joe and Barry reveal to Cisco and Caitlin their research and investigation and how they think that the Reverse Flash killed Barry’s mom and also that Dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash. Caitlin just doesn’t buy it, but Cisco…he is on board because all of what Barry is saying is making sense. You see, earlier in the episode Cisco had a werid flashback, except for it was to that alternative timeline where Dr. Wells killed him. It felt really real to Cisco and he definitely can see where Barry is coming from. Things are starting to close in on Dr. Wells now.
This week’s episode was good. Not great, but good, and it lined us up for our descent to the end. We got some great dialogue and it was really fun to see Ray be the Atom but next week we are onto the part where it all comes together. I’m totally excited for next week.
What did you all think of the episode? Did anyone else fear the robot bees? Let me know in comments!
The Hudsucker 
Bees. My God.
Also, loved the “it’s a bird…” bit. It worked on multiple levels.
Cisco’s now twice been super-vibrated. Powers must surely be on their way. Also, remembering stuff that never happened? Weird.
The web is closing in on Dr. McCreepypants.
Not the first time we have seen memories from one timeline impact another. Granted it is usually with the person who is aware of the change, Ala Barry in Flashpoint. My guess is because how Cisco died and came back that it was a wrinke in the universe kind of thing, or just a convient plot point lol. I am starting to get the feel that the producers don’t really like the established couples from the comics. We saw it with Laurel and ollie now they are making Iris this way. But since she is not with Barry who knows. The bees were intersting but felt it was a little weak as a story. Only bright spot was Ray showing up and making things small. And one step closer to the Tv Justice League that I know we all want.