I think I’ve finally figured out what it is I don’t like about The Flash – the villains. Rather, the way the villains are played. It only took an episode featuring most of them to pin it down.
If Team Flash played Dungeons and Dragons, they would have missed a spot-check. Turns out Dr Wells was simply repairing the particle accelerator in S.T.A.R Labs rather than making a new one entirely (Barry! You said you’d looked everywhere). Suffice to say, Wells escapes and lets Peekaboo out of her cage as a sign of things to come. Team Flash realises that if the accelerator re-activates it will fry all the villains they’ve been keeping in captivity.
Barry has to swallow his pride and ask Leonard Snart for help. The police force won’t have anything to do with transporting the criminals, but A.R.G.U.S is willing to allow them to be moved to their facility on Lian Yu, they just need to get them to a disused hangar.
Wells may well have cemented Barry/Iris in the future, with Eddie becoming despondent after being told what the future holds for him. That being said, is it self-fulfilling prophecy or can it be changed? Who knows, that being said, I’ve often felt sorry for Eddie and the way Iris is with Barry when he’s around (remember when they went bowling?). So that ship has sailed, the question is Eddie still pro-Flash?
I had a sense of trepidation when I saw the title for this week’s episode. Readers will know my intense dislike of Captain Cold and the rest of the Rogues. The idea of having Snart and his irritating sister Lisa working with Team Flash was not easy to stomach. Fortunately Joe seemed to think it was a bad idea and did his darndest to convince Barry of this.
Alas, it was not to be. and predictably things go wrong. The villains from previous episodes are all gassed and put in a voodoo truck that nulls their powers, sure. Unfortunately they look more than ready to come to blows without and it’s only the timely failure of the nullifies that prevents a fist-fight. For a break-out episode, this could have gone a lot worse. Barry utilises some of the tricks he’s learned over the season and manages to hold his own fairly well.
So I don’t know if it’s bad writing, bad direction or bad acting (or all three), but the villains on this show have always been lackluster. Obviously there are exceptions but that is not the case here. What’s even more irritating is that the episode plot leaves us right back where we started, with all the villains on the loose once again. I don’t think I can handle season 2 being a repeat round-up.
It says a lot that the last five minutes of this episode makes up for the flaws of the rest. Barry realises he’s not a hero who can blur the line between right and wrong (thanks Joe, way to rib on Oliver/Arrow). Wells returns to S.T.A.R Labs and Barry goes out to face him. He’s not alone though, Ronnie and Oliver swoop in for the throw-down we’ve been waiting for months to see. Wells says it himself: This is going to be fun.
The visuals of this fight are stunning, rivaling if not surpassing certain recent superhero flicks (*cough* Amazing Spiderman *cough*). Ronnie feels a little underused, truth be told, but I’m an Arrow fan so watching him go toe-to-toe with Wells was awesome. Plus, Barry finally gets one up on his nemesis. At least, that’s how it appears at face value. Wells is obviously banking on being captured here, he’s come too far to be stumped by Barry calling in help.
Where’s Wells’ plan going? Will Barry be able to beat him without help in the upcoming finale? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
