Multiverse Theory Goes Mainstream In The Flash Season 2!

The Good: Some decent moments of performance, Most of the special effects, Moments of character
The Bad: Repetitive season arc and reversal to season one, Far less scientifically-valid than the first season!
The Basics: The second season of The Flash explores threats from an alternate version of Earth and its megalomaniacal speedster, Zoom, while Barry Allen continues to adjust to being the hero The Flash!


When it comes to works based upon comic book source material, there are few works that were a more pleasant surprise to me than the first season of The Flash (reviewed here!). The point at which the first season ended was an impressive one, but it left a daunting task for the second season. Ironically, the cataclysmic event of the last moments of the first season - the appearance of a massive singularity over Central City - was almost instantly brushed aside and resolved. Despite the ease with which the singularity was closed, the consequences of that event resonated through the entire second season of The Flash.

The Flash Season Two is an unfortunately fractured season as a result. The set-up involves a surprisingly compelling concept; there are holes in the fabric of our universe that lead to locations on an alternate Earth, much like in the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" (reviewed here!). There are metahumans from the alternate Earth sent through to our Earth to kill Barry Allen and they all work for a dark speedster from Earth-2 called Zoom. But the set-up for The Flash Season 2 leads to a very poorly-constructed resolution and the latter-half of Season 2 illustrates that the first half of the season wrote a check that the second half could not cash. In fact, in defining Zoom, the second season of The Flash ends up (largely) treading in the exact footsteps of the first season.

Six months after the singularity was created over Central City and was subsequently closed through the heroism of Firestorm, The Flash is on his own and his team has separated. While Central City prepares for Flash Day, Barry and Joe investigate the death of a man who was killed by someone impossibly strong and surprisingly large. When a living version of the same man pops up at the Flash Day ceremony, The Flash reunites his team and they discover that the singularity that Firestorm sealed was not the only event in Central City. Sealing the singularity left fifty-two breaches in Central City. The holes in the universe lead to Earth-2, a slightly more advanced Earth. There, the citizens are menaced by a speedster, Zoom, who is sending metahumans from Earth-2 to our Earth to try to kill The Flash.

Team Flash is soon joined by Jay Garrick (Earth-2's Flash who has lost his speed) and Dr. Harrison Wells, who runs S.T.A.R. Labs on Earth-2 and whose daughter is a captive of Zoom. While Joe and his new partner, Patty Spivot, hunt down metahumans, the S.T.A.R. Labs team tries to stop the alternate world's metahumans from killing Barry and they work to seal the breaches around Central City. When Wells is unable to find a way to defeat Zoom, he begins to develop ways to drain Barry Allen of the Speed Force in order to transfer it to Zoom to save his daughter. When the S.T.A.R. Labs team learns of this, they make a concerted effort to save both Earth-1 and Earth-2 from Zoom once and for all!

The second season of The Flash mimics the first season in a number of ways, some of which are pretty lazy on the part of the show's executive producers. For example, major actions within the two seasons happen at virtually the same spot in each season. In the first season, there is a two-parter exploring Firestorm and in the second season, those same episode slots are filled by a two-parter! Zoom and the Reverse Flash are revealed at pretty much identical points in each season, etc. That structural familiarity accents the fundamental problem with the season's primary adversary and it plays into the problem with the way the final episode of the second season of The Flash leads to an emotionally similar climax.

In constructing an adversary worthy of succeeding the Reverse Flash for the enemy of the Flash, the executive producers of The Flash sensibly used Zoom. In the comic books, Zoom was Wally West's adversary the same way that the Reverse Flash was Barry Allen's enemy. But for the television series, constructing a mystery around Zoom made the executive producers and writers utilize almost all of the same character reversals and that feels particularly lazy. Indeed, the construction of Zoom comes to make almost no rational sense, which is something the producers - who even reference "Mirror, Mirror" should have known. At the climax of that seminal multiverse episode of Star Trek, Spock notes that it is much easier for sane people to act crazy than for a barbarian to play civilized. In that way, the ultimate revelation of Zoom's mundane identity makes no sense in the second season of The Flash, making for a very unsatisfying late-season.

Ultimately, after all of the various attempts to misdirect, Zoom is characterized as a speedster who became a Speed Force Vampire, who needs (just as the Reverse Flash did) The Flash to run faster and faster. This time, though, the adversary wants The Flash to run faster so he can absorb Barry's Speed Force energy. Given how murky that premise is and how late in the season it is before it becomes defined, there is a remarkably unsatisfying quality to much of the second season of The Flash when one views is as a whole work, all at once.

That said, the character development and performances in the second season of The Flash show an evolution that is a progression from the first season, which is nice. Those who watch The Flash are rewarded with reasonable character progressions for all of the major characters. The essential characters in the second season of The Flash are:

Barry Allen - The Flash. Initially disillusioned over how Eddie and Ronnie gave their lives to save Central City (while The Flash got credit), he tries to keep his friends safe by working alone. Spending his nights rebuilding Central City after the singularity appears, he is able to exonerate his father after Wells leaves a video will confessing he killed Nora Allen. He has to help his ex-girlfriend, Linda Park, when her doppelgänger comes through and tries to kill The Flash. He and Patty begin dating. In his first major conflict with Zoom, he is nearly killed and he has to learn to walk again! After his father helps him get his confidence back again after his back was broken, he becomes unwilling to risk anyone else getting hurt, which puts an impossible amount of pressure on his relationship with Patty. He is willing to forgive Dr. Wells when Wells betrays him and that solidifies his resolve to save both Earths. His journey forces him to consider giving up his powers and endangering all he loves to save lives,

Iris West - Daughter of Joe West and an intrepid reporter. She meets her long-lost mother and uncovers her secret. When she learns she has a brother, she becomes protective of Joe. Surprisingly, she is not initially jealous of Barry and Patty. Her work for the Central City Picture News gives her access to Wally's drag racing and it inspires her to intervene with Joe when he is over-cautious as a parent. She is wounded by Tar Pit when Barry's speed is diminished, which leads Wally to finally bond with her. After a series of underwhelming dates with her new boss, she begins to consider the possibility that she and Barry are destined to be romantically entangled,

Joe West - One of the lead detectives at the Central City Police Department, he works with Cisco to establish the Anti-metahuman Task Force. He resists allowing Patty Spivot to join the team, but quickly sees her value when she is professional in helping to apprehend the Sand Demon. When his ex-wife comes back to Central City, he is forced to confess to Iris that he lied to her for years. He continues to motivate Barry. He does not trust Earth-2's Dr. Wells and is unwilling to truly trust Patty, which makes their working relationship untenable. He learns about his new son, Wally West, who he accidentally pressures into accepting him. But after opening his heart and home to Wally, he has to risk losing Barry once again,

Dr. Caitlin Snow - Widowed by Ronnie's sacrifice, she abandons the S.T.A.R. Labs team for Mercury Labs. Cisco draws her back in when Atom Smasher arrives in town and he needs a medical opinion. She is attracted to Jay Garrick when they start working together. With Dr. Wells, she develops Velocity 6, a drug that helps speedsters super-charge the Speed Force within them. She is captured by Grodd and has to betray him to save the gorilla's life. While Barry and his team visit Earth-2, she refines her Velocity drug in order to allow Jay to step in as the Flash. After experiencing even more loss, she begins to shut down emotionally, which makes Cisco worried about her. She is, alas, the season's dupe and finds herself the captive of Zoom as a result,

Dr. Harrison Wells - The creator of S.T.A.R. Labs on Earth-2, he comes through the breach to attack metahumans Zoom. On Earth-1 to save his daughter's life, he is instantly mistrusted by The Flash's team. He outs Cisco for his ability in order to start using Cisco's powers to find metahumans. He feels guilty about causing the dark matter accident on his Earth and its resulting in his daughter getting captured by Zoom. When Patty shoots him, he is rescued by an unlikely individual. He continues to prioritize saving his daughter's life over working with the S.T.A.R. Labs team, which makes him willing to abandon his entire world to Zoom in exchange for his daughter's safety,

Cisco Ramon - The enthusiastic, geeky scientist and inventor at S.T.A.R. Labs, he names most of the adversaries The Flash encounters. He continues to suffer visions of other people and places - often with time displacement - which causes Dr. Stein to recognize him for being a metahuman. To try to verify Wells's story, he "vibes" him and confirms that Zoom has Jesse captive on Earth-2. He takes a chance and starts dating a beautiful new barista, only for her to discover that she is a reincarnated Egyptian priestess. He continues to develop his powers, especially after he sees what his Earth-2 doppelganger can do and realizes he is only using a fraction of his potential,

Patty Spivot - A young police officer who loves reading Barry Allen's forensics reports and argues Joe into letting her join the Anti-Metahuman Task Force. Her father was killed by Mark Mardon, the Weather Wizard, and she wants to stop metahumans who harm others. She does not like lying, especially to Barry when her work requires it. She quickly deduces Barry is (temporarily) blind on their first date. Irked by Barry and Joe keeping secrets from her, she is fast on the trigger when she tracks down Dr. Wells. She is given the opportunity to end Mark Mardon's life at Christmas and shortly thereafter, she comes to believe Barry is withholding something critical from her. She has to consider her deferred admission to forensics school when her relationship with Barry is on the rocks,

Wally West - The son of Joe West and Iris's mother, he was born without Joe ever knowing about him, which leads him to harbor a pretty serious resentment toward Joe. He is into drag racing and is obsessed with speed, which worries Iris and puts him on the wrong side of the law for Joe's comfort. After his mother dies, he begins to spend more time with Joe and Iris, but gets tired of living in Barry Allen's shadow. He wants to design faster car engines until he is inspired by Joe and The Flash to want to help others,

and Jay Garrick - The first major visitor from Earth-2, he was a speedster on Earth-2 (their Flash) when he was fighting Zoom and pulled over to Earth-1. After surveilling The Flash and his team, he reveals himself to them and Barry is immediately suspicious of him. He helps build the speed cannon to stabilize the breach between worlds in the S.T.A.R. Labs basement, which makes Dr. Snow enamored with him. He is initially resistant to take the speed drug Drs. Snow and Wells create. After his first successful attempt to use a drug to bring the Speed Force back into his body, he is forced to confess to Dr. Snow that he is dying and she begins to work to save his life.

The performances in the second season of The Flash are quite good. Grant Gustin continues to develop as both Barry Allen and The Flash. Gustin and Candice Patton play off one another quite well and in the second season, the two are finally able to explore some chemistry between their characters and the actors land it wonderfully. Carlos Valdez continues to develop as Cisco Ramon, which gives the actor more to perform than simply making quips. Like Danielle Panabaker, Valdez has the chance to play multiple characters and both performers do some awesome acting to portray their various characters.

Ultimately, the second season of The Flash is good, but more familiar than it is audacious, which makes it a somewhat tougher sell than the first.

For a more complete guide to the second season of The Flash, be sure to check out my reviews of each of the episodes of the second season at:
"The Man Who Saved Central City"
"Flash Of Two Worlds"
"Family Of Rogues"
"The Fury Of Firestorm"
"The Darkness And The Light"
"Enter Zoom"
"Gorilla Warfare"
"Legends Of Today"
"Running To Stand Still"
"Potential Energy"
"The Reverse-Flash Returns"
"Fast Lane"
"Welcome To Earth-2"
"Escape From Earth-2"
"King Shark"
"Trajectory"
"Flashback"
"Versus Zoom"
"Back To Normal"
"Rupture"
"The Runaway Dinosaur"
"Invincible"
"The Race Of His Life"

For other works from the 2015 – 2016 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Game Of Thrones - Season 6
Grace And Frankie - Season 2
Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 3
The Walking Dead - Season 6
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - Season 2
Legends Of Tomorrow - Season 1
Jessica Jones - Season 1
Daredevil - Season 2
House Of Cards - Season 4
Doctor Who - Season 9

6.5/10

For other television and movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Can Open, Worms Everywhere: "The Race Of His Life" Ends The Second Season Of The Flash!

The Good: Most of the acting, Special effects, Moments of character
The Bad: Terrible plot
The Basics: The Flash reaches its second season finale with "The Race Of His Life," an episode that once again puts a ridiculous spin on a simple problem.


Season finale time is upon us and this season one of the hardest finales to execute is coming from The Flash. The episode is entitled "The Race Of His Life" and the burden upon it is one that will reverberate into the future seasons of The Flash. The fundamental problem facing the executive producers of The Flash is that the franchise has three truly great villains: the Reverse Flash, Zoom, and Captain Cold. In the books, Captain Cold gets reformed post-Forever Evil and that has essentially already happened thanks to his role in Legends Of Tomorrow. Eobard Thawne - the Reverse Flash - was dispatched in the first season finale of The Flash and while there are implications he will continue to return as an out-of-time temporal fragment that makes no rational sense, leaving just Zoom as a constant, menacing adversary for The Flash. Don't get me wrong; in the books, The Flash has a ton of adversaries and when Mirror Master pops up, I'll be thrilled if they do it right and I'm already dreading the dumbed-down PG version The Flash will be forced to present with Murmur should Geoff Johns ambitiously try to bring that serial killer to the small screen. But villains from The Flash make for tough season-long or series-long arcs for network television (if The Flash was on AMC, I'd have different thoughts on the matter) and the Metahuman Of The Week style has already proven to be a very unsatisfying concept for The Flash, which has an audience that can easily handle serialization. So, going into "The Race Of His Life," the burden on The Flash is to satisfactorily thwart Zoom and set up the third season in a way that makes viewers want to return.

It failed.

"The Race Of His Life" picks up in the last second of "Invincible" (reviewed here!) and given the climactic nature of that episode and the way it reverberates into "The Race Of His Life," it is impossible to discuss without some conversation of where that episode ended. After all, "The Race Of His Life" opens in the wake of Barry Allen losing his father and the shock of that leaves him appropriately shaken at the outset of the season finale.

With Henry Allen killed in front of him, Barry Allen is furious. The Flash and Zoom begin to race through Central City when Zoom abruptly appears to kill the version who is fighting Barry. Zoom taunts Barry with the idea that The Flash is almost ready to completely become him. Following Henry's funeral, The Flash and Zoom square off and Zoom challenges Barry to a race. The S.T.A.R. Labs team, however, knows exactly what Zoom's trap is; a device was stolen from Mercury Labs that could be used to destroy Earths throughout the multiverse - which is the vision Vibe saw previously. The speed from Zoom and Barry running will power the device and allow Zoom to destroy Earth-2.

To protect Earth and the Flash, the S.T.A.R. Labs team knocks The Flash out and sticks him in a prison cell in order to keep him from racing Zoom. The rest of the team attempts to entrap Zoom and when they throw him back to Earth-2, Joe West is pushed through the breach with him. When Wally West finds out, he rescues Barry and The Flash demands the right to race Zoom to save Joe's life.

"The Race Of His Life" has moments of true greatness, but it falls down ridiculously fast. Opening with the sudden macguffin of the Mercury Labs device that can destroy Earths across the multiverse and Zoom informing Barry just how he can defeat him, there are elements to the episode that are tragically bad. Zoom telling Barry how to defeat him opens an instant plot problem with the episode. The Flash is told by Zoom that Barry has to be willing to kill his own temporal remnant and that being the case, all Barry has to do to stop Zoom from executing his plan to power the world destroyer (why the hell does Mercury Labs have this thing anyway?!) is make Zoom believe he is dead already. In other words, create a temporal remnant of The Flash, then have him killed in front of Zoom so Zoom doesn't have The Flash to rely upon. Similarly, Barry has had numerous experiences now with time travel; there is virtually no temporal consequence to Barry going back in time a day to save his father's life from Zoom. Or going back in time, creating a temporal remnant of Henry Allen and letting Zoom kill the temporal remnant while the proper Henry Allen remains alive somewhere safe.

So, up until the last act, "The Race Of His Life" is wonky at best; before the episode turns away from its potential to completely trash the series. The Flash takes a dive, as if the executive producers realized that they had shot their wad on the potential of the series far too early. The best analogy I have for what is happening with The Flash now is Glee. Glee reached its peak success early with a cast that was solidly constructed; the moment its first season succeeded, the subsequent seasons should have been re-constructed to make each season a semester of the school year to keep the cast solid. It would have given the show four more years before the producers had to deal with reinventing the show. In a similar way, the second season of The Flash banked heavily on keeping Zoom around and thwarting him in "The Race Of His Life" . . . without having a strong idea of how to get there.

The special effects in "The Race Of His Life" are great, as is the performance between Grant Gustin and Candice Patton. Danielle Panabaker is unfortunately stiff as Dr. Snow and Zoom is ridiculously monolithic in the episode. Ultimately, "The Race Of His Life" is a flawed premise with a series of leaps that make it fit poorly with what immediately came before it. The third season premiere will bear the weight of the final moments of "The Race Of His Life," but viewers will be returning to something that is already struggling to make sense of itself.

For other big season finales, please visit my reviews of:
"Legendary" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"Fast Enough" - The Flash
"Doomsday" - Doctor Who

4.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Kevin Smith Remakes "Emissary" For The Flash With "The Runaway Dinosaur!"

The Good: Moments of character, Moments of performance, Special effects
The Bad: Banal plot, Awkward cuts, Some terrible acting, Derivative and inconsistent writing
The Basics: Kevin Smith directs the return of The Flash with "The Runaway Dinosaur," an unfortunately derivative episode.


There are very few directors whose works I tend to follow and actually get excited about. Kevin Smith is, as unlikely as it might initially seem, one of them (and no, I haven't yet made it through Tusk!). So, when I saw that he was directing the latest episode of The Flash I was even more initially excited about the episode than usual. And Kevin Smith does fine with "The Runaway Dinosaur," but it is hard not to see it as being incredibly derivative of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's pilot episode "Emissary" (reviewed here!). "The Runaway Dinosaur" personifies the Speed Force in a way that is reminiscent of the wormhole aliens (Prophets) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Smith even uses similar lighting for them at key moments, which makes the comparison especially apt.

"The Runaway Dinosaur" follows on the events of "Rupture" (reviewed here!), which makes it impossible to discuss without revealing some spoilers about where that episode ended. After all, with the apparent death of Barry Allen and Zoom terrorizing Central City and Earth-1 effectively, there is a massive sense of consequence at the outset of "The Runaway Dinosaur!" And "The Runaway Dinosaur" deals with those consequences and, despite there not being a writing credit for Kevin Smith, there are a number of language changes from the regular speaking voices for principle characters - Iris, for example, uses "hell" as an expletive more often in the episode than ever before - that make the episode stand out as a Kevin Smith work.

With the S.T.A.R. Labs crew reeling from the shock of Barry Allen's apparent death, they are unable to take a beat when Jesse Wells and Wally West are discovered. Jesse's heart has stopped beating, while Wally seems generally all right. While Henry Allen stabilizes Jesse, Iris and Cisco go into the basement morgue at S.T.A.R. Labs to recover Eobard Thawne's notes on Barry's treatment. Barry, meanwhile, wakes up in a nebulous place where he meets the embodiments of the Speed Force. The Speed Force tells Barry Allen that he can go home . . . if he catches the blurry speedster flickering out of his perception in the zone.

In the morgue, Iris and Cisco discover that Girder has been resurrected as a zombie and he mindlessly leaves S.T.A.R. Labs and begins to wreak havoc on Central City. While Allen goes through Thawne's notes, Wells and Ramon attempt to vibe a way to Barry. Barry, however, refuses to leave the Speed Force as his return would be without his powers. While Iris and Joe hunt down Girder, Barry Allen must confront his feelings of loss for his mother and recover his powers.

"The Runaway Dinosaur" features a number of weird script problems, outside the change in Iris's narrative voice. Iris runs into the breach room while Cisco is vibing, insisting that Wells is killing Ramon . . . without any basis for that assumption. Similarly, Harrison Wells suddenly has knowledge that he would have no possible basis to possess or assume when he says that Barry Allen in the Speed Force will be able to see and hear anyone in contact with Ramon when he vibes. This is based on what, exactly?! Wells had no known experiences with Vibe on Earth-2 and, unlike Eobard Thawne (Harrison Wells in the first season), has no experiences with being inside the Speed Force (save when he went with Barry and Ramon to Earth-2 through a breach, more than through the Speed Force). Harrison Wells would have no way to make that assumption.

That lack of consistency in the characterization and scientific continuity is paired with poor performance moments and some of the weirdest cuts of the series to date. "The Runaway Dinosaur" was cut down from over fifty minutes to the necessary 42 minute run time and one has to hope there was something cut that makes Henry Allen telling Joe West that his story is going somewhere when Jesse L. Martin is not on the screen emoting anything and there is no Joe West line cutting into Allen's story to justify Henry's otherwise weird line.

While "The Runaway Dinosaur" is being praised in some quarters as the best episode of The Flash to date, it is arguably the most erratic. In order to squeeze in a cameo with Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith admits to the series one of the worst acting deliveries of the series. Mewes is fine, but the woman who accompanies him in his cameo has one of the worst, most awkward breaks in a line that should have necessitated a second (third or however many takes it took to get it right!) take. And, as Barry Allen moves through his trippy timeless zone encountering embodiments of the Speed Force in familiar faces, he is suddenly unable to recognize his own father?!

Girder returns and "The Runaway Dinosaur"'s b-plot acts as an effective sequel to the first season episode "The Flash Is Born" (reviewed here!) and the choice of resurrected metahumans appears more or less random. Girder is utilized to allow Iris and Joe to have a plotline away from S.T.A.R. Labs and because he is one of the few metahumans who is actually outright dead (but, given that Eobard Thawne traded his life away for his own machinations, it seems like a severe deficiency of heroic characters to see if there is no possible way to resurrect him properly and transform him from his zombie state back into a regular metahuman).

Despite some of the guest actors giving cringe-worthy performances, Grant Gustin gives an amazing, emotive portrayal of Barry Allen in "The Runaway Dinosaur." He roots the potentially boring sequences with Barry in the Speed Force.

Kevin Smith does fine with the material he was given - one imagines that for the first special effect sequence of Barry in the Speed Force, Smith might have been heard muttering "We're spending more on this effect than I spent on Clerks!" - for the most part. For the episode's big moments between Barry Allen and Iris West, he gets great performances. The humorous moments of the episode work well and are cut in a way that makes the episode feel even more erratic for the moments that flop.

The result is that "The Runaway Dinosaur" packs a lot in and delivers inconsistently.

For other works by Kevin Smith, please visit my reviews of:
Clerks
Mallrats
Chasing Amy
Dogma
Clerks The Animated Series
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back
Jersey Girl
Clerks II
Zack And Miri Make A Porno
Cop Out
Red State
Jay And Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie

4/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Character Prevents "Rupture" From Breaking The Momentum Of The Flash!

The Good: Wonderful character development, Good performances, Special effects
The Bad: Packs a LOT into the hour
The Basics: The Flash manages to progress everyone but Zoom in "Rupture," making for a solid episode!


As the second season of The Flash ramps up to its season finale, it has a lot of character arcs to resolve and a number of plot balls being juggled. The danger for the serialized series this late in the season would be for the show to throw in a Metahuman Of The Week bottle episode that would break the momentum of the season which the CW has already jerked around enough to break any sense of internal rhythm fans might want or expect from the show. "Rupture" looked like it could degenerate into a Metahuman Of The Week episode, but the writers and executive producers made the episodic elements and Cisco character arc in the episode a b- or c-plot to the season's main Zoom narrative, in the process creating one of the best episodes of the season.

"Rupture" picks up where "Back To Normal" (reviewed here!) left off, with The Flash powerless and Zoom determined to return to Earth-1 to conquer there. To that end, "Rupture" has Zoom following his same successful strategy as he used on Earth-2; enlisting the aid of metahumans to enforce his will. The Metahuman Of The Week is the Earth-2 version of Cisco's brother, Dante, but because the episode manages to focus much more on Barry Allen than Dante or even Cisco, the episode works far better for its serialized elements.

Opening with a police chase through Central City, the S.T.A.R. Labs team has adapted to Barry Allen losing his powers by developing a holographic Flash to slow criminals down long enough for the Central City Police Department to catch them. Harrison Wells objects to what he sees as a waste of time, urging Barry once again to help him recreate The Flash by making another dark matter release from the particle accelerator. Allen decides instead to visit his father, where he confesses he has lost his speed and could use guidance. Returning to Central City, Allen finds himself in an emotional tug of war between Henry Allen, Harrison Wells and Joe West.

Allen is not the only one with emotional conflict going on. When Cisco has a vision of his brother, Dante, he reaches out to his estranged brother. Unfortunately, their reunion is cold and when they are separating for the night, they are attacked by Rupture, a metahuman from Earth-2 who was Reverb's brother. Rupture's presence and face forces Cisco to come out to Dante as a metahuman. Rupture is working for Zoom, who has arrived on Earth-1, where he has taken over the Central City Police station. When Barry's plan to reform the CCPD is realized by Zoom, the consequences are disastrous and the showdown between Zoom and the CCPD leaves Barry at a place where he feels he must accept the risky attempt to become a metahuman speedster again.

"Rupture" succeeds largely because is it character-focused. More than most episodes of The Flash, "Rupture" gives each of the principle characters something significant to do. Dr. Snow may be a prisoner and filling the niche of "damsel in distress" for the episode, but she is smart and resourceful and she manages to get a message out to the S.T.A.R. Labs team to try to thwart Rupture. Zoom might not develop, but the effects of the Velocity 9 and the superspeed seem to be causing him to become more demented and evil (which is the only real explanation for how he could be likable and cool for the first part of the season and now, after the revelation, how he is just batshit crazy). In fact, Hunter Zolomon's arc might be the most subtle bit of character development of the episode; like Barry Allen, Zoom has super-healing properties. If Zolomon was a mentally ill sociopath who had been treated, the effect of his hyper-super-healing would be for his body to return to its natural state; in other words, his body would reject the treatment and revert to his more natural biochemistry, in effect re-instating his own mental illness!

Cisco's arc in "Rupture" is actually refreshing as there are far too many idealizations of family on television. The Ramon brothers can barely stand one another and Cisco is upset because the events of "Rogue Time" (reviewed here!) in the first season did not have a substantive effect on their relationship. That level of realism is very relatable and while "Rupture" leaves both young men shaken, it is unclear how fundamentally their relationship will be changed; it gives viewers something to come back to!

Much of "Rupture" is focused on Barry Allen and his moral dilemma. Allen is tugged by Henry Allen to be himself and explore what he can do without metahuman powers and by Harrison Wells who wants to restore The Flash to save the world to keep his child safe. Joe West is caught between wanting to help people, keep Wally safe and protect Barry. Joe and Iris provide a loving framework whereby they reassure Barry that they will love him regardless of the decision he makes. Iris all but tells Barry she loves him in "Rupture" and it is nice to see that relationship progressing and her expressing emotions, as opposed to feeling like the relationship is simply a multidimensional inevitability. Iris's sudden emotional honesty complicates Barry's choice and that makes for compelling viewing.

Barry Allen makes a decision in "Rupture" and the episode is long enough to allow him to make a choice and then second guess himself. Rupture and Zoom do not force Barry Allen to make a choice or change his mind, but Allen's own sense of heroism and his desire to help makes him realize that Zoom will not be stopped by half-measures. That makes for a particularly interesting journey for Allen throughout the course of the episode.

The special effects in "Rupture" are good and the costume for the titular villain is so cool that it is almost a disappointment that he's a one-off villain. The effects are coupled with cute and funny lines and allusions to Fringe (reviewed here!), Harry Potter and Back To The Future which are bound to truly thrill the geekiest of fans. Despite how fans of the source material for The Flash can pretty much figure the direction of the rest of the season based on where "Rupture" ended, the journey there promises to be impressive. "Rupture" is one of the best, most packed episodes of the series to date.

9/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Expose The Villain When The Flash Goes "Versus Zoom!"

The Good: Character development, Performances
The Bad: Some troubling technical glitches, Mediocre plot
The Basics: The Flash Season two begins its home stretch with "Versus Zoom," which reveals many truths about Zoom and sets up the final episodes of the season.


Every now and then, someone asks me why I review both single episodes and entire seasons of some works. The answer is that sometimes, a serialized show holds up better as a whole than its individual episodes and sometimes, the episodes themselves have noteworthy subtlety and greatness and deserve to be explored further. There are some seasons of television where the sum is greater than its parts; individual episodes are not great television, but when viewed, the whole season develops into something. It is hard to see how The Flash will hold up given that its second season has been subject to unfortunate network scheduling; being pulled off the air for several episodes, reappearing for a single episode or two and then going weeks before returning. It makes the episode by episode flow terrible, which is detrimental to the season. Fortunately, the erratic scheduling of The Flash is now over and the final string of episodes for the season has begun. The comeback episode is "Versus Zoom."

"Versus Zoom" picks up after "Flash Back" (reviewed here!), following Barry Allen's resolve to take the fight to Zoom after traveling in time to get advice from Eobard Thawne.

Many years ago on Earth-2, James Zolomon returned from the War Of The Americas and his wife made plans to leave him. James killed his wife in front of their son, Hunter, and Hunter was committed to an asylum. On our Earth, Barry uses the prototype of the tachyon enhancer to run four times faster than he ever has before. Returning to S.T.A.R. Labs, the Flash tries to figure out how to get back to Earth-2 to use his newfound speed to stop Zoom. Drs. Snow and Wells do not want to help Barry. That night, Barry and Joe talk about The Flash going back to Earth-2 when Wally arrives. Returning to S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry postulates that Cisco has the same abilities as Reverb did and that he might be able to open a breach to Earth-2.

On advice from Joe West, Wells decides to help the Flash and he modifies Reverb's goggles so Ramon can use them. Cisco begins to open a breach when he becomes concerned about the potential ramifications and stops him. After Wally moves in and Barry gives Ramon a pep talk, Dr. Snow reveals the name that Jay gave her for his Earth-1 counterpart. Wells reveals that Hunter Zolomon was a serial killer on Earth-2 and Barry comes up with a way to stop him. Cisco makes another attempt to open a transdimensional doorway and it works. Zoom comes through, but when the Flash executes his plan, Zoom is able to take Wally hostage in order to extort Barry's speed from him!

"Versus Zoom" is chock full of character moments and the best are those that focus on Joe West and (separately) Cisco Ramon. Ramon's arc in "Versus Zoom" is one where he must overcome his fears to try to access his powers. Ramon's powers were latent for almost the entire first season and his learning curve has been exceptionally erratic since he learned he is a metahuman. Reverb had years of using his powers and was still doing things like creating waves of energy - spatial distortion waves. Cisco goes from having difficulty vibing to see people in other universes when attached to their objects to using a simple device (goggles?!) that allow him to suddenly manipulate multidimensional energies. Fortunately, Ramon has a moral dilemma associated with it that makes the episode's gimmick more than a plot-based problem.

Joe West begins to truly bond with his son, Wally, in "Versus Zoom." West gets advice from Allen and it nicely overshadows the potentially soap operatic Iris subplot. West's opening his heart to Wally plays nicely off his professional detachment with Wells (who has asked the police officer for help in finding his daughter). Jesse L. Martin wonderfully plays the range of emotions needed to make the two very different scenes feel fluid and congruent.

One of the real issues with "Versus Zoom" is that the episode fails to address Zoom's abilities to leap between universes. Ramon opens a doorway through which Zoom comes, but he is able to return to Earth-2 (the presence of the man in the mask in a cell adjacent to Wally confirms that) without any aid. It makes sense that Cisco might have fractured the breaches back open (at least two), but there is nothing in-episode that makes it explicit.

Beyond that, "Versus Zoom" finally gives the viewer enough backstory on Zoom to be satisfying. The showdown between Barry Allen and Hunter Zolomon is engaging and, fortunately, does not devolve into a simple physical contest. But in many ways, "Versus Zoom" is unremarkable and straightforward on the plot front. The contrasts in backstory between Zolomon and Allen make for a compelling character study, but they are essentially long sequences of exposition and set up an ending that makes the episode very repetitive on the plot front.

"Versus Zoom" is still a decent return to the universe of The Flash and reinvigorates the fans for the next episode.

8/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Masks And Alternate Universes Become Vital When The Flash Tries To "Escape From Earth-2!"

The Good: Grant Gustin's performance, Danielle Panabaker's acting, Plot pacing and reversals, Moments of character
The Bad: Light on theme, Earth-1 villain
The Basics: "Escape From Earth-2" finishes the story begun in "Welcome To Earth-2" and leaves so many more questions for fans of The Flash!


The Flash has been one of the most pleasant surprises on television the last few years. With its second season heating up, the show refocused with a two-parter that put three of the heroes from The Flash on Earth-2. The two-parter that began with "Welcome To Earth-2" forced a conflict between Harrison Wells and Barry Allen and their mutual nemesis, Zoom. Like any two-parter, The Flash ran the risk of setting up something that it could not deliver upon. Fortunately, the show's streak for pleasant surprises remains unbroken with "Escape From Earth-2." "Escape From Earth-2" is one of the rare second parts that lives up to (or exceeds) the promise made in the first part.

"Escape From Earth-2" is the second part of a single story that began with "Welcome To Earth-2" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the new episode without some spoilers on the prior one. "Welcome To Earth-2" climaxed with Barry Allen, on Earth-2, trapped by Zoom in a prison with Jesse Wells and a mysterious stranger, while Geomancer menaces Central City on Earth-1. The bloodbath that ended the first episode sets up the foundation for "Escape From Earth-2" and those who have not seen the first part are likely to be lost and confused with just this episode.

Opening with Zoom hunting for Wells throughout Central City, Cisco reunites with Wells at S.T.A.R. Labs. After recovering the Earth-2 Barry Allen, Wells and Cisco escape to the Earth-2 equivalent of the time vault in S.T.A.R. Labs when Zoom attacks. Narrowly escaping the villainous speedster, the trio regroups to try to come up with a plan. At Zoom's lair, Barry consoles Jesse and together they try to learn the identity of the other prisoner Zoom has there. On Earth-1, Jay Garrick fixes the speed cannon and Iris meets her new boss. While Dr. Snow works to create a new permutation on the drug needed to give Jay Garrick speed, Iris West-Allen is reunited with her husband and helps the team formulate a plan to find the Flash. The Earth-2 Barry Allen uses his research to extrapolate a probable location for Killer Frost's lair as their best plan to finding where Zoom hangs his hat.

Encountering Killer Frost on Earth-2 puts Wells and his team in danger, though Cisco manages to reach the Caitlin Snow part of her that remains at her core. Geomancer attacks S.T.A.R. Labs, leaving Snow and Iris to attempt to stop him. In the process, his attack damages the speed cannon and Garrick, Snow, and both Joe and Iris West. While they work to get it fixed, on Earth-2, the team finds Zoom's lair and encounter the villain in a showdown that puts them all at risk.

"Escape From Earth-2" is not overly flawed, arguably because it does not try to be as clever as "Welcome To Earth-2." The preponderance of easter eggs in "Welcome To Earth-2" created some unforeseen issues for die-hard fans (i.e. fans have to accept that Zoom is more powerful than the combined might of the Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Batman?!), but "Escape From Earth-2" is very straightforward. Outside the special effects surrounding Killer Frost's route to Zoom's lair and the somewhat inconsequential nature of the Geomancer, "Escape From Earth-2" is a pretty tight episode.

With Geomancer very easily disabled, "Escape From Earth-2" is preoccupied with teasing the audience. For sure, there is the wonderful motivational speech from Barry Allen to Barry Allen, but the episode is all about jerking the audience around. The third prisoner spells out "Jay" and confirms that he is talking about Jay Garrick, leading the Flash to make some of the least imaginative guesses and suppositions possible . . . and leading fans to cream themselves with new theories about the identity of Zoom. "Escape From Earth-2" is engaging and well-paced and it may have introduced a time-travel element to Zoom's narrative (and, without confirmation, made its own big mistake). But, at the end of it "Escape From Earth-2" does what most great television does; it gets viewers talking and thinking and theorizing.

What makes "Escape From Earth-2" so engaging on its own is the performances. While "Welcome To Earth-2" was heavy in performance moments from Jesse L. Martin, Carlos Valdes and Danielle Panabaker, "Escape From Earth-2" is dominated on the acting front by Danielle Panabaker and Grant Gustin. Panabaker once again absolutely smashes it as Killer Frost. As Killer Frost, Panabaker is able to play a different skill set than she usually does as Dr. Caitlin Snow. Moreover, Panabaker playing double duty as both Snow and Killer Frost allows her to showcase her range and flexibility with performing and she nails both roles with very different emotional levels (and amazing make-up differences!).

Grant Gustin plays the Earth-2 Bartholomew Allen for the bulk of "Escape From Earth-2" and his super-nerd self is dramatically different from the regular Barry Allen and heroic Flash he usually plays. Bartholomew Allen may be relegated to comedy relief in "Escape From Earth-2" and a big dramatic speech, but Gustin makes the role work. Bartholomew Allen feels like an entirely different character and Gustin is the one who deserves the credit for that.

"Escape From Earth-2" is satisfying and entertaining episode that does what its title promises, but also sets up a potentially big de facto third part when Zoom's identity is finally revealed. The dynamic between Killer Frost and Zoom, the budding powers of Vibe and the man in the mask on Earth-2 make for an episode that is exciting to watch and discuss, even if it is generally not very complicated.

For other works with alternate universes, please read my reviews of:
Fringe
"Through The Looking Glass" - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"Doomsday" - Doctor Who

8/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Tease The Fans: Why "Welcome To Earth-2" Is So Successful For Fans Of The Flash!

The Good: Awesome acting, Great character moments, Engaging plot
The Bad: Some bad editing/direction, Minutia
The Basics: "Welcome To Earth-2" puts Cisco and Barry Allen on Earth-2 in a distracted attempt to rescue Jesse Wells from Zoom.


As a fan of the graphic novels for The Flash, there are a number of things that have come up on the television series The Flash that I have not yet known. To wit, last year when the DC Comics Super-Villains trading cards (reviewed here!), I had to look up information on the prominently appearing character of Killer Frost. Killer Frost is a villainess from the Firestorm books and because Firestorm has appeared in The Flash, it was quickly spoiled for me that the character of Dr. Caitlin Snow in the television show had the potential to go that way. Caitlin Snow, in the books, is one of the incarnations of Killer Frost and knowing that, there are a TON of clues throughout The Flash. For example, Dr. Snow is usually seen wearing white and blue, at least throughout the second season! White and blue are Killer Frost's colors. When Harrison Wells outed Cisco in "The Darkness And The Light" (reviewed here!), his metahuman detector did not indicate Snow was a metahuman (but still, Wells sneered at Snow, which implied he knew she was Killer Frost and they had some personal history on Earth-2!). So, like most fans, I've waited for Killer Frost to appear and I managed to keep the secret of Snow/Killer Frost from my wife, who has fallen in love with the television show for the past eight months! With "Welcome To Earth-2," we are rewarded with seeing Killer Frost and Earth-2 and the payoffs are a lot of fun.

"Welcome To Earth-2" is essentially "Mirror, Mirror" (reviewed here!) for The Flash and the episode, reasonably, pays homage to the classic Star Trek episode. "Welcome To Earth-2" follows on the heels of "Fast Lane" (reviewed here!) with just enough time for Barry Allen to have supper with his family before he makes the leap through the looking glass. Interestingly, the only truly direct tie-in to "Fast Lane" is the character explanation for why Barry Allen is willing to make the trip. Allen now considers Harrison Wells a member of their team and he is willing to forgive Wells for betraying him and stop Zoom, as opposed to sending Wells back to Earth-2 and letting him fend for himself.

Opening with Barry sealing up all of the rifts to the Multiverse around Central City, save the one in the basement of S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry has a going away meal with Iris and Joe. Iris expresses her concerns to Barry, but shortly thereafter, Cisco, Allen and Wells go through the final breach to Earth-2. The device that allows them to make the leap malfunctions, leaving Dr. Snow and Garrick to work desperately to fix it. On Earth-2, Barry Allen discovers things are just a bit off from how he remembers them and Harrison Wells is troubled by how Zoom attacks have escalated in his absence. Knocking out his Earth-2 counterpart, Barry Allen replaces Bartholomew Allen to try to get information on Zoom's location. Unfortunately, Barry gets sidetracked with his counterpart's life with Iris and the fact that his mother is still alive.

While Barry and Iris are out, they are attacked by Killer Frost and Deathstorm. On Earth-1, a new metahuman, Geomancer, pops up to wreak havoc on Central City, taking advantage of the perceived absence of the Flash. Jay Garrick is unwilling to take Velocity-6 again to attempt to save Central City, which prompts him to be honest with Dr. Snow about his medical condition. On Earth-2, the attack from Killer Frost and Deathstorm leaves Barry shaken and it puts his team in a position to learn about the true hierarchy of Zoom's organization. When Cisco encounters his doppelganger and Zoom appears to capture Barry, all appears lost.

"Welcome To Earth-2" risks, but manages not to fall into the trap of, becoming a kitsch episode that plays on the spectacle of the constant reversals of the primary Earth-2 characters. Intermixed with Jay Garrick being honest about his issues with Velocity-6 blends with Joseph West sternly deriding Barry Allen at Jitterbug's. The serious character moments play as substantive against the gleeful shock value of seeing Killer Frost, Deathstorm, and Reverb. The Earth-1 plotline with Geomancer feels more like filler (and potentially a set-up for a somewhat ridiculous climax in the second part) than a truly legitimate and developed plotline.

The character elements in "Welcome To Earth-2" keep the show engaging. While reversals with people like Deadshot (Floyd Lawton) are amusing, Barry Allen's sudden obsession with avenging Joseph West illustrates well the depth of his love for his father. The mission to Earth-2 is initially focused, but Barry Allen quickly derails it unintentionally and that is fascinating to watch. Also impressive is the late-in-the-episode appearance of Reverb and his interactions with Cisco.

The acting in "Welcome To Earth-2" is some of the series's best. While Jesse L. Martin is predictably fabulous, as always, the episode finally allows Danielle Panabaker to illustrate her exceptional range. Panabaker plays both Dr. Snow and Killer Frost and the roles require her to not just look completely different, but to perform at opposite ends of the emotive spectrum. Panabaker delivers for The Flash like she never has before in "Welcome To Earth-2!" Similarly, Carlos Valdes acting opposite himself makes for one of the most memorable episodes of the entire series thus far!

The details in "Welcome To Earth-2" are slightly off. Jay Garrick immediately leaps to a probable conclusion as to why the cannon blows out after the team travels through it to Earth-2. Given that the team is made up of scientists and Garrick realizes so quickly what happened, it seems odd that the group did not discuss and anticipate the possibility and shore up the device to prevent it from stranding the team on Earth-2. Similarly, while fans might absolutely geek out over Hal, Diana and Bruce appearing on Bartholomew Allen's speed dial, one has to question how Zoom could rise to and retain power over Central City if Allen could just call in such powerful members of the Justice League at a moment's notice!

Similarly, the editing in "Welcome To Earth-2" is noticeably off. The way the episode is cut, it seems like Deathstorm is as fast as The Flash and their race around Central City is problematically truncated. Similarly, the sudden appearance of The Flash's helmet on a statue is somewhat ridiculously placed (statues seldom are molded with such detachable parts!). The timeframe for Dr. Snow developing Velocity-7, which apparently happens in a single afternoon(!), is only accomplished by denying the weird time-compression that comes from editing.

For other works with alternate universes, please read my reviews of:
Fringe
"Parallels" - Star Trek: The Next Generation
"Rise Of The Cybermen" - Doctor Who

9/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Remembering The Breach Problem: "Fast Lane" Effectively Redirects The Flash!

The Good: Wonderful character moments, Engaging plot development, Most of the acting
The Bad: Effects largely negate the coolness of Tar Pit, Some predictability in moving toward the next two big episodes
The Basics: "Fast Lane" introduces one of the more fantastic Flash villains and does an exceptional job tying him into the larger storyline.


Fans of the comic book The Flash have a lot to be apprehensive about with the second season of The Flash on television. After all, the current season is much more fractured than the first season, with huge unresolved plotlines involving dimensional rifts peppered around Central City, the villainous Zoom menacing Barry Allen, the metahumans created by the reactor in the pilot episode and the new additions of Wally West and Jay Garrick to the mix. Usually, before entering a whole alternate universe scenario, the television show would be on firmer ground than The Flash was when it went in that direction. While Geoff Johns did an amazing job with creating a rogue's gallery for The Flash second only to Batman's cast of villains, those villains have not always translated well to the television show. To wit, in the first season episode "The Flash Is Born" (reviewed here!) saw the television show making a terrible rendition of Girder (he appeared in the show as, essentially, a variation of the Marvel Universe's Collosus. So, when "Fast Lane" was teased with the idea that the Johns'-Era villain Tar Pit would make an appearance, fans of the book had a reason to experience trepidation.

Fortunately, fans have a lot to enjoy in "Fast Lane" as the episode gets a lot of Tar Pit right - even is his comic book appearance is only in the show for one brief part of the final scene! "Fast Lane" picks up right after "The Reverse-Flash Returns" (reviewed here!) with Harrison Wells working on Eobard Thawne's technology. The episode effectively blends the serialized elements of the show with a Metahuman Of The Week story.

Opening the night of the reactor accident, two years prior, two goons drop Joey Monteleone in an industrial tub of boiling tar. The reactor accident occurs and Monteleone becomes a metahuman. While Iris tries to get Wally West to stop his drag racing, Joe and Barry investigate the murder of Daniel Burge, at the hands of a new-to-the-scene metahuman. Harrison Wells completes the device needed to sap the Speed Force from Barry to save his daughter. Finding metahuman DNA on Burge's body, Cisco coins the new metahuman Tar Pit and soon his app indicates Tar Pit is active. When Barry encounters Tar Pit, Wells uses his new device to sap some of the Flash's Speed Force.

While Barry Allen investigates Tar Pit, Wells delivers Zoom the Speed Force sample. Cisco and Barry are concerned because The Flash is negligibly slower. While Barry and Wells work together, using our Earth's Wells's research, Wells warns Barry that he will betray Barry and his team to save his daughter. When Iris's reporting brings her to Wally's race, where the man organizing the races is related to the thugs who created Tar Pit, Tar Pit shows up and nearly kills Wally to get to Bronwen. In the process, Iris is wounded and that pushes Wells to tell the truth, which puts Barry in the odd position of defending his quasi-mentor to his friends.

"Fast Lane" is notably light on Dr. Snow (Danielle Panabaker has two big episodes coming up!) and Cisco, whose most significant moment is bringing his metahuman app online (which is what Wells had developed in the alternate universe in his first major flashback for this season!). Jay Garrick is entirely absent from the episode and this actually works in the episode's favor. "Fast Lane" has the feeling of being more focused on the show's core characters and it works nicely in that regard to allow most of them to develop better and have the actors showcase their talents more.

Tom Cavanagh returns in full force to the forefront of his range and ability in "Fast Lane." Harrison Wells is committed to his family and Cavanagh brilliantly presents monologues that illustrate his character's absolute commitment to his family. The raw emotionalism of it plumbs a new depth for Cavanagh on The Flash and it works out brilliantly in the episode.

Cavanagh and Jesse L. Martin's experienced deliveries are balanced by Grant Gustin and Candice Patton. Gustin gives a brilliantly forceful performance opposite Cavanagh. He sets his gaze and gives some vocally strong performances that sell the character's sense of determination and compassion. Patton gives a similar range of performances making Iris tenacious and determined, completely dominating all of her scenes with the guest stars she squares off against. Patton gives one of her most subtle and strong performances in "Fast Lane."

"Fast Lane"'s minutia is a bit weird. Out of all the history of music, Barry Allen cites an Ingrid Michaelson song, which is cool, but somewhat shortsighted. In an immediately adjacent scene, the Wests have Coast City Pizza. In the first season, The Flash ran to Coast City in California to get everyone pizza; how they got it without the Flash seems to bank on the idea that Coast City Pizza had a radical expansion over the past year and got a Central City branch. It's flimsy and someone in the prop department should have caught the problem.

The special effects in "Fast Lane" are incredible. While it might have been cost-prohibitive to replicate Tar Pit's comic book appearance in every shot and that is disappointing, his ultimate appearance is pretty awesome. The effect of the episode, though, is the scene featuring Wally's ultimate race and The Flash trying desperately to rescue Iris.

In fact, one of the big things missing from "Fast Lane" is a scene reconnecting Iris and Barry after she is wounded. That said, the episode does much right and leads into one of the big potentially promising events of the season!

For other works directed by Rachel Talalay, be sure to check out my reviews of:
"Hell Bent" - Doctor Who
"Heaven Sent" - Doctor Who
"Death In Heaven" - Doctor Who
"Dark Water"- Doctor Who

7/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Packing In Plot, Not Progressing, When The Flash Goes "Running To Stand Still!"

The Good: Patty Spivot and Joe West's characters, Good pacing, Decent-enough performances
The Bad: Plot-heavy, Does not progress the story in a compelling way, Moments of Joe West's character.
The Basics: The midseason finale of The Flash goes dark, but unremarkable, with "Running To Stand Still."


The last major midseason finale of the shows I watch and review is upon us with The Flash! The Flash had big shoes to fill when it came to its second season midseason finale, as last year's episode was a tremendously revealing episode that left fans theorizing and debating for the months the show was on hiatus. "The Man In The Yellow Suit" (reviewed here!) was a big, important, episode in The Flash and when the producers approached the second season's midseason finale, "Running To Stand Still," it is like they just gave up and decided not to try to compete with their own work.

"Running To Stand Still" is almost entirely divorced from "Legends Of Today" (reviewed here!), the prior episode. Instead, it acts more like a sequel to last year's episode "Tricksters" (reviewed here!), which was one of the few truly disappointing first season episodes of The Flash. The episode also plays off of "Out Of Time"(reviewed here!), so those who are looking to get the most out of the episode should definitely watch that episode. Perhaps the best commentary on "Running To Stand Still" came from my wife when we finished our first viewing of the episode. As she noted, we could have not watched the episode and not, truly, missed anything - save the proper on-screen entrance of Wally West (who appeared briefly in a prior episode, albeit unnamed in the episode and has only been vaguely teased as part of the Iris storyline since). My wife is right; the episode is packed with stuff happening, but none of it leads to any consequences, progress or truly important revelations that actually alter the flow of the season or progress anything.

In fact, outside the addition of Wally West for the briefest of scenes, The Flash's Christmas episode "Running To Stand Still" is packed with anticlimaxes. The writers and producers of The Flash periodically forget that they are writing for a smart and scientifically literate audience and "Running To Stand Still" is a prime example of that. The form of "Running To Stand Still" completely undermines its mood and intensity; the audience is smart enough to recall the confrontation that opens the episode and wait for the payoff to it. The result of the opening scene is very weakly played out in "Running To Stand Still" and leads to arguably the most anticlimactic final scene of the series.

Opening with Harrison Wells running for his life from Zoom, Zoom captures Wells and the Earth-2 scientist begs for the life of his daughter. After Iris has a conversation with her father that leaves her distressed, she goes to Barry and confesses her knowledge of her brother, Wally West, which she has kept from both Barry and Joe. When Mark Mardon breaks into Iron Heights to break out Leonard Snart and James Jesse, Joe is instantly concerned. His new partner and Barry's new girlfriend, Patty Spivot, lost her father to Mardon and Joe is worried she might come unhinged with revenge with Mardon loose. While Mardon and Jesse plan to kill The Flash, Snart visits Barry to warn him of his impending doom.

When the Trickster baits The Flash, Patty and The Flash end up at an abandoned toy factory where the Trickster lays a trap to try to kill The Flash. When The Flash rescues Patty, she opens up to him about her Father's death. The next day, the Trickster dresses up as Santa and gives out giftwrapped bombs. That night, the Weather Wizard lures The Flash out and he menaces The Flash with the threat that The Trickster has distributed one hundred bombs. So, while the S.T.A.R. Labs team tries to track down the bombs and disarm Central City, The Flash is beaten up by Mardon to buy time . . . and Patty is given her big chance for revenge!

"Running To Stand Still" features some issues that might be paid off in the future, but are distressing for their failure to be addressed within the episode. Cisco notes that there is no activity on the metahuman front, which begs the question of how Zoom got into S.T.A.R. Labs undetected. It is well within Wells's abilities to erase security footage after the fact, but it seems a ridiculous conceit that Cisco, Snow and Allen would give him access or not have some sort of security system that would alert them when an incursion occurs (i.e. they should have been alerted to Zoom in S.T.A.R. Labs when he ran in, before Wells could delete footage of him coming in). Wells is vulnerable to metahumans and speedsters, so it makes no sense he would do a blanket disabling of the S.T.A.R. Labs security system. And, come to think of it, for a bunch of smart people who don't trust Wells, wouldn't the first thing smart people would do when a guy who thinks like the guy who designed the facility arrived is completely recode the security system to lock out the guy one doesn't trust? Having Snow, for example, make new security passwords and access codes would lock out Wells in a way that would actually make S.T.A.R. Labs secure . . . which would be the smart approach from intelligent people who don't trust the guy.

On the character front, Joe West is at some of the episode's best and worst moments. Finding out about Wally West, Joe instantly regrets not stepping up as a father. He mourns the lack of connection he had with his son, which is understandable, and the internal conflict leads him to once again make explicit that Barry is his son. But in the big scene where West moralizes about his decision to treat his wife as dead to protect Iris, the dialogue fails to recognize that Joe West is entitled to some of his own emotional health. West tries to justify his decisions about keeping his addict wife out of Iris's life as a factor of caring for Iris and he begrudgingly admits that his actions were not entirely for her. But Barry fails to note that she was an untrustworthy addict and that Joe is not responsible for his wife's lies. More than that, it is a function of being a good parent for Joe to protect Iris and his own emotional health by ridding the family of an erratic influence like his wife. That Joe can be so emotionally-realized in some ways and so emotionally ignorant in others is problematic; "Running To Stand Still" lamely places the emotional health of an unknown child above an adult's emotional health, which only continues one of the most irksome fallacies about adults and their responsibilities to their children (i.e. that parents must sublimate all of their own needs to those of their children when they have them).

The other significant character arc in "Running To Stand Still" belongs to Patty Spivot. Spivot has to figure out if vengeance is worth what it will cost her. It's a good, if predictable, character arc and what truly saves it is the performance by Shantel VanSanten. VanSanten is given the most range to play in "Running To Stand Still" and she absolutely rises to the occasion. Opening the episode with playing cute and playing off her amazing on-screen chemistry with co-star Grant Gustin, VanSanten slowly treads into darker territory as Patty becomes more obsessed with getting revenge on Mark Mardon. VanSanten sells Patty's confession scene to The Flash, which could easily have degenerated into melodrama.

Guest stars Mark Hamill (Trickster), Wentworth Miller (Snart) and Liam McIntyre (Mardon) effortlessly return to their roles, though outside Miller, they are mostly monolithic characters with straightforward performances. Hamill plays Trickster as unhinged and - fortunately - in "Running To Stand Still" he is not saddled with nearly as many ridiculous one-liners as in his first appearance on The Flash. McIntyre plays Mardon as a very basic villain without any real flair or depth.

The Flash is, sadly, featuring more and more embedded product placement. While I am eager for an action figure from The Flash from DC Direct this year, it's pretty classless to show off the product in the episode. For sure; the idea that The Flash is merchandised and becomes a local celebrity is part of the source material, but the way it is dropped into "Running To Stand Still" feels much more exploitative than clever.

The special effects in "Running To Stand Still" are generally good. The Flash running on the helicopter blades is especially cool, even if the effect of Mardon flying is not incredible.

Ultimately, "Running To Stand Still" is a dreadfully anticlimactic episode that sets up no new substantive conflicts. It does not draw the viewers back to The Flash, making it an especially ineffective midseason finale, as well as a pretty unremarkable episode of The Flash.

For other works with Mark Hamill, check out my reviews of:
I Know That Voice
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back
The Little Mermaid
The Star Wars Trilogy
Wizards

5.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |