The Flash


KnightWing

Recommended Posts

The opening tried so hard to be gritty that it completely failed to be. The idea that soldiers were dressing like World War I a few years before what we see of present day Earth-2 breaks the logic of that world. The orphanage Zolomon was taken to was so evil it was cartoonish. For an episode about Zoom's origin, it didn't do much to make him more of a character to me. Teddy Sears was better, but he's no Tom Cavanagh. I never bought the relationship between him and Caitlin, so her being abducted just made me feel like they were dragging things out. It was kinda anti-climatic after Zoom beating the shit out of Barry in the past that he just hands his speed over. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 666
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

It wasn't perfect, but I thought this episode rocked. Agreed with the cheesy "Gotham"-esque opening. That was almost unnecessary. But almost everything else I really liked.

Much of the first half was very "feels"-y. I bought Cisco's hesitation to develop his powers. I bought the continuing Wally conflict. I understand to some that Wally is annoying because he's always so standoffish, but they're committing to his point of view in getting to know the Wests gradually, and for me it works. The scene where he finally calls Joe "Dad" got to me in ways I'm almost embarrassed to admit.

I love it whenever Flash develops his abilities. His speed warp was AWESOME, very DBZ. I really want to see him do that again.

And honestly, I liked Teddy Sears as Zoom. He's not Tom Cavanaugh levels of intimidating, but his acting was decidedly better. It got a bit "evil Bill Shatner" when he took Barry's speed, but I liked that. It was cheesy in a completely comic booky way that worked for me. And it might be somewhat sacrilege in how they explained his connection to "Jay Garrick", but I LOVED that. That was supremely dickish and evil, a type we've not seen before on this show. Plus it doesn't close the door on there being another Jay Garrick out there in the future. 

I think my biggest disappointment is the utter resignation of Team Flash once Wally was taken. I just knew Wells would have some trick up his sleeve, but according to the promo apparently not. That kinda stank. I also found myself actively rooting for Zoom to kill Barry, straight up, just snap his neck. They would've found a way to reverse it somehow, and it would've committed to Hunter Zolomon being a serial killer. I guess we'll learn he has OTHER PLANS!

 

 It wasn't the best episode of the show or even the season, but I found it to be very enjoyable. Plus, SHIPPER!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I liked the episode for the most part, I feel like they've done the whole "Barry's lost his powers" thing one too many times. Although I wouldn't consider that a negative for this, more for Gorilla Warfare, with Grodd, because it just didn't really seem all that necessary there. 

 

I think it was pretty ballsy to have an entire episode of the Flash without Barry's powers. I figured they would find a way to give them back by the end.

Edited by Flashfan1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last night's episode REALLY wasn't grooving on me. It wasn't horrible, but to my mind it's by far the weakest since the Turtle episode. That one is lower for me because of Barry's offensive idiocy in it.

This one was almost carried by the acting. Grant, Candice, Tom and especially Danielle all did great jobs. Jesse L. THA GOD put in another best line ever candidate in answering Cisco's question about why villains always have creepy hideouts with "Because they craaazy"

But holy crap, when they phone in a villain they really phone one in. Griffin Grey was such a throwaway villain. You saw his entire story coming a mile away once they set up his motivation, and your just waiting for him to die of old age. I swear this was a Smallville plot. On top of that however, the dialogue was really boring and typical by and large. I was astonished that Zoom's whole purpose for taking Caitlin was that he was in luurrrrve. Like, REALLY?

Probably my biggest annoyance is the entire powerless Barry plot, because they've already done this. They never once until the end teaser mentioned trying to get his powers back, and he spent the entire episode moping about it. If this was the first time he lost his speed it would be fine, but we've been through this before. We've seen it before. Pretending that it's new and ignoring that he's gotten his speed returned to him is really crappy of the show to do.

I liked the Wally scene at the end, but Joe's hesitation to introduce him to the Flash was false drama. I liked the Barry/Iris shipping scenes. Killer Frost was fun. Panabaker was channeling some Wentworth Miller in some of her line deliveries. Zoom phasing through Caitlin to kill Frost was awesome. So there were definitely moments that I liked, but overall this felt horrendously cliche'd. Like, first episode of the second season cliche'd.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This one didn't do all that much for me. I'll be honest, halfway in I was just listening to it.(And not all that intently) I can't even be all that impressed by Zoom because the reveal has taken away so much of what was working for the character. Just not a whole lot of momentum to this episode, much like Barry. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This was the best episode in awhile for me. There was a lot of good character stuff in this: the scene at the bar between Cisco and his brother, Caitlin undermining Zoom, Barry and Iris talking about their relationship, Barry's three dads talking about whether he should risk the micro particle accelerator. And it delivered on the superhero front: Rupture shooting laser blasts with a scythe, Zoom speed killing a room of cops, and Barry getting put into a machine that's as Kirby as it's going to get for the CW. There were a couple places where they didn't play it as safe as they could. Rather than Zoom being kept in check by Caitlin, he kills a bunch of people to make his point when he still encounters resistance. And even though we know it's not going to stick, Barry disintegrating (and becoming one with the Speed Force?) wasn't the expected outcome. Once they put Jesse and Wally in the room, I knew they were going to use this to give them their powers. Granted, it would have been better if the explosion somehow got channeled into the room rather than the cliche of them breaking out, but it was a good way to resolve that and keep with the accelerator being uncontrollable. 

How weird was it for Barry's dad to go "huh, my mom's side of the family was named Garrick" and for Barry to not react to it at all though?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It started off pretty slow for me in the beginning. Not bad, just slow. Once the Barry and Iris shipping scene happened, I really got into it. Great acting all around.

I know we've all been slightly let down by Zoom since the identity reveal...but when he keeps that mask on and Tony Todd does his thing...I think he's right under Reverse-Flash from last season if not right next to him. His Teddy Sears-ness holds him back, but gotdamn was he cool in this.

This is why this show is smart. It was obvious Barry was gonna go try to get his powers back, but they played it believably. Do the powers make the man? For the sake of television they do, but the show really had him struggle with it. It was also a great place for that talk with Iris. Again I hate comparing this with Smallville because I don't hate Smallville, but every time they repeat a theme from that show they just side-step the mistakes. Neither Barry nor Iris come off badly in that scene, and you'd think that'd be an easy thing to pull of but this is the CW.

I didn't realize how much I missed John Wesley Shipp. Great use of him as well. See this is what this show excels at where other shows fail. Situations like "What would Barry's father think about this?" "How would this affect Iris' feelings?" "What would Cisco do after seeing a vision of his brother die?" It's all so palpably real, and there's no weak links in the acting. Even Danielle Panabaker I've felt has done better in the last few episodes.

The last scene was amazing, with Barry crying as he affirms that the Flash is who he wants to be...then he dies. We've seen this trick before in the comics, specifically Zero Hour when Wally West discovered the Speed Force. I loved how epic it all was, including giving Wally and Jesse powers (obviously). In a way Wally gets his powers the same as Barry did just like in the comics, only not as unbelievably exact.

Edited by Donomark
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

This was a dope ass episode. I liked pretty much everything. While it was a little slow in the beginning, there were a lot of character moments in it that I liked a lot. Barry's conflict felt believable, given what happened with the last Particle Accelerator Explosion (they really need to abbreviate that). Some of it was pretty predictable. Like the Wally and Jesse thing, but that didn't stop me from geeking when it happened.

Zoom kicked ass in this episode. The scene at Jitters, when he killed all the cops, was legitimately scary. 

I was impressed with how natural the Barry/Iris scene was. As soon as she started talking about her feelings I rolled my eyes because I expected it to be awful, but the acting really made it work.

I'm glad they brought back Henry, and it looks like he's back for quite a few episodes. I hope he becomes a regular next season, because I love his and Barry's relationship. And who doesn't love John Wesley Shipp?

I will fully admit that, while I called the Wally and Jesse thing, I did not see that exploding Barry thing coming. My initial thought was "stuck in the Speed Force" but who knows. It's gonna be interesting.

A little bad though, I wasn't digging the Caitlin/Zolomon stuff. I don't really like that Zoom was actually falling for her, it feels a little weird with what we've seen of his character so far.

Oh, and last time I checked Girder died in episode 7 last year. So how is he back next week?

Still, overall this was a great episode. I'm really excited to see what's going on with Barry. And I like Kevin Smith, so I'm looking forward to seeing how he does. The cast and crew seemed to love him.

Edited by Flashfan1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A little bad though, I wasn't digging the Caitlin/Zolomon stuff. I don't really like that Zoom was actually falling for her, it feels a little weird with what we've seen of his character so far.

Yeah I'm stunned that they're seriously going for that. Out of all the cliche's this show has managed to avoid, they fall on one of the most hackneyed and ridiculous in all of fiction. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This episode did a great job in tricking me that it wasn't filler, and for that I liked it. Quite a bit actually. It's carried entirely by the performances.

This was Candice Patton's best episode since she learned who the Flash was last season. She got to be a go-getter, great emotion and humor throughout. Loved when she shoved Cisco behind her like a boss. Everybody in Earth-1 was great in this. Shipp, Cavanaugh, Martin. Even Cisco I found funny again. The plot was a bit weak with Zombie Girder and Barry needing to get over his mother's death, but for the script they had the actors all made it shine. This is one of Grant Gustin's best performances, and he never made any of his sorrow feel repetitive.

Dunno what the deal is with a room full of super villains, but I'm more than down for it. Nah, this was solid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Girder plotline was pretty bizarre. The appeal of that villain was in Greg Finley being so great at playing a douchebag, so you bring him back as a grunting zombie? Sure there's the meta joke in him being on iZombie, but that has nothing to do with anything. Plus, you can add STAR Labs having a metahuman morgue on top of all the imprisoning they do. I did love that Joe put together that Wally might have speed powers, the mug bit was great.

It was pretty ballsy to personify the Speed Force, they didn't have to do that. All the actors did a good job, loved Jesse L. Martin's shifting the most. I like that Barry's actions in the first season finale still weigh on him; that'd tear anybody apart. The children's book scene was interesting. On the outset, it's pretty cheesy. But as it goes on, and it becomes clear that Barry burned every word of that book into his memory to cope with his mother dying, it loops around back to touching.

Zoom unleashing a horde of villains on Central City could go either way. I'm worried that Jesse and Wally are going to suddenly get their powers and be able to help Barry without training.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Loved it. After a string of meh episodes, this got me really excited for the show again. 

That ending though. It's gonna be cool to just have a massive superhero and villain brawl. I wonder how this is gonna work out with the budget. Are we gonna see other heroes, or is it just Barry, Wally and Jesse? I am so psyched either way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They really didn't deliver on that room full of villains. I get budget and everything, but that deserved way more scope than the opening and a quick scene. Also, never, ever, ever have your journalist character narrate their article; it's always terribly written.  "Metapocalypse," jeez. As rough as it was, I did like Flash saving Dr. McGee from the collapsing building. The CGI's never going to look great, but I appreciate that they aim for superhero feats on this budget. I'm glad that they showed how shattered Caitlin's become because of Zoom, but I hope next season they really work on building her up as a character. I didn't have a problem with Barry coming out of the Speed Force feeling invincible because it's akin to talking to God, but with its placement, it feels more like a plot convenience than a character piece. Zoom killing Henry feels right in line with who Zoom's been all season. Whereas Thawne murdered people who interfered with his master plan (post killing Barry's mom that is); Zoom is about causing Barry pain, by this point to turn him into himself.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of Barry's "NOTHING BAD CAN POSSIBLY HAPPEN TO ME!!!" really did smack of setting him up to be hoisted by his own petard, but the acting was great all around. I also liked a lot of the dialogue, and little character moments in between. I liked Cisco and Harry's back and forth in explaining the plan against the Earth-2 metas, and even though it was gratuitous fanwank, I did enjoy the shipping between Henry and Tina McGee. I'm also liking Wally's subplot, especially how Joe's been handling it. It's nice to see him mad at Barry, even though Barry did nothing wrong.

Henry's murder was fairly telegraphed once he promised to be around and alive forever a couple of weeks ago, but the plot moved along so that it wasn't as screamingly obvious as I feel it may have been. That last sequence was intense as FUCK. I loved Grant Gustin's slow facial turn as he mentally processed the image of Zoom grabbing Henry. Both the acting and writing were phenomenal. I think this was Teddy Sears' best job. When he's cold and vicious, he really comes to shine. That final scene in Barry and Henry's old home was just brutal, plain and simple. It wasn't telegraphed, it was drawn out to make Barry feel every bit of pain and sorrow he could. I agree with Chris that I appreciate the consistency to Zoom's deadly nature. Even if I didn't like that he left Barry alive earlier in the season for love, he's come back from that lame plot contrivance in a helluva way.

Finally I have to say Danielle Panabaker's done great this season. The trauma with Zoom has given her loads of pathos to work with. Beyond that, I loved her pretending to be Killer Frost. As Black Siren walks behind her, you can see Caitlin start to squirm and shrug, which is totally a character trait Panabaker gives her. It was pretty great.

Edited by Donomark
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been fairly busy this last week, so I wasn't able to comment on last week's episode. I loved it. Moving on.

This week... Holy shit...

Getting right into the Metahuman action was good, I agree that I was a little let down with how little the Metahuman army really did, but what we saw was really cool.

I've really grown to like Wally, so I'm digging his subplot. When I read the synopsis of this episode and it said "Wally takes to the streets to help The Flash" I was worried that they were going to give him his powers and already have him out there fighting Metas. But no, he's just hitting people with his car.

Barry's overconfidence was kind of getting on my nerves. It makes sense, given what he went through last week, but it was getting annoying.

As horrible a plan as it was, Cisco and Caitlin pretending to be Reverb and Frost was fun. And Cisco shooting Laurel with his... vibe-y... powers? (Idk what they're called) was dope!

Speaking of Laurel, I actually didn't hate her here. Although she didn't really do much.

I saw Henry's death coming at the end of the season, but I figured it would happen in the finale. So when Zoom showed up randomly at dinner I was like "oh shit!"

I like the way Wally found out, because Barry doesn't care at all. This could have been at CCPD and he would have reacted the same.

The whole final scene was tough to watch, everyone's acting was stellar. Henry's resignation and acceptance of his impending death was heartbreaking, and Barry's scream at the end gave me goosebumps. Grant is incredible.

My only question is why did Barry take the time to put the suit on. If a psychotic murderer has just taken your father, I don't think putting on your costume is gonna be high on the priority list.

I loved this episode and I am super psyched for the finale. I hope we at least get a tease of Wally's powers. Even if it's just vibrating hands I'll be satisfied.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm comfortably positive Wally's powers will emerge before the end of the season finale episode. There's been so much build up to his presence, then character, then wanting to help that it would just give the fans blue balls if they held off on it until next season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really conflicted about this finale. Whereas the first season finale was low key and really put a focus on Barry, this is really going for SUPERHERO FINALE and he's sidelined for a chunk of it by the dumb as hell plan by the rest of the crew to take on Zoom by themselves. Part of Harry's character has been rolling in to say "this plan is stupid," but this one sounds like a good idea? Also, their plan doesn't make sense. They're going to send Zoom through the breach and seal the breaches...but Zoom can create breaches himself now, so...? There should've been some scenes between some of the team and Barry in the pipeline. Barry should've told Harry to his face that his daughter was probably going to die because they locked him up, frankly. They've been building all season to Barry being on the razor's edge of descending into darkness, and they barely do anything with it.  And then there are the Time Remnants. I'm glad they explained the deal to Wally (ie us) at the end, because I was trying to remember the previous explanation during the episode. But it seems like a bullshit contrivance, and a further cheapening of time travel after this year's crossover. Plus, Barry sacrificing himself for his friends or not, Barry used a tactic of Zoom's; nothing's made of it. Also, while it was cool to see the Crisis on Infinite Earths imagery with the red sky and Barry disintegrating...they took a universe spanning event and reduced it to just The Flash. Hell, it's a "remnant" of Barry that makes the sacrifice. After that, the Time Wraiths take the decision of what to do with Zoom out of Barry's hands. It works in a "tempted the wrath of the gods" way, but after all the build-up of the season, there's a bit of cop-out in there too. Which brings us to the ending. Now, I think it's completely believable that after everything Barry's been through, he'd be rash enough to go back in time to reverse everything. And it's a season ending cliffhanger, so we don't know what the new status quo will be and how much has changed (or if they reverse it in the first episode back). But, man...it feels like the capstone to how much they've run roughshod over the gravity of time travel this season.

Wow, that was way more negative than I thought I felt. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Overall, I really enjoyed it but I can't deny what Chris is saying. A few thoughts:

There were some incredibly powerful moments in the episode. Gustin really sold the anguish Barry was feeling.

So, John Wesley Shipp's finally playing Jay Garrick like everybody wanted. Hell yes.

Harry being less of a dick is a bit of a leap, but sold by Cavanagh. Hoping we see him again.

I really hope that ending gets paid off well, as opposed to season 1's cliffhanger.

Maybe the show can try splitting the season between two major arcs, rather than stretch out the conflict with the one villain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm kinda like Chris in that I'm somewhat mixed on the finale, but mainly for the very end.

I loved the team dynamic all throughout this. Loved Wally being in on the secret and expressing his sorrowful gratitude to Barry. Loved the fight at the beginning. Honestly I think this episode had the best Flash fights in the series thus far. TBH I don't really care about the logistics on how they beat Zoom, the Time Wraiths, Barry using a Zoom trick. None of that really registered with me one way or another. Zoom turning (sorta) into Black Flash at the end was neat. Teddy Sears really went for it in this episode and...he was VERY hit or miss...mostly miss. I want to like the guy more because he seems like a cool dude after hearing his interview with Kevin Smith, but he's easily the most limited actor in this episode. He was going for full-on super villain but ended up on the cheesier side of it instead of menacing. He was awful, but he really couldn't impose a menacing figure with his mask off. Tony Todd rocked it all throughout tho.

Ok so I was betting cash money that the guy in the mask was Wally West because I swear to God his skin tone looked like Kenyian Lonsdale's. But I'm very very happy with it being John Wesley Shipp as Jay Garrick. That was a perfect end to that character and his costume looked great. It's a total fanboy thing but I was cheering.

I think the plotting in this was fir sure not as tight as last season's finale. Barry being sidelined for 24% of the episode was dumb, even if the team had honest reasons for it, or they thought they did. The acting and emotions all sold it for me but if I think about it for two seconds it falls apart. Joe running towards Zoom and stabbing him with Tranq darts was awesome though.

It wasn't perfectly written, but Grant Gustin acted the hell out of every scene. Much of the time I have a hard time feeling half done by the writing because he's so good. The beginning of the episode was brilliant in how it faded back into him yelling.

The ending. I buy it from a character perspective. I think emotionally it's perfectly resonant...but...nothing comes good from Flashpoint. Will all of season 3 take place in an alternate timeline? That's kind of a drag for me. I'm also surprised that at no point Wally showed any powers yet. Was hoping that would be the plot for season 3, but I guess we'll have to see.

 

Overall this season was definitely not as strong as last season's, with the best episode IMO being maybe the Reverse-Flash ep. But it doesn't mean this wasn't good at all. I think if Zoom had a better actor it would have stuck the landing easier, but while it didn't reach the heights of season one the show is still solid and I'm looking forward to season 3.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.