I know, I know, I…KNOW… This is embarrassingly late. Like, later than it should be by quite a lot. But, if you know me, you know I’ve had the biggest crush on Grant Gustin for a while now. I’m proud to say it’s my longest running one ever. However, when Entertainment Editor and friend, Everett Harn pressed me on where the “Flash Back” episode’s review was here was my almost exact reactions and how they evolved:
(1)
Ha ha, yep it’s coming. I assure you that I didn’t forget. (*gulp*)
(2)
Eve– shit…
Shall we flash-forward to the actual review?
“Flash Back” wasn’t even close to being one of the best episodes of The Flash, but it did rebound from a weak Trajectory. And that pick-me-up came in the form of Pied Piper, evil Dr. Wells and Eddie making their brief returns.
For Piper, it was interesting to see him actually help out Team Flash instead of try to foil their every move; as he did when he first debuted on the show. Eddie’s was an emotional beat for Iris and her own personal closure from him as she’s now moving on to a relationship with her editor. And for the audience, for me at least, it was actually pretty jarring to see Eddie on-screen again. I figured it’d happen, especially with Barry going back to a time when he was still alive, but, man… was that oddly powerful.
Now, I saved the best for last. Dr. Wells. THE Dr. Wells The Flash fan-base came to love and then hate, and again love in the end. Seeing Tom Cavanagh move away from his whispering Harry act back to the glasses-removing-uber-smart-secretly-the-Reverse-Flash was a refreshing on-screen presence that this show sorely misses. Zoom is more terrifying, and I see that the showrunners are trying to turn Zoom into the same emotional pull of the heart strings, but we’ll have to wait and see how the final episodes turn out to see if Jay as Zoom can have the same emotional payoff.
In “Flash Back”, Dr. Wells was terrifying in how he was calculating the Time Wraith’s appearance and Barry’s sudden lust to become faster. Once he figured it all out, he immediately apprehended Barry and was thinking of ways to off him or use him. Two cool outcomes to see play out were how Wells had the upper-hand on Barry with neither of them using their powers, and Barry being calm and collected like the experienced superhero he is now; his character growth has been tremendous. We saw that some more in the Supergirl crossover.
An anti-climatic story point was the constant nods to Cisco “vibing” Zoom whenever he was near Jay’s helmet. It was made clear that by the end of the episode Cisco would unveil Zoom’s identity to Team Flash. Of course Barry was going to be pissed and everyone else was going to be in denial. How the final episodes handle the big reveal for both the audience and the characters will be very interesting to watch unfold, as the sophomore season of The Flash is coming to a speedy close.
Check out the preview for the next episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ibqUVYcmiI