Critical Hits and Misses #320

• Uggh can we not, please? Popbuzz reports that a magazine has called Milly Bobby Brown, the young star of Stranger Things, sexy. You know, at 13 years of age. FFS, people. 


• We had already reported that Andrew Kreisberg, showrunner for the CW's Arrowverse, has been suspended due to accusations of sexual harassment. This Variety report has a lot of the details, including direct-from-the-victims reporting on what actually went on. TW. 

For today's musical hit, we have Oscar Isaac and "Fare Thee Well"

Today's critical rolls: People magazine has named country music homophobe Blake Shelton the sexiest man alive, because I guess all other men have died without me noticing. Who would have made a much better choice for the title, in your opinion? Feel free to nominate more than one sexy man. 

Critical Writ has a super-duper strict comment policy that specifies a single rule above all others: we reserve the right to ban you for being a terribad citizen of the internet.

Arrowverse Real Talk - Featuring The Flash

I have not been blogging about the Arrowverse this Fall season, and the reasons for that are many, including not having as much time as I did last year. That said, a good chunk of my lack of motivation has come from the fact that most of the Arrowverse is a goddamn hot mess this year.

Supergirl started off obnoxious and featuring a couple of lesbians arguing constantly about the most asinine wedding decisions (DJ? Live Band? This argument took a whole episode to resolve!), although there was an attempt in the third episode to tell Maggie's story and feature her homophobic Mexican father who came up with a bogus AF reason for not wanting to be at her wedding. That was also a pretty decent episode because Kara wasn't the main feature; she goes up to Mars to help J'onn take care of some personal business, and it was overall a damn fine story. However, Supergirl has the Iris West problem: it doesn't know what the hell to do with its primary black character that isn't superpowered/alien, aka James Olsen. Last season he was all about doing good as the Guardian. This season, not only has he not done jack shit as the Guardian, but then his job as head of Catco gets taken away by Lena Luthor. Which, admittedly, I love all the Lena, and oh my god I ship Lena and Kara so hard... but not at the expense of a black character, FFS.

Hey guys! Remember me? Cuz my writers don't!

Arrow is... not bad, but it's not spectacular either. I'm still with it because it has its moments, and +1 internets for Stephen Amell managing to sneak in a Bruce Wayne reference that made fans titter. I've somewhat enjoyed the Oliver-as-single-dad storyline, but I'm giving this show's writer's the stink eye for what's going on with John Diggle (hey, another black character that the writers seem to engaging in some wtfuckery with). And look, as much as I hated how they killed off Katie Cassidy's Black Canary in season 4, can we just not with Black Siren? She's so shoehorned-in and forced, it's not even funny.

Guys, remember me? GOOD BECAUSE I WILL NEVER LET YOU FORGET EVEN IF IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE WITH THE STORY RAWR!!1!!11

Legends of Tomorrow has been 100% fabulous and you should go watch it right now. The reason for this is because both the writers and the actors of the show have all come to the conclusion that they are on the campiest show on the CW, and goddamn it, they are going to have fun with it! Legends has featured ridiculously hilarious stories of the Legends bumbling their way to heroic acts, the actors are clearly having a blast along the way, and I walk away every week with a smile on my face.

Camp has never looked this good before. 

But dear god, The Flash what in the Nine Hells are you doing?

Easily the worst of the four superhero shows on the CW, The Flash has hurt to watch sometimes. Barry is brought back within seconds after last season's "cliffhanger" (I called it, someone owes me $20, Barry didn't even last a full episode off of his show), and he finds that Iris has taken charge of Team Flash in the meantime. Which, on a surface level, I am totally fine with. Iris needed to do something, as she's been anything but useful in the previous seasons. I'm happy that Iris has taken front and center and that even after Barry's return, she still has a take-charge attitude.

But this show still doesn't know what to do with Caitlin Snow. We finally got a decent episode last night with Caitlin showing that she and Killer Frost have a tense coexistence but at least we can have them both, which is cool. But until last night, Caitlin has just been putzing around in the background, not really doing much. Which has been a problem with her character for four straight seasons.

Inexplicably, The Flash shoved aside fan favorite Kid Flash, ostensibly because the special effects for two speedsters at the same time were too expensive, and also because the show's writers apparently couldn't conceive of creating stories for Wally that didn't involve his speedster abilities. That sound you're hearing is me rolling my eyes because the Firestorm special effects are expensive for Legends of Tomorrow too, and yet magically, the writers of that show have figured out how to write stories for Jax and Martin that don't require them to fire up in every episode. Fancy, that. So Kid Flash got written off the show for reasons, although he's supposed to be back for the wedding crossover special. But there goes another black hero, running off into the sunset.

Don't run, Wally. Don't run.

What makes me really angry about this is that they replaced Kid Flash with another superpowered dude, this time the Elongated Man, and I get that maybe it's slightly cheaper to stretch Ralph's limbs as a special effect than to do a speedster, but really? Your excuse for getting rid him was that it was too expensive to keep a speedster around, so you replace him with a superpowered white guy? To further rub salt in the wound, Elongated Man had a pretty decently amusing introductory episode, but then completely ruins the character last night in "Girls Night Out" by making Ralph a really gross misogynist playboy who forces Barry's bachelor party into a strip club so Ralph can make continuously gratuitous leering at dancers. It took exactly one episode for me to hate this character. I'm pretty sure that's a new record. Even Marvel's Inhumans took the time to make its wooden and terribad main characters hateful to the audience over the course of five or six episodes.

"Girls Night Out" wasn't a totally terrible episode, because it did feature Iris, Caitlin, Felicity, and Cecile having to save the day from the weekly bad guy while Barry is off getting hilariously drunk thanks to Cisco. If the episode had been only about the ladies getting to be heroic, it would have been amazing.

This is my "WTF was that strip club subplot all about" face too, Felicity

While I deeply appreciated Barry's de facto drunken state being that he stands at the bar shouting "I am the Flash!" to a bunch of equally as drunk strangers who cheer for him every time, the whole strip club scene was seven levels of awkward and potentially really disturbing. Besides Ralph being gross the whole time, there was this weird subplot about Cecile's adult daughter dancing at the club as research for a book she's writing about feminism and the male gaze, which okay, I can kind of dig it. But there are some weird undertones of incredible disrespect for sex workers. And frankly, it was a very odd subplot that came entirely out of left field and had something to do with Joe being a parent or something, and something something "I'm freaked out about Cecile being pregnant." This part of the episode was, at best, an incomprehensible tangent, and at worst, fucking gross.

Also, what is the point of Cecile's baby? I've heard a fan theory that Cecile and Joe's baby might be Bartholomew, who in Young Justice is Kid Flash from the future (and Barry's grandson) who comes back in time to hang out with Barry and Wally. Just what this show needs, another future black speedster who can get shoved off to the side too.

Can we talk about how The Thinker, this season's big bad, looks like Brainiac? No? Okay, but let's at least thank The Speed Force that it's not another flipping speedster.

Look, The Flash season four is not as bad as Arrow season four (thank Dog), but I feel like this show is still lost and hasn't quite found its footing, something it lost way back in season two after a wonderfully fun and vibrant season one. The writers really need to find whatever muse it was that let them finally tell a compelling story about Iris and Caitlin being a part of an all-lady hero team, and stick with it, because that was good stuff. Whatever the hell else is going on with this show, though? It needs to get it together.

There is a silver lining to all of this, though. Nothing on the CW is as bad as Marvel's Inhumans.

But then again, very little is.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

2016-2017 Cancellations, Renewals, And Pick-Ups: Critical Writ's TV Round-Up

Once again, the time has come to dissect the good, the bad, and the ugly of this year's upcoming television news. First, I'm happy to report that the standard networks weren't as cancellation-happy as last year. It especially irked me because a lot of genuinely promising material wasn't necessarily given a full chance. The critically-acclaimed The Office, Parks And Recreation, and 30 Rock didn't necessarily have the best ratings going into the initial season, but with a bit of leeway, they soon became some of NBC's most popular comedy programs.

A lot of quality programs have been axed in the past purely due to ratings, even if the critics adored them. Thankfully, we don't have any Muppet documentaries, awesome shows about a family of lawyers with enough meta content to rival Community, or unconventional follow-ups to sci-fi films to break our hearts by getting cancelled this year. Let's get to the round-up. As a disclaimer, this does by no means cover all of the news, just whatever I find interesting.

Cancellations:

Hell yeah! We're done!

Making History and Son Of Zorn (FOX): Yeah, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. According to many reports, Fox had three shows produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and with ratings lagging for the trio, something had to go. I'll admit, I'm not as saddened by the departure of Son Of Zorn. It never really went past being just okay for my taste, but Making History was great. It had a semi-serialized plot and social commentary.

The Great Indoors (CBS): Starring snark-master Joel McHale, it's a show about a rugged outdoorsman who is pulled back into the office. How can he work with a group of millenials on an outdoors living magazine?! This calls for some irritating, laugh track-infused shenanigans! At the best of times, The Great Indoors simply felt like your average mediocre sitcom. At the worst, an offensive portrayal of the differences between generations. If you want to see a show that has a similar focus, but with a mostly positive manner, try Superior Donuts. It's on the same network and it got renewed earlier in the year.

Renewals*:

The Last Man On Earth (FOX): Thank goodness! As always, the most recent season ended on a massive cliffhanger, so ending the drama-comedy now would be irritating. TLMOE, starring Will Forte, Kristen Schaal, January Jones, Mel Rodriguez, Cleopatra Coleman, and Mary Steenburgen focuses on a group of survivors after a virus seemingly kills off most of the world's population. Obviously, the title no longer reflects the cast, but it's still a darkly humorous insight into just how to survive and tolerate annoying people. If you don't count Gotham, then it's the closest thing Fox has to a high-concept comedy, and even then, Lucifer definitely beats it in that category.

Gotham (FOX): I'll admit, the show is getting more entertaining. I'm still bored whenever the show focuses on Bruce Wayne or Jim Gordon, but the villains are getting even more entertaining. Riddler finally has his alter-ego up and running, Poison Ivy has been entertaining (Editor's Note: albeit incredibly problematic), and it has one of my favorite live-action portrayals of Mr. Freeze. Really, as long as the bulk of the plot continues to focus on the villains teaming up, I'll be fine. Just, please, ditch the Court Of Owls. They don't even have the proper masks.

Great News (NBC): I'll avoid the obvious joke. From Tina Fey and Tracey Wigfield, the show is set to return for a thirteen-episode second season. In regards to my earlier rant about networks giving shows a chance, I find that this is a positive example.

The Goldbergs (ABC): Eighties nostalgia is alive and well! Say, I wonder if the upcoming Ready Player One film will cast anyone from the show as an in-joke. I haven't seen a lot of the show, but I like reading about it, especially because it's currently the most prominent example of a Jewish family on tv.

Agents Of SHIELD (ABC): I'm excited to see what the next season brings, especially if they continue with the specialized story arcs. Having three serialized villains over the course of a season really helps get us attached to the villains and really see them as a threat. AIDA is one of the best characters on the show, in that regard.

Timeless (NBC): Alas, the glut of time-travel focused programming didn't help out the noble crew in this program. They traveled throughout time to stop a mysterious organization from changing history for the worse. Sadly, I guess the Agents Of SHIELD-esque cliffhanger, wherein the finale ended with the team somehow working for the bad guys, will never be solved. (Update: Literally the very next day, it was renewed for a second season. Neat! Unexpected, but neat!)

Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl (FOX): About halfway through the season, I began to suspect that season six of New Girl might be the last wacky offering from the show. It seemed like the plot threads were quickly being wrapped up, especially with an increased amount of references to past episodes. Fox did officially announce that the show would be renewed, albeit for a shortened finale season, a la Parks And Recreation. Meanwhile, Brooklyn Nine-Nine will return, which is good, because it ended on a massive cliffhanger.

*Early renewals include Superstore and Lucifer.

Pick-Ups:

Unnamed Deadpool series (FX): Coming as a complete surprise to anyone not in the television industry or actively working on it, FX announced that a Deadpool cartoon would be coming to the airwaves next year. Community's Donald Glover will be working as the executive producer, showrunner, and one of the writers with his brother, Stephen Glover.

As of the time of this writing, ten episodes have been ordered. I don't know where the show stands in terms of rights to use MCU Marvel characters, but I hope that they make the most of whatever they can use. I do know that because the show will air on Fox's grittier network, the writers probably won't have trouble with adapting Deadpool's crass jokes on the air.

Unikitty (Cartoon Network): In even more unexpected news, The Lego Movie will be getting a television spinoff starring the eponymous Unikitty, with Tara Strong set to voice her instead of Alison Brie. I don't know how well a show about the ever-cheerful kingdom will hold up as a full-length show, but you can be sure that it'll be colorful.

Unnamed Black-ish spinoff: Zoey Johnson is set to be spun-off into her own show, but on Freeform, rather than ABC's main network. The show, if it does get picked up, will feature Yara Shahidi's character at college. Seeing as Black-ish is fantastic at covering social issues through a comedic lens, and just plain funny to boot, I see no reason why this potential spin-off wouldn't be just as good.

Krypton and Happy! (Syfy): Really? Okay, they're serious with this. Gotham might be laughably bad at the best of times, but at least it has a bit of a foundation to go on. You have your villains and a young Bruce Wayne training. (Disclaimer: It only has the villains. Yeah, I'm disappointed, too.) I get that they're going for a Game Of Thrones-type of vibe, but it's hard to believe that anyone could care about Superman's grandpa. Who are they going to use for villains? I could see Brainiac or even Darkseid, but that's a stretch. Hey, if the show ends with it being revealed to be Ambush Bug telling a bedtime story, then I might give it a chance.

As for Happy!, it's not an adaptation of Pharrell's song, but I predict it might be used in the marketing. It's an adaptation of one of Grant Morrison's weirder comics, and that's saying something. A foul-mouthed cop-turned-hitman survives a life-threatening injury and begins to see a talking blue horse, as voiced by Bobby Moynihan. Together, they fight crime. I promise you, none of that is a joke. I may have disliked the comic, but I'll gladly check out the pilot just to see how they pull this off.

Ghosted and LA To Vegas (Fox): First up, Ghosted stars comedy legends Adam Scott and Craig Robin as paranormal investigators, one cynical and one a believer. It will have a serialized element, but the show is primarily comedy-based. You might be thinking that this sounds like The X-Files, and you're right. It's set to air alongside the next revived season of the famed sci-fi drama. LA To Vegas has a fairly unique premise. Unlike your average cookie-cutter work-com, it takes place on an airline. How much do you want to bet that the pilot will be re-filmed to include a sprinkle of United Airlines jokes? It's being produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, leading me to hope that it'll be promising.

Black Lightning (The CW): The CW's adding another superhero program to their venerable lineup, along with a healthy dose of diversity. The show will feature Black Lightning coming back into the superhero game after retiring to be with his family. Formerly picked up as a pilot by Fox, it moved over to the CW. I have a feeling that it'll air after Arrow, due to the similar tones. On a personal note, I hope that this will lead to the DC characters embargo finally being lifted, if only for a Batman And The Outsiders reference.

By The Book (CBS): Fun fact: My synagogue actually has the book that this show is based on. Titled The Year Of Living Biblically, it chronicles the story of a man who attempts to improve his relationship with religion by living his life according to every edict in the Bible for a year. It's a humorous and educational book, and I definitely recommend it. The show is produced by The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki. I'm not so sure how I feel about it being turned into a sitcom, potentially afflicted with a laugh track, but I do appreciate the increased representation for Judaism.

Deception (ABC): I've recently discovered that I'm something of a magic nerd. My nerdy interest was only increased when I heard about this new show from Greg Berlanti. Side note- Seriously, does he ever sleep? I don't know who has more shows in production, him or Ryan Murphy. It stars a disgraced magician who decides to use his powers of illusion for the FBI. I'll definitely watch it and I already hope for a Zatanna joke. Or a cameo, considering that the creator is helming the CW superhero gauntlet. (Now including Black Lightning!)


Zachary Krishef is an evil genius. Do not question his knowledge of Saturday Night Live trivia or Harry Potter books.

Staggering across the "Finish Line," - The Flash Season Three Finale

Whew! I don't know about you guys, but after this season of The Flash, I am exhausted! I feel like I ran a marathon and I'm just now staggering across the "Finish Line," which not incidentally, is the name of the season three finale.

So let's wrap up The Flash, and now that you've seen the finale (or read about it here), also be sure to head on over to check me out as I step up on my soapbox about superheroes never getting a happy ending, and how that trope kills the marginalized.

But first... the finale.

Spoilers beyond the fold.

"Finish Line" doesn't leave us guessing on the fate of Iris West for long. I'll be honest: while I didn't really think they would kill her off, there was a part of me that had my doubts. Call it the cynic in me, because as I noted in my soapbox piece, the trope about superheroes never getting a happy ending usually results in women and people of color being killed off. Iris is both of these, so she was in danger of falling into the trap of this trope.

Thankfully, the Berlantiverse may have learned from the fan rage after Arrow killed off Katie Cassidy's Canary last season. As we learn immediately, HR used his Earth-19 face magic thingie to turn himself into Iris. We actually see a flashback of him using the piece of Savitar's armor to find the secret lair, turn himself into Iris and Iris into himself, and then Savitar recapturing "Iris." So when Savitar gets stabby, he's actually stabbing HR.

No, HR. You are not a coward.

HR has not, by any means, been my favorite Wells. But I admit to feeling sadness at his fate, if only because he proved that he loved this team and that he had a hero's heart all along, even though he scanned as a coward for a good part of the season. However, I am perfectly ready for Tom Cavanagh to come back next season as an all new Wells. Or maybe just return to Harry from Earth-2, since it appears Harry will be sticking around for a bit after this episode. Also, I'd like to point out that this sort of falls into that whole annoying "no happy endings allowed!" trope I'm going on about today. HR and Tracy had just fallen in love, so it seems kind of crappy to rip them apart.

But anyway, Savitar prevents Killer Frost from killing Cisco, because he needs Cisco to go all sciencey and modify the speedforce cannon. Back at base, Barry remembers that Leonard Snart told him that the key to defeating Savitar once and for all is for Barry to not stoop to Savitar's level and to always remain the hero. Thus, Barry calls for Savitar to meet up with him, and offers him the chance to be saved from the impending time anomaly that will result in Savitar's being erased from existence, since HR effectively managed to change the course of time by saving Iris.

Yeah baby, caress my burns...

Despite apparently being touched by Iris' kindness, Savitar/Evil!Barry doesn't really buy into it. This scene is notable only for the fact that Devoe, aka The Thinker, is name dropped for the second time this season. So, definitely the big bad for season 4. Thank Dog it's not another speedster!

Also of note here, Julian appears after being absent for a while, and reveals that he and Caitlin's mom developed a gene therapy cure to bring Caitlin back for good as the non-meta she's always wanted to be. This was actually the moment that I knew we wouldn't be getting human Caitlin back and that we were most likely looking at Frost (aka, the metahuman that isn't evil like Killer Frost). I'm actually quite happy about this, because I never accepted the narrative that Caitlin was incapable of both being a hero and a metahuman. The idea that cold powers make you cold inside is silly.

Guys! I made a thing!

Anyway, Savitar knows that time is catching up with him, so he makes Cisco modify the speedforce canon to do some major pseudo-science technobabble-laced nonsense. Something about splitting Savitar into an infinite number of himself, so that he can exist in every moment in time and truly be a god, and truly be above time anomalies and other such banal concerns. Whatever. I can't believe Evil!Barry fell for the idea that Cisco might actually help him do something like that.  When Savitar uses the speedforce canon, it instead somehow pops Jay Garrick out of the speedforce prison, along with more technobabble nonsense about how that happened. Reversing polarities on something or other is a Star Trek thing, guys! Get your own technobabble!

Also of note: Gypsy showed up to save Cisco's life, because he somehow vibed his distressed across the multiverse. They make a cute couple, not gonna lie.

After Garrick pops out of the prison, what follows is a pretty awesome CGI sequence that suggests the CW has been investing money in this show. Savitar getting chased by Barry, Wally, and Jay is a really cool sequence, and one of the most enjoyable parts of the episode. It was over way too quickly.

No foolin', one of the coolest fight scenes I've seen on this show, ever

When this chase is over, Barry and Savitar face off, and Barry has had it! He, much like the audience, is sick of it all. He does a really cool move where he races and phases into the Savitar armor, shoving Evil!Barry right out of it. The armor actually changes color, and if you want my opinion, it looks a lot more menacing when Good!Barry is in it. Also, cooler.

I'm not actually sure how the hell this happened, but it was super cool. 

Barry ultimately shatters the armor and lets his evil remnant live, because the time anomaly is about to finally catch up and erase him anyway. Evil!Barry knows his time is up, so he makes one last push to get his vengeance: his bumrushes Barry, who like an idiot had his back turned.

Then the show's real hero shows up.

That's right, bitches. The real badass has been hidden in plain sight the whoooole time

Iris, honey, if you could do this all along, why the hell haven't you been your own hero?

Not gonna lie, it was really satisfying for Iris to be the one to save Barry, for once. Interestingly, they don't bother with any emotional fallout for Iris, considering she just shot a version of him in the back. Back at the apartment after he's just delivered their save-the-date notices, Barry asks her if she's okay with what she just did. Iris says she's sure it will hit her later. But for the moment, she's totally fine. She has zero angst about killing, despite the fact that Barry has wrestled with this moral question time and again for all three seasons.

For just a glimmering moment in time, we had a version of Iris that wasn't a helpless victim. It was nice, and I really want to see more of it. I have always lamented that the really badass version of her is the cop Iris on Earth-2, and she seemed to embody that doppelganger here. Can we keep her? Please?

Happily, not only did a black woman not get fridged for a white man's journey through mainpain (a rare occurrence, to be sure), but she was also given the opportunity to be a hero.

Caitlin has become someone else... something else (#sorrynotsorry)

Caitlin has decided not to use Julian's gene therapy to become non-meta. She gives it back to him, and says that she needs time to figure out who she is now. For the moment, she has exited off of Team Flash, but I doubt she will be gone for long. Like I said earlier, I'm pretty giddy about having Frost now, so I'm looking forward to her return.

So, all's well that ends well, right?

Oh, sweet summer child.

Of course not! This here is a superhero story, and remember... superheroes can never be happy! There are no happy endings! Thus, when Iris and Barry are trying to settle down and think about wedding stuff, the speedforce erupts into Central City, because the forced expelling of Jay Garrick out of the speedforce prison means there's an imbalance in the Force, or something. No one took Jay's place, so the gaping hole means the speedforce is going to wreck Central City in return.

Barry accepts his fate: he created this problem when he created Flashpoint, so now he must pay the price. Of course, that means Iris pays the price as well.

I'm not cryin', you're... oh hell, fine, I'm cryin'

The romantic in me cried, but the rest of me was pretty angry. Once again, trumped-up drama is used to deny a happy ending. Never mind Barry, none of this is fair to Iris, who apparently must also pay the price for Barry's boneheaded decisions.

I mean, I know, and you know, and everyone knows, that Grant Gustin is way too popular to be exited off this show. So look for Barry to come back in episode one of season four, or episode two TOPS. I would be really surprised if they dragged this on any further than that.

But until then, Kid Flash, Harry Wells, Cisco, Joe, Iris, and possibly Tracy will have to be the Team Flash that keeps Central City in one piece.

A Mark Twain quote seems particularly appropriate for HR

Thanks for sticking with Critical Writ for your Arrowverse reviews, and tune in tomorrow for Arrow season five's finale. Iris West wasn't fridged, so here's hoping Felicity Smoak won't be either.

See you in the fall for The Flash's return.


Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

"Infantino Street" - The Flash S3 Penultimate Episode

ALL the feels were trotted out for this episode, which is the penultimate episode of the season and finally gets us to the day Iris is supposed to die. The episode tracks the last 24 hours of her life, and not gonna lie, the format (counting down those last hours) was kind of brutal.

But there was a lot to love about this episode before we get to that faithful moment of time.

Spoilers beyond the fold.

So, as we left off last week, Tracy's trap is ready to go, except for one teensy little detail: it needs a massive power source. Right, so that's the goal in this episode.

"Infantino Street" starts off with a montage (brilliantly set to Aurora's "Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)") that shows what Team Flash is up to 24 hours before Iris dies. In terms of cinematography, audio and music usage, and overall atmosphere, this episode is easily one of the best of the season.

And I have to admit, it's one of my favorites overall simply because the main part of it brings back one of the best characters in the Arrowverse: Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold.

So Cisco discovers that ARGUS has the power source they need, but when they ask Lyla for help, she refuses, saying that the Dominator technology could be used as a mega weapon in the wrong hands, and that because of Flashpoint, she can't trust Barry with it. Man, is Barry ever going to live that down?

Look, Lyla, dude... I know we look goofy, but please, can we have the macguffin? Pretty please?

Of course Team Flash isn't going to take no for an answer. They need a master thief, which is how Barry ends up in Siberia in 1892, which is a callback to one of Legends of Tomorrow's better episodes in season one, to talk to Leonard Snart. Why go all the way back to 1892 (and by the way, how the hell did Barry know to go to this moment in time)? Well, because in 2017 Snart is dead of course, since he sacrificed his life for the Legends. So Barry needs a Snart that has been influenced by the Legends enough to be helpful, but that isn't yet dead.

Snart can't pass up the challenge of stealing from ARGUS, so he agrees, as long as Barry agrees to do things his way. Already this episode is awesome, but watching this moment, I was waiting for it to become seriously epic.

And spoiler alert, it was everything I could have wanted from a Captain Cold episode. I can't begin to tell you how much I desperately miss Wentworth Miller's snarky thief.

I think I cried more in this episode over this guy's inevitable death than over Iris'...

The ARGUS break-in was boss. Grant Gustin and Wentworth Miller have great chemistry together, and this whole break-in sequence was fabulous. When they get to the cell where the Dominator thing is located, they find a final obstacle: King Shark is in the cell as well, as a sort of guard dog. Barry is willing to kill King Shark and asks for Cold's gun, and that's when Snart realizes that part of the reason he was recruited was that Barry wanted someone there who wouldn't judge him for doing whatever needed doing. Even if that means killing.

But this isn't just any Snart. This is the Legends version, and by this point in season one of Legends, Snart has softened significantly from his badass self and is well on the road to becoming a hero. He suggests that instead of killing King Shark, they use his gun's cold thingie to put the shark to sleep. Not gonna lie, my heart swelled at how amazingly awesome Snart was here. And it made me remember how much I cried at the penultimate season one finale of Legends of Tomorrow. 

Anyway, nothing is going to be easy about this heist, so as soon as they grab the thing, the door starts to close. Barry manages to slide under, but Snart gets trapped in the cell with a waking King Shark. Snart tells Barry to just go and leave him behind, but Barry refuses. He sticks around long enough for Cisco to hack the door, but by the time Snart is out, Lyla and a bunch of ARGUS agents have shown up. But Lyla saw the whole heist, and she also saw Barry selflessly risk everything to make sure Snart lived. So she decides that Barry is responsible enough to have the macguffin, and lets him keep it.

Back in Siberia 1892, Snart and Barry share a final moment. Snart gives Barry some advice: being the hero is the only way to save Iris and defeat Savitar, not getting down to Savitar's level. And then as they part ways, Leonard says the line: "There are no strings on me."

In case you don't remember or don't watch Legends, that was Leonard Snart's final line when he dies. ALL the feels were happening in this moment, when I was watching "Infantino Street." I was definitely misty-eyed.

Thanks, bro. You da man...

Sidenote: back during the Dominator Arrowverse crossover, one of the Legends said that Snart had died because Barry had inspired him to be a hero. At the time I was like lolwut? because it seemed to me that Snart had made the heroic journey on his own during season one of Legends, and that his sacrifice had been more about his best bud Heatwave than anything else. The Arrowverse crossover seems like it happened a long time ago, but it was really nice to see them actually tie all of this together. It appears that this moment, with King Shark and Barry choosing to nearly sacrifice everything just to save him, really did inspire Snart towards heroism.

Anyway, so now the team has the thing. During the course of the episode, a few other things had transpired: HR had asked Tracy to join Team Flash and she accepted, and Wally and Joe took Iris to Earth-2 without Barry knowing, so that Savitar couldn't find her. There was also a brief scene where it seemed like Killer Frost was having second thoughts about everything, but Savitar tells her to play her role.

So right before Barry returns, Savitar tricks Team Flash (and specifically HR) into revealing where Iris is, and ends up nabbing her on Earth-2 and bringing her back to Infantino Street, where everything is going to go down.

Aww jeez... not this shit again...

So anyway, HR is horrified that it's his fault that Savitar has Iris. And during the final fight, when Barry uses the gun, it doesn't work. Tracy is watching from afar and thinks that the trap failed, that she failed, but really the only reason it didn't work was because Savitar had the Philosopher's Stone in his hand. The stone is how he got out of the speedforce trap in the first place. Killer Frost and Vibe are having their final battle as well.

And we are once again treated to the scene of Iris dying as Savitar gets stabby with her.

Yeah, I don't even know how this is going to be undone or dealt with next week.

I've harped time and again this season about how the entire overreaching arc has been the death of Iris, and yet Iris herself has been remarkable absent from a good chunk of this. She has been treated as much like a macguffin as the Dominator thingie was in this episode.

That said, the few scenes Iris had in this episode were fabulous, once again reaffirming my belief that Candice Patton is a desperately under-utilized resource for this show. I think one of my favorite Iris scenes ever will be when she and Joe, sitting in Earth-2, confess things to each other about the past. Iris confessing that she and Barry switched rooms as teenagers so she could be out past her super strict curfew is the cutest thing ever. And the video Iris leaves on Barry's phone in case she does die, is worth a few misty-eyed moments.

This show is based on comic books, where no one dies permanently except Uncle Ben. I stand by my belief that Iris isn't going to die, although she seems pretty dead by the end of this episode. I don't know how it will be undone, but I still think it will be. We'll see if I'm wrong next week, I suppose. But honestly, this killing of every person Barry loves, in the penultimate episode of every season? It's old and tired and it's a trope that needs to die in a fire. Here's hoping this is where it dies for good.

What do you think will happen next week? The trailers for the final episode are cryptic and don't give anything anyway (as it should be), so here's to endless speculation!

The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

Cause & Effect - The Flash Recap & Review

Almost as if The Flash crew reads my reviews, "Cause and Effect" immediately answers the gripe I had in my review of last week's trainwreck reveal of future Flash being Savitar.

I'm getting serious whiplash from the constant good/bad quality change of these episodes. I kind of really hated last week's episode, mostly because of the reveal, but then "Cause and Effect" ended up strangely satisfying for an episode that seemed to be mostly intended as filler before we hit the final two.

Spoilers beyond the fold

As I noted above, my gripe with the Savitar reveal is almost instantly dealt with as this episode opens right where we left off last week: Barry is confronting his future self. But as it turns out, Savitar explains exactly who he is, and he's not our Barry. Turns out he's the only surviving time remnant of a group of remnants future Barry pulls together to stop Savitar. All but the one dies, but because it's a time remnant, supposedly Iris and Joe and Cisco and everyone rejects it because it's not the real Barry. Left alone and angry and in pain, the time remnant would eventually become Savitar, as it realizes that gods don't feel pain, so clearly the answer is to become a god.

There's a lot of Back to the Future style explanations by Cisco and Barry to try to explain to the other characters--and the audience--how a future time remnant becomes Savitar and then goes back in time to make himself a Hindu god, etc etc. Whatever, the point is that, as with "The Once and Future Flash" episode a couple of weeks ago, "Cause and Effect" is just making the point that Barry becomes dark and angry if he doesn't have the loving support of his friends and family. The Flash is nothing without his team, and without their love to sustain him, he becomes not just emo and broody, but eventually outright evil.

So I don't have to be upset anymore, I guess, because my Barry, the one I have loved for the past three seasons, doesn't murder Iris. Can Nazi Cap be a time remnant too?

Anyway, in this episode, Cisco comes with a truly hair-brained idea to try to keep Savitar from knowing all their moves. See, Savitar knows everything they do now, because he has all of Barry's memories, so anytime they do anything, Savitar knows it. Cisco conceives of an idea to temporarily block Barry's ability to remember things going forward, just so they stop feeding Savitar information.

Raise your hand if you think this sounds like a terrible idea.

This is a terrible plan: The Team Flash Story. #TheFlash

— Kayti Burt (@kaytiburt) May 10, 2017

It's a terrible idea. Cisco isn't the brain specialist of Team Flash, Caitlin is. With her gone, of course this plan goes completely awry. Barry loses all of his memories. He doesn't even know his own name, let alone that he's engaged to Iris or that he's even The Flash. Inexplicably, the team doesn't even tell him he has superpowers.

What have we done?

This is actually a pretty adorable episode. Grant Gustin gets to stretch his Barry personification a bit here, as he plays an innocent and sweet and super happy Barry who doesn't even remember that his parents were murdered. He is childlike in his joy, but of course his lack of memory also poses some hilarious problems for the team. (and that moment when Wally tells Barry that they are brothers, and Barry looks down at his own hand to check his skin color).

One of the other effects of Barry losing his memories is that Savitar also loses his memories completely, so Killer Frost shows up at STAR Labs because she knows what these idiots have done, and she tells them they shouldn't have messed with Barry's brain without Caitlin around. Truth.

Anyway, Killer Frost ends up helping them get Barry's memories back in working order. During the time she's at STAR Labs, Cisco attempts to bring Caitlin back with some pleasant memories, but it doesn't seem to work. As she's leaving, though, it appears that there is an internal fight going on inside Killer Frost between her and Caitlin, judging by the changing eye colors.

I am still making this decent episode look good. 

While it was nice to see Iris had, you know, actual lines in this episode, and she was in more scenes, as usual, The Flash is completely under-using her. And as usual again, she ultimately serves to be emotional support for Barry. In this episode, she spends her time with Innocent Barry, and later on suggests that maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing for him to remain this way, because he's so happy and unburdened. Later, when he gets his memories back, she still has to support him emotionally. Meh. That would be fine, if she was allowed to do other stuff too.

There's a subplot with Tracy trying to figure out the Savitar trap, and ultimately she finishes building it with HR's "help." There's a budding romance here, too, which I don't mind terribly, because it's made HR much more endearing than he has been for most of this season.

NGL, kinda loving her Ghostbusters look here. 

 I'm sure we won't have Tracy around after this season, which is a shame, because she's actually quite delightful and quirky, and of course she is a super intelligent scientist that Team Flash could really use more of. I'm not sure if HR is going to stick around for next season, but if he does, I hope that means we see more of Tracy as a recurring character as well.

The episode ends with Tracy stating that her Savitar trap needs a major power source, and the last scene of the episode shows a thing that for some reason, King Shark is guarding. So I guess we know what's going on next week!

Overall, a cute and enjoyable episode that while being mostly filler in the larger story, did serve to move along character development and open up the possibility of bringing Caitlin to her senses.

There are just two episodes to go before the season ends. Tell us what you think of this and of the coming finale!

The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

Prometheus sends Arrow "Underneath"

Honestly, is Prometheus the best villain this show has ever had?

I mean people talk a lot about Deathstroke, but Prometheus has been nothing short of terrifying. This guy didn't even show up in last night's "Underneath" until the last five seconds of the episode, and he was still terrorizing Team Arrow while being totally off camera the entire time.

Spoilers beyond the fold.

So last week Helix had given Felicity one more little bump in her quest to find Prometheus, just as they cut her loose. It was supposed to be some kind of high tech tracker thingie, but just as the episode ended, there was an explosion that sent Oliver and Felicity flying back. Oops.

"Underneath" picks up right where that one left off. The explosion wasn't that bad, but the power is totally out and Felicity knows right away what happened: an EMP was set off. How does she know? Because the high-tech chip in her spine that allows her to walk is no longer functioning and she can't feel her legs.

Well, crap.

This is apparently the episode that was promised to us by the whirlwind interview spree Wendy Mericle went on right before Arrow came back from spring break. Mericle did promise that Ollicity would work itself out, and that there was a reason why we never saw Oliver and Felicity discuss their relationship and break-up in any meaningful way. Well "Underneath" is the episode where that finally happens, and you Ollicity haters may be groaning right now, but the episode was surprising well-written and phenomenally well-acted. Considering there was very little action beyond Oliver being an idiot and falling for booby traps Prometheus had left behind, the episode really kept me engaged. Nor was the romance stuff overly heavy-handed or mushy. There was also a sense of urgency overall, because the Arrowcave is airtight and pretty much a nuclear bunker, so without power, Ollie and Felicity would run out of air within a few hours.

As it turns out, after the end of season four and apparently before the beginning of season five, Curtis slyly arranged for Oliver and Felicity to have a one night stand, and it was kind of sweet and adorable. But afterwards, Felicity tells him that she's not ready to discuss what happened yet. So I guess here we are, ready to discuss!

Ohhhh, mmmmyyy!

I don't talk very often about the actual craft of filming with the CW shows, but I feel like Arrow deserves special mention in this episode. Considering the entirety of the show, save for a few scenes, happens inside the confines of the Arrowcave, the cinematography and clever framing (like the love scene above and the use of the wine bottles in the foreground) was phenomenal here.

The camera only leaves our trapped heroes a few times, to show that Team Arrow has become aware of the plight of Oliver and Felicity, and they are doing whatever they can to get their fearless leaders out. But Prometheus' stupid traps make that difficult, especially after one of Oliver and Felicity's attempts from the inside releases methane gas from a pipe.

Anyway, I am also happy to announce that the marriage problems that John and Lyla started having last week did not drag on until season end! Despite Diggle having a bug up his butt for a lot of this episode, he finally realizes that Lyla is doing what she thinks her job requires, and that he kind of does the same thing for Team Arrow. In case you care, they do end up working it out by the end of the episode. I kind of didn't, because it was trumped-up drama of the kind Diggle is famous for every season, but I also understood that in this case, it was very much running parallel to the story of Felicity accusing Oliver of not trusting her (over Helix). Lyla accuses John of the same thing.

Ultimately, during a scene when Oliver thinks he's going to die, he admits to Felicity what happened in Prometheus' dungeon and that he thinks he is a monster because he "enjoys killing." If you regularly read my reviews, I did mention back during that review that I had no idea what the hell I, as an audience member, was supposed to do with the revelation that the titular hero has a taste for killing. Well thankfully, Felicity lets all of us off the hook here, as she points out that Chase had just tortured Oliver for a week without end, so Oliver would have admitted to damn well anything just to make it stop.

She's not wrong. This is the same argument that people use to point out that the US torturing terrorist subjects doesn't work because when you torture someone, they are liable to say whatever you want to hear, if it means the pain will stop.

Ultimately, Felicity still believes Oliver is a good man, and that there's a reason she's always trusted his plays, even when his decisions seem questionable. She wants the same consideration from him, even as she has gotten just a tiny inkling of the personal toll his sacrifices and decisions have had on him, now that she has made similar choices.

I think this means Ollicity is back on? Maybe? I'm not sure. There was a lot of emotion for sure in this episode, and as usual, Stephen Amell and Emily Bett Rickards have fabulous chemistry together. It is a little sad, though, that the writers seem incapable of having Felicity shine by herself (as in last week's episode where she breaks with Team Arrow over Helix). She seems to do best when she has Stephen Amell on the screen with her (or back in the day when she used to have more crossovers with Grant Gustin from The Flash, another leading man she had fabulous chemistry with). I don't honestly know if that's a shortcoming of the writing (which I suspect) or of Emily Bett Rickards herself.

As I noted earlier, the larger-than-life Josh Segarra does make a short appearance in this episode, in the final scene, and the result is nothing short of chilling. It's not really surprising that Prometheus would make this play in the final episodes of the season... but it's still freaking terrifying.

Why yes, that is Oliver's son William he's talking to.

Arrow airs on Wednesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

"I Know Who You Are" - The Flash Gets 2Edgy4Me

I guess my overall review is in the title. We're done here.

No wait, come back. I guess we should talk about it.

Seriously, though, did Snyder get ahold of the CWverse? Because that was the edgiest and thus far least interesting reveal in the history of the Arrowverse. I mean what's next in the world of superheroes? Captain America turns into a literal Nazi?

Spoilers beyond the fold.

The coolest (#sorrynotsorry) part of "I Know Who You Are" was the extra money that was spent in the climactic fight between Killer Frost and The Flash. Although as my husband pointed out, it was very much Killer Frost channeling Iceman. But whatever, we never get to see Killer Frost actually be an awesome villain, so it was pretty neat.

Also, I'm totes digging her new suit. Killer Frost looked fabulous in the episode. It's worth noting that, as Savitar points out, despite the "killer" in her name, Caitlin has yet to actually kill anyone. Obviously that's by design, since one presumes that the moment she actually kills someone, our beloved scientist Caitlin will be gone for good, her deadly persona locked in.

I make this crappy episode look good

In "I Know Who You Are" Team Flash is tracking down Tracy Brand, the physicist who helps future Flash trap Savitar in the speed force. Turns out that in 2017, she's a failed grad student who doesn't believe in her own theories, so here comes HR to mack on her and convince her she's worth it and that her theories are sound.

This is one of the few times lately when HR has been likeable. Instead of being gross, he is genuinely cute and charming as he tells Tracy the things she needs to hear in order to gain confidence in her own theories.

Tracy herself is adorable. I kind of love her and wish she would stick around. The writers spent more time on fleshing out her character in this single episode, then they've spent on poor Iris West in 3 years.

Anyway, Savitar knows that Team Flash is going to seek out Tracy. Savitar knows everything, because reasons (reasons later revealed). Thus, he sends Killer Frost to kill Tracy, but she fails the first time at the university. And then she fails again at Jitters, during which we had the awesome battle scene where she flies around Central City on ice. They spent some money on her CGI for this episode, no foolin'. And it was worth it.

Third time's the charm? Maybe. Killer Frost gets smart and decides to use bait instead. She goes after Cecile, that cutie pie that Joe West is gaga over. Cecile dropped the L word in the opening scene, which freaks out Joe and causes him to break up with her "to protect her." Barry tells him to knock it off, and just tell her the truth about everything. But right after Joe breaks up with Cecile, Killer Frost kidnaps her, and the only way Cecile is going to live is if they trade Tracy for her.

HR spends this episode convincing Tracy that not only do they need her, but that she is capable of doing the thing. When she witnesses Savitar in action during the scene to rescue Cecile, she gets an idea of how to stop him.

The other cool thing about the Cecile rescue was the fight we've been waiting for all season: Vibe and Killer Frost go at it. It's worth noting that Cisco hesitated the entire episode to use his powers on her because he's afraid of killing his best friend Caitlin. But in this final battle, they NEED Vibe to do this thing, and boy does he ever.

Again, if anything saved this episode at all, it was Killer Frost's scenes. Danielle Panabaker steals every scene that she's in. I kind of wish that Caitlin could be Caitlin and still have her powers, because Killer Frost is actually really neat. 

Anyway, despite knocking her out, Team Flash doesn't get to keep her. Savitar foregoes killing Tracy entirely to save Killer Frost instead, which seems like an odd choice. 

Later, back at the West residence, Wally is back from his supposed trip to Earth-3 to visit Jesse, and during that little family reunion, Barry has a sudden epiphany. He thinks back to all the hints Savitar and Killer Frost have dropped throughout the season, and he starts making connections. And suddenly, he knows exactly who Savitar is. 

So he runs off to face Savitar and tell him he knows. And Savitar steps out of his fancy suit.

Rather than elicit a gasp or an "OMG!" from me, this just elicited an eyeroll. Besides the fact that fans had already pretty much sleuthed this out (despite a slight red herring last week when some folks thought it might have been a Wells or a Ronnie Raymond), I was just hoping they wouldn't go this route. Sorry, but my heroes turning into murderers is not a compelling storyline. It's why I despise Secret Empire and Nick Spencer right now.

I started watching The Flash because in season one it was fun and lighthearted and sweet. These days, Legends of Tomorrow has the distinction of being that kind of show. And I'm pretty sure I know Josh Segarra torturing Stephen Amell on Arrow has been more fun than The Flash this season.

It's worth noting that while Iris West was in this episode, they made a more compelling character out of Tracy Brand than the woman Barry is supposed to marry (and murder, apparently). If Iris had any lines in this episode, I don't remember them. She might as well have been a painting on the wall. Considering that the entire story arc this season centers around her death, this character has been phenomenally absent.

Next season, can we please just get 23 episodes of the cast singing and tap-dancing instead? It would be a lot more fun than what's going on now.

If you haven't seen "I Know Who You Are" and you're looking for something else to do, I recommend watching the trailer for Netflix's The Defenders over and over again instead.

The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.

The Once & Future Flash - Recap & Review

OMG the feels! The emo!

This episode of The Flash has it all! Get ready for an emotional rollercoaster of Flash proportions, with bonus vertigo from the freaks-of-the-week!

Spoilers beyond the fold

After a somewhat mediocre season with only a few highs, The Flash returns from spring hiatus after 4 weeks, and it did so with a bang (a flashbang, even #sorrynotsorry).

We begin with a quiet scene at Iris and Barry's place wherein she extracts a promise out of him that he will be there for her father if she dies. This is pretty central to the rest of the episode, so take note of that. It's also worth noting that this is pretty much just one of two lines that Iris has in this episode, because "The Once & Future Flash" is all about how her death makes all the men in her life feel.

Sigh. More on that later.

So this episode picks up right where the last one left off: Killer Frost is awake thanks to Cisco and Julian. When Barry gets to STAR Labs, she's cornered the crew. It's worth noting that she doesn't actually kill anyone, which may suggest there's still some of Caitlyn in her. She ends up running off.

That's the moment when Barry announces that he's leaving. Who with the what now? But as it turns out, Barry's plan is to travel to the future to ask his future self Savitar's identity, so that he can figure out how to defeat the big bad. As Barry points out, he can travel to the future and be back without any time really passing in the present.

He ends up eight years into the future, in 2024, in what appears to be the darkest timeline. Central City looks rough, covered in litter and possessing the same dreary greyness that seems a permanent fixture over in Star City. When Barry pops into the alleyway, he is almost immediately confronted by Top and Mirror Man, and proceeds to get his ass kicked, until he manages to scurry off. The villains tell him that Central City is theirs now, and they seem pretty surprised that Flash is around again.

Barry ends up at this penthouse apartment that in the present he lives in with Iris, and the place is trashed. That's where 2024 Cisco finds him, having sensed something or other. Anyway, as Barry discovers, his future self is a hot mess of emotastic proportions, complete with an awful greasy hairdo, and a total lack of care.

Barry. Dude. No. Just no. 

Future Barry disbanded Team Flash after Iris died, and sequestered himself inside STAR Labs after kicking everyone out. Cisco lost a fight with Killer Frost in which she freezes his arms and shatters them, so he's lost his powers because he's got cybernetic hands now. Killer Frost was caught, but she's imprisoned and Julian is apparently spending his time studying her and still trying to figure out how to get Caitlyn back. Wally went apeshit after his sister died and tried to take on Savitar by himself, and whatever happened, he had a broken spine and ended up in a vegetative state afterwards.

Y u do this to us, Flash? :(

And Joe West... if none of this other stuff has caused you to cry, the sight of Joe West placing a few sad flowers at Iris' grave will break you. Jesse L. Martin's performance is nothing short of amazing here, especially when 2017 Barry finds him at the grave, and Joe asks him why he's there now, after so long of not being there.

I just can't with this scene, it's heartbreaking...

Despite having to sit through all this sadness, Barry doesn't even get what he's there for. His future self doesn't know Savitar's identity, and he tells him to go back and enjoy the last remaining moments with Iris, because he will fail to save her no matter what. And while Killer Frost admits that she knows Savitar's real identity, she is clearly not going to tell him. So after much sad, Barry decides he needs to get the hell out of there and go back to his own time, because goddamn we need some sunshine. But Cisco, sad lonely desperate Cisco, prevents him from doing so, begging him to fix things in 2024.

Despite the fact that if he does change the future, the darkest timeline won't even happen, 2017 Barry decides he can't abandon these people like 2024 Barry did. He gets the team back together so that they can help him defeat Top and Mirror Man, and ultimately even 2024 Barry is moved enough to help.

Sidenote: I kind of hate HR Wells in this. He's the only one who seems to be thriving in 2024. He owns Jitters now, and he's a bestselling romance novelist. He is busy doing a reading while a bunch of beautiful women throw themselves at him. I'm glad when 2017 Barry cockblocks his threesome by whisking him away to STAR Labs to rejoin Team Flash. Wells initially complains about how Flash just interrupted "every man's greatest desire" aka the threesome, which actually seemed like a pretty gross line to me. Honestly, Wells and Julian do precisely jack shit to help either Flash defeat Top and Mirror Man, so maybe Barry should have left HR to his thing. I guess I'm also just salty that everyone else on the team is super sad and messed up and damaged, but somehow this clown is successful and glowing.

Epic slimeball

Sidenote: there are various fan theories out there that HR is actually Savitar, which I call bullshit on because there's a future vision where Wells is on the rooftop while Savitar stabs Iris. There's a more plausible (to me anyway) theory out there that HR is actually Abra Kadabra, who folks are speculating may be next season's big bad. While Wells-is-secretly-evil has been done before (and probably better, with Eobard Thawne), I'd be ok with HR being a villain, since I am kind of tired of him being around. They need to find a better character for Tom Cavanagh.

Anyway, after Team Double Flash take out Top and Mirror Man pretty easily, 2024 Barry reveals the identity of the physicist who helps him trap Savitar in the speed force four years after Iris dies. He also gives 2017 Barry a thing that apparently contains the physicist's notes and schematics for whatever it is they use to defeat Savitar. So in theory, Barry can track down this scientist in 2017 and maybe defeat Savitar early enough to save Iris.

Back in 2017, Killer Frost and Savitar meet up, and we get the reveal that Savitar's armor is just that: armor. Someone steps out of the armor, and the minute Killer Frost sees who it is (which of course, we don't), she's ready to trust him implicitly. Let the fan theories run wild, because the number of people Caitlyn trusts that easily are very few. The top theories I've seen out there is that Savitar is either Ronnie Raymond (which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me), or some version of Harrison Wells (based on the fact that Savitar calls Killer Frost "my child," which is an awfully paternal thing to say).

Soooo, there you have it. The darkest timeline.

Let's discuss Iris.

I'm pretty sure that The Flash isn't going to kill her off this season, but we had to deal with her being fridged anyway in this episode, in order to explore all the manpain you can possibly handle and truly develop Barry's character. In fact, the existence of this episode suggests that she definitely won't be killed off, because the show desperately wanted to fridge her in some way so we can explore manpain, but they manage to cheat with time travel shenanigans so they don't actually have to kill her. They are getting the mainpain development for Barry & Co. out of the way right now. I suppose I should be grateful that they aren't going to kill her off for realsies.

I don't mean to suggest this episode is terrible. In fact, it's actually phenomenally well-acted, and Jesse L. Martin (Joe West) is particularly poignant, rivaled only by Carlos Valdez's (Cisco) performance. But as a feminist and a woman, it's hard not to roll my eyes at yet another use of the tired fridging trope. Across all fiction, across all genres, male character development very often comes at the expense of a woman's life, and usually gives her a gruesome death on top of that, for maximum manpain. Candice Patton was barely on the screen at all this episode, and neither was Danielle Panabaker, because while Killer Frost is apparently relatively important to the main plot, we still get very little of her.

So overall, a strong episode and one that moves the plot along nicely, and it was definitely fascinating to see this dark future, and heart-warming that 2017 Barry is still infused with enough light in his soul to reignite the hopes of the battered team in 2024.

One of my few complaints, besides the whole Iris thing, was the missed opportunity to make a Terminator reference out of 2024 Cisco's hands. But hey, I guess not even Cisco can laugh about the darkest timeline...

The Flash airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on the CW.

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.