The Flash, Season 3, Episode 10: Borrowing Problems From The Future
Not a very strong start to the second half of season three, I'm afraid. First up, can I just say that I don't care about the STAR Labs grand opening sub-plot at all? Because I don't. H.R. is entertaining throughout the third season when he's relegated to the background cracking funny jokes and butting heads with Cisco or Joe, but when the spotlight is cast upon him, it turns out that he doesn't really quite have the same amount of interest as either of his two Harrison Wells predecessors do. Add that to Cisco uncharacteristically acting like a huge, huge twat to H.R.'s plan to reinvigorate STAR Labs for no real good reason, and the constant focus on the unfunny malfunctioning hologram, and we already have a relatively significant portion of the episode that's just mindless filler.
The other B-plot, with Caitlin struggling to keep her powers in control (because she forgets to charge her power-suppressing bracelets) and Team Flash trying to bring Julian into the fold is also retreading ground from episodes directly preceding this, and none of what happens in this episode really ended up being interesting enough. So Caitlin gets a new necklace, and Julian's an official member of Team Flash... not the biggest developments ever. In a different, far more content-packed episode, it would've been a fine B-plot, but not when the H.R. subplot is already m'eh, and the supposed main meat of the story -- dealing with Barry seeing the future -- isn't especially good either.
And that, I think, is the biggest factor. In theory, having Barry try to avoid the future would be interesting, with H.R. talking about how sometimes the future is immutable and trying to change it sometimes causes the very thing they're trying to avoid to happen instead. The thing is, with Flashpoint, and Reverse-Flash, and the Legends Team all having shown up at various points in Barry's life, he knows the future can be changed, so it's a bit of a weird point why he's agonizing so bad about this, not unless he's actually seeing the dominoes fall and the events actually progress like how time wants it to despite efforts to change it.
At least Barry doesn't keep it a secret from everyone for long, revealing it to Iris and the others... but not Joe. Jeez, 'keep an important secret from a member of the cast' is done to death in CW shows. The prospect of repeating this is absolutely irritating.
There's a nice bit of time-travel stuff, though, when Barry and Cisco vibe their way to the future to observe how things have changed, noting a list of events that would indicate that they're making their way to 'Savitar kills Iris', which include, well, things that are absolutely shit to our heroes. In addition to the glorious mention of the Music Meister (which is good news, surely?) we get references to how Grodd will return and devastate Central City, how Killer Frost is still at large, and how STAR Labs shut down. This puts Caitlin and H.R.'s struggles throughout this episode in jeopardy in addition to, y'know, the whole Iris's death thing. For now, though, all we really have is cryptic foreshadowings, creepy flash-forwards and a chalkboard list.
Meanwhile, Barry and Wally have to deal with Plunder, who's... a bit of a throaway villain, if a cool-looking one. He's basically just your average normal dude with a gun and a cool costume, but what a cool gun with heat-seeking bullets, forcefield grenades and all sorts of fancy stuff that makes him stand out among a slew of disappointing villains this season, at least visually. I don't think he has more than two lines throughout the whole episode. Cool villain, cool action scene, and Wally taking him down was awesome. There was the drama where Barry is conflicted about arresting Plunder in fear of causing the future to pass, which was a bit weak, but eh.
Overall, a relatively weak episode. The strong character beats from the Barry/Wally, Barry/Iris and Caitlin/Julian dynamics salvage it somewhat, and we get some really awesome action scenes, and the mysterious time-travelling woman in the end, but otherwise not a very engaging episode, to be honest.
DC Comics Easter Eggs:
- Plunder (a.k.a. Jared Morillo) in the comics is a member of Wally West's rogues' gallery (having Wally take credit for defeating Plunder in this episode is a nice nod to that), and in the comics he's similar to his portrayal here -- a non-powered dude with a very advanced gun. In the comics, though, Plunder was brought over by Mirror Master from another dimension, where he murdered his counterpart in our Earth and impersonated him in addition to terrorizing the city.
- That jackass cop telling Kid Flash to move to Keystone City is a reference to how in the comics Wally actually operates out of Keystone City instead of Central City.
- McSnurtle the Turtle, the pet turtle that H.R. gives to Barry during the housewarming party, is the 'secret identity' of Jay Garrick's Golden Age talking turtle sidekick, the Terrific Whatzit, who is a talking turtle with super-speed. Because Golden Age. McSnurtle was actually referenced in the show earlier, in 'Revenge of the Rogues', as the name of Iris's childhood stuffed toy.
- The glowing snowflake necklace that Cisco gives Caitlin actually resembles the trademark necklace of the original Killer Frost, Louise Lincoln.
- Music Meister, mentioned in the newsreel, is a villain from the cartoon series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, who has the power to cause everyone around him to sing like they're in a musical. It's a glorious concept.
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