The Flash S03E011 Review: Trial by Combat

The Flash, Season 3, Episode 11: Dead or Alive

A fun episode, if not one that's particularly eventful. This episode focuses more on the B-list characters, and while the Cisco/H.R. stuff was good, the Iris/Wally bit was a bit less so. While it never quite got into Season One levels of 'annoying reporter Iris', the Iris subplot is definitely the weaker part of the episode, and the only thing that really saves it is the fact that Iris's recklessness and the whole need to leave a legacy before her possible death actually explains her, well, stupidity in this episode. I mean, walking up to that arms dealer without fear and boasting about how this isn't her day to die? Equal amounts ballsy and dumb. It's not without reason, and the whole point of Iris being kind of stupid is the whole point of her character arc this episode, but I can't feel that this really felt like a step back. 

Besides, it did give us that scene between Iris fooling Joe about 'expanding the family' before going on to talk about cats and dogs. That was hilarious.

Meanwhile, in the main plot, we get the unexpected reveal that the mysterious woman hunting H.R. Wells is actually not an agent of Savitar, but rather... Gypsy! Who is a relatively obscure superheroine dear to my heart. Other than her name and her closeness to Cisco's Vibe, though, it's a very loose reimagination of the character, losing both her traditional gypsy look (though that might be for the best, considering how... racist Gypsy's original look is) and her illusion/invisibility powers. She's an interdimensional policewoman intent on bringing back H.R. Wells to face justice in Earth-19, and her powers are revised to basically be similar to Cisco's since she's apparently her Earth-19 counterpart. 

The fight-and-flirt formula that they had was pretty fun to watch even if it dragged on for a little, and Gypsy, as a more experienced user of the Vibe powers, is a very good foil to Cisco. Cisco's main deal, however, isn't just finding a way to defeat Gypsy (who shows that she's experienced enough to can disable Kid Flash and Flash at various points) but rather to deal with the fact that Barry and H.R. apparently went behind his back to try and deal with the Gypsy problem themselves instead of trusting him to do it. The battle was cool as we vibe through multiple Earths in the multiverse, including an unexpected cameo to the setting of Supergirl. Cisco eventually won, of course, and the team made a friend out of Gypsy who's going to return to Earth-19 pretending to have killed H.R. as long as he doesn't return to Earth-19. 

Julian and Wally both got several nice scenes, showing Wally to be a growing superhero and generally being more confident and more adored by the public, and, well, obviously him being faster than Barry is going to be a counterpoint. I absolutely adore Caitlin and Cisco's little lego model of the scene in the future, and everyone noting that Wally's faster than Barry is definitely foreshadowing to the fact that, well, Wally might easily be the answer to take down Savitar in that future where Barry isn't fast enough. Julian is the group's resident smart jackass, but he's definitely got a lot of hilarious scenes. "I was really trying!" he moans when talking about interpersonal skills, and while he's being an ass while pointing out things, he's actually genuinely being a lot more helpful than H.R. ever has, pointing out the futility in training Barry so quickly, as well as providing Cisco with information to take down Gypsy. 

H.R., I think, is the weakest link in the chain, because while he's hilarious to see and listen, he's still a bit of an enigma where I don't feel that we know quite enough of him as a character, and this episode doesn't really give him a super engaging plot arc. 

But, eh, it's still a serviceable episode. Not the strongest one, and another one that honestly would've fallen flat if we had an inferior cast of actors and actresses, because they are really the only reason the episode's not just a boring filler episode and instead a funny filler episode. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Gypsy, a.k.a. Cindy Reynolds, is a superhero in the comics that dresses up like a gypsy. She and Vibe were some of the characters introduced during the Detroit era of the Justice League, and the two of them were actually in a relationship. Gypsy's powers in the comics were not at all similar with Vibe's, though, actually involving the casting of illusions and turning herself invisible.
• I had to Google a bit more than usual, but the Electric Gang is a very obscure enemy of the Golden Age Flash that had a single appearance in all of DC's publishing hsitory. 
• In addition to Harry Wells's Earth-2, Vibe and Gypsy briefly enter Earth-17, Supergirl's Earth, where they drop into CatCo's office and scare the ever-loving shit out of miss Tessmacher.