The Flash S1E5 Review: Of Bombs, Generals and Monkeys

The Flash, Season 1, Episode 5: Plastique

It's still a solid episode, sticking with the guest-star-of-the-week formula. It felt a little slower than the previous few episodes, though considering all previous episodes featured villains (Captain Cold, the Mist, Multiplex) which made the episode more tense and fast-paced, whereas the main guest star here is an anti-hero, I guess that makes sort of sense?

Of course, this episode focuses on the Flash meeting Plastique, a minor villain-slash-antihero who I am only vaguely aware of. I think she's a Firestorm villain too? Whatever the case, Plastique was a soldier undergoing an operation to remove a shrapnel after a bomb accident when the whole reactor thing went kablooey. I'm still a fan of how this TMNT/Static Shock style 'big vaguely-defined accident at the start of the series' nicely lets a lot of characters get their powers without it having to explain too much beyond 'you had shrapnel in your body, so you get bomb powers' and 'you were inhaling some poisonous gas, so you get gas powers'. Anyway, prior to watching this episode I previously thought Plastique was able to turn any part of herself into a bomb (don’t know where I got that, or if it's even a power a DC character has at all), both in the comics and the show Plastique actually has the power to turn anything she touches into the bomb, with a purply effect not dissimilar to X-Men's Gambit.

Side-note: if anyone involved in the X-Men movies is reading this? Bring Gambit back. He's too cool to only have one minor appearance.

Anyway, I do like Plastique, or Bette Sans Souci. We get several nice questions asked as she keeps trying to keep herself together thanks to her army training, and unlike Barry she definitely is traumatized by her power and doesn't want to keep it. Doesn't mean that she's not afraid to use it, but she wants to get healed. I also do like how she's savvy enough to blame General Eiling (more on him later) for her powers, and considering what we know of the dude, it's unreasonable to think that he's the one who ordered the experimentation. Overall Plastique is a pretty interesting character, but not particularly too memorable, making her perfect as a disposable character.

I honestly didn't expect that they were going to kill her off at the end of the episode; I thought she was going to survive, a la Huntress or something. But no, she did die and pretty suddenly too. Plus she didn't succumb to her rage or hatred or anything, making her death a pretty poignant and tragic one.

Barry's still pretty strong and likable as a main lead. He's still angsting about how Iris won't return his love which gets a bit annoying after a while, and that's my biggest problem with the series so far, I guess. Firstly, it feels a lot too similar to Oliver and Laurel in Arrow's season one, and second... yes, they're not related by blood, but they were sort of raised in the same house since they were children. I'm on Iris on this on them being more appropriate as siblings. All that aside, though, Barry's still likeable to make this part work.

And I do like how Barry's still trying to discover the limits of his powers. 'Can I run on water?' 'How fast do I go to run vertically up a building?' 'I can't get drunk!' It's all good and makes it feel a lot less like padding, and also does make sense considering his superhuman body. He does the face-vibration thing when he talks to Iris that he does to his father back in the Mist's episode. We also see that Barry can pull off an Arrow and vibrate his vocal chords to make his voice sound different, which is funny! It's not quite as narmy as when Arrow does it, as even Barry and Joe laugh it off as unintentionally hilarious.

I am also fond of the mundane usage of superpowers to search for the missing file in this massive room full of bookshelves.

Overall Barry and Better are pretty great characters, but I think the two that steal the show this episode are Harrison Wells and the newcomer, General Wade Eiling. Wells first... there are more subtle hints about Wells being from the future, or at least having been in contact with someone from the future. 'The technology has not been invented yet', for one, and already knowing the speed Barry requires to do his stuff, and knowing what Plastique's powers are only by listening to the barest hint of the conversation. I also absolutely like how all this is easily justified in-universe by Wells being a little kooky.

And there's the whole thing where he talks to Platique and sort of... convinces her somehow to get to Eiling? It's definitely sinister, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to look into it more beyond Wells being a good talker, especially considering the stinger. Also the promises to end General Eiling and not his career, and that unsettling conversation with Plastique, makes this guy really really interesting!

A newcomer to the show, and one I hope stays for a long long while, is General Wade Eiling, otherwise known as the General from the comics. He's less a super-powered unkillable Hulk-ripoff monster here, though, and more of an obstructive military general with psychotic agendas, making him somewhat similar to General Ross from the Hulk movie or Talbot from Agents of SHIELD. Except Eiling is absolutely evil. And awesome. He's awesomely evil.

And he's played by freaking Clancy Brown, a.k.a. Lex Luthor from the TAS, which gives him the perfect voice. Also Clancy Brown is a great actor as well. I never really give much of a shit on actors, but this is one I can get behind. Eiling is awesome, and I'm highly curious of the backstory between Eiling and Wells. Hopefully Wade Eiling hangs around for a while. I do like him quite a bit.

Iris is... getting annoying. What is it with these superhero shows and main love interests being a freaking pain in the ass? I mean, yeah, the old-style Superman interview with the Flash was fun and all, and while it's partially Barry and Joe's fault for hiding the truth from her, she's so freaking stubborn about writing her blog and putting her name on it... for no good reason other than 'BECAUSE IT IS IMPORTANT BLAHGLABLAH CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND'. I thought there was going to be a reason why she does it, and while the show does give us 'because Barry believed in the impossible' during the interview scene, which I thought was sweet, when Barry calls her out on it she just throws a tantrum. And, uh, Barry goes 'we shouldn't see each other for a bit?' Um, first, you guys aren't even seeing each other. And secondly... all this for a blog? Really? Her whole character just feels flat and doesn't make a lot of sense.

The secondary characters... Joe is still cool. He's being helpful, being a cool father figure (other than shipping his daughter and basically-adopted-son together, but that's beside the point) and I do like how he laughs so hard at the 'I can change my voice you know' scene. Cisco gets his 'you blew up my suit!' freak-out, and kinda fawns all over Plastique, and Caitlin gets that fun Felicity line and the whole alcohol thing, but other than those Cisco and Caitlin don't do much. Oh, and the boomerang, which is fun! Eddie does even less, basically disappearing from the episode after the initial scene in the bar.

Oh, and Grodd! We already had Grodd foreshadowed in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it closeup of his broken cage way back in episode one, which I really appreciated, and I liked how Wells hinted at Grodd's powers when he said that he and Eiling worked on mind-reading. And certainly Grodd as a lab animal genetically engineered by Wells makes a shit-ton more sense than adapting freakin' Gorilla City. Ripping off Rise of the Planet of the Apes? Absolutely. Does anyone care as long as it's cool? Nope.

Highly anticipate the involvement of Eiling and Grodd into the grand scheme of things, and I do hope we get more intrigue and answers about freaking Harrison Wells as well. Fun show. Fun episode.