The Flash, Season 1, Episode 9: the Man in the Yellow Suit
Well, damn. That was quite the episode. I mean, from the episode title and from the trailers and everything I know that the Flash is going to fight the Reverse-Flash (seems we're going to call him that instead of Professor Zoom) but I didn't expect them to reveal Reverse-Flash's identity. Fair warning, after this paragraph I'm not going to hold back on spoilers for those who haven't watched the episode yet.Anyway, I'm going to talk about Reverse-Flash a bit later on and talk about the other stuff first, because rather surprisingly the Reverse-Flash thing, while obviously being the main plot, isn't the only thing going on in this episode. Running alongside the whole Reverse-Flash thing and the whole mystery and whatnot surrounding it are two minor plots: Firestorm and the Barry/Iris shipping situation.
Firestorm first, because he's cooler. Anyway apparently Hobo Ronnie is quasi-stalking Caitlin of sorts, and meeting her in the parking lot and bursting into flames, and when Caitlin enlists Cisco's help to hunt Ronnie down, he refuses to acknowledge the name Ronnie or be addressed by that name, preferring the name Firestorm. Which is awesome that he gets his hero codename right off the bat, because sometimes this show likes to skirt around the codenames like how it did so for Girder and Multiplex and Blackout and Rainbow Raider, only giving those off at the end. No, Firestorm ain't having any of that shit. He wants to be called Firestorm, and damn right he should -- that is an awesome name.
Firestorm's refusal to admit that he is indeed Ronnie is a nice little hint to the fact that we might actually be playing the whole dual-identity angle between Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein, if I'm not mistaken, the two psyches that make up the whole that is Firestorm. It's awesome. And then Firestorm shows up at the end to send a gigantic column of flame in Reverse-Flash's way, abruptly ending the clash of Flashes and being awesome all around. Firestorm then shoots off into the air as a trail of smoke. And can I say just how awesome Firestorm's flames look? Because they are awesome. We don't really see much of him, but he's awesome nonetheless, with the money shot being that one when he bursts into flames and shoots into the sky.
Caitlin, by being connected to Firestorm/Ronnie, gets this heartbreaking moment in the middle of the episode where she basically just absent-mindedly fiddling with her engagement ring after the second meeting with Ronnie and has just... broken down. It's absolutely devastating how she just goes on about the things she would've given up for one more minute with Ronnie, but the fact that Ronnie is either amnesiac or whatever the heck afflicts him... man, poor Caitlin.
Cisco's role this episode is basically pretty much the same as usual, though he gets a surprisingly mature moment giving Caitlin that hug she desperately needs. Cisco, sadly, fails us all when he goes through a couple of names but doesn't even come up with 'Reverse-Flash' or 'Zoom'. Really, Cisco? Opposite Flash? So close.
Meanwhile Barry gets to deal with a shit ton of things, and this is not a happy Christmas for him. He gets a bunch of happy moments during that gift exchange and just mucking around with that Christmas tree with Joe, but suddenly the Reverse-Flash apparently shows up, Barry chases after the Reverse-Flash, but fails to even land a single punch in. He's not strong enough, not fast enough, and generally is on the receiving end of a losing fight. And then there's those moments where Barry has to lie to Iris to her face for the umpteenth time, and after completely breaking down in front of his father, we get a little description from Daddy Allen about how Barry's obsession has meant that the Man in the Yellow Suit had taken yet another thing from them.
And we do get to see a little bit of this obsession, how he rather effectively (and one might say, viciously) sort of threaten to expose Mercury Labs' research to the public if they don't cooperate and provide the lure for Reverse-Flash. Barry's still polite and he isn't raging like he was when he's angry last episode, but it's still pretty OOC and even Barry himself realizes it.
We also get a pretty effective speech about Barry's fear of being alone, which kind of translates to his situation with Iris throughout his entire life, and the theme of fear is pretty present throughout the episode, and Barry's speech to Joe at the very end is pretty well done. And indeed a lot about this episode is about the absolutely horrifying Reverse-Flash that has already killed Barry's mother, nearly killed Barry and only spared Iris/Joe/Eddie by a whim.
And then there's Barry's... actually well-done declaration of love. I mean, I'm still a bit creeped by the idea of the two of them being a thing since, y'know, they're basically adopted siblings and all. Plus this episode seems mighty convenient by having everybody bring Iris up -- even Daddy Allen, who goes from 'you have been obsessing so much that you chose your career to catch this killer' to 'you lost Iris too' without a really good segue. But it was a relatively well done scene. It would have been so easy to make Barry look like a douche, to make Iris look like a douche. It would've been too easy to make Barry seem self-entitled and kind of put Iris down for not noticing his feelings, but no. Barry's declaration is just him being brutally honest but not without the usual 'leave him and be with me love is more important' spiel that would happen if this was a soap drama. And it is absolutely realistic too for Iris to just sit there dumbfounded with nothing to say -- after all, she is in a healthy and growing relationship with Eddie.
Iris doesn't get to do really much, but we see how much of a sister and a friend she is to Barry, and we see just how much Barry loves her with the ring replica and whatnot but doesn't dare to intrude on her happiness. I don't really mind Iris so much now that her one-track-mind regarding her blog has been taken out of the picture.
Joe does more Joe stuff. Nothing too spectacular other than being someone for Barry to bounce dialogue off of, and we get that rather heartwarming description about how having Barry as what amounts to a son brightened up his life, but otherwise it's your standard likable Joe.
Other than the whole we're moving together subplot that really doesn't go anywhere important other than to be the catalyst for Barry's declaration of love, Eddie gets to shoehorn himself into the plot to hunt down the Reverse-Flash by forcing himself into the operation. His whole 'Flash is evil' thing ends up being somewhat shaken by seeing a different Flash and the whole 'he saved our lives' dialogue from Joe. I like Eddie. I want to see more of him.
And, well, putting it off for a while, let's talk about the Reverse-Flash, who, by the end of this episode, is revealed to be Harrison Wells in the 'Harrison Wells does something cryptic and awesome' section of the episode. Which is absolutely weird, since the show makes it very very clear that the Reverse-Flash is indeed within that forcefield, and was brutally hitting Wells -- the injuries we see in the end are definitely real, and it's interesting just how Wells manages to do that illusion. I thought that the whole Reverse-Flash theory will be brought to a bit of a stop since we see Reverse-Flash pretty brutally beating up on Wells while Eddie watches, and placing Eddie there seems to just be a reaffirmation that he, in fact, is not Reverse-Flash. The two main candidates for Reverse-Flash seem to have been eliminated, the more likely Wells especially since he gets to be on screen next to Reverse-Flash...
Yet the stinger begs to differ.
Also, Cisco goes on that spiel about how there were two lightning bolts -- red and yellow -- during the night of Nora Allen's death. I mean, we could have a back-in-time situation where the Flash and Reverse-Flash take their fight back to the past and that causes Nora's death somehow, or there might simply be two Reverse-Flashes, as Cisco theorizes. Inertia, perhaps? Though the time-travel bit seems far likelier considering how Wells was talking about faster than light speed and we've already seen the Cosmic Treadmill so many times.
I do like how Wells being the Reverse-Flash is obvious yet at the same time not. I thought Wells being the Reverse-Flash was so damn obvious that he must be a red herring, and then there's the whole 'I have an alibi' thing and the fact that he wants to preserve Flash's existence... but at the same time, there's the fact that he killed Simon Stagg, the fact that he's prone to being scary, the fact that he comes from the future (like the Reverse-Flash), and the pretty sly inclusion that he is often referred to as 'Professor' Wells. Professor, being, of course, part of Reverse-Flash's full title: Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash.
Of course, the main point is... just what is Wells' agenda? Is there a second man he is working with? Why did he spare Joe West and Eddie Thawne? How did he assimilate with the present-day people so well that he even had a wife and an alibi and was able to meet Oliver Queen's father? Did Reverse-Flash kill the real Harrison Wells and take over his identity? Or is Harrison Wells merely an agent of the real Reverse-Flash? Or is there a simpler reason to everything and Reverse-Flash can just create multiple after-images? Or maybe two Reverse-Flashes traveled back in time or something?
Did the Reverse-Flash spare Eddie Thawne because he's an ancestor of the time-traveling Reverse-Flash? That last bit is a pet theory of mine, because Reverse-Flash's actual identity in the comic is Eobard Thawne, and Eddie could easily be either an ancestor or simply Eobard with a more common-sounding name. Zoom in the comics also started out as a policeman, and that backstory further fans the flames for Eddie being a Reverse-Flash/Zoom candidate. Lots of questions, lots of possibilities and whatnot.
Still, all we know is Harrison Wells is the Reverse-Flash. Or a Reverse-Flash, at least.
This certainly puts a sinister spin on... on practically everything Wells had done before. Hell, even the lines in this episode, like how he wants the Tachyon plot device as a bait, or how he was slightly miffled that Cisco and Caitlin hid Ronnie's existence from him...
And the Reverse-Flash himself, well, the show certainly did a pretty awesome job on making him look awesome. On the surface painting Reverse-Flash's yellow costume with black on the limbs as if the Reverse-Flash had slammed headlong into a tar pit would be a bad artistic decision, but the fact that the Reverse-Flash is constantly moving and vibrating and generally looking more like a sentient bolt of lightning in a human shape than a dude in spandex, and it works!
And Reverse-Flash's absolutely horrifying red visor-eyes? I absolutely loved what they did with them, especially in that one shot during the initial city-wide chase where we briefly see Reverse-Flash's face at a close up and ooh those eyes. Absolutely well done.
And I'm a big fan on how scary the Reverse-Flash is, even when he shows up a lot of times in this episode. The fact that he's vibrating most of the time and generally looks like a hollow suit and how he's inhumanly just vibrating all around... I am a big fan of the clash between the Flashes at STAR Labs in the end, especially how the two are just this one giant lightning bolt, one swarming force of nature just exploding out of the ceiling. It's absolutely awesome. The fighting might have been kept to a minimal, with the clash in the stadium more of a survival battle and more of Barry trying to keep up with the Reverse-Flash, whereas the STAR Labs fight ended up being a beatdown interrupted by Firestorm. But still, pretty awesome. Reverse-Flash just gets to be creepy and cryptic and generally just trash-talks everyone. He's awesome.
We get a fair amount of homaging going around, too. We've got Cisco referring to the yellow lightning from Barry's case as a 'Speedster', a term used to denote people with Flash-tier superspeed in the comics. We've got him referring to Reverse-Flash as 'Opposite Flash', and shortly after Reverse-Flash himself goes 'you could say that I am his... reverse'. And Harrison Wells apparently stores the Reverse-Flash costume on a ring with a lightning bolt on it, the way the comic Barry Allen stores his costume. And it seems to be connected to a harness that vibrates or something, which is curious. Is Wells not a speedster after all, and only the suit allows him to move fast? Or is that just an aesthetic thing to tell us, the audience that, yes, Wells is the Reverse-Flash and look the suit is vibrating?
So many questions. All I know is that I'm loving this show. Never before has 'Merry Christmas' sounded so sinister.
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