The Flash, Season 1, Episode 12: Crazy For You
The Flash proves that it doesn't have to rely on big villains every episode to make things interesting. This episode had the quintessential example of a filler villain, yet it still manages to give an impressive amount of characterization to Cisco and Caitlin, manages to advance the plot on the Firestorm end, all that while being absolutely hilarious and explores a couple of deeper, emotional topics which I certainly was not prepared to see in a Flash episode.The main villain plot this time around stars minor villain Peekaboo, who's basically Nightcrawler, who breaks her boyfriend out of jail, but gets roped in to be the henchmen of a bigger mobster. I do like how Caitlin is the one that names Peekaboo. It's funny. We finally see a bit of Barry's father, Henry Allen (played by the original actor of the Flash from 1990's short-lived Flash show) and it's nice to see him again. Henry Allen is fun. And I do like how he just keeps getting himself in trouble, getting beaten up and shit, just to make himself feel useful for his son. And he basically figures out that Barry is the Flash at the end of the episode, and while Barry denies it, his father is smart enough to figure things out and goes 'I mean, if you say so, but y'know if you are the Flash I am proud of you and stuff'. Which is nice. In addition to the passing-the-torch feels, there's also the lack of "YOU KILLED MY WIFE" identity mixup which I thought was going to be the case when Henry Allen first saw the Flash back during episode three or whatever.
Also, it's nice to see how Barry does his most jerkass-y thing this episode to get back at the asshole who beat his father up. It's a nice form of interrogation, where he super-speeds the asshole prisoner out of prison, thus activating alarms and shit, and forces the dude to spill his information otherwise he'll get extra years added to his sentence... and then leaves him behind. I laughed so hard. Superpower abuse? Definitely. Well deserved on the prisoner's part? Hell yes.
The Peekaboo plot is frankly quite generic minor supervillainy stuff. After Pied Piper's iffy sonic booms last week, however, the CGI for Peekaboo's teleportation is phenomenally awesome! There's also Flash pinching a bullet and stopping it from penetrating his neck (it did graze him) which is also quite awesome, and I laughed my ass off at the 'I'm way faster than a speeding bullet' joke. Take that, Superman!
The whole episode is all about how Caitlin and Barry need to learn to move on and let go, and it ties in beautifully to the Cisco/Hartley/Firestorm plot and Peekaboo herself, who despite working as a Bonnie and Clyde team for a good part of the episode gets left behind to be captured by her boyfriend when Flash figures out her weakness and plunges that underpass into complete darkness.
And it really could've been a big 'meeeeh' episode with Caitlin and Barry dealing with their feelsy stuff, too, but the writers decide to tackle it head-on. And it's glorious! Alternating between downright hilarious moments to some truly feelsy moments, Barry and Caitlin show a shit-ton of chemistry together. Like the (non-canon by comic book) Oliver/Felicity and Gordon/Leslie pairs from Flash's sister show and, uh, cousin show, Barry and Caitlin have a lot more chemistry than the canon hookup, Barry and Iris. Which, in this continuity, is kind of creepy as all sorts of hell.
And it is absolutely fun! From Barry and Caitlin realizing that their social lives are poop, to Caitlin showing up in a pretty nice, leggy dress, to Caitlin getting drunk and singing badly on the stage... Barry sings well, of course, his actor being a Glee alumnus. And it's lampshaded by everyone from Caitlin to the crowd to newcomer Linda Park, who gives Barry her phone number. There are some more fun-slash-aww moments that follows, like Barry zooming Caitlin out so she can puke outside the club, Caitlin drunk-stripping to her bra and basically slurring about how Barry can take a peek if he wants to, Barry speed-stripping Caitlin from her dress to her pajamas and later just sitting next to her bed while she's sleeping....
I do like it. It humanizes Caitlin Snow a lot and gives her a lot more to go on than just 'super smart hot science lady' and 'Ronnie died in the past'. It's also freaking hilarious. Also at the end of the episode, while Barry goes off on a lunch date with Linda Park, Caitlin has this goofy smile on her that seems to indicate that she's... fallen for Barry? Maybe?
It also ties in to Cisco eventually coming clean about how he had sealed Ronnie in the reactor and naturally everyone doesn't blame him. But before doing that, Cisco has his own adventure of appeasing his guilt by making a deal with the devil Hartley Rathaway, and actually shows a lot more characterization that 'funny geek clown', which is absolutely awesome. In addition to us getting some foreshadowing about how Cisco doesn't seem to have a good relationship with his real family, we also get Cisco talking about vibrations. Y'know, Vibe... geddit?
Anyway, Cisco basically takes Hartley's offer up, and I do like how he's not too trusting and actually gets physical (which was a big whoa moment for me) when Hartley tries to run away after showing the bomb shadows. Hartley overpowers him, but Cisco shows he's not above being ruthless by activating a big sonic scream that drops Hartley on the ground. We quickly delve into the fact that, as Hartley shows Cisco, Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein have been merged together into one entity by the big explosion, which is great because holy shit who'd think someone would adapt Firestorm seriously? I do like how the Firestorm plot is being developed, but the mystery and Caitlin's own angst aren't dragged on too long. We get a little payoff every episode or two.
Hartley himself actually shows that he's not all evil. He does kick Cisco when he's down both figuratively and literally, but he also waits until Cisco gets all the information he needs about Firestorm before pulling out that evil hearing aid (which makes me cringe every time he fucking does that) and making his getaway.
Iris' little plotline gets a teensy weensy bit of focus as Barry tries to help her out for her article... but no she is going to meet Eddie's parents. And that adds up to Barry's angst about how he keeps thinking she needs him to catch her every time she falls, when she doesn't. The Flash does show up later on to drop some material for Iris so she can write an awesome article, and that nets Iris a sneaky photo. Also, newcomer Linda Park, who apparently has this pick-up app that downloads your phone contacts into someone else's phone, works at Iris' place and is apparently a thing with Barry now. At least for the time being. Linda Park in the comics is the love interest and eventual wife of Wally West, Barry's successor and Iris' cousin or nephew or something, and IIRC has cameo'd as a news reporter in Arrow played by a different actress.
The final scene, of course, is the wholly unexpected return of fucking GORILLA GRODD, who I did not expect to show up until much later. But these two sewer maintenance dudes come upon a lot of writings of GRODD on the walls and ground, and naturally gets assaulted by this gigantic barreling gorilla who looks pretty awesome for a CGI'd monster. I guess they took some cues from Planet of the Apes?
Overall, yet another in a strong series of Flash episodes. No, it doesn't have a big comic-book character like Reverse-Flash, Pied Piper or Captain Cold attached to it. No, the big fighty plot isn't particularly important. But it shows that Flash can be more than just a geeky superhero show that references a lot of comic book shit, but can actually make me pretty fucking invested in the characters as well, and this episode is proof of that.
No comments:
Post a Comment