The Flash S1E13 Review: Firestorm's Split Personality

The Flash, Season 1, Episode 13: The Nuclear Man

This is the Firestorm plot-heavy episode, and it delivers so much. I am amazed at just how faithful to the comic book incarnation of Firestorm the show is, and yet it still puts its own spin on this fusion of Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein. It's a more emotionally-tense episode since the metahuman of the week isn't some random criminal like Peekaboo or Rainbow Raider, but someone we're actually emotionally invested with, and isn't just 'oh he's an old friend but we've never mentioned him before' like the Pied Piper was. I personally am quite impressed by just how much Firestorm is in the show, how this particular plot thread is basically the second-biggest main plot next to the Reverse-Flash business.

And the focus this episode is indeed on Firestorm. There are a couple other B-plots running in the background, namely Joe and Cisco's little team-up to try and solve the ever-befuddling Reverse-Flash mystery, as well as even more of Barry's love life... which, in this episode, is more cringe-inducing than charming.

But let's not talk about those for now and let's talk Firestorm. As Team Flash does their little investigation into Firestorm after the information given to them by Hartley last week, they track down Martin Stein's wife and after a bit of a face-off between Firestorm and the Flash, they finally discover that while Firestorm has Ronnie's body, Martin Stein's mind is the one in control (although Martin has conflicts with Ronnie's emotions and memories which is apparently comparable to multiple-personality disorder), which is a nice little twist from the comic formula. Kudos to Robbie Amell, who's trying his best to do an impersonation of Victor Garber.

I also liked Harrison Wells just eating munchies while on a stakeout. Here's the Reverse-Flash, people!

There's a couple of iffy moments like Barry apparently having met with Martin Stein on a train before... which could've been really been shuffled into an earlier episode to feel less rushed, but otherwise I thought it was kind of great. We get a bit of backstory on Martin Stein's part, and he's apparently a bit of a humanitarian in addition to researching transmutation and shit... and he may or may not have killed that dude in the opening. It's not made clear. They manage to get Martin to cooperate by bringing his wife into the fold, which is pretty heartwarming.

I do like how Caitlin is just all confused at this Ronnie-Martin creature and trying to come terms with it. But things escalate quickly because apparently the fight with the Flash has caused the fusion to go out of whack and Martin Stein's atoms and Ronnie Raymond's atoms are rejecting each other. I do like how Caitlin is hell-bent on not losing Ronnie again (something that Harrison Wells was perfectly willing to do) and forces the rest of the team to use the remaining hours they have to do what they can do. Wells finally relents and pushes back his timetable to save Ronnie (although there's the justification that, y'know, there won't be a Central City left if Firestorm goes boom), and takes one of the gizmos from his Reverse-Flash chestpiece and does things to it to become another scientific-sounding thing.

Firestorm has gone off to the Badlands in the meantime, a land of snow and ice, and Barry and Caitlin go off after him. Caitlin follows under the justification of Barry not being able to operate the machine, which I guess is kind of fair even if all she did was slap it on Firestorm's chest. Caitlin sets up Wells' device on his chest (which expands into a shape akin to Firestorm's comic-book insignia) and then there's a big damn kiss between that dirty old man Martin Stein Ronnie within the Firestorm entity. But Firestorm apparently erupts in a fucking gigantic nuclear explosion while Barry and Caitlin runs away. And I do like how Firestorm's flaming-ness suddenly disappears for a moment, which is a pretty cruel 'false hope' moments.

Is that big explosion of Firestorm-y combine-things power going to combine Caitlin with all the snow and turn her into Killer Frost? I dunno, just throwing it out there.

Granted I'm sure Firsetorm is not going to die just yet, judging by the abrupt ending of this episode, the title of the next episode and the Stinger... of General Wade Eiling setting his eyes on Firestorm and ready to retrieve it. You go, General.

Overall pretty awesome shit on the Firestorm front, but for a good part of the episode, Cisco and Joe team up and go back to Barry's childhood home to re-investigate the crime scene. That lady that constantly hits on Joe aside, it's a pretty straightforward investigation as they discover this mirror that was left behind and Cisco using some sciency stuff to extrapolate the camera-like images on that mirror and then discovering a bloodstain... which contains two blood samples.

There's a bit of Joe asking Cisco to run the blood sample against Harrison Wells which goes too far for Cisco... but he does it anyway. And it doesn't match Wells, but matches that of an older Barry, which is basically what most people speculated was the case for the second speedster was -- Barry travelling to the past and fighting against Reverse-Flash. But that means Harrison Wells isn't the Reverse-Flash that killed Barry's mother... and this sort of debunks the rather out there theory that Harrison Wells is a Barry Allen from the future. Granted Wells could've manipulated blood databases and forged his identity, but I dunno.

So there is a second Reverse-Flash out there, who may or may not be Eddie Thawne, who himself may or may not be the show's counterpart to Hunter Zolomon, a.k.a. Zoom, who may or may not have travelled back in time after getting transformed himself, who may or may not be a time traveller from the future that Wells hails from... there's so much speculation going on right now in my head I just can't even. This kind of shakes up every single theory I have regarding the Reverse-Flash. Man.

Other than all that plot-heavy stuff, there were a couple of fun moments in this episode. Barry trying on outfits on his date, and then Joe threatening to shoot Barry after being shown so many choices? That was fun. Barry stopping a suicide and delivering the suicide-r down to Eddie? That was funny as hell. (Also, Eddie's been missing since... Revenge of the Rogues, I think?) Cisco guilt-tripping Barry with dead old ladies, puppies and nuns to get him to zip out of his first date? That as fun too.

Barry and Linda's date is an opportunity for the show to make puns on having the relationship move too fast (we get an almost-sex-scene by the second date) as well as veiled premature ejaculation jokes, but otherwise serves as a rather annoying interruption to an otherwise engaging show. Early on Linda isn't that bad and we get some nice geeky-Barry moments. But the big conflict that Linda doesn't want to date Barry anymore because she doesn't want to waste her time for Barry going off with the excuse of police emergencies... which she has the excuse of at least finding out that Barry is lying by calling the police department.

The whole Iris-is-maybe-kinda-jealous thing kind of makes things heat up as Linda jumps into what is possibly the right conclusion of Barry still being hung up on Iris, and Barry reasserting that he doesn't have those feelings anymore seems to... spark some of them in Iris? Whatever. It's the 'unrequited-first-love-realizes-they-have-feelings' that's going to end painfully for both Barry and Iris, though at least Barry calls Iris out for nearly fucking up his love life with Linda.

The most cringe-worthy scene, though, comes from Barry eating that ghost pepper in front of Linda and all her colleagues to get her to date her one more time. And then vomiting. Even though all they had going for them were two dates, one of which was interrupted. Jeez Barry. That is borderline emotional blackmail, even.

There's a couple of hints of Barry's superpowers activating while he was getting all sexy with Linda, which may or may not bear ramifications in the future, which is really the only thing I took out from the whole Linda subplot.

What else do I have to talk about? There are a couple of comic references, of course. The title, 'the Nuclear Man', is Firestorm's epithet. Flash saves the suicide jumper at 52 and Waid, a reference to Mark Waid, writer of the New 52 series. Flash asks Firestorm to not 'flame on', referencing Fantastic Four's Human Torch.

All the Linda meh-ness aside, it's a pretty grand episode. I am just so happy with it.