The Flash, Season 1, Episode 20: The Trap
A bit
of a shorter and less recappy review for this episode because I’ve reviewed it
in my capsule review for the Flash finale, and it’s been like a month since this
episode actually came out. I’m still going to review it though because I like
reviewing these things. I’ve caught up with Agents of SHIELD’s finale (really
strong) and Arrow’s finale (a bit meh to be honest) and in the next few weeks I’ll
review each individual episode.
And
episode 20 of the Flash is a really strong episode! It is easily one of the
strongest episodes in this season. The entire season has been about this little
conflict between Barry and Harrison, this little dance the two of them has, and
everything comes to head in this episode. Barry finds out who Harrison is at
the end of the last episode and at the beginning of this episode – with the
added twist of seeing that newspaper! Not only do they see the whole ‘the Flash
disappears in a crisis’ thing, they also see the whole ‘written by Iris
West-Allen’ thing which is what they’re freaking out about because shipping.
Freeze-framing the newspaper also delivers some interesting tidbits. We’ve got
the Wayne-Queen merger, again showing that despite Superman and Batman not
being part of the CW universe (yet) they’re not shy of dropping hints that it
will happen. And apparently the big battle with Flash and Reverse-Flash will
involve Green Arrow (not just the Arrow), the Atom and Hawkgirl, the latter two
who’s going to appear in Legends of Tomorrow.
Gideon
also notes that Flash is the founding member of, well, something. A nice little
nod to a little known fact – during the Justice League’s very first appearance as a team in the comics, Barry Allen, the
Flash, was the leader of the team, not Superman. Also Cisco likes the “traditional”
Flash costume and after a brief note about time travel idea loops, decides to
implement the white background and the brighter red in the future. You go, Cisco.
Also,
apparently Gideon will obey any order from Barry Allen without question because
he built her! How interesting. I also do like the whole point where Cisco wants
to hack Gideon, then realizes he can’t do shit to a computer that’s
super-advanced like Gideon, a nice moment of realism – I do so hate how in
science fiction any hacker can hack any kind of alien or futuristic computer. Doesn’t
work like that, people!
And
this entire episode is all about Team Barry trying to trap Eobard Thawne in
that forcefield, but apparently despite all the close shaves with Eobard
finding out their identity, it appears that Eobard has been playing them all
along, and it has been a reverse-trap (hee hee, reverse) all throughout the
episode, which was spectacularly done.
There’s
a big running joke about Barry fretting about the whole West-Allen thing. We’ve
got Captain Singh randomly talking about his upcoming wedding with his
boyfriend in front of Barry – of course the fiance gets trapped in a burning
building and Barry saves him – and Eddie wanting to propose to Iris and all
that stuff. And by the end of the episode finally, finally Iris realizes that the Flash is, y’know, Barry. Because of
this random flashback we see the first time in this episode of Iris getting a
jolt of electricity from the comatose Barry a while back, and she gets a
similar shock when she meets the Flash later in this episode. Yeeeah, not the
most elegant identity-revealing scene. I much prefer the ‘I need to reveal my identity
to you because I really really need to stop this tsunami’ scene from the
splinter timeline.
Also insert
an obligatory ‘it’s gross because they’re technically siblings in all but blood’
rant here.
I did
like that scene where Iris was talking to a comatose Barry in the flashback,
though. I think it’s the most where I’ve ever liked CW’s version of Iris Allen
because she’s been a pretty poorly written character with a character arc that
is all over the place. And part of the problem is how adamant Joe has been
about shipping Iris and Barry, telling Iris’ fiance Eddie to basically fuck off
because Iris is in love with Barry but she doesn’t know it yet… which makes
jack shit sense.
But let’s
not rant about Iris, and talk about how awesome Eobard Thawne is. All
throughout the episode we’ve got Barry and company trying to enter Cisco’s
subconscious with some sci-fi gizmo, and I do love the masterful scene where
Cisco is just pissing his pants in terror at reliving his murder at the hands
of Harrison Wells. No explanation yet to why Cisco can remember the splinter
timeline when no one else can, but thankfully we actually do get one at the end
of the season so it isn’t a convenient writing flub like I thought it was. It is handwaved away as ‘the important
thing is that he does’, which felt like bad writing at the time, but it isn’t.
Also,
Cisco and Barry are wearing science goggles that are pretty subtle shout-outs
to Vibe and Captain Cold’s comic-book goggles, respectively.
And after
this long sequence of Cisco playing as bait to re-enact the splinter timeline –
and it’s awesome how the splinter timeline is retconned out but still has
ramifications on the actual finale – we see that “Harrison Wells” is somehow
immune to the anti-speedster forcefield, which I honestly thought was just
another in a series of awesome powers that Eobard Thawne has. And we could lose Cisco for real in this
episode, which would be a totally nice follow-up to the excellent, if
heartbreaking, death scene Cisco had during the splinter timeline episode.
But
no, Joe shoots “Harrison” to save Cisco, Barry tries to stop the bullets
because he’s not thinking straight and still wants to save his father, and one
of the bullets hits “Harrison”… and, again, it’s still completely believable
that Harrison can easily shake off a bullet wound. But no, it’s freaking
Everyman, Hannibal Bates, disguised as Harrison Wells, and Eobard phones in and
mocks everybody for being idiots. They’ve been played, because Eobard has been
watching everybody – remember how he’s installing cameras in one of the earlier
episodes? And he’s been fooling all but the most observant of the viewers as
well, because rewinding the episode shows that, yes, Hannibal-Harrison actually
does adjust his glasses with his left hand, the giveaway that Hannibal had
during his own episode.
Eobard
Thawne? He’s freaking awesome. He’s just manipulating everyone. And I do love
how we still have the ambiguity that Eobard-Harrison might have some… love or
care or whatever emotion to Barry, Cisco and Caitlin, which adds a nice layer
of complexity to the characters. He does do a nice little rant about how
despite learning to be somewhat of a father and teacher figure to Barry Allen,
he still hates (a version of) Barry for taking everything away from him in the
timeline he arrived from, but he needs the Flash to return to his own timeline..
We do get a couple of nice flashbacks to when Harrison-Eobard first introduces
himself to Joe West and he is pretty freaking creepy even then.
And
he kidnaps Eddie while he’s proposing to Iris at the end of the episode, which
adds another sense of ‘oh shit we’ve been played’ moment for the good guys.
Eobard also confirms that Eddie is his ancestor, and then proceeds to talk shit
about Eddie – Eobard’s master plan was never about Eddie despite their shared
lineage, he is just ‘insurance’. Poor Eddie.
Eobard
Thawne definitely wins at the end of the episode, proving himself as an elegant
chessmaster even when the good guys think they are being one. Also a
ridiculously hammy one, too, because as soon as Eobard drops the Harrison Wells
act, he is pretty freaking hammy.
Overall,
a pretty awesome episode that tears the status quo straight to the ground, and
sets up the episodes leading up to the finale pretty awesomely. Still don’t
care about the Iris drama, but all the good in this episode and indeed the
series as a whole makes me tolerate the Iris bullshit. Really, not much I can say about this episode beyond 'HOLY SHIT WTFBBQ AWESOME'
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