The Flash, Season 2, Episode 21: The Runaway Dinosaur
Well, that's a lot better than the previous episode. It's nowhere as dumb as the previous episode. The subplot with Zombie Girder is pretty fun, even if it kinda came out of nowhere it's cool to see Girder back. And while it was odd for Barry Allen to be dealing with the fact that he couldn't move on from his mommy issues when I don't think we even mentioned his mother once in this season... it's cool seeing the Speed Force actually act as a character, and Barry having to deal with some inner demons (figuratively speaking) before getting his speed back.
I just wished that the issues that Barry dealt with in the wacky realm of trippy speed heaven has been, y'know, issues that are actually relevant to Barry. Maybe his guilt in not getting his speed back faster leading to the deaths of all those cops. Maybe his self-esteem issues in never being fast enough to deal with people like Zoom. Maybe his own confusion about the whole daddy issues thing with both Wellses and Fake Jay. Hell, something relevant! As heartwarming as his heart-to-heart with his mother... well, the speed force doppelganger of his mother, anyhow, it all felt a bit off since we haven't even had any indication Barry refuses to move on from his mother. It's a great singular episode with a great script, in theory, but as part of a larger piece it just kind of fell short.
And I thought that the episode was going to deal with something built up over two seasons, namely, the Speed Force... we find out that it's sentient, and it cares for Barry, but ultimately not a lot. Speed Force Joe gives some cryptic 'we are here when the Big Bang began and we'll be there when the universe dies' which sounds like something a Lovecraftian character would say, which is cool! Do they actually go anywhere with it? Nah. The Speed Force all amounts to cryptic hinting and being a bit of an ass, honestly. Or is Barry just pulling off a Tokyo Ghoul's Kaneki and is just hallucinating all this, creating visual imagery of his loved ones in his head while he's trapped in the swirling speed tornado vortex of doom? Or is the Speed Force just telling Barry what he wants to hear, rather conveniently, or is the Speed Force actively manipulating Barry to do something? He certainly emerged from that speed tornado a more mature Flash, but I can't help but feel that the show really could've done more and explored all the right topics that the season would've built up to.
Meanwhile, the Star Labs crew are just panicking and everything, with the dual problems of Jesse being unconscious -- she later gets brought back by Barry lightning-jolting her -- and both Wells and Henry having to deal with actually getting off their asses and act to save each other's child. It's nice, but nothing we haven't seen before, and I'm at times kind of confused what the point was in bringing Henry Allen back if he's just going to echo Joe's words in being the resident sane man.
Also, Zombie Girder! Girder was a classic Flash villain from the comics who never amounted more to 'that dude made up of girders' and was never, like, super-developed as a character. In this show, he's basically just Ripoff Colossus. Bringing him back to life only serves as a nice little neat cameo -- though we really could've used another group of Zoom's metahuman army -- and ultimately he gets taken out of the way. There really was nothing special about the Zombie Girder arc, people were literally like 'whoa, zombies!' and that's about it.
Cisco being more comfortable as Vibe was cool, and they're pushing the Barry/Iris ship a bit strongly, but I don't honestly care that much. It wasn't grating as it had been in season one.
What else... the episode was really strong, with some of the more quiet moments being hilarious. Joe and Wally's scene with the mug, Cisco and Harry talking over each other in trying to catch Barry up, Iris and Cisco just dealing with zombie Girder at all... oh, and at the end, Zoom finally, finally rounds up his army of supervillains. It kinda looks like a cosplayer convention, but at the same time all the lightning bolts, green fire, smoke-windy dude, some reaper-looking dude and insane metal getup from all of Zoom's little cronies finally show that, hey, Zoom isn't all talk. For a villain I've bitched about so many times before, Zoom finally gets to actually do something in the finale instead of just being scary and looming over Caitlin, never doing anything but zooming in and stabbing people in the heart. And, who knows? Maybe Zoom will get actual motivations and characterization.
Overall, though, a decent, if ultimately still fillery, episode of Flash. Hopefully next episode we'll have some actual escalation.
I just wished that the issues that Barry dealt with in the wacky realm of trippy speed heaven has been, y'know, issues that are actually relevant to Barry. Maybe his guilt in not getting his speed back faster leading to the deaths of all those cops. Maybe his self-esteem issues in never being fast enough to deal with people like Zoom. Maybe his own confusion about the whole daddy issues thing with both Wellses and Fake Jay. Hell, something relevant! As heartwarming as his heart-to-heart with his mother... well, the speed force doppelganger of his mother, anyhow, it all felt a bit off since we haven't even had any indication Barry refuses to move on from his mother. It's a great singular episode with a great script, in theory, but as part of a larger piece it just kind of fell short.
And I thought that the episode was going to deal with something built up over two seasons, namely, the Speed Force... we find out that it's sentient, and it cares for Barry, but ultimately not a lot. Speed Force Joe gives some cryptic 'we are here when the Big Bang began and we'll be there when the universe dies' which sounds like something a Lovecraftian character would say, which is cool! Do they actually go anywhere with it? Nah. The Speed Force all amounts to cryptic hinting and being a bit of an ass, honestly. Or is Barry just pulling off a Tokyo Ghoul's Kaneki and is just hallucinating all this, creating visual imagery of his loved ones in his head while he's trapped in the swirling speed tornado vortex of doom? Or is the Speed Force just telling Barry what he wants to hear, rather conveniently, or is the Speed Force actively manipulating Barry to do something? He certainly emerged from that speed tornado a more mature Flash, but I can't help but feel that the show really could've done more and explored all the right topics that the season would've built up to.
Meanwhile, the Star Labs crew are just panicking and everything, with the dual problems of Jesse being unconscious -- she later gets brought back by Barry lightning-jolting her -- and both Wells and Henry having to deal with actually getting off their asses and act to save each other's child. It's nice, but nothing we haven't seen before, and I'm at times kind of confused what the point was in bringing Henry Allen back if he's just going to echo Joe's words in being the resident sane man.
Also, Zombie Girder! Girder was a classic Flash villain from the comics who never amounted more to 'that dude made up of girders' and was never, like, super-developed as a character. In this show, he's basically just Ripoff Colossus. Bringing him back to life only serves as a nice little neat cameo -- though we really could've used another group of Zoom's metahuman army -- and ultimately he gets taken out of the way. There really was nothing special about the Zombie Girder arc, people were literally like 'whoa, zombies!' and that's about it.
Cisco being more comfortable as Vibe was cool, and they're pushing the Barry/Iris ship a bit strongly, but I don't honestly care that much. It wasn't grating as it had been in season one.
What else... the episode was really strong, with some of the more quiet moments being hilarious. Joe and Wally's scene with the mug, Cisco and Harry talking over each other in trying to catch Barry up, Iris and Cisco just dealing with zombie Girder at all... oh, and at the end, Zoom finally, finally rounds up his army of supervillains. It kinda looks like a cosplayer convention, but at the same time all the lightning bolts, green fire, smoke-windy dude, some reaper-looking dude and insane metal getup from all of Zoom's little cronies finally show that, hey, Zoom isn't all talk. For a villain I've bitched about so many times before, Zoom finally gets to actually do something in the finale instead of just being scary and looming over Caitlin, never doing anything but zooming in and stabbing people in the heart. And, who knows? Maybe Zoom will get actual motivations and characterization.
Overall, though, a decent, if ultimately still fillery, episode of Flash. Hopefully next episode we'll have some actual escalation.
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