The Flash, Season 1, Episode 3: Things You Can't Outrun
It's another episode whose biggest weakness is being too similar to the second episode. It's pretty much setting a standard for the first season of Flash, which is general metahuman villain-of-the-week fights. We get him fighting a villain, this time the Mist -- another obscure villain -- as well as the B-plots being 'Barry struggles with being a superhero', 'Iris does... a thing' and 'Harrison Wells being vaguely evil'. It's not bad because it's still the third episode (and the first season does do more things as it goes on, thankfully, but looking back it certainly feels relatively weak.
Of course, Anthony Carrigan (also known as a different DC villain -- the more prolific Mr. Zsasz in Gotham) plays the Mist amazingly well as a creepy villain, and the special effects work relatively well. Kyle Nimbus is able to transform into a mist of poisonous gas due to being fused with the cyanide gas that's supposed to kill him during his execution at the night of the particle accelerator explosion, and goes around committing crimes after discovering his superpowers. Barry defeating the Mist is weirdly a simple matter of exhausting him, and Harrison Wells locks the Mist up in a brand-new superhuman prison.
Also the side characters do get a fair bit more chance to shine as Caitlin gets to be the member of the B-cast to get some form of a subplot all to herself as the reminisces about her fiance's heroic sacrifice, and we finally get to see Ronnie Raymond for the first time in a flashback where he's presumed to be killed. Although, as anyone who has half a brain probably figured out -- nope. It's a cool enough subplot, though.
The Iris/Eddie stuff continue to grate, as is Joe's discovery of Iris's romance with his police partner. It's innocent enough in short amounts, but it is undoubtedly the weakest part of the series. Joe gets an amazing scene with Henry Allen at Iron Heights, though, which is amazing. We also got some more superhuman-ability exploration bits, with this episode discussing Barry's faster recovery rate and metabolism -- though he still feels pain so he's not exactly Wolverine-level "instantaneously heal from any injury".
I also remembered this episode for making me absolutely pissed off that Cisco dubs Barry "The Streak" instead of the Flash. We do get the name relatively early in the series, but it gives me shades of Green Arrow's "The Hood" and "The Vigilante" monikers which sounded way, way too hard for them trying to avoid using what the character they're adapting is called.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- The Mist (a.k.a. Kyle Nimbus) is a Golden-Age villain who fought Sandman and later became the arch-enemy of Starman. He's actually relatively prolific in the Starman comics, and in the comics he turns into generic gas instead of the specific hydrogen cyanide he does here.
- The cinema is playing "Blue Devil II -- Hell to Pay" and "The Rita Farr Story". Blue Devil is a minor superhero in the DC comics, who is actually an actor that acted as a character called Blue Devil in the comics before some deal with the actual devil fused him with his suit and turned him into an actual devil, whereas Rita "Elasti-Girl" Farr is a member of the superhero team Doom Patrol who's also in the show-business.
- Ronnie's "like fire and ice" comment is, of course, a reference to his and Caitlin's future/comic-book alter egos, Firestorm and Killer Frost.
- Barry notes about how he doesn't want a museum built in his name. The Flash Museum is one of the more iconic parts of Flash's Silver Age mythology.
- Big Belly Burger, a recurring joke/franchise in Arrow, makes its first appearance in Flash in this episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment