The Flash S04E03 Review: Harrison Wells is Back!

The Flash, Season 4, Episode 3: Luck Be A Lady

Okay, I actually quite liked this episode. It's just charming, and we didn't get bogged down by a subplot of Barry dealing with his pesky emotions. Hazard is played by such an infectiously cheery actress that it's hard not to like her, and we even get Harrison Wells of Earth-2 back! Harry Wells has always been far more relevant to the plot and his dry, jackassery has always been more entertaining than H.R.'s one-note comedic beats (that's not to say H.R. isn't enjoyable, of course, because Tom Cavanagh is just such a charismatic and amazing actor). But this episode is a neat breath of fresh air for a series that I'm somewhat worried about.

What kind of took me away is the sheer amount of sub-plots running throughout this episode. Sure, Hazard isn't actually a huge, big threat that threatens to take over the city or whatever, but the sheer amount of subplots -- Harrison Wells telling Wally that Jesse broke up with him, Harry and Cisco's pissing contest, Barry and Iris looking for a wedding venue, Joe and Cecile's house problems... while it's not like I don't enjoy the day-to-day lives of this superhero team, it's honestly a bit too much for my liking. 

I did like how Wally ends up leaving the show at the end of the episode, hopefully hinting that the show's going to find something better to do with him instead of just standing in the background and disappearing for huge chunks of the episode and no one even realizes (let's be honest, did you?). I just hope it's not the writers writing Wally out because they can't find anything interesting to do with him. 

The Thinker and his secretary continue to appear as a creepy, mysterious monologuing man who talks about how everything is part of the plan, and all that stuff. We also learn that the bus from the first episode that the Flash zips through was what caused this season's batch of metahumans to appear, and there are 12 in all. 

Hazard herself is a very fun villain, helped by the brief montage of her own bad luck, and her bubbly vocal mannerisms is just so instantly likable... but, of course, she's siphoning her luck from the... universal constant goobledeygunk that Cisco theorized, so we'd have a quote-unquote scientific explanation for the madness of this episode. It's a decent enough story, and a decent enough episode, that I certainly liked this.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Rebecca "Becky" Sharpe, a.k.a. Hazard, isn't a specific enemy of the Flash. She succeeded her grandfather, the supervillain known as the Gambler (Steven Sharpe III), who battled the Golden Age Green Lantern and the Justice Society. Becky Sharpe would take on the alias Hazard and become a bit of a villain. 'A bit' because she's got a no-killing rule going on, and is more concerned about righting the injustices done against her.
• Becky's casino blackjack dealer costume is actually her comic-book counterpart's supervillain costume. Her desire to get back at the casino she used to work in is a reference to how Hazard has a hatred towards casinos due to her grandfather, the Gambler, being out-swindled by a certain casino which eventually led to his suicide. 
• Harry notes how the breakup cube is made up of Atlantanean metal, and Atlantis itself has been referred to multiple times in Earth-2 stories.
• Cisco borrows Green Arrow's catchphrase in the laser tag game: "You have failed this city." In addition to the show's own "run, Barry, run" catchphrase.