The Flash S06E11-12 Review: Through the Looking Glass

The Flash, Season 6, Episode 11: Love is a Battlefield; Episode 12: A Girl Named Sue

Episode 11: Love is a Battlefield
So, this episode is an interesting one. It's basically a Valentine's Day special episode, starring the twin couples of Barry and Iris alongside Amunet Black and Goldface, who, because this is The Flash, are basically instigating a gigantic gang war as they fight over, like, a mind-control drug flower, and also have a gigantic fight over their breakup. And I suppose that's decent enough of a villain-of-the-week plotline, particularly one that's for what's basically a themed special. But I dunno... there's just something off about the whole Amunet/Goldface storyline, like... I get what they were going for, but neither the conflict nor the comedy* really landed, and throughout the episode all it got from me was a monumental shrug. The episode isn't terrible on its own, but it isn't anything particularly special either.

*Barry yelling "banana" while Mirror Iris smashes people's heads around in a bar was pretty hilarious, though. 

And I guess it's meant to be a huge distraction, because the whole point of the episode was the revelation that the Iris we're following throughout the entire episode was actually not Iris, but rather a mirror-world copy. The episode was pretty dang obvious, though, showing off Iris doing weird things like speaking Italian, being generally violent in a bar, and being even more of a go-getter than Iris usually is. Mirror Iris tries to brush it off as basically newfound confidence or something, but there's also changing personalities a bit too much. It's a pretty decent enough twist, though, with enough of a niggling sense of doubt while watching the episode that this might just be the writers' newest attempt to re-invent Iris West as a badass hardcore reporter. Turns out that it's not, though, and also the whole actual storyline about Barry angsting about maybe Crisis has caused him and Iris to grow further apart ends up being redundant.

There's also a B-plot of Killer Frost (or just "Frost" now, I suppose) trying to rekindle a love between Allegra and her ex-boyfriend (named "Emerson Fairweather", so clearly not going to be a particularly important character down the road) and sort of fucking up, but also later on Nash shows up and gives some extra advice that ends up helping Allegra, because Nash's clearly seeing some sort of alternate-universe daughter or whatever. It's kind of neat stuff, but, again, nothing particularly super-exciting. And also Nash is seeing ghosts of Harry Wells or something, so the other Harrison Wellses are still around in some fashion, maybe.

Not the most exciting episode.
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Episode 12: A Girl Named Sue
"A Girl Named Sue", on the other hand, is a much more fun and organic episode in its execution, both in terms of action and comedy. After hunting down for the enigmatic Sue Dearbon for basically the entire season, Ralph finally ends up finding Sue Dearbon, who styles herself as this spunky, sarcastic woman who's hunting down her insane criminal ex John Loring. And Sue's story is extremely believable for both Ralph and the audience, where she's the badass damsel-in-distress who's trying to hunt down John Loring's dossier or something that would be instrumental in bringing him down. The chemistry between Ralph and Sue is instantly infectious, and I genuinely feel like Sue has that spark that many of the newer additions to the cast of Flash like Kamilla, Allegra and Nash don't quite have. Ralph and Sue get to save each other multiple times throughout the episode, and, like Cecile points out, they have decent chemistry.

Although, mind you, the revelation that Sue Dearbon is basically a Catwoman style character that roped Ralph along so that she is able to hunt down and steal a super-valuable gemstone, playing Ralph along like a fiddle... but eventually getting caught in a pretty badass three-way fight between her, Ultraviolet and the Elongated Man. Turns out that Sue's been investigating Ralph as long as Ralph's been investigating Sue, and she's basically stringing Ralph along in order to help her in a heist. Ultimately, it's all basically a typical superhero plot, but unlike "Love is a Battlefield", this episode has solid performances and humour that doesn't feel forced at all. Plus, that Sue-vs-Ultraviolet battle is pretty badass! (It also basically ties Ultraviolet as being part of Black Hole, and that Sue's also gunning against Black Hole with some kind of James Bond style code in the diamond or whatever).

The real Iris, meanwhile, finds herself trapped in the mirror world and she finds that she's not the only inhabitant of the mirror world, because we finally get our proper introduction to Eva McCulloch, boss of McClloch Industries who has been presumed dead and/or missing for the past six years, but in reality is yet another victim of Harrison Wells's particle accelerator explosion that blasted her into the mirror dimension. It's a pretty neat way to give Iris something to do while Candice Patton does double duty as both the trapped Iris and the super-confident mirror doppelganger. Eva McCulloch seems to be a panicked, trapped woman who's lost all hope and we get a typical Iris Pep Talk to get her to try again, and while the original plan of using a freeze gun to freeze the mirror fails, turns out that Eva's a mirror-controlling metahuman, able to reassemble mirrors and stuff. Eva seems to be more of a victim than some sort of criminal mastermind for now, but we do know that there's at least a mirror doppelganger walking around and whether the eventual Mirror Master (Mirror Mistress?) we'll be facing down the line is this Eva or a mirror clone of Eva, it's going to be interesting.

Mirror Iris goes through a bit of a B-plot, and it all just seems a bit too convenient that just as she's trying to get her hands on Sam Scudder's mirror gun, Joe also confides in Barry about a series of crimes that ties into McCulloch's CEO Joseph Carver, and they decide to keep this as a family investigation, since they are not sure who among the cops are dirty, so Mirror Iris got the mirror gun after all. The other side-characters don't do much -- Cisco is absent, and so are Caitlin and Team Citizen, and all we get out of Nash is more Harry-ghost appearances. It's all well and good, though, because the other storylines are engaging enough.

Overall, a far stronger effort than the previous two episodes, finally getting the season on track for the McCulloch/Black Hole storyline. If nothing else, everything that's happening in this episode is certainly a far more exciting storyline than anything in the Cicada season.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Ryan Choi is briefly mentioned by Iris, having been consulted about the tech stolen by Amunet. 
• Blacksmith was last physically seen on the show all the way back in season four, while Goldface's previous appearance was in a single season five episode.
• Sue Dearbon is, of course, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Ralph Dibny in the comics. Comics!Sue wasn't a career thief, though. 
• The random mook criminal that Sue is opposed against is called John Loring, who most likely borrows his name from Jean Loring, Ray Palmer's estranged and insane wife, as well as Sue's killer in the comics. (An actual character called Jean Loring has already appeared in Arrow, though, as a lawyer).
• The events of the season 3 episode "The New Rogues" are referenced by Iris, who notes that Team Flash fought a mirror-themed villain called Sam Scudder and froze the mirror to sub-zero temperatures. 
• Members of the Supergirl cast make brief cameos in a CatCo magazine that Barry and Iris are reading, discussing how Lex Luthor wins yet another award.