Finally! After what feels like an eternity, I'm back to reviewing TV show episodes the day of! Though not back in full-swing yet, as Arrow and The 100 have yet to return, we are starting off with one of the most anticipated shows of not just the season, but the whole year: the CW's The Flash.
I didn't watch the pilot when it was leaked online because, then, reviewing it just after seeing it wouldn't be as fun, would it? I don't mind waiting for the show, particularly because it builds the anticipation. I'm not knocking the people that watched it early, part of me does indeed wish I did, but I didn't mind waiting for it. Because it was well worth the wait...but I think people need to slow down the hype train.
The pilot was great, it did everything it needed to. Barry was awesome, way better than on Arrow, and all of the side-characters were great. Heck, they made Edward Thawne hate-able already! But, from what I've heard, people are treating this as the greatest pilot of all time. And while it was impressive in terms of acting, visual effects, and even a twist ending, I think we need to pump the brakes just a little.
Unexpectedly, the episode starts before Barry's been struck by lightning. The episode actually features several time skips and a couple flashbacks, though the flashbacks I don't expect to be as recurring a theme as on it's sister show. We see a more detailed version of what happened the night the mysterious man (who all fans of the Flash and/ or DC comics know to be a certain Flash nemesis, won't say who), killed Barry's mother. We even see Barry's father, and get a cute little insight to Barry helping another kid but is too slow to get away from the bullies.When he tries to go to sleep, the mysterious speedster man attacks and Barry is sent away.
Skip ahead fourteen years (Barry is almost as old as Oliver, since Oliver was 22 when he was marooned and then plus six years, so yeah, the age-gap isn't so great), and we see Barry running late to a crime scene where a man managed to rob a bank, but Barry's keen skills as a forensics scientist help Detective Joe West track down the perp. Here we also meet West's daughter and Barry's best friend/ love interest, Iris. She meets up with Barry in his little loft with her father.
Joe grants the two permission to go see the particle accelerator, but just as leading scientist Harrison Wells gets up to talk, Iris's bag is stolen and Barry is too slow to chase him, so Detective Eddie Thawne manages to beat him to it (bum-dum-tis). Joe heads over to the lead Barry gave him while our soon-to-be-hero heads back to his loft. We again see a little more detail into what happened the night Barry transformed as he continues to watch the stream of the accelerator breaking down to the point where he loses power, and Joe also manages to find Martin, the perpetrator, but Martin escapes in a small plane. The accelerator blows and we see that the plane gets split in two and Barry gets struck.
Skip ahead nine years and Barry wakes up from his coma, confused as heck as to what has happened, and we are introduced (or, if you watch Arrow, reintroduced) to Caitlin Snow and Cisco, two workers at S.T.A.R. Labs under Harrison Wells, whose legs don't work because dimensional fissures can do that to a person, apparently. Wells takes him around the Lab and we see a cage marked "Grodd" has been forcibly opened and whatever is inside is now loose and hey that was an awesome Easter Egg.
Barry leaves, without the sweatshirt sadly, and meets up with Iris, who is happy to see him back on his feet. Cut over to a bank and we see Martin is alive and can now control the weather, completing his transformation into the Weather Wizard. Oooooh villains and stuff. West gets the call about it and Barry and Iris head over to the cops HQ, where another man is trying to break free of the cops but Barry uses his super speed to stop him. He heads outside to get some fresh air and starts freaking out about the powers, deciding to go back to S.T.A.R. Labs.
One thing I wish they did was show a transition between him just flying into the back of a truck to him going back to S.T.A.R. Labs, as he just kind of ends up on a Ferris Airway (Green Lantern reference woo-hoo!) track with Team Flash to test his speed. I don't know, it just seemed a little random to me. I mean, I know he's new to the whole super hero thing, but you can't just go around telling people you have super speed. That'd be like Caitlin Snow saying she has ice powers, pft, that'd be ridiculous!
Anyway, Team Flash (as they will be called by me from now on) watches as Barry shows off his speed. However, his concentration is broken as he thinks about the night he sees the mystery man and realizes that they are essentially one in the same as far as powers go. He crashes and breaks his wrist, but after a quick commercial break, his wrist is fixed! The team is unable to explain how it happened other than lightning bolt strike. Because lightning bolt strike!
Barry goes to check up on Iris but sees her with Thawne and gets jealous so they talk about stuff, and apparently Iris isn't allowed to date so this has to be a secret. And because they are standing in the middle of the road (geniuses), a car nearly hits them, and Barry realizes it's the Weather Wizard. He tails after him, using his super speed, and forces him to crash the car. Able to get up just fine, the Weather Wizard gets up and shows off his powers, getting away. However, another car crashes and Barry, afraid, dodges it instead of helping the people inside.
You know, this is gonna sound cynical, but I like that he ran away from the car. His body is changing rapidly and he's just been exposed to another meta-human, so another life being thrown in danger would only add onto his worries and since he he's a super-hero, the instinct is to run from the danger. Barry went through super-hero puberty this episode, guys. Soon his voice is gonna change.
Joe arrives with the cops, and Thawne, to check up on Iris and Barry, who tries to explain that the Weather Wizard is real but Joe says he's crazy, and confirms to the audience that all his life Barry has been giving ludicrous, if not supernatural, answers to almost every situation. Joe even goes so far as to say that Barry's father did kill his mother, that there is now way another man with powers was in there. This sends Barry over the edge so he heads over to S.T.A.R. Labs.
He confronts them about the Weather Wizard, where Wells claims that there may be more like Barry, but that since they have Barry with them and sort of on their side that he holds the key to unlocking the secrets of the dimensional rupture triggered during the accelerator accident. He shows Barry a map of the city and the potential meta-humans that are popping up, that each one got their powers the same way as Barry, sort of. Barry says they have to stop the bad guy and Wells tells him he's crazy and that there's nothing special about him, that everything is a job for the cops.
Angry, Barry knows what he must do. He zooms off over to Starling City for YES THE BEST CAMEO FREAKING EVER.
So yeah, Oliver Queen as the Arrow makes a guest appearance on this episode. Barry somehow manages to find him and tells him all about what's happened, and about his doubts at his ability to be a hero. Oliver, seeing much more good in Barry than in himself when he began his heroic ways, tells Barry that he has a chance not to start out as a vigilante and enemy of the people, but as a hero and one that people will look up to in the time of change Central City is facing. He knows that Barry has it in him and that the power has only given him more reason to do the right thing. Then he uses ODM gear, I guess, to climb up a building. Yeah, I don't know either, but the more AoT references I can make tonight the better I suppose.
I freaking loved this cameo. Obviously it reminds us that, yes, Arrow and The Flash coexist in this shared world but it also makes a ton of sense. Throughout the episode, Barry has been wanting to do the right thing but has been unable, be it a physical or mental weakness. He was too slow or too weak to stop the bullies, and was too overwhelmed to help those people in the car. So he went to the one man who he saw not as a vigilante, but as a hero. One could argue that even though his cameo is small, we do get a shred of character development for Oliver.
He sees in Barry what he strives to be, and Barry is just starting out. Throughout his journey in season 2, Oliver was looking to become a hero, learning what it means. Well now that Barry has arrived, he can see what it means to be a hero, and to become one. Using his knowledge, he doesn't tell Barry what to do but more ensures him that he already is a hero, and now with this power, he must be a hero.
Plus, Barry going to Oliver before anyone else makes sense. We can safely assume that the Arrow is the only super-hero Barry, or even the regular American populous (with the exception of one Amanda Waller) is aware of. He got to see Oliver in action, how he fought for his life and went up against men that were ten times stronger than him and never fell down fighting them. Despite the aforementioned age gap not being too large, Barry looks up to Oliver. And though his skills may be greater now, Oliver is still the first "hero" the world has seen and Barry hopes to attain the legacy Oliver has, meanwhile Oliver looks to become the man that Barry is. Their relationship is only three episodes long, if that, and it's already freaking awesome.
That crossover is gonna be freaking insane, then, man!
So Barry goes back to Central City and tells Team Flash to man up and that he's gonna be a super-hero because darn it that's what the fans want. They endow him with Flash Suit 1.0 and he takes off after the Weather Wizard, saving Joe and a knocked out Eddie Thawne from the Weather Wizard at his barn. He attempts to reverse the effects of the tornado his foe is making but the Wizard knocks him away.
Wells reappears, telling Barry that he is a hero and that he must use his power for good to stop those meta-humans that would use it for evil. Encouraged, Barry manages to zip around the tornado and defeat the Weather Wizard, though the latter is still able to fight. However, the timely bullet of Joe West saves Barry, and the two share a nice little moment where West finds out Barry has powers.
Though my question is: if Barry's DNA or molecular structure (or...whatever it is) allows him to heal quicker, shouldn't that mean the Weather Wizard can heal too? Unless he was shot dead, but still, I don't think throwing him in prison is gonna do much help. Or any of the villains for that matter. A.R.G.U.S., then?
Our episode ends with West telling Barry that he needs to keep this from Iris and him realizing that Barry's father is innocent. As such, Barry heads on over to Iron Heights (an Arrow reference, good call writers) and visits his father in a rather emotional scene where Barry promises his father will be released soon and that his life is going better than anyone could have dreamed. We see, while Barry voices over, that Caitlin and Cisco are tuning up the suit to give it a lightning bolt in the center, because the Flash suit and stuff. Then Barry sets off running through the city in his new suit, saving bikers and naming himself, "The Flash," as inspired by what Oliver said.
HOWEVER, no superhero pilot episode is over without a twist. Wells enters a secret room, completely unbeknownst to his allies, then gets up and reveals that he can walk. He walks over to a small pad and reads over a headline from April 15, 2014 that basically says that the Flash has gone missing for unknown reasons!
:O
Yeah I don't know what his deal is either, and I DO NOT want to know. I thought for a moment they were going to reveal him as Reverse Flash but that would be unacceptable and the character who plays Reverse Flash is already in the show so that's not possible. I'm gonna assume this dude is from the future and that he is going to be setting events in motion that either will or won't change that headline, and by the look on his face and the tone of the music I'm gonna assume also that his long-term goals are no good.
Them twists.
But overall, this was a great episode and an awesome way to start off the series! There's definitely tons and tons of potential where this show exists, positively benefited from the fact it's sister show is the greatest super-hero show ever. I do feel that the show is strong enough to run on it's own but it's a very wise decision to get help from what works early on. It makes it all the more exciting when little crossovers come up when two shows are running very strong.
For those people who are getting bored of super-heroes having to be more and more grounded, fear not, as this show is definitely going to be pushing the boundaries of super-powers, as they actually advertised Captain Cold and his abilities quite heavily. Plus, with Gorilla Grodd on the loose, expect some crazy action to ensue. The Flash will quickly become the home for all things super-powered, I believe, which is definitely something to look forward to. If you're interested, I am 100% encouraging you to give this a go.
If you want to stay up to date on when I'm posting, or just want random photos or tweets, feel free to follow me on Twitter @seanovan13 and on Instagram @seanovan10. Thanks for reading!
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