‘The Flash’ episode 14 review: The fire before the storm
Tonight, “The Flash” concluded what is basically the winter portion of its run this season with “Fallout,” an episode that was very much entertaining. However, at the same time, we have to say that we were surprised by it.
Who saw the Firestorm end coming this week? We’re expected a more tragic conclusion to the tale of Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein, or at least one that required the two to stay fused together forever. It would have made a little more sense, at least in the context of the show, to justify the end of him going away for a while to try to understand his powers better and keep every safe. Given that Caitlin and Martin’s wife are still in Central City, this felt almost like the show just wanting to get rid of the two for a while. (Comic spoilers ahead.) Also, we have a harder and harder time imagining Caitlin as Killer Frost with each passing day. Maybe if she ever turns into that, she becomes a version that has to kill to survive, and is not so much evil as a survivalist. We cannot help the speculation there.
Regardless of our uncertainty as to the end of the Firestorm plot for now, the two seemed to have dispatched for the time being General Eiling, who has been left to the devices of Gorilla Grodd. We got a better look at him tonight! The biggest issue that there is with this particular character is that he’s almost impossible to replicate on TV. You have to CG him, and the technology just isn’t the best yet for that yet on TV. Then again, a telepathic gorilla was never an easy sell in the first place, and it’ll be curious to see if the show can really make him the force that he was in the comics.
Given that Harrison Wells revealed his alter ego to Eiling, even after basically handing over Stein to him (which we feel was calculated to ensure that the two realized their destiny), we don’t think the General makes it out of this alive.
Away from Firestorm, Barry underwent a journey tonight to understand fully that he needs to prepare for fighting the Reverse Flash in the way, and as soon as he figures out how to make it all the way back there, he is not going to make the same mistakes that he once made in the past. That way, he can figure out a way to save his mother and change everything. Does anyone else see a situation coming where in a world where he does save his mom, he doesn’t become the Flash and Central City lacks a hero? This would be a terrible choice for him to make, and maybe we’re thinking far too dark for this show.
Perhaps the most subtle but important note about this episode is Iris realizing that Caitlin lied about who Ronnie really was, and figuring out that there are some mysterious things happening at STAR Labs. Basically, she’s a step closer to uncovering everything there, which in turn begs the question as to why people didn’t just tell her the truth, and she could protect them better from outsider. We don’t really think she would be against people saving the world!
We probably sound a tad negative, but the reality here is that we enjoyed this episode immensely. It did a whole lot right, had some humor to it, and got us to a nice mini-conclusion for the next month or so. You know that the real storm is still coming, and that’s what we’re excited to see. Grade: B.
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