The Flash S01E05 – Review

By: Aaron Helbing, Todd Helbing, Brooke Eikmeier (story)

The Story: Barry’s drinking problem is that he’ll never have a drinking problem.

The Review: The Flash officially has an Iris problem, just as Arrow had and still has a Dinah problem. After easing off a little on the Iris puppy-love last episode, this one doubles down, forcing Grant Gustin to fake a catch in his voice as he narrates his feelings for his surrogate sister. As the hour wears on, you can’t help but notice that the chemistry between Barry and Iris produces only a friendly warmth, and outside her value as a romantic interest, she struggles to fit into the overarching Flash narrative.

Just as Dinah prosecution of the Arrow’s targets failed to make her a vital part of the show, Iris’ insistence on blogging the Streak’s exploits does nothing to elevate her role. Her initial claim that she’s doing it to help Barry solve his mother’s murder would have been a legitimate and admirable motivation, but once she refuses to back off even at Barry’s choked up insistence, she swerves into obscure territory again.

“[I]t’s about something more for me now,” she tells Barry, with little trace of regret. “Whoever this Streak is, wherever he comes from, I am not stopping until the rest of the world believes in him.” Yet it’s not at all clear that she’s filling a vacuum left by traditional news media, and Flash—I’m sorry, Streak evangelist sounds a lot like Streak fangirl to me, and Iris should be better than that.

The show should focus more on the increasingly convincing, though still clumsily rendered, friendship between Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco. Barry’s latest predicament with his powers, i.e., that his hypermetabolism makes it impossible for him to get drunk anymore (“I’m only 25 and my drinking days are over!” he protests in dismay), leads to amusingly nerdy glee from his friends and eventually the episode’s sweetest moment, when Caitlin distills a 500-proof concoction to get him temporarily buzzed.

That’s the funny thing about Caitlin. Although initially conceived as the show’s frostiest character, she’s gradually evolved into a more viable romantic interest for Barry than Iris and a more dependable comic relief than Cisco. Maybe it has something to do with Danielle Panabaker’s inherent cuteness or her snappy way with Caitlin’s smart remarks.* Or maybe it has to do with Carlos Valdes’ inability to sell more than half of Cisco’s hackneyed antics. His crush on the shapely Plastique comes across as just a little too pervy, and almost all his jokes are juvenile in nature, forced in delivery.

As for Plastique herself, more commonly known (for now) as Bette Sans Sousi, she’s given a sympathetic makeover from her comic book incarnation, despite Kelly Frye’s stiff performance. An ex-soldier embittered and worried by her uncontrollable power to detonate anything she touches, she offers a potentially interesting dilemma to the S.T.A.R. crew as the first metahuman besides Barry who doesn’t want to hurt anyone, yet too dangerous to fit his altruistic model. Unfortunately, the problem is mooted when Wells manipulates her into a situation she can’t escape, leaving her fate open-ended.

She does leave behind some ominous, albeit fractured and ambiguous, last words about Wells to Barry, though, which should set him on the path to their inevitable confrontation. Even now, whether Wells is doing what he does for Barry’s good is up in the air, but either way, you can’t imagine someone with such a deviated moral compass from Barry’s is destined to be his ally. Certainly, Barry will find it hard to overlook what happened to Bette if he ever discovers Wells’ role in it.

Conclusion: Iris remains an obstacle for the show and weaknesses in the acting/writing are more apparent than usual.

Grade: B

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * And there are a lot of good ones this time. Her withering response to Barry’s pitch of stacking mattresses to save a dangling window-cleaner: “Barry, this isn’t a Roadrunner cartoon.” Her flabbergasted reaction to Cisco’s offering a boomerang to Bette for detonation trials: “Didn’t really think this one through, did you?” Her summation of Barry’s latest ability: “You can walk on water; puts you in pretty interesting company.”

– Maybe for some people, Joe’s “Must be Tuesday in Central City” is good for a metafictional laugh, but I’ve also personally witnessed Buffy Summers’ “Dawn’s in trouble. Must be Tuesday” line, as well as Dean Winchester’s “Another horseman. Must be Thursday.” An old joke, even on different shows, is still an old joke.

– A lot of classic Flash tricks established this time: besides the never drunk side-effect, we have Barry running up buildings and on water, as well as disguising his voice.