The Flash Season 2 Episodes 4-5 review - The Fury of Firestorm/The Darkness and the Light

Just as a point of interest, I saw Arrow's crossover with Constantine and have kept enough of an eye on the story that I could follow it. It was good, I'm not overwhelmed but it was good. Constantine needed to be a bit more a b*stard if they wanted to fully embrace his character but his presence added to the more light-hearted tone they've been going for. Yes, I will be reviewing both halves of the Flash/Arrow crossover that's imminent plus I'm told the last 2 episodes of both shows will lead into Legends of Tomorrow, so I'll be reviewing both of those as well. I'm not watching Gotham and I'm sorry that Supergirl has also been shafted.

With that all said, let's dig into the next 2 episodes of The Flash

The Fury of Firestorm

So many wow moments, but with so many problems as well

Oh Flash, you embrace the fun of super-heroism, relish in the super-powered arms race, you provide a hero that’s not constantly depressed or having angst issues, but then you fall into exactly the same pitfalls your sister show Arrow falls into as well.

OK, let’s start with Iris’ subplot. Her mother coming back. Her eventual reaction of wishing her well but not wanting her as part of her life is grown up and well handled. Her mother herself is something of a compulsive liar for the sake of melo-drama. I hate melodrama in superheroes. People can have drama in their lives without it always revolving around secrets and lies. Don’t get me wrong, secrets are important in a superhero universe (unless you’re the MCU where the idea of a secret identity has barely been touched upon) but it’s more of this ‘I’m lying to protect you’ BS that’s plagued these series since day 1

As such Iris’ decision not to tell Joe about Wally West is purely there for the sake of melodrama, and I hate hate hate it. Joe has been through a lot, and I understand not wanting to put him through this, but the truth rarely stays buried and it’s actually really pathetic.

So, with that out of the way, let’s get down to the firestorm stuff. Caitlin has narrowed down them to conveniently two candidates. One of them is the scientist who Caitlin prefers because she’s suddenly becomes exceptionally shallow and the other is the footballer who’s had a run of dumb luck and is more resistant to becoming Stein’s other half.

OK, let me run down the things I don’t like. Barry taking blood samples of the two without their consent, Caitlin’s sudden shallowness and calling a person someone who didn’t do anything with their life without knowing the family history. The other guy becoming a villain for shallow reasons. Luring under false pretenses. These are not good things

In the very very light background, we have the King Shark, based I think off the Superboy villain (can we get to Mirror Master already, he’s the villain I’ve wanted to see since the show began) he didn’t do very much he just got beat by Earth 2 Harrison Wells, who has stolen something before appearing before Barry. So either he isn’t zoom (yay) or zoom’s playing mind games now (*sighs*) either way this episode was a poor showing from a good creative team

Rating 4.5/10

The Darkness and the Light

OK, I may have jumped to the conclusion that Zoom is Harrison Wells, thank god that appears not to be true

So, the Harrison Wells of Earth Two is a jerk scientist who hates Jay Garrick for reasons I don’t particularly understand and did I mention he’s a jerk, because he is, a jerk I mean. Oh and he developed a watch that can detect meta-humans

So, the plot. Barry is taking the return of Harrison Wells way too well, everyone else seems more in character. Harrison Wells is a jerk (in case I hadn’t mentioned that) there a supervillain called Doctor Light Zoom has brought in who is not usually a killer and ends up killing people because of Barry’s restraint. And Flash takes the quickest lesson to learn a new power ever, and it doesn’t even do anything.

Did I miss anything? Linda’s in this one, also Doctor Light is her counterpart, that’s nice. Erm, Patty goes on a date with Barry, whilst he was blinded. Erm… Cisco tries to hit it on and… Oh yeah, Doctor Wells is a jerk and outs Cisco as a metahuman without his consent.

Oh and Jay Garrick serves the moral reasoning purpose in this one, although we do get a better insight as to his fears of Zoom. Harrison must also fear him as we find out at the end that Zoom has his daughter hostage, whatever he’s still a jerk.

I’m sorry I have nothing to say with this one, everything’s good but nothing stood out to me because if you peel it back, there’s no advancement in any previously established plot thread. Harrison helps them stop a new super-villain and that’s really it. Oh Barry decides it’s time to face Zoom, which leads to the next episode but other than that, I can’t feel like this a landmark in plot progression. Which is fine, serialised stories can take it slow, it just means there’s little to comment on except Wells being a jerk

Rating 7.5/10

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