The Flash - 'Power Outage'

That's gotta sting.

It's the helpless episode this week, as a run in with meta of the week Farooq sees the Flash drained of his powers and Barry questioning what, if anything, he is without them. Given his speech to Girder last week about how the dark energy pulse from the supercollider doesn't change who you are, just makes you more, this seems like an odd reversal, but it emphasises his attachment to being the Flash, and not just to having power, but being able to use it to help others, as his weakened state leaves him unable to aid either Team Flash as Farooq lays siege to STAR Labs, or Iris and Joe when the Clock King takes hostages at the precinct.

For all Barry's navel gazing, however, this week really belongs to Dr Wells and Iris. Wells is able to show a rare degree of uncertainty, as the depowering of the Flash sends his records of the future into a tailspin. In addition, alongside the secret ruthlessness we've come to know (which we see once more when he releases Girder to fight a suicidal holding action,) we learn that he does care about people, remembering the names of everyone killed by the pulse that he created (including Ralph 'The Elongated Man' Dibney, teasing an appearance by the Ductile Detective.)

It's possible that the police took their eyes off the ball because
they misread his jacket and assumed he was down to his last
hit point.

Meanwhile, the supercriminal known as the Clock King is being transferred from Iron Heights - having been captured in an episode of Arrow I haven't seen yet - to Central City Prison. It's also a good week for supervillains, as Girder gets a moving curtain call and the Clock King dominates his scenes with his ruthless precision and fastidous nature. In a nice turn, it falls to the hero-worshipping Iris to become a self-rescuing princess when her predicitions of a Flash-based rescue don't materialise, which makes me like her more even if the chemistry remains wrong (which, halfway through Arrow season 2 is more than I can say for Laurel.)