The Flash - 'Out of Time'

"Sure glad I don't look stupid doing this..."

There's a new Weather Wizard in town; Clyde Mardon's brother Mark is back for revenge on Joe, and only a wand (either a nod to the comics or Mardon's future weapon of choice) seems to offer any chance of stopping him. Evidence continues to pile up against Wells, leading Cisco to launch a fateful gambit. And Barry is having the worst sort of trouble... girl trouble.

And then there's that cliffhanger...

In sister show Arrow (still need to catch up on the end of Season 2) Season 1 was shaken up when Malcolm Merlyn was upgraded from sinister chessmaster to absolute badass. Despite a few past showings, this episode basically does the same for Harrison Wells, not just confirming our suspicion about his abilities and motives, but stepping him over the line and confirming that there is no double bluff, no twist face turn; he may possess a certain tragic nobility, but he's a proper bastard too.

"Do you ever think that maybe we could have a superhero show
that doesn't rely on a love triangle for its romantic tension?"

Of course, the cliffhanger presents the opportunity for the show to both have its cake and eat it, to have Wells murder one of Team Flash and then take it back, so that we know, but the characters don't. It also presents the potential to undo the other horrors of the week: the crippling of Joe and the Captain, the devastation of the precinct, and of course Barry and Iris kissing (even lips locked I wasn't feeling the love there, and it pains me that time travelling Barry may remember the kiss and mope for a few more episodes.)

Linda Park has not really grown on me, largely because the show is determined that she not be 'the one', I think, and so keeps showing her in an openly confrontational relationship to Iris instead of more sympathetically. It's a shame, because I would really have liked the two of them to click; there'd be more tension for Barry if they didn't turn into grasping, possessive harpies, and we might finally get this thing past the Bechamel Test.

On a more positive note - I hope - I'd like to talk about the Captain. He's your classic hardass boss cop; and also gay. It's not a huge thing, he's not really into musicals, he's just gay. And getting married. And an unsympathetic jerk to his underlings (especially Barry), and he took a bolt of lightning for Joe, because he's also a big, damn hero. (As the icing on the cake, they meet his fiance in the hospital who tells them he speaks highly of Barry.) I love this character.

Next week then is the time travel/reset button episode, which is a make or break moment if I ever saw one.