[Review] The Flash (2014) Episode 4×16: “Run, Iris, Run”

Welcome back to Flashcaps, where we review previous seasons of the CW’s The Flash.


written by George Hatch

WHY.

Spoilers under the cut.

The Plot: As Team Flash tries to find the remaining bus metas, one of them (Melting Point) uses his powers to transfer the dark matter from one person to another. During questioning, he puts Barry’s speed into Iris. Team Flash tries to reverse the situation, and eventually does. Harry builds a thinking cap similar to DeVoe’s, both without and eventually with Cisco’s help. Ralph is too afraid to leave S.T.A.R. Labs.

The Good: At no point in this episode is Cisco wrong, especially about boosting the intelligence of someone with phenomenal rage issues. Joe is awesome throughout as well, especially when dealing with Iris.

The Bad: Why? That’s all I want to know. Why? Why is Iris West-Allen so thoroughly disrespected in this episode? Even putting aside that she’s supposed to be doubting herself because a man questioned her courage (which I’m not putting aside, because holy shit that’s sexist), in no way has Iris ever been timid. When faced with extreme situations, she defaults towards reckless. Hell, just a few episodes ago, she literally went face-to-face with Amunet Black and her thugs just to save Caitlin’s life. Furthermore, last episode literally showed how quick-thinking she could be when she came up with the solution to stop the nuclear explosion. Now she can’t figure out centrifugal force?

The worst of it is the rest of this episode is mediocre and cliché-filled, so the stupid stuff stands out like a sore thumb. This episode is one of the lowest ranked on IMDB (and I know at least part of that is because prominently featuring a black woman on your show automatically brings out the red-hat-wearing, boot-licking, anime-avatar types), and “Run, Iris, Run” justifies its poor score just for how bad it treats one of its main characters.

Next week, Danny Trejo returns. Hopefully this doesn’t mean Cisco gets dumbed down for plot convenience.

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Seasons 1-5 of The Flash are available now on Netflix. George Hatch isn’t dumbed down for plot convenience; he’s just always like this. Especially on Twitter at @Raeseti.

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