Welcome back to Flashcaps, where we review previous seasons of the CW’s The Flash.
written by George Hatch
…Fuck, it’s a Ralph episode.
Spoilers under the cut.
The Plot: As Barry adapts to prison life, Ralph is called upon to save Central City from the (non-Mark Hamill) Trickster and his mother, Prank.
The Good: As this is mostly a Ralph episode, there’s no new DeVoe bullshit. Corrine Bohrer, who reprises her role of Prank from the ’90s Flash TV show, is wonderful as co-villain. Beebo continues to always love you. Ralph isn’t a total jerk. Barry and Joe’s talk in jail melted my heart. Barry inspires Ralph to be the hero Barry believes he can be. Actually, all the Barry stuff worked really well.
The Bad: The whole tone of this episode careens so wildly from zany to somber, it gave me whiplash. I understand wanting to differentiate the kind of hero Ralph will be with the type of hero Barry is, but this was very poorly implemented. Speaking of poorly implemented, I definitely noticed that they replaced Trickster II with the Riddler from Batman Forever, and I didn’t like it. Devon Graye trying to do manic Mark Hamill was a horrible choice, and I hope to never see him do this again.
I guess my biggest problem with this episode is that Ralph talks way too much. It feels like he’s constantly trying to narrate his feelings and actions, and it grinds important story beats to a halt. Honestly, it feels like the original premise for this episode was Ralph narrating his first solo adventure. In that context, the villains’ hamminess, the Schumacher-esque sets, and Ralph’s hero speeches would have made a lot more sense.
By the way, can we stop trying to give wrestlers roles in the Arrowverse? They’re not all going to be the Rock or Batista. Goldberg’s not exactly bad as Big Sir, but he’s definitely not good, which isn’t that surprising because his thing was being a man of few words and fewer moves.
Also, I know that in his first appearance, Trickster II didn’t know Mark Hamill was his dad and now is acting like he always knew who his dad was, but Flashpoint happened in-between so nyeah nyeah to you, continuity. Also, the chair Beebo was sitting in didn’t melt when it was hit with the *sigh* Axid. I’ll choose to say that’s because the chair was made of the same metal as the vat holding the Axid, and not because the VFX team missed that one. Do I get a No-Prize even though this isn’t Marvel?
Next time, there will definitely be shrinkage, Jerry.
Seasons 1-5 of The Flash are available now on Netflix. It’s not much of a stretch to find George Hatch on Twitter at @Raeseti.