Welcome back to Flashcaps, where we review previous seasons of the CW’s The Flash.
written by George Hatch
You ever have one of those days that just seems to drag on forever? Yeah, Barry experiences the literal version of that this week.
Spoilers under the cut.
The Plot: After last week’s disaster (both in continuity and in terms of episode quality), Barry’s pushing himself and his friends too much to prepare for the Thinker. Iris finally gets him to take the night off and go out with her, but that plan goes out the window when Joe signals for help. He and a caravan of CCPD officers were escorting an A.R.G.U.S. truck to a warehouse and got ambushed. Team Flash manages to take down most of the ambushers, but the leader triggers a nuclear detonator. Barry and Jesse Quick, who was there to visit her father, have to move at super-speed continuously (like Barry did with Iris in the courthouse in “The Trial of the Flash”) in order to find a way to stop the explosion.
Barry brings others into what’s dubbed “Flashtime” to try and solve the puzzle (and Jay Garrick joins the party), but in the end it’s Iris with the right idea: Use the Quark Sphere they used to trick the Speed Force into delivering several quadrillion joules of electricity to the bomb, which reverses the explosion by triggering nuclear fission. Barry’s ordered to rest, and he and Iris cuddle for the night.
The Good: So, the best Flash episode of all time? I gotta say I’m disappointed…that I hadn’t already watched this one. No, seriously, “Enter Flashtime” is absolutely the best episode of the series I’ve seen. A lot of the time, the plot in these shows will meander in effort to give the actors something to do or to focus on a particular B-plot that will bear fruit down the line. Not this one. The B-plot helps to introduce Jesse Quick back to the world, gives us an emotional payoff at the end, and for the other thirty minutes it’s just Barry and the gang trying to save Central City in the span of a few seconds. This is tightly plotted, the characters act and react perfectly, and there’s even a brilliant callback to the beginning of the season to solve the problem.
The Bad: …It might be so good that the rest of the episodes look bad? Seriously, that’s the best I can do. Actually, no, that bit at the end with Nora. Granted, this is with hindsight and having watched Season 5, but having her seem to be potentially villainous is a pretty big misstep.
Other than that, my gods, watch this episode. Next week, Iris gets speed powers…oh, wait, this is the one that made Dayna yell at the TV. That’s a good sign.
Seasons 1-5 of The Flash are available now on Netflix. George Hatch can be found frozen in place on Twitter at @Raeseti.