This episode, not unlike most of The Flash season seven, is a perfect representation of the season as a whole. A bunch of stuff we don't care about, taking up more time in our episode than stuff we do care about. Good scenes mixed in with a ton of bad scenes that we don't care about. That's what The Flash season seven is.
I know I said that last episode was a perfect representation of the season as a whole, but this episode is actually a perfect representation. We got Godspeed. Congratulations. Oh, but here's a whole bunch of stuff not related to him taking up more time in the episode than he does. Come on, man. Fans have been asking for Godspeed for *years* at this point, and *this* is what we get?
Credit where it's due, Barry *finally* got to act like a man against the Godspeed army. He stared down three Godspeeds and made them all chase him, risking his own life in the process. Barry's been so diluted over the season that you really have to ask whether the writers would let him act like a man ever again, but it happened this week, and that might be the best part of the episode. Barry's been acting like a complete soyboy for a few weeks now, so it's good to see him take charge and step up, even if he's also trying to hide the fact that him and his wife may be pregnant in a hilariously terrible fashion at the same time.
Also, believe it or not, it was actually good to see Nora back, even if it was just for one scene. I know a lot of people, my sister included, aren't excited to see this character back, but upon a rewatch of season five, she wasn't that bad. I actually found myself looking forward to her returning this season, which brings me to my next point.
The CW announced that we wouldn't only be getting Bart Allen this season, but also Nora West-Allen. You can't un-ring that bell, writers, no matter how much you want to. We know the kids are coming, heck I even recall Iris saying "When you let me die, you killed our children too." as far back as "Fear Me" this very season, and we've all been waiting for Barry to say "we're gonna need more diapers" since season four. Just get to it already. Please, this is the one thing that you clowns haven't ruined at this point. Just give us the Arrowverse's Tornado Twins already!
Speaking of things the writers have ruined, Godspeed. I know we've all been waiting since season five for this character to make his appearance on the show, but if this is how we're gonna get it... We needed more. What the writers are doing with Godspeed is... Confusing to say the least. Why are they fighting each other? Is this a thing that happened in the comics that I don't know about? I admittedly stopped reading about Godspeed after they tried to turn him into a good guy, so I don't know much about what's happening to him currently, but this just seems bizarre. First he was a guy from the future that wanted to become a speedster, then he was a bunch of clones, and now he's a bunch of clones fighting each other. I just feel more confused than excited for this plotline.
I also want to point out that there's only FOUR EPISODES of the season left. We spent seven episodes on "Force Quest", had three filler episodes, and now with FOUR EPISODES left of the season we're finally getting Godspeed. This character should've easily gotten his own season, not the leftovers from a season that he's too good for. Very underwhelming.
Oh yeah, and one final point on Godspeed, what ever happened to the big cgi speedster fights from the first three seasons? Heck, even season four had more big cgi fights than season seven, and season four was terrible! What happened? Where's all the cgi budget gone? Does the CW really want me to think that Superman and Lois and season six of Legends of Tomorrow were so expensive that they had to suck the cgi budgets of every other show dry? The Godspeeds throwing lightning looked laughable. It didn't look "fake" per se, but it didn't look nearly as good as when Barry threw lightning in season two, or even earlier this season in "The Speed of Thought". The special effects have looked really week all season pretty much. Well, except for the effects on Psyche while he was walking or standing. I like how it seemed like they looped him walking over each other a bunch of times. That was honestly sick. Where did that quality go? Why does it look like the Godspeeds throwing lightning looks like they're bowling all of the sudden?
I wanna delve a little further into this episode's fight scenes for a second. The Godspeeds hitting the barrier around STAR Labs looked hilariously fake. Every clone just sits there, staring at Barry, punching the barrier for a solid thirty seconds of the episode. Now, what they could do is run around the barrier and throw lightning at it, and we see the Godspeed clones throw lightning several times during the episode so there's no reason they wouldn't be able to do this. However, The Flash is clearly running out of cgi money, so Godspeed is just gonna sit here in hit white suit and hit this really fake looking barrier, and I just can't help but laugh at it.
At a distance, Barry vs Godspeed was actually insanely cool. We always get to see the Speedster fights in slow motion, which can be cool, but seeing them in normal time is also really cool. Just watching two blurs fly across the room, throw lightning at each other occasionally, and ram into each other is actually a really fun way to do the fights. However, when they slowed down the fight this time like they've done in seasons past, it looked really, really lame. It felt like the punches should've had so much more impact than they did, and for that reason it never felt like there was any real stakes, which is very contrary to what you want during a fight scene.
Also, both Frost and Chillblaine face off against some of the Godspeed clones and are able to hold their own. It doesn't make either of these characters look cool though. Instead, it just makes Godspeed look really, really stupid. Why aren't the Godspeeds running around the room like the one fighting Barry? And then they throw Speedster lightning at Frost and Chillblaine, and that's where the fight really loses me. There's no way they'd survive that. Frost maybe because of her "Ice Healing" she had back in season three, but Chillblaine is completley human. He'd absolutley be dead if he got hit by Speedster lightning!
Bottom line, the fights in this episode vary wildly in quality, and that's unfortunate when considering the fight quality this show's done in the past.
I still couldn't care less about Allegra's plotline. I'm sorry I don't feel bad for multiple murderer Ultraviolet, but I just couldn't care less about either of these characters. In fact, the only character I cared about during the scenes with Ultraviolet's surgery was Caitlin, whose plotline with Frost seems to have been sidelined so Frost could fall for some evil dude that wanted to steal her powers. Remember when Allegra was a cub reporter that wanted to make a name for herself? Whatever happened to that plotline? That's what they should be focusing on with Allegra. Iris training somebody new, i.e. Allegra, to be a reporter. I would really appreciate seeing that instead of whatever these last two episodes entailed for Allegra.
Meanwhile, Frost's plotline is at least not bad. At its core, Frost actually has a really good plotline. Considering that Frost's plotline last season was all about her learning to live her life, having Frost want to be in a relationship is actually a good direction, and I really like it. See, Frost isn't the problem with Frost's plotline. The problem is Chillblaine, who I'm gonna call him "Not Snart" from not on. See, the problem with Not Snart's character has done a complete one eighty from how he was originally intended. He started out as a sort-of icy Reverse Flash, but turned into a complete joke of a character that's just bad to be bad. I'm not saying Frost has to get with some super soyboy or anything, but, really, this guy? I think the point is that we're supposed to hate him or love to hate him, and Jon Cor does a good job in that respect, but I'm definitely more on the side that just hates him as opposed to the side that loves to hate him.
Joe's plot is still there, I guess. When there's so much to complain about for the rest of the episode, Joe's plot feels like an afterthought. Joe's plots are never the most interesting, but are always solid. When a plot that's solid, or "just okay", is the most interesting plot of the show, that's very telling about the show. It means the rest of the plots are so boring or ludicrous that I couldn't care less about them.
Another mediocre episode of The Flash. Such a shame that this series used to be the best CW show, or even the best superhero show, but has not only consistently been shown up by newer and better tv shows like WandaVision and Invincible (at least from what I've heard, I'm not buying an Amazon Prime account just to watch ONE tv show), but this show has also been consistently getting worse. Granted, season six was the best season since the first in my opinion, and season five was better than I remember it being on my initial watch, but this season just shows a massive drop in quality that I don't think it will ever recover from.
Honestly? I'm more disappointed than angry. And in a lot of ways, that's worse than being angry, especially as a fan.
This one's a mediocre 6 / 10. The writers really lowered my expectations so much that this felt like a GOOD episode!
I know I said that last episode was a perfect representation of the season as a whole, but this episode is actually a perfect representation. We got Godspeed. Congratulations. Oh, but here's a whole bunch of stuff not related to him taking up more time in the episode than he does. Come on, man. Fans have been asking for Godspeed for *years* at this point, and *this* is what we get?
Credit where it's due, Barry *finally* got to act like a man against the Godspeed army. He stared down three Godspeeds and made them all chase him, risking his own life in the process. Barry's been so diluted over the season that you really have to ask whether the writers would let him act like a man ever again, but it happened this week, and that might be the best part of the episode. Barry's been acting like a complete soyboy for a few weeks now, so it's good to see him take charge and step up, even if he's also trying to hide the fact that him and his wife may be pregnant in a hilariously terrible fashion at the same time.
Also, believe it or not, it was actually good to see Nora back, even if it was just for one scene. I know a lot of people, my sister included, aren't excited to see this character back, but upon a rewatch of season five, she wasn't that bad. I actually found myself looking forward to her returning this season, which brings me to my next point.
The CW announced that we wouldn't only be getting Bart Allen this season, but also Nora West-Allen. You can't un-ring that bell, writers, no matter how much you want to. We know the kids are coming, heck I even recall Iris saying "When you let me die, you killed our children too." as far back as "Fear Me" this very season, and we've all been waiting for Barry to say "we're gonna need more diapers" since season four. Just get to it already. Please, this is the one thing that you clowns haven't ruined at this point. Just give us the Arrowverse's Tornado Twins already!
Speaking of things the writers have ruined, Godspeed. I know we've all been waiting since season five for this character to make his appearance on the show, but if this is how we're gonna get it... We needed more. What the writers are doing with Godspeed is... Confusing to say the least. Why are they fighting each other? Is this a thing that happened in the comics that I don't know about? I admittedly stopped reading about Godspeed after they tried to turn him into a good guy, so I don't know much about what's happening to him currently, but this just seems bizarre. First he was a guy from the future that wanted to become a speedster, then he was a bunch of clones, and now he's a bunch of clones fighting each other. I just feel more confused than excited for this plotline.
I also want to point out that there's only FOUR EPISODES of the season left. We spent seven episodes on "Force Quest", had three filler episodes, and now with FOUR EPISODES left of the season we're finally getting Godspeed. This character should've easily gotten his own season, not the leftovers from a season that he's too good for. Very underwhelming.
Oh yeah, and one final point on Godspeed, what ever happened to the big cgi speedster fights from the first three seasons? Heck, even season four had more big cgi fights than season seven, and season four was terrible! What happened? Where's all the cgi budget gone? Does the CW really want me to think that Superman and Lois and season six of Legends of Tomorrow were so expensive that they had to suck the cgi budgets of every other show dry? The Godspeeds throwing lightning looked laughable. It didn't look "fake" per se, but it didn't look nearly as good as when Barry threw lightning in season two, or even earlier this season in "The Speed of Thought". The special effects have looked really week all season pretty much. Well, except for the effects on Psyche while he was walking or standing. I like how it seemed like they looped him walking over each other a bunch of times. That was honestly sick. Where did that quality go? Why does it look like the Godspeeds throwing lightning looks like they're bowling all of the sudden?
I wanna delve a little further into this episode's fight scenes for a second. The Godspeeds hitting the barrier around STAR Labs looked hilariously fake. Every clone just sits there, staring at Barry, punching the barrier for a solid thirty seconds of the episode. Now, what they could do is run around the barrier and throw lightning at it, and we see the Godspeed clones throw lightning several times during the episode so there's no reason they wouldn't be able to do this. However, The Flash is clearly running out of cgi money, so Godspeed is just gonna sit here in hit white suit and hit this really fake looking barrier, and I just can't help but laugh at it.
At a distance, Barry vs Godspeed was actually insanely cool. We always get to see the Speedster fights in slow motion, which can be cool, but seeing them in normal time is also really cool. Just watching two blurs fly across the room, throw lightning at each other occasionally, and ram into each other is actually a really fun way to do the fights. However, when they slowed down the fight this time like they've done in seasons past, it looked really, really lame. It felt like the punches should've had so much more impact than they did, and for that reason it never felt like there was any real stakes, which is very contrary to what you want during a fight scene.
Also, both Frost and Chillblaine face off against some of the Godspeed clones and are able to hold their own. It doesn't make either of these characters look cool though. Instead, it just makes Godspeed look really, really stupid. Why aren't the Godspeeds running around the room like the one fighting Barry? And then they throw Speedster lightning at Frost and Chillblaine, and that's where the fight really loses me. There's no way they'd survive that. Frost maybe because of her "Ice Healing" she had back in season three, but Chillblaine is completley human. He'd absolutley be dead if he got hit by Speedster lightning!
Bottom line, the fights in this episode vary wildly in quality, and that's unfortunate when considering the fight quality this show's done in the past.
I still couldn't care less about Allegra's plotline. I'm sorry I don't feel bad for multiple murderer Ultraviolet, but I just couldn't care less about either of these characters. In fact, the only character I cared about during the scenes with Ultraviolet's surgery was Caitlin, whose plotline with Frost seems to have been sidelined so Frost could fall for some evil dude that wanted to steal her powers. Remember when Allegra was a cub reporter that wanted to make a name for herself? Whatever happened to that plotline? That's what they should be focusing on with Allegra. Iris training somebody new, i.e. Allegra, to be a reporter. I would really appreciate seeing that instead of whatever these last two episodes entailed for Allegra.
Meanwhile, Frost's plotline is at least not bad. At its core, Frost actually has a really good plotline. Considering that Frost's plotline last season was all about her learning to live her life, having Frost want to be in a relationship is actually a good direction, and I really like it. See, Frost isn't the problem with Frost's plotline. The problem is Chillblaine, who I'm gonna call him "Not Snart" from not on. See, the problem with Not Snart's character has done a complete one eighty from how he was originally intended. He started out as a sort-of icy Reverse Flash, but turned into a complete joke of a character that's just bad to be bad. I'm not saying Frost has to get with some super soyboy or anything, but, really, this guy? I think the point is that we're supposed to hate him or love to hate him, and Jon Cor does a good job in that respect, but I'm definitely more on the side that just hates him as opposed to the side that loves to hate him.
Joe's plot is still there, I guess. When there's so much to complain about for the rest of the episode, Joe's plot feels like an afterthought. Joe's plots are never the most interesting, but are always solid. When a plot that's solid, or "just okay", is the most interesting plot of the show, that's very telling about the show. It means the rest of the plots are so boring or ludicrous that I couldn't care less about them.
Another mediocre episode of The Flash. Such a shame that this series used to be the best CW show, or even the best superhero show, but has not only consistently been shown up by newer and better tv shows like WandaVision and Invincible (at least from what I've heard, I'm not buying an Amazon Prime account just to watch ONE tv show), but this show has also been consistently getting worse. Granted, season six was the best season since the first in my opinion, and season five was better than I remember it being on my initial watch, but this season just shows a massive drop in quality that I don't think it will ever recover from.
Honestly? I'm more disappointed than angry. And in a lot of ways, that's worse than being angry, especially as a fan.
This one's a mediocre 6 / 10. The writers really lowered my expectations so much that this felt like a GOOD episode!