So, some of you may be confused as to why I'm here. Well, I'm here for one reason and one reason only: Playing Flash Trope Bingo. And for those of you keeping track, I did not get bingo this week. In fact, I wasn't even close. I'll be posting my randomized Bingo cards every week on my Twitter account for those of you who are curious about my results.
For those of you who haven't read my review of the season 7 finale "Heart of the Matter, Part 2", I vowed to never watch this putrid show again. And honestly, I shouldn't have come back. Because if I know anything about this show, they'll manage to get me invested again somehow, and then I'll regret it. And honestly, I was gonna stick to my guns on this one and stay gone for good. Good riddance to this garbage show as far as I was considered. But... I had a little too much fun playing Bingo for the final episodes of Supergirl, and missed the mindless fun of making fun of terrible shows.
In terms of this episode though... I was surprised how many positive things I had to say about it. In fact, most of the negatives I had with the episode was with there being a little too much development for the side characters I don't care about. But even then, those scenes weren't that bad. And that... Well, it honestly kinda baffles me.
For starters, Barry Allen got a very large amount of screentime this episode where he was actually saving people. Heck, he even got to use powers like Speed Mirage, Flashtime and Speed Thinking again, which Eric Wallace retconned out of existence because it made Barry too overpowered. This is the first episode in, I think, the whole series where Barry finally feels like he's living up to his potential.
And on top of all that, Barry even gets to have some good heart to heart conversations with people, and even inspire some real, legitimate hope in Central City for once. I got a kick out of Barry telling Caitlin to let Frost just be herself and let her grow into her new life, and for more reasons than just because that was one of the only good plotlines that season 7 continued (technically, the idea of Frost getting to live her own life was introduced in season 6). After getting to talk a bunch of villains out of doing their villain things, Barry is finally able to treat his personal life with the same respect. And that is surprisingly refreshing, especially for this show! ... and I'm not falling for it.
Look, I know what show I'm watching. Any time that Barry gets to do something cool, something incredibly stupid immediately follows, the most recent example being season 7's "Enemy at the Gates", where Barry leads all of Godspeed's clones outside city limits, only for them all to OUTSPEED him, shoot him with lightning, and then proceed to get beat up by other Godspeed clones for a reason that is so absurd, I dare not mention it here. Trust me. I know what show I'm watching, and I'm not falling for this trickery.
Plus, there is this one weird scene where Barry and Iris act super awkward towards Ray, their friend, even though they agreed to let him stay with them if he needed to. They even try to make Chester spend the day with him because it really comes of like they don't want to. Kinda sends mixed messages considering the whole "Barry is a hero that inspires people now" thing.
I think another positive of the episode was how the writers handled Ray Palmer. He wasn't treated like a bad guy because he's been out of the picture for so long, or because he's white. No, he was treated with the base level of respect that you'd treat any character, which was refreshing, and it's depressing that this is something that has to be listed as a pro in this day and age. Ray's grown a lot off screen by the looks of things, and despite being the same nerdy guy we all love, he's also just trying to be a family man now. And believe it or not, I think that's the right way to go for this character. He doesn't want to start a new company or put the Atom suit back on because he doesn't want that kind of lifestyle anymore. As he says himself, "It's addicting". I think Ray may have been one of my favorite parts of the episode, just based on how much he's grown, and his interactions with Barry. And if "Armageddon" is the last time that we see Ray ... I'll honestly be a little disappointed.
Clearly, Osric Chau's Ryan Choi is being set up as the new Atom for the future, and that probably means that we'll be saying goodbye to Ray Palmer by the end of "Armageddon". And to be honest, I'll be more than a little sad if that's the case. Ray Palmer is probably one of the Arrowverse's best characters period, so it'll be sad to see him go after so long.
However, one thing I'm not looking forward to is Iris and Allegra continuing to be the show's secret true main characters. Don't get me wrong, Barry got more screen time in this episode than most episodes of season 7, and Iris is technically be the female lead of the show (even though Frost is a more interesting character, and also a metahuman that can fight crime), but that doesn't help the fact that these characters, who it's worth noting that nobody cares about, are absolutely secretly the main characters of the show. Allegra gets this plotline about how she's trying to garner respect for Iris's... Podcast? News outlet? I'm not really sure what it is anymore, but Iris owns it, and puts Allegra in charge of it. And Allegra... Doesn't think she's right for the job, and expresses her concerns to her boss?
Okay, what's going on here? If this was season 7, this character would be *relishing* in this kind of attention. So it's refreshing for her to be unconfident in Iris's decision, and means that maybe this character will be slightly less agonizing than she was last season. I think she should've been demoted to a full on background role, but I'll take what I can get. There's no saving this character. Nothing short of firing the entire writing staff of this show will accomplish that. But maybe, just maybe, Allegra will be a slightly less agonizing character to watch this season.
My final comments on the episode have to come from the villain of Armageddon: Despero. First off, compliments to whoever did his CGI. He doesn't look as good as, say, Solomon Grundy on Stargirl, but he definitely doesn't look bad. And considering the army of power rangers putties that claimed to be Godspeed last season, this can only be a step up from that. I admittedly don't know much about the character from the comics, but I think this was a good introduction to the character. He doesn't come off as one-note or blatantly villainous, but instead has seen a world ruined by the Flash and is trying to save it. And while the audience knows that Barry Allen is too much of a soyboy to ever be able to do what Despero claims he did, it definitely seems like the writers are trying to take this new villain seriously. And on this show, that's definitely refreshing. I mean, just look at what this show's done with its last 3 main villains at this point. They completely *ruined* Eva in between seasons and made the character completely unrecognizable when they actually had something good going for them for once in their lives. The Speed Force was a frickin' joke as the writers couldn't keep its' motivation consistent for more than one episode at a time. And we all know what the writers did to Godspeed. Having a villain that's treated like a real threat is actually a good thing for this show.
But then Barry reveals his identity to Despero at the end of the episode, and suddenly I remember that I'm watching a CW show. Yeah, I don't even have an excuse for that, in fact I called that it would happen, and it's just as dumb as it sounds. Barry reveals his identity to the guy that just tried to murder him. Oh, well it must be Tuesday.
Overall, I think this was probably the most refreshing episode of the Flash in a *long* time. I actually mostly enjoyed it when the episode wasn't making a big deal about Allegra or Chester (who I didn't talk about because he was just kind of weirdly tacked on and wasn't really worth mentioning as a major part of my review). I know I've given a lot of praise in this episode, which is very unlike me, but I honestly think this episode is a step in the right direction. I don't wanna jinx it, but it seems like the writers may have actually taken some of our advice in between seasons and started treating these characters with respect. I don't think this will solve all the show's problems, and I will continue to only watch this show to review it and play Flash Trope Bingo, but as far as this show's concerned, this could've, and probably should've, been a lot worse than it was.
8 / 10
I give it until episode 3 for it to go back to season 7 quality. I know what show I'm watching.
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