By Brady Steele / twitter: @mrbradysteele. ‘The Nuclear Man’ finally arrives in Central City. Not only that, Barry Allen’s love life and Flash duties almost exploded everywhere too. This is one episode that slid more into the mushy side of episode TV, with everyone who even remotely has potential for love had their moments. Not to fear, though: there was still a decent amount of action and energy to keep the action flowing.
I’m not sure if the creative team making shows like this purposely try to tie in their episodes into seasonal holidays or events but dang, they were NOT subtle about Valentine’s Day being around the corner. Barry (Grant Gustin) is going on his first date (Again? I thought he did that at the end of last week) with Linda Park (Malese Jow). I have to give a tip of my silver hat (Flash fans know who’s hat I’m using) to the writers of this character so far. She is exactly how I remember Linda being in the comics: strong, independent and smart. She is no cookie-cutter girlfriend and that’s pitch perfect.
Everyone seems to get their tender moments on screen this week too: Ronnie (Robbie Amell) and Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) have a really bizarre reunion (it’s him but not ALL of him) and Professor Martin Stein (Victor Garber) and his wife Clarissa (Isabella Hofmann) somehow kind of reconnect. Even Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) meets a cougar (Chase Masterson) while investigating Nora Allen’s cold case. Again, Iris (Candice Patton) is left floating around the background, unsure if she’s actually happy that Barry is no longer crushing on her. Needless to say, there’s plenty of mushy stuff this time out of the blocks.
Thankfully, there’s also a good amount of action. The Flash saves a jumper (“…on the corner of 52nd & Waid”, DC Comics wink) whilst on a date. Flash and Firestorm tussle and our Scarlett Speedster is taken off of his element (aka his feet) and for a fly-by. The visuals of Firestorm are improving and the addition of the gizmo to separate the two men was a nice nod to the character’s unique costume roots. The Ronnie-as-Stein moments are done quite nicely by Robbie Amell. He’s playing the two characters at the same time which cannot be easy but when Stein is talking, you can definitely tell it’s not Ronnie. There are some cool time travel CSI moments with Cisco (Carlos Valdes) too.
The hooks at the end of the episodes are really good at keeping my attention as to what’s coming next week. That plus the cliff hanger ending plus General Eiling (Clancy Brown) just barking “Get me Firestorm!” gives me an idea of what kind of episode the next one will be without explicitly telling viewers. While a little too sappy this week, I’m still eager to see what happens when I tune in next week.