By Brady Steele / twitter: @mrbradysteele. This week’s episode did a few different things than previous ones. It showed how things can change and stay the same at the same time. There’s been a steady growth of people who want The Flash (Grant Gustin) gone, just like I remember in the comics. What’s interesting here is how they achieve the same thing but in a clever way for TV viewers to accept as TV-plausible.
The Flash / Barry Allen accidentally time travelled last week (Doh! I hate when that happens) and is now reliving the last day’s events. Having the knowledge and memories of how things turned out, Flash is determined to do things differently so there are happy endings all around. Nipping the Weather Wizard (Liam McIntyre) in the bud before he unleashes a tsunami is just the beginning of the changes Barry makes. There are more personal moments Barry tries to implement but things still don’t work out perfectly for him or his friends. Having prior knowledge doesn’t seem to be enough for what Barry wants to change.
It’s always stimulating to see how the show runners tackle time travel as a concept in this series. Comic book logic notwithstanding, it’s always a fun and tricky idea to play around with in any medium. Revelations from the last episode are reset and lives are saved which shocked viewers a week ago. Our villain-in-hiding, Dr. Harrison Wells / Reverse-Flash(Tom Cavanagh), continues to slyly manipulate people and events to achieve his goals.
It’s great to see that things are unravelling at a satisfying pace. My only hope is that they do not pull this time travel trick often. I understand that because Barry changed the sequence of events of the previous day. My concern is that if they use this plot device more that it will diminish the drama unfolding. If Flash can just run back in time and fix things, then nothing seem permanent which would be a shame.
The other cool moments of this week include the growing of the Rogues. Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller, Heatwave (Dominic Purcell) and now Golden Glider (Peyton List) all make their presence felt in a big way. The way Flash deals with them is truly refreshing for an action show: giving them a code of conduct. This is one of the key differences between The Flash’s enemies and other heroes. Yes, they’re all a little crazy BUT they operate like proper criminals, not just powered lunatics. The game is getting set up for hopefully a long, long time.
It all adds up to another thoroughly enjoyable installment of this series. Here’s hoping for more good stuff (and Grodd finally) next week.
SCORE: 8 / 10 BOLTS