With the story of Firestorm being the driving force behind this episode, the reveal of at least one person in the room that night Barry’s mother was killed is shown. It was a nice change of pace from the villain of the week format we’ve become accustomed to. For weeks the plot of Ronnie Raymond and Dr. Martin Stein has been built up and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
The big reveal that was hinted at last week’s episode of course was that even though Ronnie Raymond was strutting around the city doing his best Johnny Blaze impression, more on that in a second, it is actually Dr. Stein who is in control. Robbie Amell does a commendable job of trying to portray an old man in a young man’s body, dare I say even better than Lindsay Lohan’s performance in Freaky Friday.
With this sort of situation I expected the drama to be at an all time high and I wasn’t wrong. The scenes between “Ronnie Raymond” and Caitlin/Mrs. Stein were especially heart wrenching. Despite the emotion in this episode, the brief action sequences between The Flash and Firestorm were very well done. Â SPeaking of The Flash, a big reveal occurred towards the end of the episode where we found out that Barry Allen was in fact one of the men in the room the night Nora Allen died. Whether this is present day Barry or future Barry remains to be seen.
THE POSITIVES
The Joe West/Cisco team up was easily the funniest part about this episode. From them finding out key details to Nora Allen’s murder to being goaded by a seductive cougar, they sure had us giggling more than enough times.
I’m also really glad Barry immediately called Iris out on her hypocrisy after she essentially tried to ended his newfound relationship with Linda Parks, who is a welcome addition I might add. In most shows they would drag out this pointless love triangle but the writers seem to be smarter than that.
Finally to see The Flash and Firestorm duke it out for a couple minutes was a welcome sight.
THE NEGATIVES
The lack of Grodd! After that awesome cliffhanger in last week’s episode, there is no sign of our super powered gorilla.
Also I was not a fan of Barry telling Ronnie Raymond to not “flame on” a la Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four, once he actually said it I think I groaned a little.
Not a fan of such an abrupt ending, usually with each episode we reach a culmination of whatever villain we’re dealing with but this week’s ending seemed too fast. I was a fan of General Eiling making another appearance though.
THE VERDICT
This week’s Firestorm drive episode was a welcome addition to The Flash. It successfully held up with the enormous amount of buildup and has us aching for more. Another clue is made known in the murder of Nora Allen and it should have us rereading our Flash comics to find out more information.
