Review: The Flash “Fallout”

Major Spoilers ahead, do not continue if you are not caught up. If you are not caught up…you should probably get caught up.

Grodd! Speedforce! Time Travel! Firestorm! Childhood dreams come true tonight! I feel a bit repetitious at this point in saying this is by far the best episode of The Flash, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t. One of the things I love about this show is that it does not beat around the bush. Last week we discovered that Barry Allen at some point goes back in time in attempt to stop his mother’s murder. I think if this were another show (Arrow) they’d dance around the subject and wait 4 episodes to tell Barry. Well nope, they keep him in the loop and the implications could lead to some huge events.

This episode also closed up a two episode arc of Firestorm aka Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein and to say it exceeded my own expectations is an understatement. Most of the episode focused solely on the separated Ronnie and Prof. Stein which made for some satisfying emotional scenes. Especially between Ronnie and Caitlin who essentially got her wish in having her dead fiance back, but perhaps not in the manner she anticipated. After Ronnie pleads with her to start their lives over in another city she pretty much tells him no. She’s undergone a lot of character development to the point where she feels obligated now to stay and help people, it’s quite admirable. Not to be outdone though Ronnie showed impressive bravery as he rushed headfirst in an attempt to save Prof. Stein who was kidnapped from a pesky General Eiling.

The Firestorm merger, inner dialogue, etc is one of the coolest things they’ve done on the show. It was like a page out of a comic. I will say this though, if The CW were messing around with the thought of giving The Atom his own spinoff show from Arrow, they need to seriously consider Firestorm as well because this episode was sort of build up in a way that Barry Allen was back when he guest starred on Arrow. 

That shot of Flash and Firestorm racing away from the military base will probably take the cake for most screenshotted scene from any episode.

THE POSITIVES

I won’t lie I squealed in the last couple minutes of this week’s episode. As soon as Reverse Flash kidnapped Eiling I thought, “Oh this will be interesting.” When he stopped vibrating to take off his mask I said, “Oh no way, they wouldn’t!” When it was revealed Harrison Wells is none other than the RF I yelped. But then I passed out once RF revealed his “old friend” Gorilla Grodd who gave the best line of the night courtesy of a panicking Eiling.

“Oh my God!”
“Not God. Grodd.”

At that point I passed out from hyperventilating for a brief moment.

With this reveal of Harrison Wells we can stop now with all the old theories being thrown around on who the RF was.  I don’t want to get too ahead of myself because there’s still a lot to be answered but I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the very “Flashpoint” feel to this all.

Another good point of this episode was Barry coming to the realization that he’ll have to face the RF again in the future, or shall I say past? It remains to be seen what steps he will take in order to alter the timeline so hopefully the writers will continue to keep us on our toes.

The little lines of dialogue between Cisco and Joe continue to be one of the funniest aspects of the show. Having Cisco break down the details of time travel by naming movies such as The Terminator and Back to the Future so Joe could better understand was a real treat.

THE NEGATIVES

Well the obvious is that we have to wait until March 17th for the new episode.

Also the Iris plot was vastly overshadowed thanks to the crazy metahuman events occurring and I really wish they didn’t kill off Eiling. I see Eiling as a necessary villain that should be kept around sort of like Amanda Waller on Arrow. 

THE VERDICT

The Flash capped off its two-part Firestorm storyline with a satisfying superhero team-up. This week was in my opinion the best episode of the season thanks to the reveal of the Reverse Flash and the “debut” of Gorilla Grodd. The wait until the next episode will be an extremely long and painful one.