Warning: Spoiler Alert
Anyone who watched last week’s episode is expecting this episode to be the collision between Barry (the Flash) and the mysterious fast running yellow guy (the Reverse Flash) and all indications pointing to the man who killed Barry’s mother. Beyond that, the first five minutes have proven to be uneventful, but we push on.
Eddie and Iris sit down to have some coffee in what I have to assume is Iris’ place. Eddie floats the idea that maybe Barry is into Iris. An idea that she rejects immediately. So with that out-of-the-way, Eddie slides her a small jewelry box. Well take a breath, it’s not a ring. It’s a key to Eddie’s place.
Caitlin walks back to her car after trying to buy Dr. Wells a Christmas gift. When a figure appears behind her, then vanishes just as quickly. She follows him. Not smart by the way. Young women should not be chasing after sketchy men in an empty parking garage. The man has his back to her. He extends out his hands and his hands as well as his head are suddenly engulfed in flames. He then turns to her. She runs before she can identify who it is.
A doctor shares some pleasantries with two guards that work in his building. This is a doctor we are not familiar with. An alarm sounds. The doctor yells at the guards to lock down the facility. He then locks himself in a chamber with whatever it is he is working on. Once inside the Reverse Flash appears. Stares at the doctor and races away.
Later with CCPD on the case, the doctor describes the assailant as a blur. A blur that looked like a man in a yellow suit. Barry is all too eager to leave the scene and compare notes. This is the inopportune time for Joe to explain to Barry that he already knew about the Yellow Blur. And once he explained that this blur threatened to kill Iris, it almost seemed like Barry was alright with the omission. Or at least wasn’t going to blow up about it.
At Star Labs, the team tries figure out the angle. Before the Particle Accelerator accident, Mercury Labs (site of the break in) was Star Labs biggest competition. Now they have catapulted to the head of the tech line. All behind the leadership and command of one Dr. Christina McGee. I don’t want to ruin it, but keep that name in the back of your mind. Wells deduces that what they are working on and what the Reverse Flash wants is ‘tachyon’ related. microscopic metal. Used in the right way could make a ‘Flash’ indestructible. The next step is to set a trap for the Reverse Flash.
Barry invites Dr. McGee to the station to pitch his idea of using her prototype as bait. Whether she’s just shady or Wells’ presence threw up her defenses, she graciously declined.
Cisco excitedly runs into where Caitlin is sitting. He gives his idea for a force field to trap ‘opposite flash’ (nice try Cisco) and she might as well have not heard a word of it. She tells him that Ronnie’s alive and she needs his help to find him.
Iris shows up to Barry’s lab mid flashback. She’s there to announce that she’s decided to move in with Eddie. Now being a fall finale and all, this would have been a great opportunity to add conflict and drama to the Iris story line. Of course the CW shied away from it, opting instead to have Barry act awkward and to categorically deny any feelings he has for Iris. Barry, listen to Arrow. Guys like you don’t get the girl. Barry reeling in his own pity gets up and looks out the window to see what looks like the Reverse Flash on the rooftop of the adjacent building. He splits, and Barry follows.
Barry: It was you. You were the one in my house that night. You killed my mother…WHY?!?!
Reverse Flash: If you want to know that, you’re going to have to catch me.
The race begins in the streets and moves into a dome football stadium. In the beginning, Reverse is getting the better of Flash. The race stops being a race and more closely resembles a fight. The Reverse Flash claims that Barry knows exactly who he is. And that they’ve been going at this for a very long time.
Reverse Flash: It is your destiny to lose to me, just as it was your mother’s destiny to die that night.
Meanwhile, Caitlin and Cisco are out searching for Ronnie. They find him with little work. Caitlin gets close and announces herself. She holds his hand and tells him that he is Ronnie Raymond. Even suggests he go with them back to Star Labs to help him remember who he is. Then he leans in and says, “Firestorm”.
Joe West and Dr. Wells both standing firm in their convictions, essentially bench Barry. He maintains that for a number of very bad reasons that this is his fight. The two elder men, hold their ground. He storms out and eventually makes his way to Iron Side prison to have a chat with his dad.
The meeting in the prison is emotion filled. Barry believes that now, any minute his Dad spends in prison is his fault, because he couldn’t catch the man in the yellow suit. His Dad also believes that everything Barry has done since the murder is to solve the murder and it’s about time Barry let go long enough to have a life of his own. Including pursuing Iris.
Every time Iris has an opportunity to redeem herself so only propels herself further and further down the path of ‘I really don’t like her’. After his conversation with his father, Barry makes his way to Iris. He is visibly shaken. He leans in to hug her and while stuck mid hug he says, “I love you”. She pulls back and brushes it off like it was that sibling kind of love. Barry then proceeds to paint the picture that she has been too blind to see. A great opportunity and she blew it. Barry said all the right things. Naturally, she needs to process this, but silence probably wasn’t the best course of action.
Eddie previously strong armed Joe into letting him and his task force in on whatever Joe was trying to do in order to apprehend this blur. Eddie has no idea that there are two of them. The traps ultimately works and the Reverse Flash is trapped in the Star Labs force field. The task force, Joe, Eddie and Wells all enter the room. Joe wants to know why he killed Nora Allen. Wells explains how he was able to make the force field specifically for his abilities as he is very similar to the Flash. That’s when the force field began to weaken. The Reverse Flash grabs Wells and pulls him into the force field where he proceeds to beat the life out of Wells.
Caitlin sends Barry a text that reads only “S.O.S.” Barry comes racing in and takes the Reverse Flash outside. This fight moves very similar to the previous one. However, Barry has felt the disappointment of being that close and failing. He is resilient this time. He takes his beating and keeps getting up. Just about the time it seems that he is destined to lose this fight too, the Reverse Flash is decleated by a massive fireball. Firestorm has joined the fight. Reverse Flash does escape but not after proclaiming that their race is not over. Then Firestorm pleads with Caitlin to not seek him out again. Then he flew away. I wasn’t expecting that.
As long as Eddie Thawne is in the dark, damage is minimal. Either as the Flash is concerned or any such Iris story line. That is no longer the case. Having witnessed what he witnessed, Eddie puts together that Joe knows more than he’s been sharing. Joe gives Eddie only as much as he needs to know. There are meta-humans. They are powerful. The two of them are the only ones on the force that are aware of anything and it needs to stay that way. Eddie asks if he knows the identity of the Flash. Joe nods just as Barry walks by.
Joe: Yeah. I do. He’s the guy that saved both our lives tonight.
And now, it seems there is one more added to the team of allies.
Caitlin is tending to Wells’ injuries. Cisco is apologizing for the field malfunction. Wells stops them both to interject about the omission that Ronnie is still alive. They share a nice moment where Caitlin admits she wanted to know she could fix him first. Then Wells makes a declarative promise.
Wells: I know I’ve made you a lot of promises. I know I have not been able to keep them all, but on my life, I promise you this, we will bring Ronnie home.
With the rush of fall finale’s we are covering now, previously and more to come, we may have to revisit the schedule. I don’t know how much more of this emotional cliffhanger stuff I can handle.
Joe finds Barry in his lab. Barry reflecting on how the man in the yellow suit has essentially imprisoned Barry in his own prison of fear. That’s when Jesse L. Martin bestows upon us one of those great moments. It all boils down to the idea that it wasn’t Joe helping Barry out, it was Barry helping Joe out. Bringing a light into their home.
Joe: The world may need the Flash, but I need my Barry Allen.
Joe has invited Caitlin, Cisco, Wells (who wasn’t up for it), Eddie, and Barry over to the house. This feels like that cheeky moment where we try to force feed the Christmas vibe into the end of the episode. Barry once again, says exactly what the situation calls for when he sees Iris sitting in Eddie’s lap. Acts like the moving in bit is new news and congratulates them both.
Cisco has something to share with Joe. During the fight outside Star Labs and before Firestorm showed up, Cisco noticed something peculiar. During the fight, he could clearly see both red and yellow electricity. This is peculiar because in every account of the murder of Barry’s mother, Barry says he saw red and yellow. Cisco’s theory is that while the man in the yellow suit killed Nora Allen, he wasn’t the only speedster in the room.
Of course Wells declined the invite. We haven’t seen a creepy, legs are perfectly fine, walk into the Braille room where he will inevitably say or do something that makes me need to pick my jaw up off the floor. This time, he pulls out a ring with the Flash emblem on it, and puts it on. He extends his fist to a new section of wall we have not seen him access yet. It opens to reveal what looks like a black suit. Then the compartment illuminates to reveal that it is in fact the ‘yellow suit’. He takes out the tachyon prototype used to lure the Reverse Flash to Star Labs. He then places it on the suit’s chest. The tachyons do their thing. Then we see Harrison Wells’ face grow a slight grin. Then in exactly the voice of the man in the yellow suit, he says, “Merry Christmas”.
These fall finales are killing me. I’d love to connect the dots for you, or at least try. But I’m spent. I’ve tried re-running it in my head. How could Wells be in his wheel chair talking to the man in the yellow suit if he is the man in the yellow suit. At this point I don’t even care about why. I’ve got nothing. My comic book brain is mush. So as much as I’d like to give you some level of closure prior to The Flash going on a holiday hiatus, I’ve got nothing. All I can say, is tune in after the hiatus and make sure to come back to NotJustAnotherTVSite.com for more Flash content and recaps.
