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The Flash #2.11 “The Reverse-Flash Returns” Review

An overly dense time travel story answers a lot of questions, but has trouble handling our main hero’s arc.

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FLA211b_0028bSummary: An overly dense time travel story answers a lot of questions, but has trouble handling our main hero’s arc.

Review

That this week’s episode of The Flash is entitled “The Reverse-Flash Returns” aptly represents the convoluted time travel dynamics the prompt the main story. Mostly in that it’s a paradox – the titular character “returns” to the audience and the characters in 2016, but from Thawne’s perspective, this is “Reverse-Flash Begins.”

It’s a clever switcheroo, even if the time dynamics are something of a cheat — the simplest way to explain (that I can tell) is that since this Thawne from the future is still from his past, he still had to exist to travel back to our past make the first season of The Flash happen, leading to the events that erased Wells-Thawne in the first season finale. He’s a “timeline remnant,” as Harry says, walking paradox to ensure that the timeline remains the same — as apparently the show operates on Doctor Who‘s “fixed point” rules, where some events are utterly unmalleable. Barry’s mom’s death being a fixed point does make a certain amount of sense, since so many threads in the past, present, and future spring from that single moment. What doesn’t make sense is why locking Thawne up in a cell suddenly starts making Cisco (and only Cisco?) fade into the ether rather than creating another singularity, or adjusting to the apparently-not-fluid timeline. The show at least tries to make a basic explanation for it all, but we’ve already mixed up the rules of fixed points vs. rewritten timelines vs. time is a flat circle with every instance of time travel in the show that it’s beyond explanation. Maybe the Speed Force allows time to fit whatever best suits the Speedster doing it. Let’s leave it at that?

The Flash -- "The Reverse Flash Returns" -- Image FLA211b_0063b -- Pictured: Grant Gustin as The Flash -- Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW -- © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.Because if the contradictory rules of time travel are ignored, it’s much easier to enjoy this story. This is an early Thawne, with much more Matt Letscher playing a jittery, arrogant fanboy-gone-mad. This isn’t Tom Cavanaugh’s nuanced Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne, one who had 15 years to bide his time while watching Barry grow up. Letscher’s more straightfoward portrayal actually works here, because he’s supposed to be a simpler version of the character. He’s never met The Flash and doesn’t know his secret identity – he doesn’t even know what time period he’s from until he apparently accidentally stumbles into this one – and the result is an experienced Flash battling a younger Reverse-Flash, sparking the events that started the entire series in the first place. We even have the twisted irony that Barry himself implanted the idea of Thawne murdering his mother (stupid for Barry to mention on his part, but not unforgiveable given the complicated circumstances.) It potentially sets up return appearances from Thawne, as he may sporadically pop up to learn more and more about Flash throughout the timeline. He could be sort of an evil River Song, perhaps, appearing out of order. We could even see an earlier version of Thawne, experimenting with time travel before his obsession with The Flash sends him off the deep end.

That even the Flash-obsessed Thawne doesn’t know what time period Barry came from opens up a wide array of possibilities, too. Perhaps Thawne is from a future where we lost a chunk of historical records, or that Barry’s time travel adventures (remember that future newspaper that says he “disappeared” after a crisis?) has left history confused as to what his home timeline is. In any case, it’s a wildly clever concept, and while this version of Thawne is loads less interesting than last season’s, it’s entertaining to see the mastermind-to-be put everyone on-edge. This is, for all intents and purposes the prequel to the entire series — an explanation of Reverse-Flash’s motives and the set-up for what became the plot of the first season.

That’s huge, but it doesn’t quite make the impact it intends thanks to the episode being packed with just about every other possible plotline. But that’s the major criticism with “The Reverse-Flash Returns,” not unlike “Running to Stand Still”: there’s good nuggets of plot within, but packed so tight with so many others that it’s hard to get a grasp of any single one. There’s a big story here regarding Eobard Thawne’s origin story, which ties nicely into Barry’s dark spiral and even Cisco tapping into his powers. But factor in a wallop of a West subplot, an extension on the Patty/Barry rollercoaster, and Jay’s doppelganger, the episode quickly topples under its own weight. And it’s a shame, because there the base material we have here is often very good.

The Flash -- "The Reverse Flash Returns" -- Image FLA211a_0429b -- Pictured: Candice Patton as Iris West -- Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW -- © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.Take that West subplot, for example. We have closure on the most prominent storyline for Iris all season, as she forgives her mother and wishes they could have been a family sooner. Wally, on the other hand, is still angry about basically everything, and Iris isn’t able to bring him around. There’s loads of potential for drama brewing underneath these characters, and this entire plot — soap operatic as it may be — has actually been competently handled, with strong performances and generally realistic reactions. But it’s hard to latch onto what should be an emotional catharsis when these scenes are so quickly spliced in with the bigger sci-fi trappings of the episode. Admittedly, there are themes of dealing with loss and lack of closure that connects them — Barry losing Patty without telling each other how they feel mirrors Francine and her family; Barry’s newfound pent-up anger issues are strikingly close to Wally’s. But it’s otherwise such outlier in the episode that it’s unfairly distracting, even though it should feel imperative for these characters.

On the Patty and Barry front, things are frustrating, to say the least — sometimes worse than even last week’s fiasco in “Potential Energy,” but it does at least come to a satisfying conclusion. The greatest problem still stems from the wrongheaded idea that Barry not telling Patty his secret will “protect” her. And even worse, now he’s really, really bitter about it, to the point that he’s just being an outright dick to his now-ex-girlfriend. The thing is, it makes sense for Barry to not be in great spirits — not just because of Patty, but because of Zoom and Reverse-Flash, and a season-long theme of Barry losing any opportunity for happiness. So, sure, he can’t be faulted for being in a bad mood at first. But that Patty spells out that she knows his secret identity right in front of his face, and Barry still denies it, and even acts like she’s a problem…well, it seems more like she’s better off without him.

Whatever misgivings there may be about Barry and Patty’s relationship, Patty is notable for working far better as a character than she should have. It will be sad to see Shantel Vansanten go, as she imbued a level of nuance and emotion to a character that could have been far too annoyingly spunky or flat in a lesser actor’s hand. She was a solid addition to the show as a character, even if she had to be mostly wasted by the end as a romantic diversion. The upside to her arc, and one that even almost justifies many of the problems with her relationship with Barry, is that it ends on an extremely high note.

The Flash -- "The Reverse Flash Returns" -- Image FLA211a_0353b -- Pictured (L-R): Shantel Van Santen as Detective Patty Spivot and Grant Gustin as Barry Allen -- Photo: Diyah Pera/The CW -- © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.For all the times she showed herself to be a brilliant detective — and to the show’s credit, she was proven as such — she gets to figure out Barry’s identity by good old-fashioned investigation. It’s nice when characters don’t find out by accident or have forced “eureka” moments, and instead just put the pieces together naturally. It’s even better that Patty has the guts to get her own closure, even if it involves tricking Barry into thinking there was a hold-up on her train. Was that a little low, and maybe even kind of dangerous? Sure. Did Barry deserve it for being really dumb about their whole relationship? He sure did. And it led to an extremely memorable, maybe even iconic moment for the show, as she proves her theory before declaring that they’re “good” and departing for the beginning of her dream career. It’s a nice send-off for a character that wasn’t treated nearly as well as she should have been.

What “The Reverse-Flash Returns” exposes is the pitfalls of this season’s apparent character arc for Barry. The entire impetus of The Flash — that it’s an optimistic, emotionally-driven breather from other media — seems to be at odds with its own titular character, who’s traveling a dark thread of loneliness and the fear of ultimate despair. That’s completely fine in theory; one of the best episodes of the series, “The Trap,” was all about Barry going to darker places to win. The season 2 opener used a closed-out, angst-ridden Barry as a primary character arc and transition, and the season has since flirted with the emotional scars all his personal battles are leaving. His character has always been grounded in the idea that he’s a decent guy who loves being a superhero, with his prime conflicts stemming from his own emotional hang-ups to overcome. So his fears of never filling a void and never finding true happiness — given he lost the way to save his mom, his father left for stupid reasons, he hasn’t kept a relationship, and he’s likely still guilty about Eddie, Ronnie, and not actually saving the day in last season’s finale — make sense.

But it’s a touchy line to tread, which Barry in “The Reverse-Flash Returns” (and the previous episode) trips over a bit. Hardening Barry, as is done here, gets him closer to early Oliver Queen, and in a way that borders unlikeable. It’s necessary to give the show the benefit of the doubt, as there’s hopefully an endgame in mind — it’s likely we’ll Barry losing his heroic optimism and spunk because of his spiral before triumphantly building it back up in the season’s conclusion. That would also give meaning to his failed relationship with Patty — the relationship wasn’t what we needed to focus on, it was how Barry handled the break-up.

The flipside is that it’s still early in the season, and we can only take so much of “unhappy angry angsty Barry” before it irreparably hurts the show. It’s especially dangerous when it’s already so packed to the brim with storylines that it’s often on the verge of collapsing under its own weight. Introspective, emotional journeys need a lot more room to breathe to make the oomph that they need, and like we’ve seen with the West subplot, the constant rush from scene-to-scene can hurt moments that otherwise should have worked. “The Reverse-Flash Returns” has its share of fun and heart in its multiple threads, but it’s also a testament to how dense The Flash has become, and how it’s having trouble retaining that beating heart as a result.

Odds & Ends

  • So, it turns out that Jay’s double on Earth-1 is Hunter Zolomon, which could either be a clue to Zoom’s identity based on Zolomon’s comic book counterpart, or could be a red herring to fool viewers familiar with the source material.
  • Cisco gets further mastery of his Vibe powers, plus comics-appropriate sunglasses, and now he sort of has the ability to see the future. We also get a quiet resolution to Cisco’s fear of his powers established in the first season finale: he uses the abilities future-Thawne gave him to ultimately capture past-Thawne, which grants a full-circle feel, and hopefully lets Cisco appreciate and enjoy his powers rather than fear them.
  • Always nice to see Amanda Pays back as Christina McGee, even if she keeps getting the thankless role of “seeing the bad guy run away with things” and exposition.
  • On that note: this episode is very heavy on the exposition, for better or worse. There are lots of quick, unnatural monologues to cover the bases (Thawne expounding on his motivations, the Q&A on time travel and addressing Barry’s mother’s murder, etc.) It’s not necessarily good or bad, but definitely noticeable.
  • Despite all the problems with Barry and Patty’s break-up, I did appreciate how Barry acknowledged that Patty was leaving to pursue her dream, which their relationship would be standing in the way of.
  • Cisco just really wants to know how Reverse-Flash fits that suit in his ring.
  • Absolutely adore Harry rolling his eyes at the sappiness after Cisco wakes up. Tom Cavanaugh is a dream.
  • Man, those people on the train really didn’t care that The Flash was standing in front of them, did they?

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Logan

    January 29, 2016 at 2:36 pm

    Regarding the train scene, I laughed really hard at the non-reaction of the other passengers. I wonder if that was intentional to show the normalcy of Flash, or just a mistake in direction.

  2. Rurudo

    January 30, 2016 at 1:13 am

    My one thing with the Patty-Barry relationship is: couldn’t Barry, after admitting to be the Flash, just run to Midway when he wanted to see Patty? I mean, he could have had the best of all possible worlds. Patty would be safely away from all his enemies, he’d be able to have a relationship with her, and she’d have been able to pursue her dreams.

    • Derek B. Gayle

      January 30, 2016 at 9:50 am

      That’s a great point! Barry clearly didn’t think this through.

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Blu-ray Review: The Flash: The Complete Sixth Season

Review of The Flash Season 6 Blu-ray set from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

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The Flash: The Complete Sixth Season is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and we have been provided with a copy of the set to review on the site!

The set features all 19 episodes of The Flash Season 6 plus extras — the Blu-ray includes all of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover!

Here’s what’s up:

Packaging & Design: Starting with this because it’s probably the first thing you’ll notice. The box art for this set has changed since the original press release — the fired Hartley Sawyer’s Ralph Dibny is no longer on the packaging. While I understand the show distancing themselves — Ralph was indeed an important part of Season 6, with his Sue Dearbon story, and I’m not 100% sure how I think they should have handled it. As it is, it looks odd with just the other four members of Team Flash on it. Though, to be fair, Nash Wells isn’t on the cover either.

With that said, The Flash sets usually have some of the best designed packaging and menu art and this set is no exception.

The Episodes: Also seems I am repeating myself but the Blu-ray presentation on The Flash is loads better than what we see on TV and is pretty cinematic. All 19 episodes of Season 6 are here, and — spoiler warning — because of COVID-19, they were cut off at 19 episodes, so that means some storylines aren’t completely wrapped. With that said, this season saw Eric Wallace taking over as showrunner, and with him came a new tactic that he referred to as “graphic novels.” The first “graphic novel” included the character Bloodwork (Sendhil Ramamurthy) as characters are facing death, and the second, after Crisis, dealt with a new “Mirror Master.”

I will say that The Flash under Eric Wallace has a great vision and I love his enthusiasm, which you can actually hear on the “Kiss Kiss Breach Breach” commentary. He’s as big of a geek as we are, and I mean that in the absolute best way. The only thing I’d have to say negative about Season 6 is that the mirror storyline has gone on way too long — and I wonder, if they had known all along that we’d end with 19 episodes (an impossibility, because who would?), it might have been a bit shorter.

This “graphic novel” set-up, however, does offer the chance to binge the season in parts, which is pretty cool, and the Blu-ray bonus disc of all of Crisis on Infinite Earths is a good thing to throw in the middle to tee up Graphic Novel #2.

The other thing I will say about Season 6 is that I really liked some of the new characters that are set up. Chester P. Runk, Sue Dearbon, Kamilla, and Allegra — all fun characters that add to rather than detract from the series.

The Extras: The set includes a bonus black and white noir version of “Kiss Kiss Breach Breach” with commentary by Eric Wallace. Commentaries don’t happen too often these days, so I’m so glad they put something on this set. There is also a gag reel and deleted scenes. And, of course, all of Crisis which has a lot of great Flash content!

Is It Worth It? If you’re a Flash completist or want to see the most recent season in high definition, sure. You might want to start at the very beginning, though. Still, I think The Flash is on its way back to its former glory and Season 6 is the start of that journey. Can’t wait for Season 7, and for now, this set will be revisited often.

Get your copy of the Blu-ray from Amazon.com at a discounted price and support FlashTVNews!

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Blu-ray Review: The Flash: The Complete Fifth Season

Review of the Flash Season 5 Blu-ray set.

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Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided FlashTVNews with a free copy of this set for review in this post. The opinions shared are my own.

The Flash: The Complete Fifth Season hits Blu-ray and DVD this week, containing all 22 episodes of Season 5 plus bonus episodes from the Elseworlds crossover. In addition to the entire season, there are few extra features for all to enjoy, though some are duplicated from other sets that were made available this year. Here’s the review.

The Episodes: As mentioned, all 22 episodes plus extras are on this set. And as I tend to write every year, the show isn’t quite at the high level it was in its first season, but there are definitely standouts in Season 5. A big theme for the season is family, and the conflicts between parents and their children. Caitlin and her parents are a part of that. The season’s villain is a part of that. And the biggest part of that is Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy), the daughter of Barry and Iris brought back from the future. Kennedy is fantastic in the role, though it is at times disappointing to see so much attention on a new character when we are here for the ones we’ve seen for 100+ episodes.

The Flash Season 5 contains the series’ 100th episode which is a great journey through the five years of the show. Sadly absent from Episode 100, though, is Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) who was recovering from an injury for a good part of the season. Martin’s presence was certainly missed though it is nice that the show upgraded Danielle Nicolet (Cecile) to series regular this year.

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t very invested in the Cicada story, at least not as much as I probably should have been. And I was even less into the latest Wells, “Sherloque,” which was a joke that stopped being funny within about 2 minutes, with no offense meant to the writers or Tom Cavanagh. It was nice to see the talented Cavanagh in another role, though part of me still is wondering why it was not Matt Letscher, though I’m forgiving that because, again, Tom Cavanagh.

I’m also not sure what to make of Vibe’s eventual fate, unless it is a way to make things less easy for next year’s crossover. In any event, watching these episodes still has me excited for Season 6, and The Flash is certainly a series that is worth the Blu-Ray upgrade.

The Extras: There’s a fantastic featurette about the origins of Killer Frost which is really well put together. I was, however, surprised that such attention wasn’t paid to XS/Nora as she was also a major arc for Season 5. Was there only room to cover one story? I’m also surprised there wasn’t some kind of 100th episode spotlight, especially since Warner Bros. did have press kit people on the line interviewing the cast.

There are Elseworlds, villains, and Comic-Con featurettes that you can find on the other DC TV shows this year, which I can only imagine is a cost-cutting measure to include them everywhere.

The set also has deleted scenes, with the most notable being Superman running with Oliver Queen from “Elseworlds Part 1.” It’s a shame that was cut. There was also a “My Name Is Barry Allen” from “Elseworlds” with Stephen Amell replacing Grant Gustin as Grant replaced him in the aired Part 2 — this was surely cut and unfinished so as to not blow the reveal that Oliver was Barry in Part 1. It’s still really cute and fun.

Finally, there’s a gag reel. While they are introduced with credits like The Office, they’re still a bit… meh.

Packaging and Design: Seeing Barry and Nora running side by side is the perfect way to sell this. Very nice looking.

Is It Worth It? I’ll always recommend picking up Flash Blu-Rays from the beginning, but this is certainly worthwhile, especially to prepare for Season 6 to premiere on October 8. You can purchase this set (and support this site!) here.

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Blu-ray Review: The Flash: The Complete Fourth Season

Review of the Blu-ray set for The Flash: The Complete Fourth Season

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The Complete Fourth Season of The Flash hits Blu-ray and DVD this week (Tuesday, August 28), and we’ve got our hands on a review copy!

Before we get to the review, here’s how the season is described:

In Season Four, the mission of Barry Allen, aka The Flash (Grant Gustin), is once more to protect Central City from metahuman threats. First, he’ll have to escape the Speed Force. With Barry trapped, the job of protecting Central City falls to his family – Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin); his fiancée, Iris West (Candice Patton); and Wally West/Kid Flash (Keiynan Lonsdale) – and the team at S.T.A.R. Labs – Dr. Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker), Cisco Ramon/Vibe (Carlos Valdes) and brilliant scientist Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh). When a powerful villain threatens to level the city if The Flash doesn’t appear, Cisco risks everything to break Barry out of the Speed Force. But this is only the first move of a life-or-death chess game with Clifford DeVoe aka The Thinker (Neil Sandilands), a mastermind who’s always ten steps ahead of Barry, no matter how fast he’s running. Shocking surprises come fast and furious in all 23 action-packed adventures featuring The Fastest Man Alive.

So, how’s the set?

The Episodes: It’s going to be very hard to ever replicate the greatness that was the first season of The Flash. Unfortunately, one thing that The Flash Season 1 did so well that still didn’t connect for Season 4 is a strong villain. While I have more appreciation for The Thinker after rewatching some episodes and checking out the extra interview features on this set, I still don’t really feel that empathy and care for him that I had for, say, Eobard/Wells.

Season 4 also tried to course correct with more humor to varied success. Sometimes it worked; others the show was far too amused with itself. (I don’t need to see any more Wellses no matter how much I love Tom Cavanagh, for example, and “psychic pregnancy” will never not be too campy for me.)

There’s some good stuff, though. The best version of Barry’s suit so far premieres in Season 4, and Barry and Iris finally get married this year, even if every time they got married, they ended up interrupted. There are some episodes that worked to innovate, and there are also things like Barry in jail which seem to go on for too long. But at least with a DVD or Blu-ray you can fast forward, right?

Season 4 is also where we meet Ralph Dibny. He grows on you until you finally stretch your appreciation levels. By season’s end, you love Ralph as much as everyone else might.

The Extras: Of all the DC TV shows, The Flash usually gets the best treatment as far as extras go. We’ve got deleted scenes (including some WestAllen!), bloopers, and the all-encompassing Comic-Con video… and some other great extras, including Sterling Gates and Eric Wallace with Katee Sackhoff offering commentary on Amunet (who I do enjoy more after seeing Sackhoff speaking about her, but I still don’t understand why the silly accent was a thing). There’s also a really nice feature about the Elongated Man, and all four episodes of this year’s DC TV crossover are represented.

There’s also talk about The Thinker, and as I said, I appreciate the storyline more but I still didn’t have that emotional connection with the character that I feel I needed. The other bodies thing at midseason made that all even worse.

Packaging & Art: This is one of the best looking Flash Blu-ray sets so far. Dynamic design on the box art and on the discs. I like it.

Is It Worth It? As I said, nothing will be Season 1 again, but if you’re a fan of The Flash there are a lot of extras to make this worth it. Order yours from Amazon.com at a discounted rate and support this website!

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