This review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS for the episode to be discussed, if you do not want certain plot points or story spoilt for you please do not read further.
The end of the last episode of 'The Flash' gave audiences a shock
as season one villain The Reverse-Flash made a dramatic return following his
apparent death at the end of the last season. Viewers were left with many
questions, was this the same man from the end of season one, was this a
Reverse-Flash from earlier in his timeline, or was this another Earth-2
counterpart?
Luckily fans didn't have to wait long to get their answers as
those questions were quickly answered. This was the same Reverse-Flash that
we knew and loved/hated from season one, but a long time before he experienced
those events. One of the many beauties of telling a time travel story we
get to revisit one of the shows best characters and tell their origin story,
even after having them as a central character for more than 20 episodes
already.
It's not long after arriving in 2016 that Eobard Thawn, the
Reverse-Flash of the title, is discovered by team Flash, thanks to some handy
vibing by Cisco (more on that later) and becomes their target. It was to
be expected that the return of Thawn would open a lot of old wounds in our
heroes, after everything he'd done in the past it would be impossible not to,
but none more-so than Barry and Cisco.
Even after seeming to have some kind of resolution at the
beginning of the season, thanks to the message left by the older version of
Reverse-Flash that saw Henry Allen freed from prison, it would appear that the
pain Thawn caused Barry is still extremely raw.
The best emotional moments of the episode comes not from Barry
though, but Cisco and the return of Iris' mother. The West family are
given the chance to show that they are more than just a part of team Flash and
a surrogate family for Barry as they had drama of their own to deal with this
week as Francine lays dying in hospital. We get some beautifully written
and acted scenes from Iris as she prepares for the death of a mother she should
hate, but manages to find a way to love in some small way.
The impending death of Francine also helps to bring Wally further
into the family, as he discovers that he needs the help of his big sister in
order to find the strength to say goodbye to the only family he has ever known
up until that point. The West story doesn't tie into the Reverse-Flash
story in any way, and is better for it. It's given its own space in order
to play out naturally and mean a little something, rather than being part of so
supervillain story.
The person who tied into Reverse-Flash's story the most was,
surprisingly, Cisco. Whilst Thawn betrayed and hurt a lot of people in
the first season one of the people who suffered the most was undoubtedly Cisco.
Barry lost his mother, Caitlin lost her fiancé, but Cisco was actually
killed, and even though those events were wiped out when Barry changed the
timeline Cisco can still remember it thanks to his powers. He can
remember what it felt like when the Reverse-Flash vibrated his hand into
Cisco's chest and burst his heart. That's something that will undoubtedly
leave a mark on someone.
The scene where Cisco gets to confront the younger version of the
man that killed him is a powerful one, and Carlos Valdes does a fantastic job
in portraying the myriad of emotions that Cisco is going through. You get
to see the sense of triumph and joy at helping to catch Thawn, you get to see
the sadness of him confronting a man who he once say as a father figure, and
you can see the trauma of someone coming face to face with the man that hurt
him in a way no one else ever has. It's not an easy scene to do, there's
so much going on that it's a surprise that Valdes pulls it off so well, but
this easily becomes one of the stand out moments in the episode.
Unfortunately for team Flash things never go as planned and they
ultimately have to free Thawn, and help him to return to his home time of the
25th century. With everything that Thawn comes to learn in this episode,
that he eventually dies in the 21st century, that he helped to give Cisco
powers and his brief encounter with Harry it raises some questions as to
whether or not these events were always meant to happen. Did the Thawn we
see in season one also travel to this point and live these events too?
And if so, and he knew that he was going to die in this time period,
could that mean that the Reverse-Flash from season one have somehow prepared
for the events of the finale and not actually be gone?
A sad development for the viewers this week though was the loss of
fan favourite Patty Spivot. Patty was a great character, and she was
written wonderfully and played in such an amazing way by Shantel VanSanten, but
she was always doomed from the beginning. We all know that Barry and Iris
are destined to end up together, the show told us that in the first episode, so
we all knew that Barry and Patty would only be a passing thing, however, the
way the show used the character and the way that VanSanten played her made me
genuinely sad to see her go. She's more than proven that she could fit
into the cast dynamic already, she's charming and sweet, funny and smart, and
willing to run into danger for the right reasons. I think the show will
be poorer for her loss, but sadly her fate was already set.
My one criticism for what would be an almost perfect episode of
'The Flash' would be the scenes involving Jay and Caitlin. Don't get me
wrong, these weren't bad scenes, not at all. They added to the unfolding
Jay Garrick story, they gave us a nice nod to the comics by making his Earth-1
counterpart Hunter Zolomon, but it felt to me that these scenes could have been
better in another episode, where they could be given more time to themselves.
The writers clearly have an idea where they're going with Jay and
Caitlin, and write some great scenes with the two of them, but they keep
getting put into episodes that already have a lot of things happening in them.
Give Jay the time and spotlight the character deserves rather than
squeezing his scenes in. He's the original Flash, he deserves that much
at least.
All in all 'The Reverse-Flash Returns' is a great episode of 'The
Flash' that gets to show just how fun and funny yet emotionally hard hitting
the show can be. I can't wait until we get to meet Eobard Thawn again.
xx
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