Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Flash: Season 1, Episode 18


The Flash
Episode Title: “All Star Team Up”
Channel: CW
Director: Kevin Tancharoen
Writers: Grainne Godfree and Kai Yu Wu
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Runtime: 43 min
Rated: TV-PG
Original Air Date: April 14, 2015

Ray and Felicity made a guest appearance this week on The Flash and it seemed to fit them much better than the dark tone on Arrow. There was a lot of humor to be had this week, and the two guest stars were in the middle of most of it. If more of the crossovers in CW's DC universe end up this way the audience is in for a treat. Perhaps most entertaining were the interactions between Palmer and Cisco, you could almost hear them saying out lout, “Did we just become best friends?”

The villain this week was the one glaring weak point in “All Star Team Up.” As is so often the case there wasn't much time devoted to getting to know the character at all. She didn't even get to share her own grievances and what drove her to her actions. Instead that information was passed on to the audience through some clumsy dialogue from Mercury Labs' Dr. Tina McGee. If there was one thing I could change about the show it would definitely be the way the villains are handled.

The main focus this week was on who Barry can trust. His knowledge that Dr. Wells is not a good guy has been taking a toll on his ability to work with the S.T.A.R. Labs crew, but he's not ready to bring Caitlin and Cisco in to the inner circle. Between Barry's inability to trust all of those around him and Eddie being forced to keep Barry's secret from Iris there is a lot of distrust going around. Although Barry decided to let Cisco and Caitlin in on what he knows at the end of the episode the secrecy hasn't ended yet, although Eddie and Iris' relationship might have.

Iris has, in general, been more tolerable than a lot of other love interests on television, but the extent to which she's taking her dissatisfaction over Eddie having a secret is starting to wear thin. I'm not saying she's reached a level of unlikability on par with say, Barbara Kean on Gotham, but she's starting to become an annoyance. I find it hard to believe that someone in a relationship with a police detective would not understand that he can't tell her everything that is going on. I hope they wrap that bit of the story up soon because I'm not sure how much longer it can be dragged out before the audience starts groaning whenever Iris appears on screen.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the episode revolved around Cisco. He's getting flashes of the events that occurred before Barry turned back time. At the end of the episode when Barry and Joe decided to bring Caitlin and Cisco in on their suspicions Cisco realized that maybe there was something to the visions he'd been experiencing. One has to wonder what kind of catastrophic effect Barry revealing that those visions were a reality could have on Cisco and the world at large. In the same vein, Harrison Wells seems aware that something isn't quite right, but he's playing along for now, waiting for more information to present itself.

Conclusion: “All Star Team Up” was a fun episode of The Flash that still managed to move the season's arc along. Ray and Felicity feel much more suited to the light-hearted surroundings of Central City than the dark atmosphere of Starling City. Now that almost all of the secrets are out in the open it's time to reveal the truth to Iris, before it costs her and Eddie their relationship, and the character goodwill from the audience.

Rating: 7.75/10

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