Fastest Man Alive Keeps Flash on Hot Streak
First up, don't read if you haven't watched the episode yet! Spoilers ahead as I rehash the entire episode 2 of The Flash, "Fastest Man Alive" in this review.
Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) returns for another mega dose of Flash madness this week. This show has been particularly enjoyable because the writers really didn't hold back with any of the superhero goodness on this show. All within the pilot episode we had Barry Allen make a full transition into The Flash. This week picks up right where it left off with Barry zooming around the city, but also learning some of his limitations for the first time. Apparently, Barry is going to have to keep up his blood glucose level if he wants to keep moving at the speed of light. This seemed a little silly to me, only because I really hope we don't have to see The Flash taking snack breaks in between fight scenes. It makes sense that the writers had to set some limitations for Barry. I truly just hope they don't use that whole plot device in all the terrible ways I can imagine.
That little caveat aside, I think the writers for this show are doing an EXCELLENT job. The pacing, the dialogue, the characters set-ups and dynamics are all very well written and more importantly believable. I can't tell you how much I enjoy the relationship between Barry and his father figure sit-in Joe (Jesse L. Martin). The story breaks the mold of classic TV devices with Joe learning about Barry's abilities in the very first episode. While we do get the cat and mouse game of Barry hiding his superhero identity from Joe's daughter Iris (more on that later), Joe and Barry get to be real with each other. By putting the whole superhero identity question out of the equation here, I think the writers have created beaucoup opportunities for realistic, human interactions between the characters. And these are opportunities they really capitalized on in episode two. We see Joe and Barry evolve from a place of understanding in episode one to a place of heated conflict and finally to a new, deeper understanding and support for each other. For review, in the pilot episode, we saw Joe break down at the end of the episode and admit he was wrong. He tells Barry that he believes him, about everything. When watching this, I thought, "My God, this is great! Has any show ever done this before?" It's like the writers said "Fuck it" to playing games and decided to just get down to brass tax. Picking up that dynamic in episode two, we see Joe develop a more protective perspective on Barry. Joe and Barry share many different dynamics as father and son and then co-workers. Things get really emotional when Joe confronts Barry at Star Labs. He tries to tell Barry that even though he's fast, that's not enough. But Barry doesn't hesitate to shut him down and give him a taste of "you can't stop me" mixed with a nasty "you aren't my father" tirade. At this point, Joe leaves, hurt and The Flash continues his crime fighting.
Enough on the mushy stuff for now, let's get to the action. This episode we see The Flash face off against Multiplex or Captain Clone as Cisco (Carlos Valdes), our comic book reader analogue, initially names him. The overall story arc with Danton Black aka Multiplex (guest star Michael Christopher Smith) is pretty cut and dry. Danton is yet another of many more meta-humans at play in this universe. The whole gist of Danton's main malfunction is that he was a scientist trying to save his wife and then his boss stole his research and fired him. His wife died, and thus: revenge. You get it. Danton gains his powers the same way Barry did. He was doing research on his organ cloning project with the lightning bolt struck and he was instilled with the ability to duplicate himself. While I'm ready to laud praise on the writers for a lot of things about this show, I think this story arc was pretty vanilla. Barry faces off with Danton three separate times, the last of which is the most epic.
The episode opens with Barry's first meet with Multiplex, which is just a chance encounter. Barry saves a security officer's life, but no further conflict ensues. After Joe and Barry have their little father/son tiff, Barry gains the upper hand in their argument by conveniently saving Joe at the last minute in the second encounter with Multiplex. BUT Barry then proceeds to have his ass handed to him by several of Danton's clones and has to high-tail it to survive.
The last fight between Danton and The Flash really ups the ante. Multiplex basically clones himself hundreds of times in the climax of the episode and Barry finds himself overwhelmed and unable to go on. Luckily by now Joe has come around to supporting Barry's superhero endeavors (after having his ass saved). Joe and the rest of the STAR Labs pep team cheer Barry on and within less than a minute Barry's all like, "OK, I got this!" And then we see a scene that I'm pretty sure was plucked right out of the Matrix. A super fast guy whoops hundred of the same guy's ass and manages to take out the prime. Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), the mother hen of the STAR Labs crew, tells Barry to find the "prime" by looking for evidence of stress. Barry is able to spot a single drop of sweat on the guy's brow and BOOM he takes them all out. I think there are probably a hundred better ways they could have shown this guy showing evidence of stress than a single CGI drop of sweat, but I digress.
All things considered, this scene was a bit predictable, but the special effects on this show continue to impress. I was blown away with the effects on pilot episode, but I had to keep reminding myself, "this is the pilot, they're going to go big here." (The LOST pilot, anyone?) But Fastest Man Alive proved that the effects are a crucial part of the show and that the show runners aren't skimping on anything.
There are many other things going on in this episode that I will only touch on briefly. With the meta-human conflicts behind them, Joe and Barry reunite in an even bigger way this episode. Joe earlier in the episode discovered Barry's secret wall of news clippings about his father. Joe instead of busting him out, tells him that he will help him catch him. And in other developments, we see a rivalry of sorts arise between Simon Stagg (guest star William Sadler) and Dr. Wells (Tom Cavanagh). The rivalry is short-lived as Dr. Wells shanks Simon in the gut during the last scene of the episode. Dr. Wells continues to increase his creepiness with his on-again off-again paraplegia and knowledge of the future.
Overall, I really love The Flash. I think this show is possibly the most successful superhero franchise conversion to the small screen. I'm still watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D with high hopes, but my Tuesday nights go to The Flash.
Side observations:
I'm not loving the Barry/Iris relationship dynamic. Barry loves her, but he's totally in the friendzone. Then he has to keep the secret that Iris is dating her dad's partner... barf. Either way I just don't find their relationship as believable as Joe and Barry.
Cisco might be my favorite character on this show with his constant pseudo-forth wall breaking commentary. His character is a great way to do fan service without cheesing the show up.
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