The Mirror Invasion Begins In A Preview Of Next Week’s ‘The Flash’
by Erik Amaya
After an absolutely stellar episode of The Flash this week, the repercussions of Barry’s (Grant Gustin) actions will be felt harshly as the Mirror Master (Efrat Dor) begins her Mirrorverse invasion. And as this preview for next week’s episode indicates, it won’t be easy to stop a force using all of Central City’s reflective surfaces as points of entry.
Before we even consider how Team Flash can stop Mirror Master, we need to talk about Barry’s … choices. As he mentioned early in the episode, his enemies use his heart against him. But we think his heart betrays him almost as often. Consider Flashpoint, which materially made Cisco’s (Carlos Valdes) life worse while allowing Barry to see his parents alive again. Let’s go back further and contemplate just how often his obsession with Iris (Candice Patton) — and make no mistake, it was an obsession at the time — put the world at risk.
It is one of the show’s most consistent sources of conflict and, honestly, an interesting flaw for the hero to have. For one thing: his heart also does so much good, so it cannot be shook off like a Rogue. That said, we have to congratulate the program’s current writers for inverting the conflict (the lack of his heart being the culprit this time) and finding a new way to spin Barry’s flaws. Besides being compelling, it gave Gustin a chance to really shine as an emotionally distant Barry. Between this and his impression of the various Welles last week, the show is giving him really interesting stuff to chew on as an actor. Nevertheless, Barry’s actions have led to a new set of difficulties we can’t ignore, starting with Mirror Master’s understanding about her place in the world and ending, perhaps unfairly, with Kamila (Victoria Park) and Singh (Patrick Sabongui) still stuck in the Mirrorverse.
And, we imagine, once it all gets solved, Barry will still have to make amends with Cisco and the others for his cold, calculated behavior. To say nothing of Iris’s reaction when she wakes up.
We have to admit, this was one of the best episodes of the series in a very long time — right down to giving us enough room to debate whether or not the last twenty minutes or so were happening in Barry’s super-thinking head — and next week will have to try very hard to reach its heights. Although, with the apparent return of the Earth-1 Harrison Welles (no, the real one!), it feels like the show is headed in the right direction.
The Flash airs Tuesdays on The CW.
