‘The Flash’ Keeps Spinning Its Wheels
by Frank Martin
It’s almost amazing how two back-to-back episodes of The Flash can be so closely linked plot wise. Not much has changed from last episode to this one. The two main storylines essentially moved forward at the same pace. The only difference being that one of those storylines swapped out one character for another, but essentially, the show appears to be spinning its wheels as it drifts very slowly towards the end of its season.
The two storylines have to do with Iris in Coast City and the emerging cold fire threat in Central City. Iris’s (Candice Patton) mission to help a new meta alongside Sue Dibny (Natalie Dreyfuss) continues moving forward while she tries to grapple with her mysterious time sickness. Very few details were given about the nature of this problem, though, just enough to garner audience interest. On the flip side, Team Flash continues to try to grapple with the black fire. Last episode had Chester (Brandon McKnight) go through a character arc as they try to deal with the foe. This episode was essentially the same thing, except they swapped him out with Frost (Danielle Panabaker) as she tries to flesh out the relationship with her mother (Susan Walters).
All in all, there wasn’t much meat on this episode. As I stated, it pretty much hit all the same beats as the last episode while barely revealing any new information about these either storyline. What’s worse: the new threat in Central City is still largely a mystery. While it was cool in the beginning to see this black fire run circles around Team Flash, it’s losing its appeal. I understand with a lot of episode information has to be spread out, but if The Flash is to create a memorable season, then the steaks have to be raised a lot higher really quickly.
The Flash airs Wednesdays on The CW.
