If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: Team Flash confronts a new bus meta, Matthew aka Melting Pot. He has the ability to swap people’s DNA, so during a battle with Team Flash, he transfers Barry’s super speed to Iris. Now, with a new threat unleashed on Central City, Barry must act as the team leader while Iris takes on the mantle of superhero speedster in order to defeat their new foe. (TVGuide)
Writer: Eric Wallace
Director: Harry Jierjian
Rating: TV-PG
Running Time: 43 minutes
This week’s The Flash switches things up a bit by making Iris a speedster, and I have to say it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. While the episode was most certainly a step down from last week’s exciting step away from the bus meta-narrative, it was still better than most of the season thus far.
DeVoe is dead set on finding all the bus metas so he can use their bodies/powers and the team last checked there are now three bus metas left for him to go after, including Ralph. Harry suggests that they do intracellular surgery on the metas to change them into something else, however, Cisco firmly disagrees. Harry gets the idea of creating a thinking cap, similar to DeVoe’s that will give him the limitless ability to think and predict every outcome. This would change the neurochemical engineering of his brain and give his intelligence a boost. While the rest of the team is on board with this Cisco is a hard no.
This week also takes us back to the whiny, mopey Ralph who is an all-out jerk during this episode, especially towards Iris. He tells Iris she is utterly useless because she hides behind her console while the rest of them are out there risking their lives. Barry is still unable to get back into the CCPD lab, despite Joe talking to Captain Singh. He says that the Mayor wishes to speak with the “DeVoes”, meaning Ralph must contort himself into DeVoe once again.
And with this new episode came a new bus meta. A robbery at a bank reveals two metas, of which one has the ability to swap DNA between two individuals. In an effort to take a bigger role out in the field, Iris joins Joe for questioning Matthew Kim (Leonardo Nam), the DNA swapping meta. However, Kim feels threatened by their questioning and before we know it Barry shows up to save the day. At this moment, Kim manages to swap Barry and Iris’s DNA, giving Iris the powers of a speedster. Not only does she have Barry’s powers but an awesome purple lightning streak to go along with it.
Back in S.T.A.R. Labs, the team tries to figure out the new dilemma at hand, while Iris begins training. Joe suggests that they try and convince Matt to swap out DeVoe’s meta DNA, while Caitlin attempts to figure out a way to reverse the power swapping between Iris and Barry. Cisco is still against Harry’s plan to work with the thinking cap, but Caitlin convinces him that they have no other options.
On her first attempt out, Iris comes across some difficulty while trying to save people from a burning building. She manages to get everyone out but is unable to stop the fire from spreading and ends up beneath the collapsed ceiling. Although Barry tries to guide her through how to use the powers, she is unable to and Cisco rescues her by breaching her out of the building. Ralph continues to be a jerk when back at the lab Caitlin reveals she can’t formulate a way to reverse the powers and he states his concern over it.
Iris gets another opportunity to save the day when a meta with swapped powers shows up to wreak havoc on Central City. And courtesy of Cisco, she was able to adorn a new outfit while doing it. Thanks to Harry’s thinking cap, they are able to help Iris take down the meta who creates a thermo-cyclone by creating a tidal wave (something even Barry has not done!) By the episode’s end, Matt switches back Barry and Iris’s DNA by making Barry a speedster once again. The team also convinces Matt to help them out with defeating DeVoe, which may get very interesting in the episodes to come.
Ralph and Iris share a sweet moment when she tells him she has been through what he has before with Savitar. The looming threat of death is an all too familiar experience for her which helps her bond with Ralph and snaps him out of his funk.
While Iris did not want to remain a speedster, she does realize that writing is her passion and what she wants to go back to. She decides to start writing on her Flash blog once again, as Harry learns the names of the last two bus metas, thanks to his handy-dandy thinking cap.
We have about a three-week hiatus ahead of us once again before The Flash returns with an all-new episode. While there is still quite a bit of drama yet to come, we hope that they do justice to the rest of the season and round out the DeVoe story once and for all. This episode was a step up from the rest of the season, and while it did not beat out last week’s, it was still a welcome change to see Iris kicking ass for once.
Score: 7.5/10
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