This week on The Flash we learn more about the "Meta Serial Killer" who's incinerating Central City citizens, we get the return of one half of a fan-favorite couple and there's a pointless subplot that may or may not be setting up yet another new character.
I'm honestly not quite sure what to think of this episode. On the one hand it gave us some much-needed new details about the Fire Meta, the new Big Bad that debuted last week. On the other, much of the runtime was devoted to setup for various upcoming plotlines that aren't all that compelling.
The Fire Meta is quite a departure from the usual villain of the week, as it seems to be some sort of sentient black flame. Unfortunately it came off as muddled and confusing, as its motivations are sketchy and poorly thought out.
For years I've been whining that the producers are overusing Thawne and have brought him back way too many times, so I'll give them credit here for attempting something new and different with this Fire Meta. It's unlike any villain they've ever had on the show.
That said, so far I'm just not sold on this second rate Smoke Monster. It's hard to become emotionally invested while watching the actors struggling to react to a CGI threat that'll be added later in post.
It doesn't help that the Fire Meta's motivations are murky and muddled, and seem to change depending on the needs of the script!
I'm also finding myself increasingly uninterested in all the character drama on the show— especially between Chester and Allegra. At times it feels more like a soap opera than a superhero series. We all know why this happens— it's far, far cheaper to film two people talking in a room than it is to whip up an FX-heavy sequence of the Flash saving the city.
The past few episodes have been like Old Home Week on the show, as they've dredged up the Royal Flush Gang, Goldface and even The Hotness. That trend continues this week— sort of. Phantoms brings back the an ersatz apparition of Chester's late father, first seen in The One With The Nineties. Not sure what's up with this recycling trend, but whatever.
Supposedly this episode was the second lowest in the series' history, pulling in just 537,000 viewers (!). Wow, that's pretty low. I can think of several reasons for this. After the disastrous Season 6 and the even worse Season 7, a large number of viewers likely noped out of the show. Losing actors Tom Cavanagh (the Wellses) and Carlos Valdes (Cisco) at the same time didn't help things either.
I also think moving the show to Wednesdays is having a detrimental effect as well. When a show airs Tuesdays at 8 for nearly eight years, it's gonna take the audience time to find it again.
Hopefully the ratings will improve as the season goes on.
SPOILERS!
The Plot:
At the loft, Deon scans Iris for time anomalies and says she's all good. She tells him about the temporal gaps she's had lately, and says she's worried her "time sickness" is back. Just then he spots some sort of mutations, but has no idea what's causing it. He says it's probably nothing, but will consult with his "Force sibs" and report back. He snaps his fingers and vanishes.
At STAR Labs, Team Flash tries to figure out the identity of the new Fire Meta that's killing citizens of Central City. Chester says he's come up with a cold fusion detector that'll locate the Meta whenever they "flame on_ (demonstrating that he has no idea what "cold fusion" is). Just then he sees photos of the charred victims on the board, and becomes visibly shaken.
Meanwhile at Central City Citizen Media, Sue Dearbon (sans her pal Ralph Dibney) pays a visit to Iris & Allegra. She says she's on her way to Coast City, and hopes to catch a glimpse of the town's new meta, the Phantom. Iris decides to go with her, feeling it might make for a good story.
Back at STAR, Chester's detector goes off, and Barry zips to the address. Despite the fact he's a supersonic speedster, he somehow arrives too late and finds yet another charred corpse (?).
Later Barry (in CSI mode) and Chester investigate the crime scene. Chester's still skittish around the burned body, barley able to look at it. Suddenly a small black flame appears on the corpse, and Barry says they need to contain it for study (?). Chester says he has a containment unit back in his lab, so Barry zooms away and returns with it. Somehow Chester uses this piece of tech to trap and preserve a flame of black fire (?).
Over in Coast City, Sue sticks her nose into Iris' business and asks why she jumped at the chance to cover a story that Allegra could have handled. Before she can answer, Iris gets a hit on her phone's meta detector app.
They follow the signal to the local Jitters (which looks suspiciously like the Central City branch), where they see a young girl sitting a table. As they watch, she phases her notebook into her backpack without opening it. Iris introduces herself to the girl, who goes by the improbable name of Tinya Wazzo. Iris says she knows she's the Phantom, and just wants to help her.
Tinya asks how the hell Iris found her, and she shows her the dark matter app. Tinya phases her finger through the phone, shorting it out. She tells Iris she doesn't need or want her help, and hurriedly leaves.
Back at STAR, Chester's alone with the black flame sample. He looks away, and when he turns back he sees the flame is gone. He then sees it's burning up papers on his desk, as the fire goes out of control. The black flames shoot toward him as he screams.
Chester wakes to see he's surrounded by Allegra, Frost & Cecile, who heard him yell out. They ask if he's OK, and he brushes it off, saying he just had a bad dream. He sees the black flame's still in its containment unit.
Meanwhile in Coast City, Sue once again asks Iris why she's really there. Iris finally explains she has a "time sickness," and Deon's scans revealed something potentially bad. She says she jumped at the chance to check out the Phantom case to get her mind off things. Sue tells her she needs to stop running from her fear, which somehow prompts Iris to say she knows where to find Tinya.
At STAR, Allegra joins Chester in the Lounge to give him a Patented The CW Pep Talk®. Suddenly the black flame escapes its containment unit again and begins burning the Lounge. Chester says it's all an hallucination, but Allegra sees it too. For some reason she doesn't use her powers to try and stop it, activating her phone's emergency signal instead.
Barry zooms in and creates a vortex with his arms, but it doesn't put out the inferno. Suddenly a faceless humanoid shape appears out of the fire for a few seconds, then vanishes along with the flames.
Chester says the Fire Meta's clearly out to get him, and Barry vows they'll keep him safe (how?). As Chester leaves, Cecile violates his privacy by telepathically scanning him, saying she can feel he's hurting. Barry theorizes that the Fire Meta may be controlling the black flame remotely, and sets off to search the entire city for them at superspeed (!).
Elsewhere, Tinya tentatively approaches an apartment in a rundown area of Coast City. The door's locked, so she phases through it and goes inside. There she finds Iris, who says the person she's looking for isn't there. Tinya's rightfully angry at this stranger who's stalking her, and turns to leave. Sue appears, holding a "molecular destabilizer" that will neutralize Tinya's phasing powers. Tinya asks Iris why the hell she keeps bothering her, and demands to know how she found her.
Iris explains that Tinya looked like a runaway, so she checked the missing person database and saw she'd recently left her foster home, and figured she'd eventually show up at this apartment— which belonged to her mother.
Tinya's impressed with Iris' investigative skills, and tells her sob story— her birth mom abandoned her when she was young and she never saw her again, yadda yadda. Then she got superpowers, and hoped that would somehow impress her mom so she'd take her in again.
Iris asks Tinya to let her help find her mom. Sue admits the molecular device is just a paperweight. For no good reason, Tinya agrees to let these total strangers into her life to help her.
Back at STAR, Chester tells Allegra he knows who the Fire Meta is— it's his late father Quincy. He says he died twenty four years ago in a fiery car crash, yelling for help that never came. He claims the ghost of his father is coming after him for not saving him.
Just then the alarm sounds as the lights go out. Chester & Allegra return to the Cortex, where the rest of Team Flash detect black fire on multiple levels. The flames head toward the Speed Lab, and Barry zooms there with Frost. She tries putting out the flames with her ice powers, but nothing happens. Barry grabs Frost and phases them both in order to survive the flames.
The inferno erupts in the Cortex, and Cecile grabs her head in pain, claiming she senses the grief of thousands of people. Suddenly Chester's father Quincy steps out of the flames, and says it's time for him to come home. Cecile tells Chester it's not really his father, as it's only feeding on his grief.
Quincy holds out his hand and Chester starts to take it. Suddenly Chester comes to his senses, saying his real father would be happy for him and freak out at the life he's made for himself at STAR. He refuses to take his hand, and Quincy turns back into black flame and dissipates. The flames disappear everywhere inside STAR, and Barry speeds himself and Frost back to the Cortex.
Later on Allegra joins Chester in his lab for some more awkward flirting. She tells him she'll always be there for him, and he admits she's a big part of his life. Gak!
In the tag scene, Barry & Iris have a Zoom call (even though he could zip to Coast City in a second and talk to her in person). Iris tells him about Tinya and how she spent the episode stalking her. Barry mentions the Fire Meta, and says it's not safe for her to come back to Central City for a while.
Seconds after Barry signs off, Deon reappears. He tells Iris he found out what's wrong with her, and it isn't good news.
Thoughts:
First off, does Deon own any other clothes? ARE those actual clothes, or is he now some sort of energy being who takes the form of a letter-jacketed twenty-something teen?
Also, I can't help but feel it's a little creepy to see Deon standing there leering intently at Iris— the woman he considers to be his "mother." Yikes!
Why would they be any help? What's the Strength or Sage Forces gonna know about time anomalies?
• At one point Iris asks Deon, "How does someone catch a 'time sickness' anyway?"
Why, from having unprotected time sex, of course!
• For the second week in a row, Caitlin sits out an episode while Frost fills in for her. I would bet just about anything that actress Danielle Panabaker's got tired of constantly having to change her makeup and hair back & forth numerous times a day, and told the producers to just let her be Frost for a while.
Note that Cecile's loitering at STAR Labs in this scene as well. Isn't she supposed to be a high profile attorney for metas? Shouldn't she be in her office doing, you know, actual lawyer work? How's the hell does she have time to hang out at STAR all day?
• When Barry asks where Caitlin is, Frost says she and her new boy toy Marcus have jetted off to see the stage play of Dear Evan Hansen. I'm sure the fact that Jordan Fisher (who plays Bart Allen on the show) stars in that production is purely a coincidence, and couldn't possibly be any kind of a shoutout or plug.
"So we know that this meta's fire powers are cryokinetic, meaning that their power output would read as extreme cold pockets."
So they're searching for a meta who burns with flame that's cold instead of hot. Comic Book Science!
• Chester builds a device to detect the new Fire Meta, but says it'll only work when it "flames on." He worries though that they'll be too slow to stop it. Apparently he forgot that Barry's a speedster— one who can move so fast that time seemingly stops for him.
• Sue says she's on her way to Coast City for business, and hopes while she's there to get a look at the town's very first meta:
Sue: "Yeah, but if I'm lucky, maybe I'll catch a glimpse of the CCP while I'm there. Oh, you guys haven't heard. Apparently there's been multiple sightings of someone walking through walls. It's popping up on socials as #CoastCityPhantom."
• Iris jumps at the chance to accompany Sue to Coast City, telling Allegra to run things while she's gone. Annnnnnd then Allegra spends the entire rest of the episode hanging out with Chester at STAR, never once stepping foot back into CCC Media.
I also noticed Iris said she could run the business remotely if she had to, then slammed her laptop shut and ran out of her office without it. Hey, don't you kind of need that thing for remote work?
• Back at STAR, Chester's technobabble device gets a hit, prompting him to say, "Our fire meta just turned up at South Devon Road!"
• Barry wants to somehow capture the black flame for study, and asks Chester for ideas. He says a Micro-Catalyzed Containment Unit (whatever the hell that is) might do the trick, as it can "preserve the vaporized integrity of gases."
Lastly, note that Chester abbreviates his Micro-Catalyzed Containment Unit as the "MCCU."
Was... was that a nod to the MCU over at Marvel?
But once again they never actually left Vancouver. I couldn't find a similar angle of it, but the the role of the boardwalk's played by Coal Harbor in Vancouver (note the identical green glass-fronted buildings).
• While in Coast City, Iris & Sue pay a visit to a VERY familiar-looking business establishment!
I love the hastily-added "Coast City" next to the Jitters logo here. Why, it's almost like they just used the same standing set for this version of the store! Surely the producers would never stoop to a cheap trick like that though, would they?
Even worse, once Tinya tells her to get lost, Iris pretty much straight up begins stalking her— going so far as to track her to her estranged mother's house! Holy Crap! Iris' actions are borderline harassment and almost certainly illegal. Tinya would be well within her rights to call the cops on her!
So... how the hell does it get out of the container for real? Apparently it's none of our concern, as it's never addressed or explained.
"We know that you're looking for your mother. It was your backpack. At Jitters, it looked like your whole life was jammed inside of it. I started looking through Coast City's missing persons database, and that's when I found out that you had run away from foster care. And that your birth mother worked at that Jitters, and that this apartment was her last known address."
Wow, what an unlikely series of intuitive leaps. And how the hell did Iris find the identity of Tinya's birth mother? Can anyone just look up personal and private info on total strangers like that?
• All through the episode, Chester acts visibly shaken whenever he sees one of the Fire Meta's charred victims. I was trying to figure out why— since the bodies didn't seem to be upsetting anyone else. Turns out there's a retconned reason for it!
After Chester's attacked by the Fire Meta, he tells Allegra he's convinced it's the ghost of his late father Quincy— who died in a fiery car crash! But don't take my word for it, here's what Chester had to say:
"That's who's in the fire. And I know that because that's how he died, but for some reason, he's... he's come back... I wasn't with my dad when he died. Okay, but when that fire appeared, that thing inside of it made me feel like I was. Right there on the road where it happened years ago. It's was like I could see the wreckage and feel the heat from the engine burning. And I could hear my dad shouting for help. But no one came. Allegra, no one came. He just... no one came. He just... he died alone."
Incredibly, Chester even pulls out a flashlight in this scene so they can see!
• Great confusion surrounds the nature and properties of the black flame. Chester describes it as "cold fusion," and says it doesn't produce carbon dioxide.
COMIC BOOK SCIENCE, Ladies and Gentlemen!
• As the out-of-control black flames surround Barry & Frost, he grabs her hand and phases them both, presumably to protect them from the fire.
But... phasing shouldn't shield them from the heat, right? As I understand it, phasing vibrates a person's molecules so they can pass between the atoms of another solid object— like a wall. Seems like they'd still be affected by the fire's deadly heat.
• Nice Touch: I loved the scene in which Chester fantasized about how excited his REAL father would be about him being a member of Team Flash and his job at STAR Labs.
So how was that any different from what she does to Chester and Allegra this week? Apparently her moral compass fluctuates with the needs of the script.
• We then see Barry having a Zoom (heh) chat with Iris, who's still in Coast City. Wait, what?
SPOILERS!
The Plot:
At the loft, Deon scans Iris for time anomalies and says she's all good. She tells him about the temporal gaps she's had lately, and says she's worried her "time sickness" is back. Just then he spots some sort of mutations, but has no idea what's causing it. He says it's probably nothing, but will consult with his "Force sibs" and report back. He snaps his fingers and vanishes.
At STAR Labs, Team Flash tries to figure out the identity of the new Fire Meta that's killing citizens of Central City. Chester says he's come up with a cold fusion detector that'll locate the Meta whenever they "flame on_ (demonstrating that he has no idea what "cold fusion" is). Just then he sees photos of the charred victims on the board, and becomes visibly shaken.
Meanwhile at Central City Citizen Media, Sue Dearbon (sans her pal Ralph Dibney) pays a visit to Iris & Allegra. She says she's on her way to Coast City, and hopes to catch a glimpse of the town's new meta, the Phantom. Iris decides to go with her, feeling it might make for a good story.
Back at STAR, Chester's detector goes off, and Barry zips to the address. Despite the fact he's a supersonic speedster, he somehow arrives too late and finds yet another charred corpse (?).
Later Barry (in CSI mode) and Chester investigate the crime scene. Chester's still skittish around the burned body, barley able to look at it. Suddenly a small black flame appears on the corpse, and Barry says they need to contain it for study (?). Chester says he has a containment unit back in his lab, so Barry zooms away and returns with it. Somehow Chester uses this piece of tech to trap and preserve a flame of black fire (?).
Over in Coast City, Sue sticks her nose into Iris' business and asks why she jumped at the chance to cover a story that Allegra could have handled. Before she can answer, Iris gets a hit on her phone's meta detector app.
They follow the signal to the local Jitters (which looks suspiciously like the Central City branch), where they see a young girl sitting a table. As they watch, she phases her notebook into her backpack without opening it. Iris introduces herself to the girl, who goes by the improbable name of Tinya Wazzo. Iris says she knows she's the Phantom, and just wants to help her.
Tinya asks how the hell Iris found her, and she shows her the dark matter app. Tinya phases her finger through the phone, shorting it out. She tells Iris she doesn't need or want her help, and hurriedly leaves.
Back at STAR, Chester's alone with the black flame sample. He looks away, and when he turns back he sees the flame is gone. He then sees it's burning up papers on his desk, as the fire goes out of control. The black flames shoot toward him as he screams.
Chester wakes to see he's surrounded by Allegra, Frost & Cecile, who heard him yell out. They ask if he's OK, and he brushes it off, saying he just had a bad dream. He sees the black flame's still in its containment unit.
Meanwhile in Coast City, Sue once again asks Iris why she's really there. Iris finally explains she has a "time sickness," and Deon's scans revealed something potentially bad. She says she jumped at the chance to check out the Phantom case to get her mind off things. Sue tells her she needs to stop running from her fear, which somehow prompts Iris to say she knows where to find Tinya.
At STAR, Allegra joins Chester in the Lounge to give him a Patented The CW Pep Talk®. Suddenly the black flame escapes its containment unit again and begins burning the Lounge. Chester says it's all an hallucination, but Allegra sees it too. For some reason she doesn't use her powers to try and stop it, activating her phone's emergency signal instead.
Barry zooms in and creates a vortex with his arms, but it doesn't put out the inferno. Suddenly a faceless humanoid shape appears out of the fire for a few seconds, then vanishes along with the flames.
Chester says the Fire Meta's clearly out to get him, and Barry vows they'll keep him safe (how?). As Chester leaves, Cecile violates his privacy by telepathically scanning him, saying she can feel he's hurting. Barry theorizes that the Fire Meta may be controlling the black flame remotely, and sets off to search the entire city for them at superspeed (!).
Elsewhere, Tinya tentatively approaches an apartment in a rundown area of Coast City. The door's locked, so she phases through it and goes inside. There she finds Iris, who says the person she's looking for isn't there. Tinya's rightfully angry at this stranger who's stalking her, and turns to leave. Sue appears, holding a "molecular destabilizer" that will neutralize Tinya's phasing powers. Tinya asks Iris why the hell she keeps bothering her, and demands to know how she found her.
Iris explains that Tinya looked like a runaway, so she checked the missing person database and saw she'd recently left her foster home, and figured she'd eventually show up at this apartment— which belonged to her mother.
Tinya's impressed with Iris' investigative skills, and tells her sob story— her birth mom abandoned her when she was young and she never saw her again, yadda yadda. Then she got superpowers, and hoped that would somehow impress her mom so she'd take her in again.
Iris asks Tinya to let her help find her mom. Sue admits the molecular device is just a paperweight. For no good reason, Tinya agrees to let these total strangers into her life to help her.
Back at STAR, Chester tells Allegra he knows who the Fire Meta is— it's his late father Quincy. He says he died twenty four years ago in a fiery car crash, yelling for help that never came. He claims the ghost of his father is coming after him for not saving him.
Just then the alarm sounds as the lights go out. Chester & Allegra return to the Cortex, where the rest of Team Flash detect black fire on multiple levels. The flames head toward the Speed Lab, and Barry zooms there with Frost. She tries putting out the flames with her ice powers, but nothing happens. Barry grabs Frost and phases them both in order to survive the flames.
The inferno erupts in the Cortex, and Cecile grabs her head in pain, claiming she senses the grief of thousands of people. Suddenly Chester's father Quincy steps out of the flames, and says it's time for him to come home. Cecile tells Chester it's not really his father, as it's only feeding on his grief.
Quincy holds out his hand and Chester starts to take it. Suddenly Chester comes to his senses, saying his real father would be happy for him and freak out at the life he's made for himself at STAR. He refuses to take his hand, and Quincy turns back into black flame and dissipates. The flames disappear everywhere inside STAR, and Barry speeds himself and Frost back to the Cortex.
Later on Allegra joins Chester in his lab for some more awkward flirting. She tells him she'll always be there for him, and he admits she's a big part of his life. Gak!
In the tag scene, Barry & Iris have a Zoom call (even though he could zip to Coast City in a second and talk to her in person). Iris tells him about Tinya and how she spent the episode stalking her. Barry mentions the Fire Meta, and says it's not safe for her to come back to Central City for a while.
Seconds after Barry signs off, Deon reappears. He tells Iris he found out what's wrong with her, and it isn't good news.
Thoughts:
• As the episode begins, Deon gives Iris a temporal checkup and says he doesn't detect any traces of "time sickness" in her. A lot to unpack in this brief scene:
Also, I can't help but feel it's a little creepy to see Deon standing there leering intently at Iris— the woman he considers to be his "mother." Yikes!
Speaking of the that, I noticed the show seems to have shut down the whole ill-advised notion that the Four Forces consider Barry & Iris to be their parents. No doubt the writers were stung by the internets' harsh reaction to that debacle last year!
And lastly, based on Iris' outfit, it looks like "mom jeans" are back in style!
• Iris tells Deon about the two of them appearing in a time-frozen train station back in Armageddon, Part 3. Oddly enough, he says he has no memory of that ever happening. Wait, what?
I was confused as to why Deon didn't remember this encounter, but then realized it took place in an alternate timeline that was eventually erased.
I was confused as to why Deon didn't remember this encounter, but then realized it took place in an alternate timeline that was eventually erased.
So Iris remembers a faint echo of this aborted timeline, but Deon— who's the Still Force and can control time itself— doesn't. Got it.
• Deon gives Iris a clean bill of time health, but suddenly changes his tune as he detects a problem after all. He doesn't understand what's wrong with her, and says he's gonna go consult with his "Force Sibs" to try and figure it out.
Why would they be any help? What's the Strength or Sage Forces gonna know about time anomalies?
• At one point Iris asks Deon, "How does someone catch a 'time sickness' anyway?"
Why, from having unprotected time sex, of course!
Note that Cecile's loitering at STAR Labs in this scene as well. Isn't she supposed to be a high profile attorney for metas? Shouldn't she be in her office doing, you know, actual lawyer work? How's the hell does she have time to hang out at STAR all day?
• Team Flash tries to figure out the identity of Central City's deadly new Fire Meta and how to find them before they kill again. Chester then drops this doozy of an explanation about the new threat's powers:
"So we know that this meta's fire powers are cryokinetic, meaning that their power output would read as extreme cold pockets."
So they're searching for a meta who burns with flame that's cold instead of hot. Comic Book Science!
• Chester builds a device to detect the new Fire Meta, but says it'll only work when it "flames on." He worries though that they'll be too slow to stop it. Apparently he forgot that Barry's a speedster— one who can move so fast that time seemingly stops for him.
• Sue Dearbon pays a visit to Iris & Co. at Central City Citizen Media. It's always great when Sue pops up on the show, as I love her energy and manic charm. I honestly wish they'd dump a few of the other characters (cough Allegra cough Chester cough Cecile) and make her a regular.
I noticed she went through the entire episode without mentioning Ralph even once! In fact the complete absence of any reference to him is so blatantly obvious that it's palpable. It's clear at this point the writers have permanently retired the character, and doing their level best to completely erase him from the show.
• For the past few episodes Iris has had this vintage print of a black woman mounted behind her desk. I finally took thirty seconds to google it, and discovered the woman is Ida B. Wells (heh).
Wells (1862 - 1931) was a famous educator and early civil rights leader. She was one of the founders of the NAACP, and dedicated her life to fighting prejudice— especially against women of color. She was also a prominent investigative journalist, so it makes perfect sense for Iris to be a fan.
• Sue says she's on her way to Coast City for business, and hopes while she's there to get a look at the town's very first meta:
Sue: "Yeah, but if I'm lucky, maybe I'll catch a glimpse of the CCP while I'm there. Oh, you guys haven't heard. Apparently there's been multiple sightings of someone walking through walls. It's popping up on socials as #CoastCityPhantom."
Allegra: "It sounds like a new meta. I wonder how they got their powers on the West Coast?"
Sue: " Actually, I have run into quite a few metas around the world. Turns out there's folks all over the place with latent meta genes. All it takes is the right set of circumstances for their powers to manifest. Maybe that's what happened in Coast City?"
Based on this conversation, it appears that up to now Central City's the ONLY place in the entire Arrowverse that contains metas. That can't possibly be right, can it? What about Star City? Surely Arrow fought a meta there now and then? Or Metropolis? Team Flash is definitely aware of it (since Frost even mentioned it earlier), and there are certainly plenty of metas there.
I guess no one's ever flat out said there are no metas elsewhere, but... this feels like a HUGE retcon to me.
Based on this conversation, it appears that up to now Central City's the ONLY place in the entire Arrowverse that contains metas. That can't possibly be right, can it? What about Star City? Surely Arrow fought a meta there now and then? Or Metropolis? Team Flash is definitely aware of it (since Frost even mentioned it earlier), and there are certainly plenty of metas there.
I guess no one's ever flat out said there are no metas elsewhere, but... this feels like a HUGE retcon to me.
• Iris jumps at the chance to accompany Sue to Coast City, telling Allegra to run things while she's gone. Annnnnnd then Allegra spends the entire rest of the episode hanging out with Chester at STAR, never once stepping foot back into CCC Media.
I also noticed Iris said she could run the business remotely if she had to, then slammed her laptop shut and ran out of her office without it. Hey, don't you kind of need that thing for remote work?
• Back at STAR, Chester's technobabble device gets a hit, prompting him to say, "Our fire meta just turned up at South Devon Road!"
For eight seasons now the show's been naming streets and buildings after prominent comic book creators. Unfortunately I couldn't find anyone named Devon working at DC Comics.
• Whoops! Looks like the writers forgot the premise of the show again! Chester's Fire Meta detector gets a hit, so Barry speeds to the scene. Inexplicably, he arrives too late and finds yet another charred corpse.
Again, might I point out that as a speedster, Barry can move so fast that time seemingly stops around him— yet he was too slow to save a person from being burned alive. Just one more example of the Selective Speed Syndrome— in which Barry's powers fluctuate based on the needs and convenience of the script— that's plagued the series since the very beginning.
• Chester arrives at the crime scene a bit later. As he sheepishly examines the charred corpse, he sees a small black flame erupt from it, which causes him to say, "Holy Fahrenheit 451."
He's clearly referring to the Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 here, which doesn't really match the situation here. The book's about a dystopian future society in which books are outlawed and regularly incinerated, and the title refers to the temperature at which paper ignites. What's that have to do with black flames and a charred corpse? Apart from fire, not much!
• This week Barry seems to have acquired yet ANOTHER new speed-based power— invisibility!
Chester tells Barry he has a containment unit for the black flame back in his lab. Normally Barry would just zoom away at superspeed, causing a disruptive blast of air, a whoosh of sound and visible Speed Force lightning. He can't do that this time, as there are CCPD officers creeping around the crime scene, so... he simply turns invisible and zips off.
I assume this is some form of phasing? He doesn't drop through the floor like he usually does when he phases, so I gather he must be vibrating his molecules so rapidly they... become impossible to see? And then he just walks out of the room normally until he's out of sight, and then zooms away at superspeed?
That's my take on what's happening here, but I could be wrong. It's kind of a cool new power, but I dunno... Barry's already one of the most ridiculously overpowered metas there is. The last thing he needs is another goddamned superpower!
We then see Chester catch the flame inside the glass container, where it somehow continues to burn— despite the fact it has no fuel source to power it. Comic Book Science again!
Lastly, note that Chester abbreviates his Micro-Catalyzed Containment Unit as the "MCCU."
Was... was that a nod to the MCU over at Marvel?
• Check out this Welcome To Coast City sign, which proudly states it's the home of Ferris Airlines. In the comics, Coast City was the traditional home of Hal Jordan, aka Green Lantern. And Ferris AirCRAFT— not AirLINE— was an aviation company run by Jordan's gal pal Carol Ferris (who was secretly the villain Star Sapphire, and clashed regularly with Green Lantern).
I dunno what the Arrowverse's deal is with Green Lantern. The various shows constantly reference him and his trappings, yet they seem reluctant to ever give the character his own show— or even a guest spot on someone else's. Heck, in the series finale of Arrow they even implied that John Diggle became Green Lantern, but then nothing ever came of it.
• I assume Coast City is supposed to be the Earth-Prime equivalent of San Diego. Here we see a shot of its majestic skyline.
Yeah, nice try guys, but that's clearly Vancouver there.
OK, so I don't expect the production to fly a crew all the way to Southern California to shoot five seconds of B-roll, but c'mon! This show's in its eighth season, so we all know what Vancouver looks like by now! Surely there was some video clipart of San Diego they could have used here?
Similarly, the producers make a valiant attempt to convince us that Iris and Sue are having a walk & talk on this busy Coast City boardwalk..
• During their chat, Sue asks Iris how things are going with her and Barry. Iris replies that Barry's "leveling up."
Again with this phrase! As I keep pointing out, they've said it at least once— and often far more— in every episode this season. This has to be leading up to something. What, I can't imagine, but there's gotta be some kind of storyline-related reason for it. Otherwise, what the hell's the point of having a character utter it every week?
I love the hastily-added "Coast City" next to the Jitters logo here. Why, it's almost like they just used the same standing set for this version of the store! Surely the producers would never stoop to a cheap trick like that though, would they?
I didn't realize Jitters was a nationwide chain, as I figured the "CC" in their name stood for "Central City." If not, then what the hell does it mean? "Caffeinated Coffee?"
We then get this reverse angle of the place, and it appears they forgot to alter the CC Jitters logo in this poster altogether! Whoops!
• Iris tracks the Coast City Phantom to Jitters, where they discover it's actually teen runaway Tinya Wazzo (although her last name's never spoken on camera).
Believe it or not, Tinya's from the comics— sort of. There Tinya called herself Phantom Girl, and was a member of The Legion Of Superheroes— a group of crimefighters living in the 30th Century.
The comic version of Tinya could walk through walls as well, but was a humanoid alien from the planet Bgztl.
There's also a Linnya Wazzo in the comics, who's a present day member of a group called The Terrifics. She's allegedly an ancestor of Phantom Girl.
It appears the Arrowverse version seen here is sort of an amalgam of the two characters.
I wonder... Iris is currently experiencing some kind of time sickness. What if Tinya really is from the future, like her comic counterpart— and that's why Iris seems so drawn to her?
• Iris meets with Tinya, telling her she knows she's a meta and can help her deal with her powers. Tinya tells her several times she's not interested in her help, but Iris refuses to drop the matter and keeps pressing her about it— hard.
Jaysis! Why does she keep pestering this poor girl about her powers? She clearly just wants to be left alone. Why can't Iris respect her boundaries? Isn't that one of the major tenets of SJW philosophy— letting everyone live their own life as they see fit?
And why does every meta have to become a superhero anyway? Why can't some of them just live quiet lives and keep their powers on the down low?
Even worse, once Tinya tells her to get lost, Iris pretty much straight up begins stalking her— going so far as to track her to her estranged mother's house! Holy Crap! Iris' actions are borderline harassment and almost certainly illegal. Tinya would be well within her rights to call the cops on her!
• Reality Check: When Iris smugly states she's from Central City Citizen Media, Tinya says she's never heard of it. I loved the started look on Iris' face, as if she can't fathom the fact that someone outside of Central City's never heard of her little local media outlet. HAW!
On the other hand, Tinya's also unfamiliar with the term metahuman, as well as with the Flash. Those gaps in her knowledge seem less believable. If there really was a city overflowing with superpowered beings— even in the Midwest— you can be sure the national news would have reported on it by now. Same goes for the Flash. A guy who can run across the country in a second and has saved the world on numerous occasions would most definitely be well known everywhere.
• When Tinya demands to know how Iris managed to track her down, she sheepishly shows her the Dark Matter Detector app on her phone. Tinya then phases her finger through the phone, instantly frying it to prevent her from finding her again.
This is VERY similar to the character of Shadowcat in the X-Men, over in Marvel comics. Shadowcat (aka Kitty Pride) could become intangible and walk through walls, and whenever she'd phase through any kind of electronics, she'd inadvertently short them out— just like Tinya does here.
• Back at STAR, Chester's startled when the black flame escapes its containment unit and begins burning up his lab.
Is... is that a bendy straw lying on top of those burning blueprints there? Yes. Yes it is. Apparently Chester, who's a grown-ass man in his thirties, drinks through bendy straws.
• The black flame seemingly begins burning Chester's entire lab, threatening to engulf him. Suddenly he wakes and realizes he was dreaming, as the flame's still in its containment unit.
Then a few scenes later he's chatting with Allegra, and the flame gets out once more. This time he naturally assumes he's dreaming again, but Allegra points out they're both awake, and the flame is indeed loose.
So... how the hell does it get out of the container for real? Apparently it's none of our concern, as it's never addressed or explained.
• When the black flames spread and threaten Chester and Allegra, she activates the Flash Alert on her phone. I guess she must have forgotten she's a meta with powers?
To be fair I'm not sure her electromagnetic powers would have had any effect on the kooky flames, but she doesn't even attempt to use them. I guess there wasn't enough money in the FX budget for that in this episode.
• Tinya shows up at a dingy back alley apartment, hoping to find her birth mother there.
There's something verrrrrry strange going on with this place. Note that in this shot we can see the apartment building stretches a hundred or so feet into the background, and there are two or three more doors visible. So far so good.
Tinya then uses her powers to walk right through the wall and into the apartment. I dunno what the hell happened with this scene, but that interior doesn't match the exterior in any way. There are now two windows in what should be a shared wall between adjacent apartments. Even stranger, we can see what appears to be an alley with a fire escape through these impossible windows!
How in the name of Stan Lee's Mighty Toupee is that possible? Did Tinya enter an alternate dimension while she was phasing through the door?
Amazingly it gets worse, as Iris has inexplicably beaten Tinya to the apartment and is waiting there for her. Behind Iris we see what looks for all the world like sunlight pouring through a window on the opposite wall— despite the fact that it's nighttime!
The only answer here is that the show's Set Designer and Location Scout had a falling out and are no longer speaking to one another, resulting in this physically impossible set.
• Unsurprisingly, Tinya's surprised and annoyed by Iris' intrusion, and demands to know how she tracked her down. Iris replies:
"We know that you're looking for your mother. It was your backpack. At Jitters, it looked like your whole life was jammed inside of it. I started looking through Coast City's missing persons database, and that's when I found out that you had run away from foster care. And that your birth mother worked at that Jitters, and that this apartment was her last known address."
Wow, what an unlikely series of intuitive leaps. And how the hell did Iris find the identity of Tinya's birth mother? Can anyone just look up personal and private info on total strangers like that?
What the hell is Iris' sudden and obsessive interest in this girl anyway? It seems far beyond simply wanting to help her. And why does Tinya eventually give in and accept help from this pushy, complete stranger?
The show's devoting a huge amount of time to this particular side character... They'd better not be setting her up to become a member of Team Flash, because the last thing this show needs right now is another goddamned regular character!
After Chester's attacked by the Fire Meta, he tells Allegra he's convinced it's the ghost of his late father Quincy— who died in a fiery car crash! But don't take my word for it, here's what Chester had to say:
"That's who's in the fire. And I know that because that's how he died, but for some reason, he's... he's come back... I wasn't with my dad when he died. Okay, but when that fire appeared, that thing inside of it made me feel like I was. Right there on the road where it happened years ago. It's was like I could see the wreckage and feel the heat from the engine burning. And I could hear my dad shouting for help. But no one came. Allegra, no one came. He just... no one came. He just... he died alone."
Wait a minute... We never heard anything about Quincy dying in a fire before. Back in Season 7's The One With The Nineties, Cisco & Chester accidentally time traveled to 1998. While there, the now-adult Chester ran into his father and got a chance to interact with him again. He then told Cisco:
"Tomorrow, my dad dies in a car accident on his way to some big meeting in Coast City. Today’s the last day I see him alive."
Hmm... OK, so Chester doesn't categorically state that there WASN'T a fire, but he doesn't say there was either. I guess the writers figured that ambiguity gave them some wiggle room to embellish a bit and give Chester pyrophobia, as well as tie Quincy in with the Fire Meta.
The whole fiery crash thing still feels like a pretty big retcon to me though.
• During the second Fire Meta attack, it shuts off the lights inside STAR Labs. Once again, Allegra forgets she's a meta, as she could have easily snapped her fingers and created some light so the two of them don't have to stumble around in the dark.
Incredibly, Chester even pulls out a flashlight in this scene so they can see!
• Great confusion surrounds the nature and properties of the black flame. Chester describes it as "cold fusion," and says it doesn't produce carbon dioxide.
Yeah, that doesn't make a lick of sense. Cold fusion is a nuclear reaction that takes place at or near room temperature (hence the "cold" in the term). As such it has absolutely NOTHING to do with frigid temps OR flames. At all.
Then in the third act, the black flames begin spreading uncontrollably through STAR Labs, which prompts this exchange:
Cecile: "If it's cold fire, how come it's getting hotter in here?"
Barry: "These flames form in a subzero state, but they still give off high levels of kinetic energy."
Frost: "Which means they can still burn the hell out of us."
So let me see if I have this straight... Team Flash is being threatened by black flames that burn cold instead of hot— yet because they're moving a lot, they actually give off heat.
Cecile: "If it's cold fire, how come it's getting hotter in here?"
Barry: "These flames form in a subzero state, but they still give off high levels of kinetic energy."
Frost: "Which means they can still burn the hell out of us."
So let me see if I have this straight... Team Flash is being threatened by black flames that burn cold instead of hot— yet because they're moving a lot, they actually give off heat.
COMIC BOOK SCIENCE, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Sometimes I wonder how the actors on this show force themselves to spout nonsense like this.
But... phasing shouldn't shield them from the heat, right? As I understand it, phasing vibrates a person's molecules so they can pass between the atoms of another solid object— like a wall. Seems like they'd still be affected by the fire's deadly heat.
And what about oxygen? Can they breathe while they're phasing? They're in their phased state for several minutes of screen time, so let's hope so! Seems to me like any oxygen they inhaled would leak right out of their phased lungs. Or does incoming air become phased along with their bodies?
• Eventually the Fire Meta takes the form of Chester's late father Quincy, in order to feed off his grief.
Wow, that's a new development! We've never seen the "Evil Entity Impersonates A Team Member's Deceased Loved One In Order To Manipulate Them" plot before! Well, except in The Present, where Savitar morphed into Cisco's late brother Dante. Or The Wrath Of Savitar, in which the evil speedster took the form of Wally's dead mother Francine. Or a dozen others I don't have time to look up in which the exact same thing happened.
Heck, you could even probably count the entire dreary Mirrorverse Saga— in which Mirror Master/Mistress/Monarch replaced Iris with a reflected clone— in this trope!
Despite my reservations about the plot, it was nice to see they got actor Milton Barnes to return as Quincy— who we first saw back in The One With The Nineties.
• I'm very puzzled by the Fire Meta's actions, as its methods and motivation seem to have completely changed between episodes. Last week in The Fire Next Time it attacked its victims in seconds, without any hesitation whatsoever. They barely had time to scream before it fried them.
But then in this episode it suddenly has a much more elaborate process, as it takes the form of Chester's late father, then spends an inordinate amount of time trying to lure him in so it can feed on his grief and presumably incinerate him when it's done.
Why such a sudden and massive change in its M.O.? Is Chester filled with more delicious grief than most people, so the Fire Meta was slowly savoring it before killing him? Or is it because Chester's a regular and has Plot Armor?
Also, the entire time the Fire Meta's trying to entice Chester, Allegra and Cecile stand literally two feet away, shrieking at him to reject this monster that's wearing his father's face.
Why the hell does the Fire Meta put up with their interference? It's already incinerated three people, so it clearly has no problem with killing. Why doesn't it just fry Allegra and Cecile where they stand so it can tempt Chester in peace?
• At the beginning of The Fire Next Time, Stan The Bartender's incinerated by an unseen assailant that uttered a low-pitched growl. In this episode the Fire Meta takes the form of Chester's father, and makes the exact same growling noise.
Although I had to chuckle when Fantasy Chester apparently shows Fantasy Quincy the Flash costume. Did he just reveal Barry's secret identity to him in his daydream?
• In the wrap up, Team Flash figures out that the Fire Meta feeds on grief, and is targeting people who're in psychological pain.
I'm probably wayyyyy off base here, but back in the Armageddon crossover, we learned that Despero got his powers from an energy source called the Flame Of Py'tar. Barry defeated Despero by forcibly ripping him from the Flame.
I'm probably wayyyyy off base here, but back in the Armageddon crossover, we learned that Despero got his powers from an energy source called the Flame Of Py'tar. Barry defeated Despero by forcibly ripping him from the Flame.
What if the Flame Of Py'Tar is sentient, and is now pissed off because it lost its "vessel?" So pissed off in fact that it's now gunning for Barry to exact its revenge?
That would be a pretty awesome storyline! Do I think that's what's happening here? No. No I don't. But you gotta admit that'd be pretty cool— and it would fit in with this season's "recycled villain" theme.
• At the end of the episode, Chester, Allegra and Cecile engage in some typically banal banter. Cecile then gives the others a quick telepathic scan, realizes they want to be alone and quickly excuses herself so they can awkwardly flirt with one another.
That would be a pretty awesome storyline! Do I think that's what's happening here? No. No I don't. But you gotta admit that'd be pretty cool— and it would fit in with this season's "recycled villain" theme.
• At the end of the episode, Chester, Allegra and Cecile engage in some typically banal banter. Cecile then gives the others a quick telepathic scan, realizes they want to be alone and quickly excuses herself so they can awkwardly flirt with one another.
Hey, remember last week when Barry asked Cecile to do a quick telepathic scan of Jaco Birch and find out if he was innocent? And remember how she flat out refused because that would be unethical?
• In the tag scene, we get an establishing shot of the La Vic Doree, a luxury hotel where Iris is staying in Coast City.
Once again this is yet another location in Vancouver— the JW Marriott Parq.
Why the hell are they video-calling? Keep in mind this is the same Barry who sped his friends and family to Paris for dinner a couple weeks ago. He could have easily popped across the country to see her in less than a second, yet for some reason chose to converse with her online.
Sometimes I don't know about this show...
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