The Flash Season 2, Episode 21: The Runaway Dinosaur

Despite the title, sadly there are no dinosaurs running amok in this week's episode.

With just two more episodes left in the season, this week's The Flash takes time out from the Zoom storyline (again) to give us a yet another filler episode. They even recycle a villain from Season 1!

The Runaway Dinosaur is one of those "Afterlife Episodes." You know, one in which the main character dies, finds himself in a void populated by loved ones, learns a valuable lesson and returns to his regularly scheduled life. Think the Tapestry episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which Captain Picard is killed and Q (of all entities) gives him a second chance.

It's a very well acted episode, and as usual Grant Gustin knocks it out of the park. But it treads some very, very worn ground, as Barry once again has to deal with the death of his mother before he can return to the living. I kind of thought we'd dealt with this matter once and for all when he phoned the Earth-2 version of his mom in Welcome To Earth-2.

These days pretty much every genre series on TV features a season-long story arc. Unfortunately most shows can't sustain such a story for the typical twenty two episode season. This results in numerous side quests and filler episodes, as the producers desperately try to pad the season.

Maybe it's time shows started reducing the number of episodes to ten or thirteen. That would eliminate the need for filler, as each episode would actually count, and move the story arc along.

Lastly, the big news this week is that super nerd and filmmaker Kevin Smith directed this episode. But you should go ahead and watch it anyway. ZING! Smith only directed the episode, and had nothing to do with writing it, so it's mercifully free from his usual trademarks.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
Picking up right where we left off last week, Barry's been disintegrated by Harry's attempt to recharge his powers. The STAR Labs Gang and their various friends and relatives are stunned. Harry finds Jesse lying unconscious on the floor, along with Wally. The two were zapped by Speed Force energy last week when Barry exploded. Henry Allen, who was a doctor before he was a prisoner, examines the two. Wally comes to on his own, but Jesse is in a coma. Henry takes her to the infirmary. Meanwhile Cisco vibes on what's left of the Flash's charred costume, and see's Barry alive, standing in the middle of some sort of energy vortex.

Barry wakes up in his childhood home. He goes downstairs and finds the living room is surrounded by police tape. He sees Joe there, examining evidence. He soon realizes it's not really Joe, but a personification of the Speed Force. It says it's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together. Whoops! Wrong franchise! It says it's a force that predated the universe (that's quite a trick!) and will exist long after. Speed Force Joe says Barry needs to get back to his life, because his friends are in danger from Zoom. But in order to do so, he has to catch something that keeps speeding past the window. Sigh... why can't it just send him back now, without all the philosophical "snatch the pebble from my hand" crap?

In the infirmary, Henry says Jesse's vital signs are fine, and can't figure out why she's in a coma. Iris says the same thing happened to Barry when he first got his powers. Eh? Get it? Jesse's going to be yet another speedster on the show.

Cisco and Iris head down to the STAR Labs morgue (!) to look for records of how Earth-1 Wells treated Barry when he fell into a coma. They hear a noise, and see the late Tony Woodward, aka Girder, staggering around. Apparently his body was being kept in the morgue (?) and the particle accelerator energy resurrected him, resulting in Zombie Girder. Sure, why not? He chases after them until Iris shines a light in his eyes. He then staggers out of the building and into the night.

Meanwhile back in the Speed Force, Barry exits his old house and wanders around the neighborhood. He meets Speed Force Iris, who tells him he was given a rare and precious gift, and he rejected it. When Barry asks why the Speed Force gave him his powers in the first place, it replies "Because you're the Flash!" He begs her to help him get back to the real world. She say she can go any time, but if he does it'll be without his powers. Man, speaking in riddles, denying him his powers... sounds like the Speed Force is kind of a dick.

In the real world, Zombie Girder vandalizes a Hummer, then trashes Jitters. Iris deduces that Girder's looking for her, as he had a crush on her when he was alive. She and Joe leave to find Zombie Girder and try and lure him back to STAR Labs.

Barry sees a Speed Force version of his father Henry next, standing in a cemetery. Apparently Barry never visited his mother's grave in the real world. Speed Force Henry says Barry's never accepted losing his mother, and can't regain his powers until he's at peace with her death. The shadowy shape zips by yet again.

Iris and Joe believe Zombie Girder will strike their house next. They wait inside, and sure enough, a bit later they see him coming down the street. Iris jogs back to STAR Labs (!), luring him along. Joe asks Wally how he's feeling, thinking he's turned into a speedster. He purposely drops a coffee mug to see if Wally will grab it in midair, but it crashes to the floor. Apparently Wally's not a speedster— yet.

Iris manages to coax Zombie Girder back to STAR Labs. Cisco sets up a magnetic field to trap Girder when he enters the Breach Room. Unfortunately it doesn't work, and everyone gets trapped in the room along with the shambling, metallic zombie.

Barry goes back to his childhood home and sees the Speed Force version of Nora Allen, his mom. He asks her why the Speed Force is torturing him. Speed Force Nora says he has to find a way to accept his mother's death. She says performing heroic deeds as the Flash is awesome, but bad things will still happen in the world, and he has to accept that. Speed Force Nora says she's proud of what Barry's become. She then reads his favorite childhood book (The Runaway Dinosaur, natch) to him. She asks if he's ready, and he says yes. He gets up and manages to catch the shadowy shape that's been zipping around him. To no one's surprise it turns out to be— himself. None of this makes the least bit of sense, but let's just go with it, or we'll be here all day.

Harry boosts Cisco's vibe power so he can see Barry in the Speed Force. Cisco asks what happens if he sees Barry and he doesn't want to come back? Iris says to let her help, and she grabs Cisco's hand so they can vibe together. They appear in the living room of the Speed Force house. Iris asks Barry to come home. Barry looks at Speed Force Nora, who says, "Run, Barry, run!"

Barry grabs Iris' hand, and she pulls him from the Speed Force. The celebration is short-lived though, as Cisco fills Barry in on why Zombie Girder's in the room and trying to kill them. Barry runs around Girder at super speed, using his lightning to short him out or something. That was easy!

Barry visits Jesse, who's still in a coma in the infirmary. He touches her hand, and a tiny arc of lightning jumps from his finger to hers. She immediately wakes up. Yep, she's now a speedster.

Henry tells Barry he's decided to leave his Evil Dead cabin and stay in Central City. Uh-oh. I do believe Henry just acquired a target on his back.

Barry finally visits his mom's grave for real. Iris is there as well, and he tells her that she's his everything or something, and he'll always come running when she calls.

Back at the Central City Police Department, Zoom is apparently still holding poor Caitlin hostage. He tells her she can leave if she wants, but if she does, he'll kill all her friends. He then gives a rousing speech to a room full of presumably Earth-2 supervillains, urging them to help him destroy humanity.

Thoughts:

• Last week Wally and Jesse were both hit with Speed Force energy when Barry exploded. I assumed this was an attempt at giving us a two for one origin story, and this week would reveal they'd been transformed into Kid Flash and Jesse Quick, respectively.

Or not, I guess. It looks like something's going on with Jesse, as she fell into a brief and unexplained coma, but Wally seems unaffected by the ordeal. So were the writers just toying with us, or will Wally eventually develop powers as well? We know it's going to happen sooner or later, so they might as well get on with it.

• Apparently STAR Labs has its own morgue. Do I even have to bring up the fact that that's probably highly illegal? Like pretty much everything they do there?

• Girder first appeared in the Season 1 episode The Flash Is Born. He was killed by Blackout one episode later, in Power Outage.

• Since this episode was directed by Kevin Smith, it's state law that it must feature a cameo by his bestie Jason Mewes. He appears as the douchey owner of one of the last Humvees on Earth (they were discontinued in 2010).

• Speaking of Hummers, the producers have good memories. In The Flash Is Born, Tony Woodward, aka Girder, stole a bright yellow Humvee. Even in death he still has a thing for discontinued behemoths that get horrible gas mileage.

• This is some hardcore nitpicking, but whatever. Barry wakes up a recreation of his childhood home, immediately after his mother's murder in 2000. He meets Speed Force Joe, who's snooping around the house, apparently investigating the murder.

Since this is the 2000 version of Joe, shouldn't he look sixteen years younger? Or did the Speed Force use Current Joe as a template, so as not to confuse Barry?

• I'm assuming Barry's The Runaway Dinosaur book doesn't really exist and was made up for the show. It's written by someone named Helbing. In order to fulfill this week's quota of Easter eggs, Aaron and Todd Helbing are executive producers on The Flash.

• At the end of the episode, Zoom gives a speech to his metahuman army, saying, "The humans think they own this world." So... Zoom isn't human? I guess metahuman is a separate species now?

The Flash Season 1, Episode 6: The Flash Is Born

This week on The Flash we get an obscure (to me anyway) supervillain, Iris keeps blogging, the STAR Labs Gang gets more character development and the real identity of Dr. Wells becomes even murkier.

By the way, I just want to say that despite my often snarky attitude in these reviews, this is fast becoming my new favorite show.

SPOILERS!

The Plot:
Barry encounters a new metahuman called Girder, who somehow beats the crap out of him, despite not having super speed. Girder turns out to be Barry's childhood bully, who regularly administered beatings to him in school. This time it's personal!

After several more beatdowns, the STAR Labs Gang figures out a way for Barry to defeat Girder-- by the incredibly sophisticated act of running real fast and punching him at supersonic speed. He finally defeats Girder, and they lock him up in the super jail inside STAR Labs, which can't possibly be legal.

Meanwhile Iris continues to blog about the Flash, while he continues to try and talk her out of it.

And Det. West, investigating the murder of Barry's mom, thinks that the highly suspicious and creepy Dr. Wells might have something to do with it. Wells denies any involvement, but then ten minutes later West is visited by the Reverse Flash, who tells him to knock it off. Hmm...

Thoughts:
• This episode is titled The Flash Is Born. I could have sworn everyone has been calling him that since the pilot.

I guess it's just the STAR Labs Gang that's been calling him that, and Iris-- and the general public-- has been referring to him as the laughable "The Streak."

• This is some hard core nitpicking, but what the heck. In the weekly prologue, Barry says that everyone thinks he's a normal forensic scientist. He says this while holding a test tube in his hand and vibrating it at super speed. I don't think normal forensic scientists can do that.

• I thought I knew all the Flash villains, so when Girder appeared I assumed he was either from another comic (Firestorm, no doubt) or created just for the show. Turns out he's from the Flash comic after all. He's a newer character who came along after I stopped buying comics.

In the comic Girder is made of living iron, but here it's steel. Did they change his substance so they could make a "Man Of Steel" joke?

Unfortunately Girder comes off as a low-rent Colossus here. He's got a cool power, but Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. already did the metal man schtick a couple of months ago with Absorbing Man.

• At the beginning of the episode Girder is fleeing the police in a stolen yellow Hummer. A few things here.

First of all, Eddie Thawne and several other cops set up a roadblock to stop Girder. As his Hummer approaches, they all begin firing at it-- while several police cars are following closely behind. Is that a good idea? All Girder has to do is swerve and they'll be shooting at their own men here.

Secondly, as Eddie fires wildly at the approaching Girder, he gets off a lucky shot that hits him in the face. Girder's face instantly turns to steel and deflects the bullet. Somehow Eddie is able to see this and realize that Girder is a metahuman. Yep, he sees a man's face momentarily turn to steel as he's approaching at 90 mph, in the dark. Eddie must have good eyes indeed.

Lastly, why in the name of Henry Ford did Girder steal a Hummer? They stopped making them over four years ago, in May of 2010! Does Girder just have a thing for discontinued behemoths that get poor gas mileage, or did he grab the first thing he could steal? 

• Girder used to work at the Keystone Ironworks in Keystone City, which is apparently fairly close to Central City. In the comics, Keystone City is where Jay Garrick, the original Flash lived. Which of course raises the question-- will we be seeing the Jay Garrick Flash on the show? I hope so, as that would be awesome.

• This has nothing to do with the episode, but the bas-relief mural in the Central City Police Department is actually a big Easter egg. The figures featured in it are all based on members of the Justice League! Pretty cool!

According to the designer of the mural, the figures are all Greco-Roman gods masquerading as superheroes. Zeus is Superman, Hades is Batman, Hera is Wonder Woman, Mercury is the Flash (natch), Apollo is Green Arrow, Poseidon is Aquaman and Vulcan is Green Lantern.

• For several weeks now Barry's been trying to get Iris to understand that her blog is putting her in danger. This week Girder proves his point. Girder doesn't seem like the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he can figure out that if Iris is writing about the Flash, then she must know him, and he comes a'runnin' for her.

If a dim bulb like him can manage to put the pieces together, a more intelligent supervillain out to have no trouble doing the same. Iris should realize that and stop blogging immediately, instead of hitting send without proofreading and smugly staring at her hit count.

• When Iris is talking to the Flash, she mentions other metahumans popping up all over the country, including a burning man who's literally on fire. I'm assuming that's yet another reference to Firestorm.

• Eddie Thawne tells Barry that he was jealous of him at first, but is now glad that he's such good friends with Iris.

I liked these bonding scenes between Barry and Eddie quite a bit. As most of us know, Eddie Thawne is the alter ego of the Reverse Flash in the comics. Whether that's the case here remains to be seen. I'm betting the writers are doing everything they can to make Eddie seem like a nice guy, so that when he does finally become a supervillain it'll be all the more shocking.

• The STAR Labs Gang calculates that Barry will need to run 830 mph in order to defeat girder. Cisco says that's faster than the speed of sound. Eh, that's sort of true. Mach speed is not a constant, and can vary wildly depending on atmospheric pressure and temperature. It's all very complicated.

At normal sea level Mach 1, otherwise known as the speed of sound, is 761 mph. So Barry will most likely be running faster than the speed of sound.

• Cisco also tells Barry that in order to get up to 830 mph, he'll need a 5.3 mile running start. During his final battle with Girder, Barry takes off running in the opposite direction and stops exactly 5.3 miles away. Does he have an odometer built into his suit?

• OK, I get that Barry lacks the strength to harm Girder's steel hide, but how does he keep getting his ass handed to him every time they grapple? Barry can literally move faster than the human eye can see. Unless Girder has super speed as well, I don't understand how he's able to grab him so easily and toss him around.

• Barry's supersonic punch was pretty cool. Like a panel from the comic come to life.

That said, I'm a bit fuzzy as to how Girder's powers work. Is his body made of some kind of organic steel that he can make look normal? Or is he made of flesh and blood and can somehow cover himself with steel? I'm guessing it's the latter, especially if Iris was able to take him out with one punch to the jaw (after Barry softened him up, of course).

• After Girder is defeated, he's locked up in the Super Jail inside STAR Labs.

This cannot possibly be legal. Sure, Girder's a criminal, but he still has the right to due process. The STAR gang can't just lock him up without a trial in their own private little version of Gitmo. Or did they just not take the time to show us the part where he got a jury trial?

Does Det. West know about this? Surely not, because I can't imagine he'd be OK with private citizens building a prison and incarcerating criminals indefinitely.

I know this is a comic book world, but this is a pretty serious issue they're blurring over here. Jailing suspects without a trial would never happen in the real worl.... oh, wait.

• As Girder is ranting and pounding on the hopefully unbreakable glass of his cell, Barry just can't help himself and reveals his identity to him. I get that Barry wanted to finally best his nemesis, but that seemed like a pretty bad idea. I'm sure that won't ever come back to bite him in the ass come Sweeps week.

• Det. West is determined to find out who really killed Barry's mom, Nora Allen. He questions Dr. Wells, who arrived in Central City only a month before the murder. Dr. Wells he came to Central City shortly after his wife Tess Morgan was killed in a car accident.

Like so many other major and minor characters on this show, I figured Tess Morgan was from the comics. As near as I can tell she's not.

• Shortly after Det. West questions Dr. Wells, he's in his home looking over the Nora Allen case files. Suddenly the room is filled with red lightning and a blurry yellow figure appears before his eyes. When the lightning dies down, the files are gone and there's a photo of Iris stuck to the wall with a knife, the words "STOP OR ELSE" scrawled on it.

Obviously this was the work of the Reverse Flash. But who is he? As I mentioned above, in the comics he's Eddie Thawne. But here he appears just moments after Det. West's meeting with Dr. Wells. That would seem to point to Wells being the Reverse Flash rather than Eddie. Unless Wells somehow controls Eddie? Or maybe they're working together.

The writers are just messing with us here. They know we're expecting Eddie to be the Reverse Flash, so they're obviously muddying the waters so we have no idea who the hell's the real villain.

If Wells does turn out to really be the Reverse Flash, it wasn't very smart of him to put on his little show for Det. West just minutes after their tense little meeting. There aren't a lot of other people West could suspect.