The Flash 1×14 “Fallout” Review: Top Moments

Firestorm Hits Its Next Level Of Evolution, Barry Prepares To Time Travel, Iris Gets Back On The Trail, and General Eiling Finds Himself In A Hairy Situation

This episode of the “The Flash” starts with a bang, or at least the aftermath of one, as we find Ronnie and Dr. Stein separated for the first time since their merging into “Firestorm.” But S.T.A.R. Labs isn’t the only interested in uncovering the secret science of their genetic make-up, and General Eiling becomes more determined than ever to weaponise their technology. When Eiling leverages his knowledge of Barry being the Flash in order to get Wells to turn over Stein, how will the team get Stein back? Will Ronnie be able to use their lingering connection to save Stein’s life? Reporter Iris is also back in full-swing by the end of the night, much to our delight. But while Barry seeks to get that much closer to travelling back in time and saving his mother’s life, Wells will seek revenge on Eiling in a terribly exciting manner. There’s plenty of interesting plot points, so let’s take a look at some of the top moments of this episode.

1. Ronnie Wants To Stay Together, But With Who?

Right off the top, we’re treated to a sweet reunion between Ronnie and Caitlin and a bit later, Stein is reunited with his wife. It’s all happy-sunshine-butter-mellow but it’s not long until Ronnie and Stein begin to show signs that despite being in separate bodies, they might not be quite as separate as they had originally thought. Ronnie asks Caitlin to run away with him, and with the way she’s been brighter and more lit-up than anything else we’ve seen of her on the show, it’s enough to make us want them to indeed run away together.

“Cait, whatever happens, just remember I’ll always love you.” ~ Ronnie

There’s some solid special effects as we see Ronnie and Stein learn to better control their ability to merge and become “Firestorm” and though we could easily make jokes about Victor Garber being the brains and Robbie Amell being the brawn, we’ll rise above all of that and commend them for working well together. It seemed a bit of a pity to have them being written off (temporarily, but still) as it was nice to see how they’d fit into the group fighting against antagonistic meta-humans but with the rate The Flash has been going, we wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t too long before they’re back on our screens again.

2. Nice To See You, Dr. Stein. Now Let’s Talk Time-Travel.

It’s about time The Flash brought Victor Garber back in a more individual capacity, and finally our wish has been granted! Dr. Stein has a rather sweet reunion with his wife but much to her surprise, he’s developed an affinity for pizza. This is a new character development to him and one that rings a few warning bells for her but it’s simply a result of the extra synched-up brain waves between him and Ronnie. But as Barry gets informed by Joe about his adult, meta-human DNA being present at the scene of his mother’s murder, he turns to Stein for help since Stein has written a paper on the science of time-travel.

“Would you be interested in taking a trip into history?” ~ Dr. Stein
“I think that I already have.” ~ Barry

It’s great to see Barry’s circle of confidants widen to Dr. Stein. We’ve seen Barry have some emotionally potent heart-to-hearts with both Joe and his father, but as for the intricate science conversations, it’s been Wells he’s turned to. But we all know that Wells is the shadiest of everyone on this show. It would be great to see more of Barry and Stein talking shop (all the technical science jargon and theories) together, as it’s only a matter of time before Barry learns that Wells is not the one he should be confiding in.

Victor Garber is pure class with this role and this is only a good thing for those younger actors he shares the bulk of his material with, including Grant Gustin and Robbie Amell. It’s almost a shame to see Firestorm written out (for the time being) but it’s understandable given the fact that there’s other core characters that should be tended to instead (in particular, Iris and Cisco). But now we see that Barry is even more clearly set on his hero’s journey to save his mother and the pieces are coming together for him to make his way back in time and have another sure-to-be-epic showdown with Reverse-Flash.

3. General Eiling Is A Child With Powerful Toys

It never ceases to impress how menacing and terrible (in the way all good villains should be), General Eiling is, given the fact that our first thought anytime Clancy Brown is mentioned is that he’s the voice of Mr. Krabs on Spongebob Squarepants. General Eiling has been a recurring foe that’s brought in and out of this season and the writers have been using him as a foe to not only Barry but to Wells, too. There’s some serious history here, much of which has yet to be revealed.

Clancy Brown has a commanding presence that suits the character perfectly, and elicits fear in the viewers for Barry’s well-being, particularly when it’s revealed that he saw Barry’s face when he removed his face mask in Betty’s dying moments. Despite the fact that this presented yet another obstacle for Barry, we’re happy at the realism of this writing. It’s nice to know that the writers are creating a reality for the show in which the more problematic decisions the characters make will have consequences.

“Last time I did this was to a gorilla.” ~ General Eiling

The writers have dropped hints about Gorilla Godd for some time now and finally, the man/beast made his first proper appearance. What better introduction than some vengeful drag-you-into-the-sewer action? Admittedly, when Eiling dropped that line in about having previously tortured a gorilla, we weren’t necessarily expecting that plot point to further manifest in the episode. So it was terribly exciting to have this large gorilla show up, all super-human/animal at the episode’s closing. This further built on the strong pacing of the writers and show-runners of The Flash, as they never seem to make us wait too long for the plot developments and character-returns once they’ve been introduced to us.

FINAL VERDICT

There were some strong developments in this episode but the one major gripe we had was the continuation of the lying-to-Iris festival. It’s been enormously patronising that anyone and everyone has decided that Iris isn’t what? Smart enough? Brave enough? Capable enough to handle learning the truth about all the meta-human shenanigans running amok in Central City? Thankfully, this got wrapped up nicely with Iris being brilliantly clever so she is back on the investigatory trail. What’s even better about this time around is that now she has a job and greater resources to pursue her leads. Director Steve Surjik did some strong work with the action in this episode, as we particularly enjoyed the overhead shots when Eiling unleashed his new devices to entrap and injure Barry. Also there was a good transition in shots moving from chaotic to smooth to accompany the greater cohesion being formed between Ronnie and Stein as they became better able to control their Firestorm abilities. Writers Keto Shimizu and Ben Sokolowski also managed to take time to put humour in to alleviate the tension in the other ongoing dramatic plot points. One such example of this was to make Stein’s connection to Ronnie being shown by having an affinity for pizza, as opposed to some psychologically tumultuous headache that would’ve been more stressful to watch. By far, we’re most excited about Reporter-Iris hot on the trail of what’s going on at Star Labs so we look forward to seeing how that is further developed!