The Flash Review: Episode 1×07 - “Power Outage”

An Electric New Villain Isn’t The Only One Whose Arc Is Cut Short But At Least Robert Knepper’s Here To Keep The Trouble Going

Dr. Wells is still paying visits to his secret room, where he is keeping tabs on Barry’s abilities and how they are projected to develop in the future. Barry’s settling in quite nicely into using his abilities to help both others and himself but all that changes when Barry is attacked by Farooq Gibran, a man who gained the ability to siphon electrical energy because of the particle accelerator explosion. Barry finds himself without his abilities for the first time since he got them and must now figure out how to save those closest to him while Joe and Iris are being held hostage along with others back at the station by a prisoner named William Tockman. Farooq will have an exciting showdown with Tony Woodward after Wells releases him and Barry must risk death to try to jumpstart the cells in his body but will this work, even if he survives? This is the last episode before the highly anticipated cross-over event between The Flash and Arrow but there’s still plenty to discuss.

Apparently Redeemable Villains Are Entirely Expendable

The episode begins with the origin story of the villain of the week, Farooq Gabrin, who had climbed an electrical tower to watch the particle accelerator while some friends were down on the ground below. Cue the malfunction and Farooq finds himself lit up with electricity and a new metahuman is born. His ability is more of a hindrance than anything, as he cannot control his need to feed on electricity. The first thing we took note of was that his styling was fantastic. From his leather outfit, the facial markings, and the piercing blue contacts, we loved Farooq’s look. It was striking but not so overdone as to distract from Michael Reventar’s performance. Indeed our only real complaint about Farooq was that we feel his character was prematurely disposed of.

“The night of the explosion when the light hit me, it stopped my heart. Jake and Daria…” ~ Farooq
“They were your friends.” ~ Barry
“I woke up and they were beside me, dead. They tried to give me CPR, they were touching me and I… I electrocuted them.” ~ Farooq

Farooq not only faces off against Barry, but Tony Woodward (Girder) too. Wells releases Tony with the intent that he will dispose of Farooq since Barry is still without his powers. Tony read like a classic 80’s action star with his guns blazing (talking about muscles here) and the one-liner about having been wanting to punch something. We were left confused as to what Tony’s characterisation was supposed to be because in his introduction last week, he was every bit the stereotypical stuck-in-high-school bully but now all of a sudden, we’re supposed to believe that he wasn’t such a bad guy after all as he tells Barry to run just as he’s about to die. This might have made more sense if Tony had been more developed, something we had thought would come as the show progressed, but instead we’re left without any real sense of who Tony actually was. There was so much wasted opportunity here; Tony knew about Barry being “The Streak”/”The Flash” and Wells had even exposed his faking his paralysis when he visited him to offer him a release from his imprisonment. Had Tony gotten away, he would’ve posed a large threat to Wells’ scheming and Barry’s anonymity which might have made for some gripping plots. Also, Tony’s and Farooq’s deaths both followed Betty Sans Souci (Plastique)’s death. All three of these villains were ones that had some semblance of good in them and/or redemption but with these back-to-back deaths following a similar pattern, we can’t help but feel like the writers needs to mix up their formula a bit. These metahumans have all been interesting enough to be spared so as to be brought back again for a multi-episode arc, even if they’re going to be killed off at a later time. But Farooq at least offered up another opportunity for Wells to do some sneaking, as he stole a vial of Farooq’s blood in order to figure out how to use it to possibly steal/suppress/effect Barry’s abilities.

No But Really, It’s All In Our Heads

Before Barry has his first confrontation with Farooq, we see him quite enjoying having his powers. There’s such charm in the characterisation of Barry and in Grant Gustin’s performance as he uses his abilities to help a struggling barista to fulfil the orders of the morning rush and to disarm a criminal that tries to rob him. Even the little touch Grant put in of having Barry giggle before stripping the criminal down only further endeared him to us. But as for the loss of Barry’s powers, we were left rather confused as to the point of this plot. Often times, plots that involve the loss of power for a hero is done when the hero becomes too dependent on the powers and has grown too weighed down by an inflated ego. Barry didn’t necessarily exhibit either of those problems but we’re left to assume that the point of the power loss was some plot point that will stem from this blood being stolen by Farooq. But here’s the other problem with this plot point. Initially, it appears that Farooq has fed off of Barry’s ability and thus Barry has lost it. Farooq’s ability to siphon off Barry’s power means that the cure will be physical, so the team develops the theory to shock and jumpstart Barry’s powers back on since his cell structure hasn’t changed. But as that doesn’t work, the conclusion that gets drawn is that Barry’s problem is psychological. Okay, fair enough. But if his problem really is psychological, then what was the point of Wells stealing Farooq’s blood?

“All your talk about miracle cures and scientific breakthroughs but you don’t care about people at all.” ~ Barry
“Maybe you care too much, Barry. I know being a hero is important to you. I respect your ideals, I just don’t have the luxury of sharing them.” ~ Dr. Wells
“I forgot. Your game’s chess. We’re all just pawns to you, right? So what’s your move, doctor? Which one of us gets sacrificed next?” ~ Barry

Again, we want to commend Grant Gustin for his performance, particularly when he called out Wells for sacrificing Tony as a pawn in his plan against Farooq. It not only further demonstrated Barry’s upstanding personal integrity but communicated many of the same feelings viewers would have against Wells for his ongoing shady actions. The only thing we didn’t like about the way the scene played out is that it skipped ahead, via a commercial break, and we didn’t get to see how Wells would manage to worm his way out of answering Barry. We hope that we’ll get to see more of Barry being sharp in figuring out that Wells is up to no good, as Barry is more interesting when he is using his mind and heart then when he’s simply running fast.

Tick… Tick… Just Waiting For That Boom

Another villain introduced in this episode is William Tockman (“Clock King”). While being transferred, he takes the station hostage, which includes Joe and Iris West. He’s still harbouring resentment over not being permitted to see his then-dying sister before she passed and has an affinity for time and time pieces. Apart from that, we don’t know much about him (on the show anyway; it’s a whole different story if you know the comic mythology). If you read our review of episode four, “Going Rogue,” it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that we were absolutely thrilled to see Robert Knepper on our screens because we love “Prison Break.” At this rate, we’re just waiting for Sarah Wayne Callies and Amaury Garrido to be cast in some recurring roles too. Knepper had some terrific nuances with his performance. His use of staccato delivery, pauses, and just his timing in general all suited the character fantastically well. These were crucial in setting Tockman apart from the long string of villains which have long since become Knepper’s signature.

“I am presently in control of eight of Central City’s finest, three underpaid assistants, and one very brave civilian girl.” ~ William Tockman
“You’ve got demands, I want to hear them. But first let the civilians go.” ~ Captain David Singh
“Would you prefer I sent them out alive or dead? Please be more specific. One helicopter, one vegetarian take-out meal, one laptop with 8GB of Ram will be delivered on this roof at exactly 53 minutes and 27 seconds from now or I shoot a hostage.” ~ William Tockman
“There is a citywide blackout. I’m gonna need more time.” ~ Captain David Singh
“Captain, you may delay, but time will not.” ~ William Tockman

There was some terrific writing in Tockman’s dialogue but his arc in its entirety also created opportunities for other characters to shine. Though Iris spent plenty of time in this episode singing praises of The Flash and insisting that he would come and save the day, she was the one to handle it herself. She stole a gun off of Eddie’s ankle holster and was able to hit Tockman with it. It can get really tiring in superhero media to see the female lead(s) be the damsel in distress but this marked the second time that Iris kicked villain butt (the first being Tony). It’s also great to see Iris demonstrate physical strength on top of the intelligent, determined, investigative journalist and warm, loving friend that we’ve already grown to admire. It adds yet another dimension to an already compelling character and Candice Patton handled all of this very well. Even Eddie got to (try to) play hero, before getting shot of course, but assuming that he plays out into a villain like in the comics, it’s nice to have him be an actually likeable good guy before he falls to evil. We’ll just have to wait and see what else in store for dear Eddie.

FINAL VERDICT

Despite some of the plot holes and questionable choices about killing off characters, there’s still plenty for us to be interested in. We’d really like to see more of Captain David Singh, as there’s something quite engaging about Patrick Sabongui’s performance. Grant Gustin and Candice Patton continued to be strong performing leads, and guest actors Robert Knepper and Michael Reventar also left us wanting more. We’re still holding out hope for one epic Prison Break mashup that will have Knepper reunited with Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, and dare we hope… even more actors from the show? Writers Alison Schapker and Grainne Godfree gave particularly strong dialogue to Gustin and Knepper and director Larry Shaw handled the show’s high-quality action sequences well along with the humorous speed scenes at the beginning with Barry. We’re even more excited to see this highly anticipated crossover event with Arrow. With such high expectations, we truly hope that the cast and crew are up to the task!

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• Barry, first you indulge in adorable do-goodery and now you’re doing heroic monologuing. #MarryMe
• “Hey, it was zero when you walked in here, pal.” I live for Cisco’s sass.
• Feeling like we need to discuss all the benefits of Barry’s ability to change his clothing so quickly. Namely the removal part of that… *coughs*
• ZAPPY? Maybe leave the naming to Cisco, Barry.
• Is this a thing Joe has started doing that we never got to see? Knocking things over and Barry catches them?
• IRIS KNOWS THAT BARRY LOVED THE MUG! Who even knows that kind of thing? Oh wait… I know… your soulmate.
• ROBERT KNEPPER??? *violently shakes from Prison Break feels* Now we need Sarah Wayne Callies and Amaury Garrido on board. COME ON, people. I NEED THIS.
• What about this for a plot twist: a project where Robert Knepper DOESN’T play a creepy, shady criminal. xD
• Because OBVIOUSLY that electricity would tear Tony’s shirt up into a DEEPER V-neck. #AmIMadThough #Nope
• Seriously? Tony’s dead? What a waste of a character. #UnfulfilledPotential #NotImpressed
• Look at Barry being completely on point calling out Dr. Shady Wells
• Iris doesn’t even need meta-human abilities to be a badass. #JustSaying #IrisWestForPresident
• Barry’s got his groove back, hey hey hey!