The Flash S1E9 - “The Man in the Yellow Suit”

A Fiery Reunion, Declaration Of Love, And More Reverse-Flash Action In An Emotionally Charged Mid-Season Finale

On this mid-season finale of The Flash, Reverse-Flash strikes again, killing two guards at Mercury Labs. This villain appears to be after the company’s technology in tachyon particles. Barry ends up in a high-speed battle with him, and Reverse-Flash tells Barry that he already knows who he is, leaving Barry even more confused than ever. This latest encounter catalyses a conversation with Henry Allen, in which he advises Barry to confess his feelings to Iris. But how will Iris react to this declaration when Eddie has just asked her to move in with him? As Team Flash finds themselves going up against Reverse-Flash once again, Barry isn’t the only one with personal baggage weighing heavily on his mind. Caitlin stumbles across a very much alive Ronnie, who appears mentally discombobulated by his fiery new meta-human abilities. How will Caitlin cope with this shocking revelation? With one final apparent revelation regarding Reverse-Flash’s identity, there’s much to discuss so let’s get to it.

Burn, Baby Burn

Tonight saw the return of Ronnie Raymond, and none was more shocked to see him than Caitlin Snow. After encountering him in a parking lot, she finds that he is apparently no longer the man she once knew. Apart from sporting longer locks and shabbier clothing, he doesn’t seem to remember who he was, instead identifying himself as “Firestorm.” There’s a lot more angst in Robbie Amell’s performance, that marks a significant departure from what we’d seen in his initial flashback introduction. The striking contrast is enough to drawn us in, but it feels more like a teaser at this point to greater exploration of the character and the journey he took to reach this point. There was also a bit of ambiguity at the end as to whether or not he remembers or is beginning to remember Caitlin, or perhaps he is simply pretending as some attempt to protect her from some greater, yet to be revealed threat.

“Caitlin, don’t worry. Hey, now that we know he’s out there, we will find Ronnie again.” ~ Cisco Ramon
“Why? So we can throw him in there with all the other metahuman psychos? I used to play this game in my head. ‘What would I give up for just one more minute with him?’ My house, my career, the rest of my life. Today I finally got that minute, and I wish I hadn’t. Seeing him like that, what he’s become, oh god, I wish he had just died that day.” ~ Caitlin Snow

Apart from the obvious opportunity Danielle Panabaker had to play more dramatic content and anguish than the normal icier demeanor of Caitlin (pardon the ice puns, but we can’t resist given the arc that this path is on), we greatly enjoyed seeing a more mature side of Cisco. We have no objection to his comedic material but seeing Cisco offer up assistance and more importantly, emotional support to a grieving Caitlin was a nice development on the character. Hopefully Carlos Valdes will continue to be given broader content because from what we saw in this episode, it seems as if he’s fully capable of pulling it off. The special effects for Firestorm were also visually strong that only further enhanced the impact of Robbie Amell’s performance. We couldn’t help but wonder if the return of Ronnie will be the beginning of the end for Caitlin (at least of her being a hero). Seeing as how Barry was lying battered on the ground after his conflict with Reverse-Flash, which he was able to get out of by Firestorm coming to the rescue, and Caitlin didn’t indicate even the slightest concern for Barry’s well-being, perhaps this is something that will grow to the point of a manic obsession of sorts. In the comic mythology, Killer Frost fed on Firestorm’s head to feed her own vampiric needs so we can’t help but wonder how much of the show’s character and plot developments will follow those characterizations and relationships.

Who Is Reverse-Flash?

Reverse-Flash gets into a conflict with Barry early on, and cryptically implies that Barry already knows the person behind the mask of Reverse-Flash. This first conflict had some exciting action and was distinct enough compared to Barry’s other previous battles, since this is the first opponent he has faced with abilities that so closely resemble his own. There’s more mystery drawn out throughout the episode as we’re left wondering what exactly it is that Reverse-Flash wants this technology in tachyon particles for. There’s another show-down involving Reverse-Flash, only this time it’s up against a whole team of people, including the team at S.T.A.R. labs as well as Joe, Eddie, and the rest of the law enforcement officers. The confrontation leaves Wells bloody and battered but when Reverse-Flash comes face-to-face with Eddie, not a single injury is inflicted onto him, save for knocking the gun out of his hand. Eddie is brought somewhat into the know by Joe, regarding the existence of meta-humans, though he remains out of the loop regarding Barry being the one behind the red Flash mask. Eddie is admittedly more interesting of a character now that he is on the trail of the stranger happenings in the city, as opposed to just a love interest.

“Why did ‘it’ not kill me?” ~ Eddie Thawne

The final revelation of the episode is that Dr. Wells might be Reverse-Flash. At the very least, he has gotten his hands on the tachyon particles technology and possesses the yellow Reverse-Flash suit, along with the voice-modulating technology. But we can’t help but remain skeptical of this plot development. In the comic mythology, Eddie Thawne is the one who is Reverse-Flash. Given the manner in which the Black Canary character was re-booted on Arrow, we still don’t know that Eddie isn’t necessarily not Reverse-Flash. Why was Wells beaten up while Eddie was left without a scratch? Reverse-Flash, or some version of him, seemingly has demonstrated the ability to travel through time and this technology was said to have been possibly sought after so that a person could travel faster than the speed of light (perhaps this is the way that Reverse-Flash went back to attack Barry’s mother). With Cisco’s realization that the yellow and red electricity shown while Flash and Reverse-Flash fought indicate that Reverse-Flash was not the only meta-human present on the night Barry’s mother was killed. We got a tad queasy at the thought that Barry would have to go back and be present on that night again, especially considering the knack Grant Gustin has to inflict emotional devastation on viewers. There are so many questions with this set of plot developments but what’s excellent about it is that it’s not from a place of material or characters not being tended to. This arc was ripe with content but there is still much open for the rest of the season to delve into. Without getting ahead of ourselves, it feels like we may finally have a show that won’t rely so heavily on filler to carry the viewers through the long season. Even with the “big reveal” of Reverse-Flash, we’d say the truth of the background of this character isn’t nearly this simple.

Thank The TV Gods We Didn’t Have To Wait Multiple Seasons For This

We’d be lying if we said we didn’t love the relationship between Barry and Iris. Grant Gustin and Candice Patton have the type of chemistry that show runners search high and low for but only rarely do they strike gold and find it. The Flash has done an excellent job at balancing the part of Barry’s story that involves his pining for the love of his life, along with his development into a superhero. It’s rare for a show to maintain the quality for both stories this way, but somehow the writers on this show have pulled it off. Barry gives Iris perhaps one of the most thoughtful gifts possible, a recreation of her mother’s wedding ring that she had lost. Eddie is skeptical of this grand gesture, asking Iris if Barry has feelings for her. She dismisses the possibility of this but Barry eventually comes over to confess his feelings but before we get to that, we have to address his visiting his father. The father/son scenes between Barry and Joe and that of Barry and Henry are both some of the finest work on the show. Sure, we love the special effects and exciting fight sequences but at the root of it all, it’s these raw, organic scenes that delve into the deepest parts of Barry’s humanity that really get us hooked on the show. So once again Barry visits Henry to have a heart-to-heart and we start to get a bit emotional watching Barry be so profusely apologetic to his father, and then for Henry to turn around and push Barry to live his life to the fullest and not let [Reverse-Flash] take away his happiness and encourage him to tell Iris the truth about his feelings. It’s amazing how much of an impact these prison-visit scenes have, when all we are given are two characters sitting and talking through a glass pane. It’s truly a testament to the talent of Grant Gustin and John Wesley Shipp. It would be interesting to see how this relationship dynamic would play out if and/or when Henry is out of prison but even if that’s not something we see any time soon, these prison chats are more than enough to satisfy.

“I love you, Iris. ~ When we were kids, I loved you before I even knew what the word ‘love’ meant. And then my mom died, and I had to go live with the girl that I had a crush on. There were so many times that I wanted to tell you. Junior prom, when I went away to college, when I came back from college, nights that we stayed up talking, all the birthdays, all the Christmases, but I never did. I just, I kept it in. After I lost my mom and my dad, I was afraid that if you didn’t feel the same way, I would lose you, too. That’s the irony. I was so scared of losing you, that I did. I know I’ve had our whole lives to tell you this, and you’re with Eddie now, and I know that, and I know my timing couldn’t be any worse, but I just — I couldn’t lie to you anymore. I’m sorry.” ~ Barry Allen

Now in moving on to the admission of love, we were entirely unprepared for how deeply this would move us. Everything about Barry’s confession, even before he began, embodied his character to a tee. The use of physicality was equally important to the words said, as Barry hugs Iris before beginning, as if worried that this is the end of his friendship with her. As he begins his word, we were so taken aback by the quality of this confession and the way it encapsulated all the inherit goodness of Barry as a character. We hear him apologizing for the terrible timing, and also keep away from putting any pressure or expectations on her for as to how she should proceed. Even Candice Patton, who had no lines during Barry’s confession was still able to put many nuances into her performance. From the few tears shed to the range of expressions as Iris takes in the enormity of this information being dropped on her, we were just as gripped by her as we were him. Then at the end, as she cradles her face and begins to look pensive, it was clear as day that she was going through all these memories shared with Barry and re-evaluating things with this newfound perspective. Honestly, the only thing even remotely negative we could say about this whole arc in the episode was that we wanted to see more of Iris processing this, but it was understandable that they couldn’t fit it in given the numerous plot developments contained within this just one episode. Hopefully we will see how Iris is handling things when the show resumes in January.

FINAL VERDICT

This mid-season finale stood out in an already strong first set of episodes. It was the culmination of so many developing characters and plots and writers Todd and Aaron Helbing somehow managed to cover a great deal of ground, from Caitlin and Firestorm, everything surrounding Reverse-Flash, and the big love confession from Barry to Iris. Director Ralph Hemecker handled the fast-pace action of Flash and Reverse-Flash’s first big showdown very well, as it was a highly anticipated sequence with high expectations. The only thing more impressive than the work of the stunts and fight choreography for the action sequences, and the special effects for those fights and the meta-humans involved in them, were the performances from several of the lead actors. Most notably, Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Jesse L Martin, and John Wesley Shipp continued to build on the already strong work they had done thus far, but Carlos Valdes, Robbie Amell, and Danielle Panabaker also made improvements in the quality of their dramatic ability. Thankfully, there is only one month to wait before the show returns and then we can see how all of these plot developments will play out.

Questions, Comments, Concerns…

• Wow! Talk about a strong start! Reverse-Flash is in the house!
• Iris is SO cute; I can’t even take it.
• BARRY’S ALREADY GIVING HER A RING, BE STILL MY BEATING HEART.
• Let’s be real here, Iris could give Barry a pair of old socks and he’d still light up like a Christmas tree.
• Iris bought Barry an expensive microscope and is going to get Eddie a shirt; clearly the deepest part of her subconscious is trying to wake her up to something… *sips tea*
• Caitlin always knew Ronnie was hot, but… I don’t think this is what she had in mind. *sizzles*
• Threatened to kill Iris? WELL THEN. Looks like Barry’s ready for war.
• Grant Gustin cries, WE ALL CRY.
• Literally EVERYONE is waiting for Barry to tell Iris he loves her. You tell him, Henry!
• SHUT UP, I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING. #WestAllenConfession
• Don’t worry Caitlin, ‘Don’t look for me again’ is just code for ‘Come find me so we can have a torrid rekindling of our love affair that will end badly and send you tail-spinning into villainy’… #KillerFrost #FireCrossedLovers
• If you want to get technical, Joe didn’t even lie to Eddie, so…
• I swear these father/son scenes will be the death of me, regardless of whether it’s Joe or Henry I end up on the floor a blubbering mess.
• WHAT. RED AND YELLOW WHAT. I swear to Thor if Barry ends up having to be at the scene of his mother’s death AGAIN I will flip a table. My poor heart can’t take it!
• I don’t care if Wells has the suit; Eddie could still easily be Reverse Flash. Maybe Reverse Flash 2.0? Like what’s happening with Black Canary on Arrow.