Jumpin’ jiggawatts! This week’s masterful episode of The Flash didn’t exactly go back to the future, and yet the action-packed adventure to a parallel universe had the captivating swagger of a big-screen sci-fi odyssey. With the versatile cast playing shocking versions of themselves, "Welcome To Earth-2" is a fan-friendly treasure stuffed with gif-able gems.
Here are the best moments from one of the best episodes in Flash’s history...
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It’s true that you don’t realize how much you love something until it’s gone. With most of m’shows on winter hiatus, I find myself wondering what my favorite characters are doing, and watching old reruns just to hear their voices. It’s a one-sided love affair, but I knew that going in. So now is the perfect time to share my favorite TV characters in no particular order...
I had a lot of fun putting together my #2015BestNine Instagram pictures (Follow me!). It's a fun way to look back at the year and remind yourself of how much you accomplished and that just because a haircut looks cute on Taraji P. Henson doesn't mean it'll work for you.
While picking 2015’s Best Television Shows, I discovered that this was an exciting, diverse year for shows that obliterated the conventional ideas of drama—“UnReal’s” drama felt like TV-ception as it focused on the making of a reality dating show; BET’s “Being Mary Jane” found its niche just as the do-gooding but volatile Mary Jane tried to find her bliss; and “Jane The Virgin” offered the most unflinchingly realistic look at motherhood in TV history. Let's break it down! There is good news and bad news ahead in this week’s “The Flash-Arrow” event on The CW. The good news is that Barry (Grant Gustin) seems to have his swagger back after that horrific beating from Zoom earlier this season. The bad news is he will need that and Team Arrow’s to defeat a mysterious villain named Vandal Savage. Savage seems hellbent on killing Kendra Saunders (AKA Cisco’s current meta-human crush AKA Hawkgirl).
In the sneak peek below, a chained Hawkman explains his star-crossed connection to Kendra and their near inescapable fates of being slaughtered by Savage over hundreds of lifetimes. It’s heavy and heady exposition that will most likely be tempered with some badass action scenes that hopefully end with Savage’s head separating from his body. This week’s episodes should shed also shed more light on who ends up in the grave that was teased in the “Arrow” premiere. I have my guesses—the gorgeous Mama Smoak is currently leading the pack. Share your thoughts and theories below! The “Heroes Join Forces” Crossover Event kicks off on The CW tonight at 8/7c. Superheroism isn’t all capes and catchphrases; grateful damsels and city-wide celebrations in your honor, it’s treacherous work. “The Flash” made this abundantly clear in this week’s insane episode, “Enter Zoom,” that was one part-hilarious and infinity-parts horrifying.
Despite or maybe because of Ronnie and Eddie’s deaths in The Singularity, this season, Barry has a newfound arrogance and impulsiveness to go along with his less babyish face and swagged-out wardrobe. He has applies the same cocksure attitude to his superhero duties, making decisions impetuously, dismissing important and valid concerns. Iris hatches a clever-on-paper, insane-in-reality plan to use Linda Park, to pose as her Earth-2 doppleganger, the possibly misunderstood, Dr. Light to coax Zoom out so they can nail him with the Wells-designed "speed dampener.” It’s all silly, slapped-together prep and dress up and giggle-inducing training montages until Joe finally steps in. "If you're going to ask people to risk their lives, you better be sure exactly why they're doing it." No one can master supervillainism in a few days--Barry himself is still learning new movies as a superhero. So why is Barry pushing so hard to kill Zoom? He spouts the golden, tried and true reasons about saving innocent lives and stopping the forces of evil but when pressed Barry admits that it's because "ever since...I didn't save my mom, there's been a void in me. I feel like it's always going to be there." Joe sets him straight—and his advice is refreshingly different from the typical ridiculous "You're a superhero, you can't love" cliches. "You're responsible for your own happiness Barry. Think hard about what you want, what makes you happy and go out and get it. Simple as that." It's an oddly emotionally restrained Barry-Joe moment since I'm not heaving tears, but it's important nonetheless. Patty, who's been brushed off by Barry a few times this episode, reaps the benefits of Joe's advice in the form of a sexy secret make-out session. I’ll be the fastest to admit that “The Flash,” now in its second season, is easily one of the coolest hours of television currently on air. It takes the trope of the bravado-shackled, “I-must-do-this-alone” caped crusader to flips it with adorable, geeky speedster who openly embraces his team and supercharges it with loads of heart.
This week’s episode is finds Team Flash came face-to-flashback with Dr. Harrison Wells of Earth 2, Cisco finally came clean about his newly discovered vibe, and Barry (Grant Gustin) and Patty took their spazzy flirtation to the next level. Though it was difficult to pick just a handful, here are the top moments from “The Flash’s" stellar episode, “The Darkness And The Light.” Cisco hates Harrison The Sequel. To be fair, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) has one excellent reason to hate Dr. Wells—he killed him in an alternate timeline. But outright disdain is an odd hue on the most colorful and optimistic member of Team Flash. Dr. Wells Part Deux is a much better snarky sparring partner than the first, becoming visibly annoyed with having the same face as a murder-happy madman and referring to a sourpussed Cisco as “Crisco.” Best Cisco One-Liner: “"Our Dr. Wells may have been evil but you're just a dick." The Wild Wests. While is horrific for cops to shoot first and ask questions later, the only police officer that gets a pass is Joe West and his daughter, Iris, by default (mostly because they’re fictional). Detective West (Jesse L. Martin), justifiably overwhelmed with all of the meta-human surprises running around his beat, pumped Harrison 2 with bullets at first sight. Damn Barry and his Matrix-y speedster, bullet-grabbing skills! Still uneasy about Wells’ arrival, he gives Iris (Candice Patton) a gun. She wastes no time using it on the villain-of-the-week, shooting her in the face! These Wests are the best darn gunslingers in Central City! Iris and Barry reunited. This seasons it seems like Barry and Iris have been on two separate earths for years (in reality, it’s been 1.73 episodes). So it felt like a miracle that they finally remembered that they are besties! Iris rushed into S.T.A.R Labs to check on Barry after he was blinded by weaponized starlight…and Barry reminded her that they can talk about anything. Dear Writers, you better make sure Iris confides in Barry about her possible brother! Cisco’s No-So Secret Vibe. After months of concealing his predictive powers, Harrison 2’s douchey Apple watch meta-human detector outted Cisco. He immediately received unyielding support from Team Flash, and his own badass superhero nickname: Vibe. Cisco’s supersuit better have a cape! Reinventing the blind date. Barry successfully asked out the intrepid Patty Spivot, only to be temporarily blinded hours before their date. It entire scenario was predictable and yet somehow perfect with “The Flash’s” dorky spit-shine and Gustin's underrated talents. With Cisco navigating and creepin’ on their date with spy glasses, an earpiece and takeout, Barry managed to make it to the table. Patty, like anyone with eyes, was all in and rightfully flattered by Barry’s blind commitment. Who wants two more episodes of Blind Barry bouncing off walls, coolly recovering and stammering over excuses to cover his blindness? What was your favorite moment from "The Flash"? Sounds off below! In any race, the beginning and the end are the most important, and usually the most difficult. So it’s understandable that the season 2 premiere of The CW’s “The Flash” weakest moments in an otherwise intense episode came at the top and bottom of the hour.
The trailing seconds of last season’s finale saw Barry being sucked up in a massive blackhole created in the space-time continuum. “The Man Who Saved Central City” opens six months later with Team Flash disbanded and Barry shouldering the blame for Eddie's death like the giant-hearted superhero that he is. Even if he is the fastest man live, Barry is spreading himself too thin. He has inherited the now abandoned Star Labs as well as the debt and the ghosts that come with it. He still daylights as Central City CSI, moonlights as The Flash and he even re-builds the businesses destroyed by The Singularity (though I wonder why they haven’t been repaired already. Does insurance cover not cover damage created by black holes?) So why is Barry so guilt-ridden he doesn’t feel worthy enough to attend his own celebration? And why is Caitlin noticeably absent? Because Ronnie is also dead. Barry used his speed to stabilize The Singularity, and Firestorm used his incendiary gifts to merge it, and was presumably caught in the blast. To Barry, Ronnie is “The Man Who Saved Central City” and he is the man killed him. Thus, he hogs the blame and blitzes into missions alone. And you already know how successful that is. Barry gets his beautiful face smashed in by a radiation-guzzling hulk, and even that doesn’t knock some sense into him. Because that’s Joe’s job. In the flashback young Barry, grieving for a dead mother and an imprisoned father, is always angry. It’s Joe gives Barry permission to be sad and seek comfort. “I got you,” he says both times. Joe West's (Jesse L. Martin) effortless wisdom and palpable love for Barry is the beating heart that charges “The Flash.” When combined with Grant Gustin’s emotive powers and adorkableness, they create SuperFeels. They're able to induce ugly-cries with a single monologue and whip up angst with a slight furrow of the brow! The rest of the episode boasts some wicked surprises, namely a new take-charge Iris West reassembling Team Flash; Cisco’s strange snap-back to another world or alternate timeline; and Harrison Wells confessing to Nora Allen’s murder which frees Barry’s father!!! As an avid television viewer, epic highs immediately makes me tense for the gut-wrenching, I-might-have-to-call-in-sick-to-work-because-Barry-Allen’s-life-fell-apart lows. Is Papa West going to contract cancer? Is Caitlin going to angst about Ronnie’s death for a second consecutive season? Is Iris West going to lose her fabulous wardrobe?! The other shoe drops, and it’s a maddening one: Henry West, literally 15 minutes after being sprung from the clink and with Barry making plans to move in together and make up for a missing decade with his father, is leaving Central City. So Barry can be The Flash. Huh?! It’s obvious that Joe West is Barry’s father, blood relation or not, and Henry would have be sidelined somehow to keep their relationship going. I was worried the Atom Smasher would attack the prison and kill Henry West before he could be freed. As painful as that would have been, it would have made more sense. Almost anything else would have. But Barry’s life mission has been to reunite his family, and the second he’s done it, Henry vanishes before the frosting on his own celebratory cake dries. I’m not new to superhero series, cinematic or animated, and the “love and family is a distraction” a stupid, overused cliché that needs to die a death worthy of the worst villains. However, I may be more a little happy that Joe’s position as Barry’s surrogate father, cheerleader and shrink is firmly intact, especially since Jay Garrick and his dorky helmet arrives with an ominous warning. Ultimately, “The Flash’s” season opener was a thrilling, intense sprint of an hour that was empowered by Gustin and Martin's soulful performances and stunning visual effects, but was tripped up by hurdles of Henry West’s ridiculous excuses for departing and narrative issues. Thankfully, this season is a marathon, not a sprint. Grade: B+ Best Moments: Cisco’s seemingly ad-libbed “fo’ real?!” when Jay Garrick bypasses Star Labs’ newly upgraded security system. And the Flash symbol or is it a Flash Light? What did you think? Share your thoughts below! |
Small Screen GirlI am an unabashed pop culture and TV-aholic with no plans to ever seek treatment. Explore this blog and see just how deep my obsession goes. Categories
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