As a rule of thumb, whenThe Flashis relegated to the background of his own show, it’s not a particularly good sign for the program. When earlier episodes ofThe Flashthis season have tried to focus on other characters, the end result has been some awful television. In fact, it turns out that other episodes that left Barry Allen in the background were some of the worst episodes of the show in the history of the series. Knowing that the latest episode focused more on Allegra and a group of bad apples from her past sounded like a recipe for disaster. That the installment was, in fact, not only not bad but potentially one of the best episodes of the season has to be chalked up as one of the biggest surprises of Season 8.
While this recipe forThe Flashhasn’t worked all that often or at all, the show seems to have found a way to make it work this week. It doesn’t hurt that the recipe also included a healthy mix of Tom Cavanaugh playing the character that he’s played so well. Eobard Thawne was back in a kind ofSilence of the Lambsrole as the psycho behind the bars who wasn’t a direct threat but had plenty to offer as a threat simply because he knew the adversary that the Scarlet Speedster was facing off against in “Keep it Dark.”
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The episode started out not making it clear that the new speedster in town is a baddie that fits into the formula that hasmade fans ofThe Flashso familiarwith what the program has been trying to do for years. This time around, the show opens by giving viewers a glimpse at a new meta who might actually be another hero to add to the mix. Someone who has the same powers as Barry Allen actually saved people in a way that was so well known that those who were the beneficiaries actually thought the Scarlet Speedster was the person who saved them.
Just who the new speedster in town is and why they were trying to keep a low profile was one of the subplots of this week’sepisode ofThe Flash, while the main plot had to do with Allegra and her past as a petty criminal. This isn’t the first time that the show has tried to demonstrate that Allegra doesn’t come from a particularly wholesome way of life, but for the most part, the series just clumsily hinted at her past and how she got into the legal trouble that eventually had her cross paths with Team Flash.
It should also be said that, for the most part, Allegra has been a background character that wasn’t interesting at all. That lack of interesting character development mostly seemed to be a side effect of the show not really knowing what it wanted to do with her. It appeared she would be a love interest for Chester for a while. Then it seems someone realized that fans ofThe Flashweren’t all that interested in seeing two characters that aren’t particularly fun or interesting get together. There have beenepisodes ofThe Flashwhere it appeared that they were going to go all the way and make them a real couple, but the show has backed off every single time it’s started to go down that road.
In thisepisode ofThe Flash, some villains return that was pretty pointless and boring the first time around. However, they seem a little more imposing and foreboding because Barry isn’t around to run rings around them. Allegra is a far more interesting character as someone who is trying to put her criminal past behind her while that past is actively pursuing her. The show has been trying to demonstrate that the plots can have a little more danger to them when one of the most powerful men on the planet isn’t constantly stepping in. Of course, considering the entire show is about that powerful man doing his thing, it’s hard to make an episode where he’s sidelined without it being more annoying than anything else.
That Barry was distracted by the side adventure that included going and talking to Thawne at least one more time made things a bit more believable than when characters suddenly just don’t pop up. Unfortunately, the show still had some problems with that. It continues to be very weird thatIris West is not aroundfor the second straight episode, and no one seems to be all that concerned about it. The show talked around where Iris might be Barry did give a bit of a head nod towards being concerned, but that head nod was just about it. It’s become rather obvious - especially this season - that either Candice Patton isn’t interested in being involved inThe Flash, or the people behind the show aren’t interested in her being a part of the cast moving forward.
The show indeed has a bit of a conundrum there because she is Barry Allen’s wife, and unless they want to go in a very depressing direction for the fans where they either divorce and she leaves, or she dies, she has to be part of the program in some way. However, the way the series handles its lack of involvement from one of theoriginal members of Team Flashjust comes off as odd every week.
Considering how bad most of this season has been so far, it was refreshing to feel likeThe Flashwas getting back to actually being enjoyable and fun. It did it with a formula that hasn’t always worked before and was even more entertaining. No one seemed concerned with Iris or Caitlyn, who had seemingly seen her grand plan of bringing her sister back from the dead destroyed weren’t showing up or “answering phone calls” was some uneven additions to an otherwise genuinely exciting episode. Now it’s just a question of whether the show can build momentum as it heads into the final few episodes or whether this was an outlier.
