I said last week that I hoped “The Fury of the Firestorm” would be able to balance its titular storyline with overarching Flash plot. Well, this week definitely managed that. “The Fury of the Firestorm” works pretty well, even if its central conceit feels more important for another upcoming show rather than the one its currently playing in.
The Firestorm stuff was fine, but it was somewhat hampered by Franz Drameh’s performance as Jefferson “Jax” Jackson. I’m hoping he’ll grow into it on Legends of Tomorrow, but he left quite a bit to be desired. On the other hand, our villain of the week gave a fun little turn as the jilted Firestorm candidate. Henry Hewitt (Demore Barnes) got the usual short shrift that The Flash often gives its villains, but he made the best of his time as Tokamak, The Human Reactor. I couldn’t believe the writers found a way to cram his ridiculous name into the story, but never doubt Cisco’s ability to be aggresively dorky at any moment. Bless you, Cisco. Blisco.
On the soap opera side of things, the situation with Iris’ mom took a big step into Days of Our Lives territory with the revelation that Iris has a mystery brother out there in the world. I really like Iris as a a character and Candice Patton has really taken hold of the character, and any excuse for more Joe (Jesse L. Martin) is fine by me, but where is this plot going? Obviously this is so the show can introduce Wally West a.k.a. Kid Flash, but if that’s all it’s serving to do, I feel like Francine is a disposable character. I’m much more interested to see how this changes the West family dynamic, and exactly how Wally will become a fellow speedster. I hate to say it, but the sooner Francine shuffles out of the show, the better it will be for all the characters involved.
But enough of that! Now it’s time to dig into the really fun part of this episode: Harrison Wells! Seeing him sneak around was a delight, and his badass save at the end was a perfect teaser. It seems like The Flash is finally going to hit its overarching story strong in the next two episodes (the one after next week’s is called “Enter Zoom”), and that’s usually when the show gets really, really good. The start of the season has been a little airy, but now it looks like it’s really going to kick into gear.
This week was fine, but it got incredible with the show’s ending. See the next section for details.
Favorite moment: KING. SHARK.
When Patty started dropping hints about this guy, my nerd alarm went off and wouldn’t stop. And when he was introduced in order to pull the rug out from a cutesy moment, I leapt out of my seat. I don’t normally take screencaps, but this big guy deserves it. Yet another amazing job for The Flash‘s VFX team., and I hope it isn’t the last we’ve seen of him. His sharky goodness demands more screen-time.
Unfavorite moment: The parts without King Shark.
Next Week: The Darkness and the Light