This episode could have focused entirely on Mark Hamill as the original Trickster, and it would have been a joy to behold.  It didn’t even matter that his take on the Trickster was essentially his in-person rendition of his animated Joker persona from countless Batman productions; in fact, it works beautifully.  Adding in the layers of the truth about Dr. Wells and Barry’s decision to let Eddie into his Flash circle only made this even more of a treat. 

I wasn’t a devoted viewer of the previous TV incarnation of The Flash, but I’ve seen a number of detailed breakdowns explaining how much of this episode was really a love letter to that series.  Mark Hamill is essentially reprising his role as the Trickster from that series, and if it wasn’t for certain details not meshing at all, one could have viewed this as a de facto admission that the this is a sequel to the 1990s version.  It’s not, but for this one episode, it could have been!  (And that Star Wars reference was hilariously awesome!)



Hamill’s portrayal of the Trickster is similar to that of Snart in the previous episode; what comes across as deliberate over-the-top villainy is rendered as knowing, in-universe theater.  Both Snart and Jesse know that they are playing with persona and perception; for that matter, the way Iris turns out to be a mouthpiece for Barry, however unknowingly, fits a similar picture.  That sense of self-awareness and image management grounds the series in an interesting way.

The flashbacks with Eobard Thawne and the real Harrison Wells made me wonder if the writers were going to retroactively suggest that there were two different Reverse-Flashes after all.  But no, it’s still all Thawne; we were given a more substantial explanation for why Thawne can be posing as Wells without easily getting caught using an assumed identity while being such a public figure. 



It didn’t overcome the one weakness of the episode, however, and that is Barry’s ever-quickening realizations about Wells.  He’s coming to these conclusions too quickly with the relative lack of definitive evidence, and largely because this is being driven more by the speed of plot than the speed of Barry’s impeccable logic.  Did Wells really need to have first-hand knowledge of using the speed force to guide Barry as he did?  Maybe so, which then begs the question: why did Wells, usually much smarter about this sort of thing, tip his hand so completely?







I’m hoping that the writers do something truly interesting with Eddie’s knowledge about Barry.  The usual script dictates that once you know the true identity of the superhero, you won’t reveal that information casually.  Cisco had to be twisted into giving the information.  So soon after that, we have Barry and Joe trusting Eddie.  Should they be so willing?  I would find it a neat twist if Eddie went over Barry’s head and told Iris, especially after what happened in “Out of Time”.  Iris strikes me as the type of person who wouldn’t appreciate having decisions made for her, especially for her “protection”.