I was sure that after all the spinoff duties were over, The Flash would return to kicking ass. While this was an underwhelming winter premiere, it does seem like the show is slightly back on track and has returned to form.  

First, the cringe-worthy stuff. The Barry/Patty romance took a huge melodramatic turn in this episode because the writing is simply horrendous when it comes to this storyline. There is no logical reason in the world to retread the biggest superhero trope known as “the hero hides his identity from his love interest”, especially when literally every other character on this show (including meaningless, random people like Linda) know Barry’s secret. 


This episode, to be fair, had plenty of chances to undo the damage done in previous episodes regarding this arc, but the fact that the writers are unwilling to go the distance is ridiculously exhausting. Shantel VanSanten does her best with the awful script and even gives a fantastic performance during her fight with Barry at her apartment, but it’s hard to be fooled by these actors’ charm anymore when the material is too clunky. To make things even worse, the episode got even more clichéd with Patty leaving town (but I have a feeling she won’t be gone for long). 

The most upsetting thing about this episode is that the Barry/Patty breakup only solidifies one notion: their relationship was simply another obstacle for the eventual Barry/Iris hookup (who are definitely endgame, to my dismay). Patty’s entire arc on this show doesn’t feel nuanced, and that only makes the audience (or at least me) feel frustrated, something also hugely felt whenever Caitlin and Jay are on-screen together, doing whatever it is they’re doing. The over-the-top ending (Jay is dying and the only way to save him is to give him his speed back) is absolutely ludicrous and had me rolling my eyes repeatedly. 


The villain of the week was surprisingly not an Earth 2 villain which gave this episode a season-one feeling to it, but sadly The Turtle was a bit underwhelming and undeveloped. Still, the show knows how to entertain, and seeing The Flash stuck in slow-mo never stopped being fun, as was the super creepy Harry/Cisco scene discussing the origin of Zoom’s name. I probably sound like a broken record, but Tom Cavanaugh nails every spine-chilling line with his scenery chewing, and his presence in this episode really helps it from falling completely flat. 





The ending, both Harry stealing The Turtle’s powers (if that is what happened) and Reverse-Flash returning to some suburban world with Gideon (a character that is much more developed than Iris, to be honest), is not the biggest bombshell but still intriguing enough that will hopefully make the next episode more exciting.