The CW's The Flash - Episode 1.06 "The Flash is Born"
The Flash faces a new meta-human named Tony, who can turn himself into girded steel at will. Wells and Caitlin are concerned about Barry's safety while Cisco comes up with a plan to take Tony down. Iris's blog gets her into trouble. Eddie begins to ask questions that Joe doesn't want answered. Joe asks Wells to help him solve Nora Allen's murder.
"The Flash is Born" is easily the weakest episode of the series so far - even though it gets bonus points for finally retiring "The Streak." It's becoming more and more apparent that Iris takes more out of the show than she gives to it. So many times already she has been forced into the damsel in distress role. Quite literally in this episode too. This episode feels like it's taking the cheesy aspects of the show a bit too far. It's not as nuanced as the characters and dynamics have proven to be in previous episodes.The latest meta-human created by the particle accelerator is Tony Woodward, who can turn his body into steel. Tony also happens to be a bully who tormented Barry in their youths and also pined after Iris. Those dynamics remain the same even though they have all grown up. Even dressed as The Flash, Tony is declaring that Barry is ready for a beating. It's another installment of "once a bully, always a bully" and "the one way to beat a bully is to beat them at their own game." It's not a revelatory plot development. It's only once Barry starts thinking before he fights and stops letting his emotions dictate his strategy that he is able to take down Tony. It's a cool piece of special effects as Barry literally creates a sonic boom by running faster than the sound barrier. At the same time though, it's Barry taking down the bully to save the pretty girl. Barry gets the last laugh by locking Tony up in the prison for meta-humans and revealing himself to Tony. That just seems like poor planning on his part. Yes, it's incredibly rewarding in the moment. Barry and the rest of the team are nerds and got bullied in school. It's wonderful seeing them finally being able to stand up to their tormentors. And yet, there's a couple people in meta-human lockup now. If they start talking together, it could be really dangerous to our core characters. And no one seems to be caring about that right now.
Moreover, I'm honestly surprised by how short the time apart for Iris and Barry actually is. By episode's end, they are back at the coffee shop talking like friends again. It's great that he is able to give his crime fighter a much better name. And yet, it's already feeling redundant with the amount of times Iris blogging about The Flash has made her a target of the meta-human of the week. The show has also said she is a capable woman. Joe taught her how to fight at a young age and in the pilot it was alluded to that she wanted to be a cop too but her dad said no. But the character of Iris will continue to be incredibly irksome until Barry either reveals his true feelings for her or reveals himself as The Flash. But her blog is only getting more popular. So I have a feeling this story will get much worse before it gets better.
The true highlights of this week came with every single interaction between Joe and Dr. Wells. They are both strong mentor figures in Barry's life right now committed to helping him deal with his newfound skill set. The audience is aware that Wells is much shifter than he appears to the rest of the characters. We know that something off is happening with that character. Joe is allowed to be suspicious too. Joe has agreed to help find whoever Nora Allen's killer actually was. And that means we start getting the questions of how this event could have happened all those years ago. We're not any closer to solving this mystery. And yet, we also get a piece of Wells backstory that helps establish his presence within this universe - for the time being. He came to Central City to escape a painful experience in the past - the death of his partner. And now, he's had a similar situation but has been able to stay put because of Barry and his powers. That clears him for now. But the Man in the Yellow Lightning has returned. This time appearing in Joe's house with a stern threat to Iris. All of it works because of Jesse L. Martin. However, it only adds to the build up of Iris as an important character and that simply hasn't happened convincingly on screen yet.
Some more thoughts:
- "The Flash is Born" was written by Jaime Paglia & Chris Rafferty and directed by Millicent Shelton.
- Iris makes a reference that there's a man out there who can set himself on fire and not burn up. Firestorm is coming people!
- Eddie actually seems like a real character this week - and not just Iris' pretty boyfriend or Joe's pretty partner. His dynamic with Barry has the potential to be really interesting. Barry's pining for Iris is obvious to everyone but Iris. How does Eddie deal with that? Right now, he's just super grateful that Iris has a friend like Barry in her life. That was a decent moment that could hopeful grow into a decent character.
- Any guesses on who the Man in the Yellow Lightning actually is? Wells is the clear choice. But is it too obvious? Why would he clear all of Joe's suspicions only to confirm that he actually exists?
- In case we didn't get the point, the climatic fight takes place in the school halls where Barry, Iris and Tony used to go to class. Not subtle at all!
