This episode has SO much going for it…TWO new Rogues for the show, a reappearance of sorts from another Rogue…and that’s not all! This episode gives us Harry…and Harry…and Harry…and…I’ll explain…AFTER the jump!
SPOILERS AHEAD
Note: This review is being posted prior to THE FLASH airing on the West Coast USA – if you haven’t seen the show please watch it first and then come back!
We start three years ago…much like the prior meta-human villain reveals, we go back to the night of the particle accelerator explosion. We see Len Snart (!) confronting a couple of fellow crooks who broke one of Snart’s rules by blowing some of their ill-gotten gains too soon…and their names? Sam Scudder…and Rosalind Dillon. In this continuity, Roscoe is recast as Rosalind, and she and Sam are a couple. They quarrel with Len and are about to lose out at the cost of Sam’s life when the accelerator begins to blow up. Len gets away, but the accident affects both Scudder and Dillon. Sam…disappears into a mirror and is missing for three years. When he reappears, with the power to disappear into reflective surfaces, he only wants one thing…Snart!
Eventually, he finds Dillon in Iron Heights and escapes with her, right under the noses of Joe West and Cecile Horton. He finds that a lot of things have changed. Snart may be gone – his fate is not fully known to the world after LEGENDS last season. Dillon has powers as well – she can induce crippling vertigo as her power (a nice twist on the “Top” name). And, there is one person who could stop them…the Flash! But, that doesn’t worry Sam Scudder…and they plan to go on a huge robbery spree!
Meanwhile, Jesse Quick is training with the Flash. She has speed that almost matches Barry’s already (leaving open the idea that she can improve even on that with training). But, she doesn’t have the precision Barry has picked up over time. He is mentoring her, and takes her along when Scudder and Dillon show up…but disaster strikes!
Jesse follows Barry in the chase for Scudder and Dillon too far…and is hit with The Top’s power. Losing balance, Jesse falls off the top of a skyscraper and is saved at the last moment by Barry. Just then, Scudder shows up and throws Barry into the Mirror World!
Harry and Cisco come up with a solution to free Barry, involving a molecular decelerator to slow down the “wormhole” effect that trapped Barry in the mirror. It isn’t working…but when everyone else is pulled away by the latest strike by the bad guys, Caitlin turns on her Frost powers (out of Barry’s line of sight) and brings the mirror down to a temp that allows Barry to phase out.
Barry figures out how to defeat Scudder…and he and Jesse do save the day in interesting ways. Jesse figures how to counter the dizzying effect of The Top, and Barry surrounds Scudder with mirrors…in this explanation of Scudder’s powers, that circle of mirrors means that jumping into one mirror kicks him out of the mirror that faces it (if that sounds confusing, the show makes it look more simple). They take Scudder to a cell with no reflective surfaces and we are set for an epilogue…but first…
There were some MAJOR subplots in this show. In one respect, this episode could have easily been called “Love Is In the Air”. It wasn’t just Scudder and Dillon, either. First we had Barry and Iris’ relationship. Barry and Joe are dealing with the awkwardness of Barry and iris being a couple, while Iris just wants to be open about the relationship. It created some pretty funny moments, but in the end we get some resolution – Barry is getting his own place. Wally and Jesse finally are ready to admit their feelings, though being on two different Earths makes that relationship a LOT more difficult. And, Joe may be moving toward a relationship with Cecile…so yes, “Love Is In the Air”.
That wasn’t the only subplot – the other involved Harry…and Harry…and Harry…and…okay, I’ll get to the point. Earth Two Harry wants to go home, but the team wants him to stay. He suggests looking into the Multiverse for another Harry. That gives us several really hilarious versions of Harry, including a Western Harry, a Steampunk Harry, a Mime (who talks) Harry…and finally the version we appear to be moving forward with (for now), a much more humorous Harry than we’ve ever seen. This episode must have been a LOT of fun for Tom Cavanagh, playing so many versions of the “same” person. This will continue to play out over the next episode at least…and there may be something potentially bad coming down the line. We will have to see…but let’s get back to that epilogue…
Before Earth Two Harry and Jesse leave, Harry tells Cisco something important…that the decelerator didn’t work at all. They did NOT free Barry, so how did he get out? In the Epilogue we see Caitlin at home, taking a shower, when EVERYTHING freezes. She leaves the shower to find that her lips are turning blue and part of her hair is now white! Is “Killer Frost” in our future? That’s for future episodes to reveal…
SUMMARY – I’m not sure how much more they could have packed into this episode. The “return” of Snart, the introduction of TWO Rogues, Caitlin’s continuing transformation, Jesse’s training, all the relationship developments, all the different “Harrys”…this episode had a LOT going on, and they made it work. I liked Mirror Master and The Top quite a bit. I do want to hear from our favorite Top fan on the site as to Dillon’s character, but pairing the two with their power sets worked better than I thought it might. It wasn’t a perfect episode…but it was a solid show. I’d give this one at least an 8/10.
That’s just my opinion – what do YOU think? Leave your comments below!
Pretty good episode. Random barrage of thoughts: Wally and Jesse kissing sent a shiver down my spine. It’s like watching cousins kiss to me, just kind of weird. Am I the only one who spent the back half of the episode hoping that Scudder would get killed off to make room for the referenced McCulloch? I was talking to a friend of mine before the season started about how it would be cool if we got a different version of Wells every season, looks like we might be going that route. Top was there.
You thought it was weird watching Wally and Jesse kissing was weird — that’s how I feel watching Barry and Iris kiss. They grew up in the same house! They’re practically brother and sister!
My feelings on Rosa are mixed, but overall I liked her. I won’t stop being disappointed that she isn’t Roscoe, but it is what it is. I do wish she spun and think she’s kind of underpowered with only the vertigo ability, though, and that’s my biggest complaint. Yeah she turned out to be an amazing hand to hand combatant (that was unexpected), but the vertigo power is quite limited, especially if people can shake it off as easily as Jesse did the second time. And spinning is obviously what people most associate with the Top.
Personality-wise, she’s about as similar to modern Johns-era Roscoe as they could probably make her without having her be a powerful dude. I miss the genius inventor, but I also missed that during the Johns era. I’m certain that (speculatory spoiler alert!) she’s going to be as untrustworthy as modern Roscoe, and is going to stab Sam in the back. And obviously there were little nods to comics Roscoe, like the yellow and green colour scheme, the stripes in her skirt when she twirls, all that twirling, the mental instability, and undercurrent of untrustworthiness. They just decided to put that in a female package for reasons I haven’t entirely figured out yet…but my theory is that it’s meant to lull viewers and the characters into a false sense of security until she betrays Sam/other villains.
So, I wish she spun and still wish she was a dickish genius dude, but she’s pretty good so far. I think there’s more to her than we’ve seen so far, and I hope they keep that up.
(Also, I’m still digesting the episode, so I might have a slightly different opinion tomorrow!)
The theme for this season seems to be withholding information from friends for no reason at all. When Barry got back from Flashpoint, he told Felicity for some reason, but not anyone else until the end of the episode. And now here we are in a world where Cisco is full-on Vibe and Caitlin is practically Killer Frost. But she’s secretive about her powers for some reason. Why? What’s she afraid of? Why won’t anybody talk to each other on this show anymore?
“What’s she afraid of?”
1. Becoming Killer Frost.
2. Being treated as Killer Frost.
For a second, I assumed this version of Caitlin didn’t know about the Earth 2 Killer Frost. But I guess she does … I think so … I don’t know, all this alternate realities and time traveling is hard to keep track of.
She knows. Cisco was all freaked out when he got back from the first trip, and then she actually met her when Zoom captured them both.
Season 3 has had a few interesting pieces, (wally’s kid flash costume and jesse quick’s costume) but other than that the plots and especially the dialogue has been utterly terrible, save for Tom Felton. His character is the only dude that makes any sense and speaks his mind about it.