“Mixed Signals” – Review of THE FLASH S4 Ep2

After Season 3’s darker tone, we come back to a lighter, happier, even giddy Barry Allen. It’s as if he left all that pain and turmoil in the Speed Force…and now he has a literal new lease on life. Maybe he’s a little too happy here…a little too exuberant, and that’s where some of the conflict of this episode originates. Barry and Iris go to…wait, we’ll talk about that later.  Cisco goes on a date with…we’ll catch up with that later as well.  We get all that and Kilg%re too! Want to know more? Follow us after the jump!

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Note: This review is posting before THE FLASH airs in the Pacific Time Zone USA. If you haven’t seen the show yet, STOP HERE and come back once you’ve seen it. You won’t be sorry!

Tonight’s lesson is that tech people are mean – they will steal your ideas and make money while you are left out. The only way to get back is to gain meta powers and…wait, I hope that’s not really the lesson here. But, it is the set up to this week’s villain, Kilg%re.

As set up on the show, Kilg%re was originally a malware package that was invented by a team of four people in a garage. The man who came up with the idea was left out as the rest of the team stole the credit and made all the money. The one person left out? Somehow he gains control over everything tech related as a meta power, takes on the name of the software to become Kilg%re, and begins to pick them off. The show leaves you a bit torn here…none of this original team is a really good guy. But, we still need to stop Kilg%ore.

First, though, we catch up with Barry in an hilarious scene where he recreates the famous Tom Cruise scene from “Risky Business”, amped up to super speed. He is truly enjoying life, catching up on shows he’s missed, doing all sorts of things including…

Making huge mistakes in his relationship with Iris.

He is so caught up in the joy of being “back” that he hasn’t realized how little attention he is truly paying to anyone else, including Iris. He’s there, but he isn’t listening. That leads to a suggestion from Caitlin to Iris that they try couples therapy.

This leads to some of the funniest scenes this series has given us in four seasons.

No spoilers here – it’s just sitcom excellence going on here as Barry and Iris try to get counseling without revealing too much about who Barry really is.  Eventually it does lead to some real breakthroughs for the couple, but not before we see a lot of truly funny moments

Barry and Iris’ relationship woes are mirrored in this episode by Cisco and Gypsy, who are trying to actually have a date throughout the episode. I’m glad to see Gypsy’s character as more of a recurring role, as the chemistry with Cisco is great.

Back to Kilg%re – when they track him down, there is one problem for Barry. Cisco has tricked out his suit with a HUGE amount of tech. Kilg%re takes advantage of it, giving a nod to at least one classic comics moment for the Flash.  Eventually, Barry does win…but only by trusting Iris’ judgment on a very risky move. It’s a turning point for team Flash…as in “we are Flash”.

One important note here as we see Kilg%re in custody…he IS a meta, but he was NOT in the accelerator accident. We are finally moving on from that seemingly endless supply of bad guys who came from one event. But, just how Kilg%re got his powers, and from whom, is  still not known to team Flash. Of course, we the viewers know about the Thinker…but they are bringing this along at a good pace so that we don’t have a direct conflict with the big bad of the season too early.

NOTES: This episode lets Grant Gustin And Candice Patton shine. Their chemistry is spot-on, and the counseling sessions, funny as they are, still let’s their characters show genuine emotion. Where episode one glossed over some things rather quickly, this episode actually feels like it resolves some things in a believable way for this couple. We also see some great moments from Cisco and Gypsy. Carlos Valdes continues to be a gem on this show, delivering killer lines throughout. I enjoyed how they brought Kilg%re to the screen – hopefully we’ll see more from him later this season.  Overall, I’ll give this one a 9/10…but what do YOU think? Leave your comments below!

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