Barry and Iris have told Team Flash about the upcoming CRISIS and Barry’s likely sacrifice. Now, Team Flash has to deal with a whirlwind of emotions as they try to make sense of what is (or will) happen. Dr. Ramsey Rosso has gone one more step into becoming the Big Bad of the season. Killer Frost is still figuring out who she is. And, what about Harrison Nash Wells? That may sound like a bit of a jumble, but it all makes sense as we pull things together for S6 E4 of THE FLASH! Wanna know more? Follow us after the jump!

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 already seen the show, STOP HERE and come back after watching the episode. You’ll be glad you did!

“You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.” Tonight’s episode echoed that statement all the way through. Cisco doesn’t want to give up on Barry…but Barry has already accepted his fate. Barry wants to save…at least someone before he dies. But, does that person want to be saved? That fight to save someone, even against their will, has ramifications that we see played out within Team Flash and with Dr. Ramsey Rosso as well.

Every member of Team Flash is affected. Cisco refuses to give up on saving Barry, to the point of a lie that nearly destroys their friendship. Ralph is giving up on a missing person case that had previously been the biggest focus of his career. Of all the team, Killer Frost has the least emotional response…of course. But, in this case it’s an advantage. This lets her keep a calm head and makes her able to give some advice to a very emotional Cisco. Then there’s Joe – but we’ll come back to him later.

Barry has decided that he wants to save at least one person before he dies in the Crisis. That person? Dr. Ramsey Rosso, of course. Barry believes that if he can cure Rosso, two things would happen. One, Rosso would live to eventually cure HLH in all affected people around the world. And two, he would teach Cisco some hard lessons about leadership and the tough choices he would have to make if he (Cisco) takes over S.T.A.R. Labs when the Crisis is through.

ALERT: At least once per season, Barry does something either arrogant or condescending or just simply without consideration…and every time it comes back to bite him. This is one of those times. 

Enter Harrison Nash Wells, multiversal explorer and geologist. He has a bargain to make – a serum that could save Rosso in exchange for an “anti-vibrational crypto circuit”. This version of the character is part Indiana Jones with just a little bit of Batman (cool toys, knows how to suddenly appear/disappear). Wells, Cisco and Flash break into McCullough Tech to steal the serum…and do they succeed? Well…sort of. Cisco learned that the serum could also save Flash from the upcoming antimatter wave, so he hides the serum for later use with Barry.

When Barry realizes the Cisco was hiding the serum, they argue. Barry doesn’t want to be saved…and thinks that maybe Cisco is not really the right person to take over after the Crisis. Yes, this is resolved at the end, but it’s a difficult moment for their friendship.

Let’s step away from that for a moment to focus on Dr. Ramsey Rosso. Throughout the episode we see him becoming more and more desperate. We have several brief cutaways in the show to catch him in various poses of frustration and anger and fright. He is simply losing it…and losing himself all the while.

Barry delivers the serum to Dr. Rosso…but it doesn’t help. Rosso is just too far gone down the road to his transformation. Rosso doesn’t want to be “saved”. He wants to live forever, to defeat death once and for all. So, he steals more blood and continues his experiments. Rosso realizes that to live, he “needs to feed”. He kills several patients and medical staff in the hospital, turning them into lifeless puppets to keep Flash and Frost at bay. As he escapes, all those victims dissolve – he has used them as incubators to add to his own strength and abilities. Rosso is now something inhuman, amazingly strong and completely unhinged.

After all this, Barry and Cisco have a long talk and patch up their friendship. This scene is possibly the weakest of the episode, unfortunately. But, it is followed by one of the strongest scenes of the season as Barry and Joe deal with what is ahead. 

The show ends with Harrison Nash Wells somewhere in the multiverse, tracking down what is likely the Anti Monitor (or Monitor? We only get a holographic view). Yes, we will see much more of Harrison Nash Wells…and it looks like he ties in more directly to CRISIS than we may have thought.

NOTES:

• Ralph eventually gets back to the search for Sue Dearbon. We get a definite foreshadowing when he says, “Not like I’m looking to get married.” For those who are not long time Elongated Man fans from the comics, we will hopefully get to meet the future Mrs. Dibny before long.
• Rosso (aka Bloodwork) is a bit over the top right now. The desperation worked in most of the early cutaway scenes. But, his extremely over-the-top speech (i.e. “I need to feed”) was a bit too much. Hopefully that will tone down a bit as we move through the season.
• I LIKE THIS WELLS. Tom Cavenagh has been so amazing throughout this series, playing so many versions of the same person. Each one is truly unique and yet truly identifiable as a Wells. Different speech patterns, different body language, different personalities…all still within that “Council of Wells” concept that helps to make this a great show.

SUMMARY: The multiple cutaways for Rosso made the episode a bit disjointed. The friendship mending scene between Barry and Cisco was not their best acting. Rosso’s outlandish speech just before his escape was badly overdone. Still, the scene between Barry and Joe was exceptionally powerful. The further introduction of Harrison Nash Wells was right on point. And, the theme of “you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved” was a great way to have Team Flash work through some early stages of grief and (upcoming) loss. With just a little reservation I’ll give this one an 8/10. Of course, that’s just my opinion. What do YOU think? Leave your comments below!

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