Our favorite show is back after a break…and there is something in THE FLASH for everyone this week! Huge plot points for the season’s overall story, an interesting villain of the week, Jay and Silent Bob…wait, really? All that and more in this week’s episode, “Null and Annoyed”! Want to know more? Follow us after the jump!

SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

NOTE: This review is posting prior to THE FLASH being aired in the Pacific Time Zone USA.  If you haven’t seen the show yet, STOP HERE and come back after you see it! You’ll be glad you did!

There are several subplots going on in this episode, all of which are worthy of mention here:

• Barry and Ralph have some friction because of Ralph’s seemingly cavalier attitude. “Let’s form an improv group. We can be the DC Comics!” Their completely different approaches do work out, with a great save (and punch line) in the end.
• Breacher (Gypsy’s father) shows up asking for help. His vibe blasts aren’t working. Can Cisco help him…and have the chance to spend more time with Gypsy?
• Marlize is having some rather, um, repetitive conversations with Clifford DeVoe (NOTE: I’m using that instead of the former name of the latest host body, just to hopefully avoid some confusion). That last subplot has some tears, both figurative and literal.

All of this while Team Flash tries to track down the remaining bus metas, of course.  The latest one calls herself Null. She has the power to cancel gravity for anything she touches.  We see that with the first of several cameos from director Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes as security guards who look very much like their famous alter egos of Jay and Silent Bob.  Their cameos are hilarious – SO glad to see them in this episode!

As Harry uses the intelligence booster (thinking cap) to find this meta, Barry goes with Ralph to find her. Things don’t work out well – Ralph is too busy doing a poor impression of Joe West, and Null gets the better of Barry, causing him to float up to the ceiling!

In a second meeting, Barry refuses to work with Ralph, and things aren’t any better. Null gets away while Barry saves an innocent driver from falling to earth in her getaway car.

It’s only when Barry and Ralph team up again – and when Ralph has to “improv” a solution, that they finally bring Null in.  The solution? When Ralph gets the dampener cuffs on Null and Barry (floating again) is falling back to Earth, Ralph turns himself into a giant Whoopee Cushion to safely stop Barry’s fall…followed by lots of fart noises.  And yes, this actually worked for me – maybe that shows my odd sense of humor, but I liked this bit.

As for Cisco and Breacher, things are not working as well.  Caitlin and Cisco discovered that the issue with Breacher’s loss of powers is simply age. He can still breach but can’t do blasts…and those blasts aren’t coming back.  After a poor attempt to make Breacher think he is back to fighting shape, Cisco has to confess what’s happening to Breacher…who not only retires, but offers his full time job to Cisco! Will Cisco leave Team Flash? It would allow him to spend full time with Gypsy, but there’s not answer in tonight’s episode – stay tuned on this one.

As for Marlize and Clifford…it’s tougher. Marlize finally realizes that Clifford has been using a combination of two bus meta powers to essentially drug her and erase her memory.  She tries to leave a message in the system for herself to escape…but she finds to her horror that this is not the first time she’s come to this realization, or the second, or the third.  Every time she gets to this point, Clifford erases her memory again. She’s now basically a puppet under Clifford’s control, and it is heart wrenching. It shows just how warped our big bad of the year has become.

All this leads to our resolution for the week, where Barry and Ralph come to a better understanding of each other, where things are coming back to normal, and…

Where Harry goes into the time vault to plug in his intelligence booster and…

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…and then speak to Gideon! Gideon notes how long it has been since they talked…what do YOU make of this?

SUMMARY: Kevin Smith seems to hit it out of the park every time he directs an episode of a superhero show.  That’s absolutely true here. The multiple threads were woven together seamlessly, with lots of fun tucked into some pretty substantial plot points…not only for the episode but for the season overall.  The scenes between Clifford’s latest host and Marlize were chilling and heartbreaking at the same time. The scenes between Cisco and Breacher were hilarious…all the way up to the gut punch of a twist at the end (will Cisco take the offer?).  Honestly, some of the weaker scenes were in the main plot with Barry, Ralph and Null – but those scenes were still solid, just not as impactful as the moments between Marlize and Clifford’s host body. I’ll give this episode a 10/10 – a great way to return from a break. But, that’s just my opinion – what do YOU think? Leave your comments below!

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