by Chelsea Dee, Editor-at-Large
It’s been a build up to Firestorm’s big episode, so why does it feel like it fell a little flat? Maybe expectations were too high. Maybe the performance wasn’t as good as one would hope. I’m not certain, but this episode didn’t sell the story as much as I’d been hoping for. But first! Previously on The Flash, they found out that Caitlin’s fiance Ronnie was bonded with Dr. Stein, and they were now possessed of Firestorm power. It’s a scientific project this time, and Stein was behind it. Barry met a pretty girl named Linda who he asked out, and she works at the paper with Iris. Joe started investigating Wells. We saw Gorilla Grodd at the end of the episode, but they needed to handle Firestorm first, so that’s definitely coming soon.
The main storyline in this episode of The Flash is about Firestorm. They manage to hook Ronnie/Stein in by having Stein’s wife give him an emotional plea. He’s really in control of Ronnie’s body here, but he says that Ronnie is in the back of his mind somewhere. Caitlin has some hope because of that. The team starts to work on finding a way to separate the two of them without killing them, but a more pressing problem is that they’re becoming a nuclear device. Their power is bound to explode and kill everyone nearby. Wells decides to potentially give up on one of his future devices in order to stop it, leading one to wonder if he’s doing it to keep the future the way he wants it, or out of genuine feeling. This guy is so hard to read! However it’s too late because they flee to try and protect everyone. The attempt to save them fails, and they are set to explode. Caitlin gets one tearful farewell and then Barry speeds them out of there before Firestorm explodes. However some general seems to think he can swoop in and get Firestorm? I’m confused about that, does that mean they’re still alive in there? Hmmm. One wonders if Wells and them will even attempt to see if they’re still around. Probably not. Sad news for Caitlin and Team Flash, since this is a pretty harsh failure for them.
Meanwhile Joe and Cisco start investigating Barry’s mother’s death. Joe confesses to Cisco that he’s watching Wells and he thinks he’s a part of it. Cisco is firmly protective of Wells, and he agrees to look into some blood splatter on the wall to prove it’s not him. And he does. Instead it’s Barry … from the future! We’d all speculated on that before, but this is official confirmation. I will attempt not to call bullshit on the blood splatter part, because it’s comics and whatever. I hope this doesn’t put Joe off Wells’ scent, and I doubt it will. The other major storyline is that Barry’s started dating Linda, and they’re pretty damn adorable. Things heat up fast between them, and it’s believable chemistry. It’s probably the most chemistry he’s had on the show. I think Iris and Caitlin are both cute and have their own types of chemistry with him, but this was definitely a step higher. It’s probably temporary too. She backs off from him because he keeps abandoning her to do Flash things, and also she has a talk with Iris where she admits that Barry was hung up with someone else. And Linda intuits that it was Iris. Barry confronts Iris and says she doesn’t want him happy with anyone. I would protest that, except I feel like the show is going that way, and it’s irritating. I hate love triangles! But she agrees to give the relationship a shot anyway.
It was a nice episode, a decent one, but not a great one. I guess I had hoped that the Firestorm episode would cause more emotional resonance, and I think Caitlin’s reactions were good. Maybe I just don’t think the Ronnie actor can pull off the gravitas I was looking for. He did his level best! It didn’t work for me, it felt lukewarm. I love that we got confirmation of Barry’s time travel, and I look forward to even more time travel stories coming up. They definitely have to show Wells’ true colors eventually. But what are those true colors? I still can’t get a read on this guy. It’s impeccably acted that way. I still have to give credit to the actor, he’s just so middle ground. Grodd is coming up, and he will probably be the big bad by the end of the season, in relation to Wells too. This is a great show and they continue to add more overarching plot info while keeping week to week adventures too. It’s charming and I enjoy watching every week.
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives The Flash Season 1 Episode 13 3 out of 5 Nuclear Explosions.
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