by Chelsea Dee, Editor-At-Large

Prepare yourself for a barrage of questions in this review, because that’s the only way I can really express how completely ridiculous this episode was. It relied on the characters being stupid. Extremely stupid. Frustratingly stupid. I spent the episode thinking of this scene from Billy Madison. Previously on The Flash, Barry told Caitlin and Cisco that he believes Wells is the Reverse-Flash. The audience found out that Wells is really Eobard Thawne, who took over the life of the real Wells fifteen years ago. Everyone on the show except for Iris knows that Barry is the Flash, including Eddie who she is now angry at for lying to her. The show still wants us to believe for some reason that her being kept in the dark is actually protecting her, except for the fact it’s not and it’ll probably lead to her being in more danger due to ignorance. Also sometimes there are crossovers between Arrow and The Flash, and this is one of them, so quick note about Arrow: Detective Lance and his daughter Laurel are not speaking. She lied to him about her sister being dead while she took the Black Canary mantle, and he won’t forgive her for it. This is relevant to the episode. There’s metahumans everywhere, but on the whole the city has remained oblivious (???) to it. Somehow.

The bad guy this episode is a shapeshifter named Hannibal, and seriously who names their child Hannibal. What in the world are you thinking. That’s just asking for him to be a murderer. He gained powers to mimic people, and he’s been using it to steal things and pin it on the people he looks like. Right off the bat I’m curious about a few things with him. How does he also shapeshift into their clothes? It’s not just him physically, he completely changes into their clothes and even ends up with guns? He shapeshifts into Eddie later and somehow has his pistol. Eddie is framed for murdering two cops when the shapeshifter takes his form and does it. That escalated pretty quickly from him being a thief to a murderer. Barry apparently lost his mind this episode, because despite knowing there is a shapeshifter who looked like Eddie and Eddie is in jail, he eagerly lets him into his house and turns his back on him. I’ll admit I thought this was all a ploy from Barry, because it seemed too stupid to be real. Barry is knocked out. The show forgets that Barry has super healing and has come back to consciousness over much worse than a knock on the head. He stays out for a long time.

Caitlin knows that there is a shapeshifter, but for some reason doesn’t think she should be genre savvy enough to suspect that Barry is acting very, very strangely. He is cold, doesn’t talk or act like him at all, and then kisses her. I personally get irritated at that, because it’s basically sexual assault. She is not interested in him (despite what the Snowbarry fans are saying), and it clearly made her very uncomfortable. But she still doesn’t question the fact that her friend is acting like an entire different person and forced himself on her. No, Wells takes literally ten seconds to go ‘oh hey that’s not Barry,’ because at this point he’s the only smart person left on the show. What are they going to do when he’s gone/defeated? This leads to Barry having an inane fight with the shapeshifter, who decides that he’ll just keep turning into random people while fighting Barry? This is clearly just them wanting to think it’s fun to have Barry seem to be fighting Caitlin and Iris. But it doesn’t help the shapeshifter at all. And how is he holding his own against Barry? He doesn’t have super strength or anything. This is a completely pointless fight. This is a completely pointless episode. I’d be able to forgive everyone being idiots if they weren’t extremely aware that there was a shapeshifter, and went ‘oh hey maybe I should be suspicious of my friend acting weird.’ Sigh. Also the DA refuses to listen that there is an alternative explanation for what’s happening. Okay but you do remember that there’s a lot of weird stuff going on in the city? There’s super powered people. There’s a lot unexplainable that’s been going on. Everyone knows about the Flash and has seen him at this point.

So while this nonsense is going on, Joe and Cisco go to Starling City. They meet up with Detective Lance to talk about Harrison Wells’ accident all those years ago. They find the body of the real Harrison Wells, and Lance agrees not to say anything because … Joe says it’s to protect his daughter? Aren’t you trying to be a real detective, Lance? You don’t even know this freaking guy. He’s telling you to lie about a murder without giving you any details, and you’re really against the Arrow right now, so it doesn’t seem like you’d want to help vigilante justice. They do have a semi-okay conversation about how Joe is lying to Iris, and Lance is angry his daughter lied to him. Joe still thinks he has the right to lie to Iris about everything, because despite being awesome, he’s also a condescending jerk. Iris actually is pretty awesome this episode by figuring out some of the detective work all by herself about the shapeshifter. She also doesn’t even question that there is one, because she’s more genre savvy than the DA and police I guess. She’d be a great source of assistance, if someone would JUST TELL HER ALREADY. I’m going to tear my hair out, I swear. Eddie tells her that he’s working with the Flash. Why didn’t he just tell her that in the first place? She didn’t question him more than that. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.

Also at the end of the episode Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin find Wells’ hidden room. The only thing I liked in this episode was Caitlin doubting that Wells was evil, because someone had to. She has every reason to trust her mentor, until they find the body. But they keep talking about how Wells is evil in the lab. Doesn’t he have cameras everywhere? Why doesn’t he? I would, if I was evil and wanted to make sure no one was figuring it out. He knows that people have been acting weird. Remember when he killed Cisco? He was very savvy to when people were lying to him in that episode, but now he doesn’t seem to get all the huge clues everywhere. Also that was ridiculously easy for them to find his secret lair. Barry just had to put his hand to the wall and it opened. Terrible secret. Why does he even have it at the lab? Why not at his house where people wouldn’t accidentally stumble on it? I understand they wanted the big reveal here about the future for the characters. But if you have to make everyone stupid in an episode just to make it work, you might want to rewrite and address it in a different way. This was insulting, and by far the worst episode of the show so far.

Here’s hoping next episode is better now that Wells’ identity is being made public. I’m going to miss him on the show if he eventually gets defeated, because at the moment he’s the most interesting (and intelligent) person on it. I’m giving this the lowest score possible. I expect better out of this show, and that many plot holes and terrible decisions should not be allowed. What was the point of the Arrow crossover? They barely made a difference, and the Canary Cry is not going to make up for it. When was that even in the timeline? How are we supposed to accept silly “this is funny” music with Cisco and Laurel when everything in Starling is supposed to be in hell in that minute? Thea just died! They weren’t necessary at all! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, SHOW.

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives The Flash Season 1 Episode 19 1 out of 5 Insultingly Silly Episodes

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