Uncategorized

FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 2×04 – “The Fury of Firestorm”

The Flash (2×04) – “The
Fury of Firestorm”
Written by: Kai Yu Wu and Joe Peracchio
Directed by: Stefan Pleszczynski
After a flashback to the night of the Accelerator Explosion
to establish that Jefferson Jackson was a high school football star on the
brink of playing college ball before he was injured in the blast we learn that in
the present Professor Stein is dying.
Cisco and Caitlin stabilize him but they need to find
someone to merge with him or his body will come apart completely (as in
Boom!)  Caitlin has been researching on
her own and has found two candidates; Jefferson Jackson and a man named Henry
Hewitt.  Barry speeds off to get blood
sample (using some questionable ethics but we’ll get back to that) and returns
to STAR Labs so Caitlin can run tests.
At the West residence, Joe and Iris discuss her upcoming
reunion with her mother.  Joe offers her
an out but she needs to meet her.  After
Iris reassures him Joe leaves for work and Iris is left with a contemplative
look.  At the Police Station, Patty brings
Barry evidence from a case she’s working on for the Meta-human task Force; a
witness claimed to see a half-man/half-shark attack someone.  The two joke about the possibility before
Barry agrees to run some tests. 
Joe arrives and Patty leaves which allows him to tease Barry
about his flirting with Patty.  Barry
plays it off and asks about Iris but Barry is called back to STAR Labs before
they can discuss it.
Back at STAR Labs Caitlin updates the team on her
findings.  She offers up Hewitt as a
potential match considering his scientific background but Barry points out that
on a genetic level Jackson seems the better match.  Caitlin doesn’t agree but Barry says they
should at least talk to both men and he and Stein go to meet Jackson while
Caitlin gets in touch with Hewitt.  Cisco
stays behind to work on another way to keep Stein stable longer.  After they leave, Dr. Wells appears from the
shadows looking rather ominous.
Barry and Stein find Jackson working as a mechanic.  Jefferson is a touch confrontational with the
pair and they learn the young man was injured in the Accelerator blast and it
cost him his college football career.  As
a result, Jefferson wants to put the explosion behind him and he doesn’t want
to deal with anything to do with it again. 
Barry leaves his contact information in case Jefferson changes his mind.
Iris Joe and Francine meet up at Jitters.  Francine tries to start some small talk but
Iris is not interested, when her mother tries to explain Iris shuts her down completely
before she leaves after making it clear that she wished it to be the final
time.
Barry and Martin return to STAR Labs and meet Henry
Hewitt.  Caitlin and Cisco have already
explained the process to him and he’s very excited.  And very, very smug.  Caitlin and Cisco are also excited but Barry
is concerned.  Cisco provides Stein and
Hewitt with a new version of the splicer and explains that all that should be
necessary is for Stein and Hewitt to touch. 
However when they do so, something happens but they do not combine.  Hewitt storms out angrily, and Stein becomes
extremely distraught.  As Hewitt leaves
the lab his body begins to give off energy though he doesn’t notice.
At Mercury Labs, Dr. McGee is making arrangements with her assistant
when they interrupted by an intruder alarm in Applied Sciences.  When they meet with security in the lab they
see someone leaving with some of her equipment. 
Even worse, she recognizes the thief as Harrison Wells.  They next days, Joe and Patty meet with Dr. McGee
and she explains when she saw and asks for discretion.  Joe agrees though he’s sure it was not
Wells.  Patty offers to call Barry but
Joe tells her that Wells was the man who killed his mother and he doesn’t want
Barry to know considering what he’s going through with Stein.
When they return to the Police Station, Joe finds Francine
waiting for him.  She explains to Joe
that part of the reason she’s returned to Central City is she’s dying.  Her drug abuse led to her contracting a disease
called MacGregor’s and she has less than a year left before she dies.
Jefferson has a change of heart and comes to STAR Labs to
talk with the team.  They explain the
reasons they wanted to contact him and what they were hoping he would do to
help.  However, Jefferson is skeptical.  Caitlin gets angry and yells at him until he
storms off.  When Barry tries to calm her
down she decides to try and contact Hewitt again.
Barry returns to the Police Station to give Patty her test
results.  She’s disheartened that the Man-Shark
seems to be a dead end but she has another case.  Barry offers to help but she says no, when he
asks why she turns nervous and starts rambling before running out.  Barry goes to find Joe and they talk about
Francine and if Iris knows.  Things turn
to Patty’s new case and Barry asks why he doesn’t want Barry help.  However instead of answering Joe asks why
Barry and Patty are flirting.  When Barry
brings up Iris, Joe points out that just because it isn’t the same as his
feelings for Iris doesn’t mean he shouldn’t explore his feelings for Patty.
At Eikmeier Technologies, Hewitt’s powers are getting more
out of control and when his supervisor berates him for not completing his work
he blows up. Figuratively and literally. 
When Team Flash learns of his blowup, explains that he looked into
Hewitt’s past and found he had a history of violence and a sealed criminal
record.
As they try to figure out a way to defuse the situation with
Hewitt, Stein nearly collapses again. 
Caitlin laments chasing Jefferson away but Barry is hopeful they can
bring him back to help.  Caitlin goes to
Jefferson’s work and tries to talk to him. 
She explains that they’re desperate then tells him about Ronnie.  She offers him a chance to put his new gifts
to good use.  Hewitt arrives and attacks
Jefferson, he and Caitlin escape while Hewitt starts to syphon energy.
By the time they make it back to STAR Labs, Stein is
dying.  They don’t have much time or even
an idea on how to stop it so Jefferson offers to merge with Stein.  The pair combine successfully but before the
new Firestorm can do much the team learns that Hewitt is at the Central City
High’s Football stadium.  Flash and
Firestorm arrive to stop him but only anger Hewitt more.  Caitlin hypothesizes that if they can anger
him enough he’ll burn out his powers. 
Jefferson and Stein learn to work together on the fly while Barry uses
his speed to distract and anger Hewitt before Firestorm delivers the knockout
blow.
The next day, Iris meets up with her mother again at
Jitters.  Iris reveals that she looked
into Francine’s past and tells her that she learned that Francine is still
hiding something from Joe.  Francine gave
birth to a son a few months after she disappeared.  Iris warns the woman away because she doesn’t
want her father to suffer the knowledge that he had a son that grew up with him
ever knowing about his father.
Team Flash meets up with Stein and Jefferson.  Hewitt’s powers seem to be dormant but
they’re keeping him in the Pipeline for the foreseeable future (we’ll get back
to this too.)  Stein and Jefferson reveal
that they are going to Pittsburgh to work with the woman who helped Ronnie and
Stein harness their abilities before. 
Stein is hopeful that he and Jefferson can actually work out some of the
powers he and Ronnie never quite accessed. 
While Caitlin gives Jefferson something of Ronnie’s to remember her by
Stein tries to convince Cisco to tell the others about his new power.
Barry decides to take Jefferson’s courage as an example and
races off to find Patty.  However he’s
attacked by the Man-Shark, who is rather “King” sized.  He tells Barry he’s been sent by Zoom to kill
the Flash but before he can eat Barry and Patty he’s taken down by Dr. Wells.
There’s a lot to discuss here, as an introduction for Jax
and Firestorm 2.0 this episode works pretty well.  It felt at times like they were retreading old
ground but that was going to happen.  I
liked the smugness of Demore Barnes as Henry Hewitt, I also liked Franz Drameh
as Jax.
The West family fallout is interesting, especially as it is
pointing towards Wally being Iris’ brother and not nephew.  Shantel VanSanten continues to charm as Patty
and I like her chemistry with Joe and Barry. 
The appearance of King Shark was a well-executed shock as they had
convinced me the episode was in wrap-up mode only to spring him and I can’t
wait to see how Team Flash interacts with the new Dr. Wells.
However, there’s a bit of a specter hanging over the
episode.  I mentioned last week that the
villains seems to be dropping like flies this season and while Barry didn’t
kill or allow anyone to be killed this week it certainly looks like Wells
killed someone.  Further, I found the
team to be a bit obnoxious this week. 
Whether it was Barry stealing blood or Caitlin chasing away a young kid
who’s clearly scared by what they’re dumping in his lap or even Team Flash reopening
their private prison I found myself a little put off by the end of the episode
and I am really hoping for a return to form soon.
Three Things We
Learned This Week:
1)     
Iris’ mother is dying and she may be hiding
Joe’s son from him.
2)     
Some of the people affected by the Explosion
still have not exhibited their abilities yet.
3)     
Barry and Patty seem to share a love for those
silly movies Syfy air every Saturday
Three Questions:
1)     
Can anything be done for Francine and who is her
son’s father?
2)     
If Cisco was affected by the Explosion, was
Caitlin as well?
3)     
Did Wells come to Earth One solely to deal with
King Shark or is he looking for Zoom as well?

Just another guy on the internet.