Flash Review: “Fallout”

The Firestorm saga continues, Barry learns that his adult self tried to prevent his mother’s murder and failed, Wells reveals his yellow streak, and General Eiling has a hairy encounter.

Title: “Fallout”

Written by Keto Shimizu and Ben Sokolowski
Directed by Steve Surjik

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / The Flash
Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West
Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells /
Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
Robbie Amal as Ronnie Raymond / Firestorm
Victor Garber as Dr. Martin Stein / Firestorm
Isabella Hofmann as Clarissa Stein
Clancy Brown as General Wade Eiling
Candice Patton as Iris West
Roger Howarth as Mason Bridge
Simon Burnett as Gorilla Grodd

Premise

Stein and Raymond have separated and return to their loved ones, but Black Ops and superheroic destiny pursue them.

Barry, meanwhile, ponders the implications of his presence in the past.

High Point

Most of the High Points happen in the margins this week.

The episode confirms what we knew about Harrison Wells, who is developing into the show’s most conflicted and interesting character.

Clancy Brown, who has a history of playing unpleasant people, performs to his strengths.

And then there’s Gorilla Grodd.

Low Point

The episode features too many Pipeline-like, problematic elements. Two people return from the dead. Don’t they have friends and family beyond their love interests? Shouldn’t there be a media frenzy? Problems with the fact that they’ve been declared dead or missing?

And who, exactly, is General Eiling? Has he been granted carte blanche to carry out black ops on American soil? Does the Pentagon not track him at all? Does his knowing Barry Allen’s identity mean that everyone with a certain security clearance knows it, too? The idea of the U.S. army trying to militarize metahumans makes sense, but the approach requires further exploration.

The Scores:

Originality: 3/6

Effects: 5/6

Acting: 4/6 The idea of Stein and Raymond’s reunions with their loved one and their personal tensions could have been explored further, but what we saw was played fairly well.

Much of this acting felt more stilted than usual, and this had much to do with some stilted dialogue and excessive exposition.

Story: 4/6

Emotional Response: 4/6 The reference to it being “just Tuesday” for Team Flash amused me, but Cisco needed to stop at just one metajoke.

The episode mentions a couple of DC cities, and possibly references Rip Hunter.

Production: 6/6

Overall: 4/6 This episode is a sort of Iron Man 2; it’s not as strong as the others in the series, but it sets some important plot threads going.

In total, “Fallout” receives 30/42

2 replies on “Flash Review: “Fallout””

  1. Poor Clancy Brown, I hope he’s not dead. He’s awesome and I would like to see him come back. Between this and Sleepy Hollow he’s not having much luck avoiding supernatural/super-powered beings lately.

    I like Firestorm and what they did with the episode, though is it just me, or do Ronnie and Caitlin not really have all that great of chemistry together? Sure they were saying how much they loved each other, but for some reason it didn’t really seem like it. Perhaps that was on purpose.

    • I took it as Caitlin acknowledging that she had moved on a bit from Ronnie and that while she felt something it wasnt the same as what it was.

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