“Everyone in the room has rough childhoods. Get over it.”
–Iris West, to whiny evildoers everywhere
The Flash ends for the calendar year with a Christmas episode stuffed full of villains—and the arrival of Wally West.
Title: “Running to Stand Still”
Director: Kevin Tancharoen
Writer: Andrew Kriesberg
Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / The Flash
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
Shantel VanSanten as Officer Patty Spivot
Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West
Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow
Candice Patton as Iris West
Teddy Sears as Jay Garrick/The Flash
Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells
Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West
Mark Hamill as James Jesse / the Trickster
Liam McIntyre as Mark Mardon / Weather Wizard
Wentworth Miller as Len Snart/Captain Cold
Tony Todd as Zoom
Patrick Sabongui as Captain David Singh
Violett Beane as Jesse Wells
Premise
Three super-villains escape; two team up to destroy the Flash.
We learn more of Zoom’s plot as he recruits a reluctant ally.
Wally West, presumably destined to gain super-speed, arrives in time for Christmas dinner.
High Point
The dilemma facing the Flash was genuine, even though he couldn’t trust that the villains would keep their word. Their method for distributing death, sadly, could actually work in the real world, assuming someone nefarious successfully infiltrated this kind of situation.
Low Point
The manner in which the team resolved the dilemma represents, perhaps, the worst example of Comic-Book-Science Buttpullium Ex Machina in the history of this series.
The Scores:
Originality: 3/6
Effects: 5/6
Acting: 5/6 Mark Hamill lets the hams awaken again, to good effect. Jesse L. Martin and Grant Gustin have some strong moments.
Story: 4/6 The story starts strong, but cheats its ending.
Emotional Response: 4/6
Production: 5/6
Overall: 4/6
In total, “Running to Stand Still” receives 30/42
My high point: Barry somehow still hasn’t, intentionally or otherwise, compromised his identity to Patty despite the difference it would have made in her part of the plot. Though if she were paying close attention, she could probably put 2 and 2 together based on phrases he used.
The resolution with the portal for the packages was definitely questionable though.
I dunno, the one person I think they SHOULD bringin to the fold at this point is Patty.
The package portal thing was beyond questionable…
High Point: Villains using the obvious and ruthless tactic of directly threatening bystanders for once.
Low Point: People actually got paid for writing that bit with the portal and the magnets???