The Flash “Back to Normal” Review

<p><em>Hey everyone&excl; Logan here&period; Thanks for stopping by and following the reviews&excl; As you may have noticed&comma; we missed last week&&num;8217&semi;s review of The Flash due to my being off vacationing in The Bahamas&excl; It was wonderful &lpar;and yes&comma; I came back with a sunburn as a souvenir&rpar;&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;m back in business now and you can look forward to reviews of The Flash coming to BagoGames on Wednesdays through the rest of the season&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On last week&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Flash<&sol;em>&comma; Barry gave up his speed in order to save Wally&comma; but lost Caitlin in the process&comma; along with curing Zoom and making him even more powerful&period; Good move&comma; Barry&period; It wasn&&num;8217&semi;t the strongest or most convincing action that&&num;8217&semi;s ever taken place on the show&comma; but having a powerless Flash this week made for a nice change&comma; and the title resonated on more levels than one&comma; as the show once again proved its ability to be relatable and endearing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105405" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105405" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-105405 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;fla219b&lowbar;0077b&period;jpg" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"534" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105405" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">So&&num;8230&semi;do you come here often&quest; &lpar;<em>The Flash<&sol;em>&comma; CW&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Let me get the Zoom&sol;Caitlin storyline out of the way first&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve grown up watching <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm1263939&sol;">Danielle Panabaker<&sol;a> for years &lpar;<em>Sky High<&sol;em> was a thing&rpar;&comma; and it pains me to watch her struggle with the performance here&period; She&comma; as an actress&comma; is naturally sweet and enjoyable&comma; which carries her quite far&comma; but sometimes her moments don&&num;8217&semi;t quite land or get lost amidst the other excellent performances on the show&period; &&num;8220&semi;Back to Normal&&num;8221&semi; was not one of her highest points&comma; and her dual performance as Killer Frost rang a bit too much like Captain Cold &lpar;which was an intelligent choice to make&comma; but his performance was never outstanding either&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That being said&comma; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm1146243&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1">Teddy Sears<&sol;a> continues to redeem the character of Jay&sol;Zoom&period; A couple of months ago&comma; I was pretty harsh on the lackluster Jay Garrick and&comma; before that&comma; the absence of motivation for the villain Zoom&period; Neither of those are issues any longer&period; Sears has evolved Jay &lpar;or should I say Hunter&rpar; into an aggressive and engaging character fueled by a deep-seated pain&comma; and his psychotic descent is absolutely fascinating to watch&period; His final declaration of conquering Earths was a satisfyingly villainous line&comma; and the upcoming final battle is one that has endless potential&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105406" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105406" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-105406 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;fla219a&lowbar;0085b&period;jpg" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"534" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105406" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The boys&period; Bringin&&num;8217&semi; the thunder&period; &lpar;<em>The Flash<&sol;em>&comma; CW&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Moving on&comma; we had Griffin Grey this week as an incredibly strong metahuman who ages as he uses his power&period; The villain-of-the-week recipe was never where <em>The Flash<&sol;em> excelled before&comma; but it fit in nicely this week in a sort of &&num;8220&semi;calm before the storm&&num;8221&semi; fashion&period; Barry&comma; sans super speed&comma; is still hellbent on being a hero&comma; and does so by consistently throwing himself into physical danger&period; It wasn&&num;8217&semi;t the most original of approaches&comma; but the concept was effective in showing us &lpar;and Harrison Wells&rpar; the hero that Barry truly can be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And this was important&comma; as Wells needed to reconnect with Barry and the team prior to the final confrontation with Zoom&period; The first part of the episode found Wells angry with Barry for putting his daughter in danger&comma; so he goes after her&period; But this week proved to be a week of learning and growth for <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0146915&sol;">Tom Cavanagh<&sol;a>&&num;8216&semi;s character&comma; as he learned to let go &lpar;just a bit&rpar; of his incessant protection of Jesse and trust Barry and the team just a bit more&period; Cavanagh has always been a highlight on <em>The Flash<&sol;em>&comma; and his approach to navigating the arc of his character this week was no exception&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105407" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105407" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-105407 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;fla219a&lowbar;0027b&period;jpg" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"533" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105407" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">You may lose your super powers&comma; but science will never abandon you&excl; &lpar;<em>The Flash<&sol;em>&comma; CW&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; highlight of the week definitely goes to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm2920533&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1">Keiynan Lonsdale<&sol;a> as Wally West&period; Wally&&num;8217&semi;s character hasn&&num;8217&semi;t had a lot of direction or definition this season&comma; but after being saved by The Flash last week&comma; he is extremely grateful and wants to thank The Flash in person&period; It was a brief moment&comma; and a brief thank you&comma; but Lonsdale&&num;8217&semi;s performance was moving and truthful&period; It really set the character up for something greater &lpar;or super&comma; perhaps&quest;&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We were left with a moment of connection between Wells and Barry in the lab&comma; where Wells describes his plan to create another particle accelerator explosion to help Barry get his speed back&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a plan that definitely makes for some exciting television and I&comma; for one&comma; can&&num;8217&semi;t wait to see how the season is going to end up&period; Four more episodes&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Plus&comma; the Kevin Smith episode is only two weeks away&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Have thoughts&quest; Theories&quest; Tweet at me&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;LoganASchultz">&commat;LoganASchultz<&sol;a> or email me&colon; <a href&equals;"mailto&colon;Logan&period;Schultz&commat;bagogames&period;com">Logan&period;Schultz&commat;bagogames&period;com<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8&sol;7c on The CW&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;