The Flash “Flash Back” Review

<p>Barry Allen sure is a good guy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Everything seemed to work out perfectly this week &lpar;perhaps too perfectly&rpar;&comma; even if plans didn&&num;8217&semi;t go quite as expected&period; Everyone in the cast played ball well this week&comma; including the welcome return of <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm1936048&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Rick Cosnett<&sol;a> as Eddie&period; The effects team put in great work as well&comma; giving the time wraith that creepy &&num;8220&semi;dementor&&num;8221&semi; feel and navigating all of the time travel well&period; But not everything was quite perfect on <em>The Flash<&sol;em> this week&period; Let&&num;8217&semi;s break it down&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Barry needs to go faster to defeat Jay&sol;Zoom&comma; so after he gets the idea from talking to Wally &lpar;who was MUCH more bearable to watch this week&rpar;&comma; he decides to travel back in time and get Harrison Wells &lpar;aka Eobard Thawne&rpar; to teach him how to manipulate the speed force&period; Team Flash decides to send Barry back to the events of Pied Piper last year&comma; meaning a return to the show for Hartley&period; Eventually&comma; everyone from the past finds out that Barry is from the future&comma; Thawne gives Barry the secret to manipulate the speed force&comma; they help him get back home to his time&comma; and Hartley turns good and helps defeat the time wraith&period; Barry even managed to get a sweet video message from Eddie to Iris in the meantime&period; It was all perfect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A bit TOO perfect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;103071" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-103071" style&equals;"width&colon; 700px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-103071 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;fla217a-0119b-175644&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"700" height&equals;"491" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-103071" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Even Eddie was perfect&period; TOO perfect&period; &lpar;<em>The Flash<&sol;em>&comma; CW&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It was an extremely fun episode&comma; with action and laughs at every turn in classic<em> Flash<&sol;em> style&period; But things went seriously wrong in Barry&&num;8217&semi;s time traveling plan&comma; and there&&num;8217&semi;s no way everything should have ended up that perfectly&period; It puts a bad taste in my mouth&comma; frankly&period; What I hope will happen is that the true repercussions of Barry&&num;8217&semi;s adventure &lpar;and mistakes&rpar; will become more apparent in the coming weeks&period; The ending this week is just a false sense of security&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm0146915&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Tom Cavanagh<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;imdb&period;com&sol;name&sol;nm4583876&sol;&quest;ref&lowbar;&equals;fn&lowbar;al&lowbar;nm&lowbar;1" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Carlos Valdes<&sol;a> offered up fantastic performances this week&period; Cavanagh navigated playing two drastically different characters with elegance&comma; and it was a pure joy to see his Wells from season one again&period; The interaction in the secret room between Wells and a locked-up Barry was fantastic&comma; and showed the growth Barry has gone through since last year&period; Valdes as Season One Cisco was hilarious as he attempted to figure out which Barry was which&period; The entire episode navigated that delicate balance of seriousness and hilarity with the ease that <em>The Flash<&sol;em> has become known for&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;103072" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-103072" style&equals;"width&colon; 700px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-103072 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;fla217b-0058b-175641&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"700" height&equals;"466" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-103072" 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&&num;8217&semi;s talk about the villain of the episode&colon; the time wraith&period; It was a strange addition to the episode&comma; as there was already plenty going on&comma; and while it was visually stunning&comma; the wraith seemed to come out of nowhere&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s surprising that the time wraith has never come up before&comma; or even been mentioned&period; It did invoke a level of fear however &lpar;not unlike a dementor&excl;&rpar;&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s difficult to put a finger on how effective this actually was this week&comma; and perhaps the time would&&num;8217&semi;ve been better spent on establishing more fully other elements of the episode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Finally &&num;8211&semi; OH MY NERD&excl; That Barry vs&period; Barry fight scene was excellent&period; There was a moment when Barry landed on the fire escape&comma; and I was blown away&period; <em>The Flash<&sol;em> has consistently gone above and beyond with special effects on the show&comma; and this week was no exception&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;103073" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-103073" style&equals;"width&colon; 700px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-103073 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;fla217a-0086b-175647&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"700" height&equals;"467" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-103073" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">What do you MEAN time wraith&quest;&excl; &lpar;<em>The Flash&comma;<&sol;em> CW&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>&lbrack;Quick sidebar&colon; Barry guest starred on Supergirl this week&comma; and it was a great episode&period; Unfortunately&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t watch Supergirl regularly&comma; but I had a lot of fun watching these two characters interact&period; Is the opening always so similar to The Flash&quest; Or was that special to this episode&quest; And I loved how The Flash theme played whenever Barry did something cool&period; While I felt he was underutilized in the final battle &lpar;and that the villains were &&num;8220&semi;meh&&num;8221&semi; at best&comma; it was a fun little mash-up&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m still curious when we&&num;8217&semi;ll see how Barry got there specifically&comma; but I can be patient&period;&rsqb;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; it was a great episode for <em>The Flash<&sol;em>&comma; and it leaves me excited to see where things go&period; Hopefully things don&&num;8217&semi;t stay this happy or peaceful for long&comma; and that the repercussions of Barry&&num;8217&semi;s mistakes begin to show quickly&period; But it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to deny that <em>The Flash<&sol;em> has found a great rhythm with its actors&comma; effects team&comma; and story telling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now onto yet ANOTHER hiatus&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Have thoughts&quest; Tweet at me&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;LoganASchultz">&commat;LoganASchultz<&sol;a> or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;BagoGames">&commat;BagoGames<&sol;a><&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<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;