Jessie Robertson reviews the third episode of The Flash season 6…
It appears our season long villain is starting to take shape. In tonight’s episode, following an opening villain attack montage where our hulking brute effused with dark energy slaughters his former gang to find more, Team Flash (more specifically Barry and Frost) recruit Dr. Rosso to help join their cause, as he’s the leading hematology expert in the West. Frost obviously doesn’t trust him and that signals to Barry he shouldn’t either but he still gives the man a chance. In a fairly dramatic scene, Rosso says he can see the look of a dead man in Barry’s eyes and wonders how he has the strength to not care because he only knows the strength to fight it. It’s a weird moment that kind of shows, in it’s purest form, the heroic nature of Barry Allen as here’s clearly a man who just lied to him and is possibly down for more evil and Barry still gives him the chance to help. It’s during these last scenes where Rosso finally discovers that whatever this dark matter fused blood that’s in him, he has the power to control and now we’re off to the races.
I’m a Cecile guy and her side story is (mostly) the most delightful thing on tonight’s show. CCPD has arrested Ralph’s mother, who they think is guilty of breaking and entering until Ralph and Cecile decide to try and clear her. This involves them going into a shady back alley casino, winning a bunch of money at cards (of course using Cecile’s gift) and Ralph stealing security footage via his extendable hand. It’s a perfectly Flash scene, with the right silly music and great comedic timing of both Hartley Sawyer (Ralph) and Danielle Nicolet (Cecile). It ends in a more dramatic way (as most things seemed to this week) with Ralph confronting his mother and himself on their issues of abandonment but it’s a nice character chunk of time that further builds these background characters into the fold.
It was a pretty slow episode this week honestly: “Dead Man Running” refers to Barry’s impending decision to share with the team the visions he saw, which I actually applauded as finally, finally, this team starts telling each other the truth. Barry’s bonding with Frost unveils that she’s not ready to die when she just started living so when Barry tries to show her the ropes of hero-ing (which were ridiculously written scenes) she tells him about all the things she’s never experienced like a birthday party, hence the rave thrown in Star Labs, which is a whole other question mark.
And finally, we meet our new Wells, Harrison “Nash” Wells, a futuristic adventurer of sorts. He seems just as quirky as all the rest with his own noticeable flairs which just adds to the brilliance of what Tom Cavanagh brings to these roles every single season.
6/10 – Character work on Dr. Rosso, Ralph and Killer Frost provide for some entertainment, but overall feel like a flat narrative- the first look at our new Harrison Wells was a nice addition.
Jessie Robertson