The Flash - season 4 (The CW) (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

These crossover events continue to pay dividends, with last night's two hours to the CW's highest number of total viewers for a Monday since 2009 and highest rated Monday since 2011.

When I was a very young child, I used to have nightmares about an autocratic dystopia patrolled by jackbooted stormtroopers. The lighting of the Earth-X scenes brought that very much to mind, with everything shrouded in darkness and the only lights being a smoggy yellow very close to the ground.

I wish they had had a throwaway line explaining Eobard Thawne's latest resurrection, given that we saw him literally erased from existence at the end of "Legends" last season.

It was nice to see Jeremy Jordan given some different notes to play.

Also fun to see Red Tornado again, for the first time since the Los Angeles-shot first season of "Supergirl".

I only watched the first hour of tonight's wrap-up, but it was exciting with several most welcome surprises. Enjoyed hearing Russell Tovey's American accent (I'm not sure I've ever heard him speak in anything but his normal voice), and Wentworth Miller was also a good addition to the action. I remember several weeks ago he tweeted these would be his final appearances as this character on TV, so I'm going to relish his participation.

Spoiler: Part 4 spoilers

The strange thing is the crossover doesn't wrap his character up at all. Not only does he not die, he doesn't go back to Earth-X, either. If that's his last appearance, it's Leo Snart just chilling out on Earth-1.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Andrew Kreisberg officially fired
To ease the transition, co-creator Greg Berlanti will take a more hands-on role on "The Flash," where he will work closely with Todd Helbing. Helbing has been co-showrunner alongside Kreisberg since Season 2.

 

[Sam Favate]

^ This was inevitable. I doubt it will hurt the show. In fact, many of the cast and crew may be happier for seeing their employers do the right thing.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I agree. Having Berlanti take a more active role again is exciting, and from what I've heard, Kreisberg had become an impediment to hiring good people because nobody wanted to work with him.

It also helps that the core three (Berlanti/Kreisberg/Guggenheim) have been spread thin across multiple shows for a while now. So "The Flash" and "Supergirl" already have day-to-day showrunners in place to keep steering the ship.

 

[NeilO]

I wish they had had a throwaway line explaining Eobard Thawne's latest resurrection, given that we saw him literally erased from existence at the end of "Legends" last season.

(I have not yet seen Part 4).

That is one of the confusing things. Was this really Earth-1's Eobard Thawne or Earth-X's? If it is Earth-1's, how did he get to Earth-X? Why did he go to Earth-X? It all seems a bit strange. I guess if he is Earth-1's, then that is how they knew about the wedding, though it still seems weird to attack at that time.

One absurd thing about the episode was the line of dialogue between Lance and Sarah. What does her being bi have anything to do with being captured with all the other heroes? It seems thrown in to make a poor point.

Also, why are our Earth-1 heroes being referred to by Earth-X's characters as "heroes"? Don't they see themselves as being the heroes of the government of Earth-X?

 

[Garysb]

Love this scene which TVline says was cut from this evening's episode.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Pretty decent cliffhanger. It was teased during Barry's ramblings when he first came out of the Speed Force in the season premiere: "Your honor, I'm innocent. I didn't do this! I didn't kill anyone!"

It'd be interesting to see whether DeVoe anticipated him running from the crime scene or not. That will tell us whether his grand machinations are still on track. I do think Barry maximizes his options by cooperating. My guess is that we're in for some version of "The Trial of the Flash".

If so:

Spoiler: Speculation

We could end up paying a visit to the 30th century, and perhaps learn who Jessica Parker Kennedy was playing at Barry and Iris's wedding.

 

[NeilO]

How stupid were the team and Caitlin especially to leave Dominic alone? It is not like she had removed the threat of Amunet, she and Dominic had temporarily escaped. To just let him wander unprotected is the worst example of a "stupid plot". Just really bad writing there.

The cliffhanger is nasty, but Barry does have the timing of the situation. He has the record of the alarm alert - so someone broke into the apartment before him. Then he arrived later. There would seem to be evidence of someone else there besides Barry and the body. Was Mrs. DeVoe or "Dominic" or whoever they hired that careful that there is no trace? Also, when they look under DeVoe's hairpiece and see it go straight to his brain, there have to be some suspicions that there is more there than meets the eye. What explanation will they have for DeVoe's body being there in the first place? Of course, given the already bad writing of the situation, maybe they won't cover any of this.

 

[Richard V]

Love this scene which TVline says was cut from this evening's episode.

Should have left this in, hilarious.

 

[NeilO]

Should have left this in, hilarious.

One problem about that scene is that they used the first joke in the scene in a previous episode.

 

[NeilO]

The highlight of the episode has to be the payoff of the special things Cisco put in Barry's suit earlier in the season that we all thought was just a joke. That was great.

 

[spshultz]

Should have left this in, hilarious.

I agree! It shouldn't have been cut.

"You know how hard it is to run in flip flops?". Ha!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This was a pretty great episode from beginning to end. Barry's showing real maturity in this situation, which is not a quality he was exactly known for in earlier seasons. He has a bit of a trump card, which is that he's been to multiple versions of the future and the Flash beat DeVoe in every one of them.

In the mean time, he didn't make DeVoe's job any easier by acting like a guilty person. From the moment he saw DeVoe's body, I think he knew how all of this was going to shake out. And knowing that he was going to be convicted, he acted like an innocent person would. He didn't try any half-assed tricks that DeVoe inevitably would have turned against him. He's biding his time.

Really glad that this storyline isn't a one and done. Not so glad that Ralph is going to be the foreground hero while Barry's in prison. The writers are working hard to try and rehabilitate him, but he's just too sleazy for me. I would have much rather had Wally or Jesse or Jay step up while Barry's behind bars.

 

[Bob_S.]

Just checked in to see the current happenings on this show. I haven't watched it since the beginning of the season and haven't seen any of the other superhero shows. I'll probably binge watch this on Netflix when it comes out like I did last season. Tried to watch last season's Arrow but just couldn't get into it. The new team members did nothing for me. I was excited about this season's crossover until I found out the alien enemy would be Nazis. Really? How original. Oh gawd. Been there done that.

 

[ponset]

The Crossover was based on a comic book story from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN #107-108 which
the heroes travel to Earth-X. The Nazis won the war and the Freedom Fighters(Ray, Human Bomb, Doll Man, Black Candor, Phantom Lady, and Uncle Sam) of Earth-X are trying to reclaim their world.
Any time I see NAZIS getting their butts kick around is a GOOD TIME in my household.

The Justice system works quickly in Central City. Trial, Sentencing, and book into jail all within 2 months.
Nice seeing Mark Valley as the DA, Anton Slater who was in the comic book version of "Trial of the Flash".
Valley played Christopher Chance The HUMAN TARGET for 2 seasons on Fox.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

The Crossover was based on a comic book story from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN #107-108 which
the heroes travel to Earth-X. The Nazis won the war and the Freedom Fighters(Ray, Human Bomb, Doll Man, Black Candor, Phantom Lady, and Uncle Sam) of Earth-X are trying to reclaim their world.
Any time I see NAZIS getting their butts kick around is a GOOD TIME in my household.

The Justice system works quickly in Central City. Trial, Sentencing, and book into jail all within 2 months.
Nice seeing Mark Valley as the DA, Anton Slater who was in the comic book version of "Trial of the Flash".
Valley played Christopher Chance The HUMAN TARGET for 2 seasons on Fox.

2 months? It played out like it was all within 2 days - if that.

I looked for any signals that this was happening over a longer period of time, but the second story - Fallout - seemed to be all within a day. If there were clues or dialog of more time passing, I, my wife and my son missed it.

And, can a DA just take a "leave of absence" to defend someone charged by the DA's Office?

 

[NeilO]

The trial was just way too fast. There should have been more time where they could have built up a defense.
Cecile should have made more of Mrs. DeVoe's affair, making more of the possibility that she or the guy were the murderers and planted the body.

Still, the plot demanded it all be rushed and that was what they did,

 

[Joel Fontenot]

No doubt that it needed to move along. But, they could have done a better job of making it seem like more time had passed - title cards maybe... a-la Law and Order (only without the sound effects, but maybe with a nod to Jesse Martin in some way).

 

[NeilO]

The cliffhanger is nasty, but Barry does have the timing of the situation. He has the record of the alarm alert - so someone broke into the apartment before him. Then he arrived later. There would seem to be evidence of someone else there besides Barry and the body. Was Mrs. DeVoe or "Dominic" or whoever they hired that careful that there is no trace? Also, when they look under DeVoe's hairpiece and see it go straight to his brain, there have to be some suspicions that there is more there than meets the eye. What explanation will they have for DeVoe's body being there in the first place? Of course, given the already bad writing of the situation, maybe they won't cover any of this.

The only thing they covered was an excuse of DeVoe being there to "try to work things out with Barry" without any evidence showing how he got there in the first place. There was no cross examination of the excuse. It is as if the few minutes of screen time we saw was all the time they had to prepare for the trial itself.

 

[DaveF]

I hit a lull in TV, but not a good place to get into some more intense shows (Mr. Robot, and such), so I started watching The Flash. To my pleasant surprise, it’s not terrible this season.

The premiere was kinda good and kinda terrible, with the terrible writing of Barry going from broken to normal without explanation. Maybe the writers have a plan for this, and it will be revisited in a later episode?

I was surprised by and enjoyed the addition of Dibney. He’s got a Jim Carey vibe going on that works well enough.

I like the Council of Wells. I was concerned there wouldn’t be a new Wells this season.

The Big Bad, Devoe / The Thinker, is ... ok...I guess? I’m waiting to see what his goal is.

Crossover. *&$% crossover. I’m ready for the wedding. And the episode is part 3 of another freaking crossover. The wedding was on some other CW show I don’t watch, a whole bunch of stuff happened, and now I’m watching some random episode completely disconnected from the story I was just in.

Is this X stuff part of Devoe’s plot? He’s supposed to be the smarter guy in the metaverse and plans for everything, but I don’t know how this relates.

I’m two episodes behind now. Season 4 isn’t horrible like Season 3. It’s actually pretty decent.