THE FLASH 8.6

 

RECAP - THE FLASH  8.6:  "Impulsive Excessive Behavior"  

Welcome back, Flash fans!  It's been a bit of a spell since we last saw The Scarlet Speedster, as he had just taken down Despero, and fixed the timeline the Reverse Flash tried to rearrange with HIM has the hero, and Barry the villain.  But we see that Eobard Thawne is now powerless, and rotting in a cell at ARGUS.  With things seemingly peaceful now for Team Flash, we move onto the next adventure....though there STILL is the issue with Iris still suffering from the Speed Force effects.  This installment, our regular team takes a back seat, as the Flash kids take center stage, as Nora & Bart try to repair a time flux situation that takes them to 2013.

We start off this episode with where the last episode of Season 7 left off:  with Barry & Iris renewing their wedding vows as the kids looked on some six months prior.  After the party, the kids head back home to 2049, where they experience some kind of energy wave.  When Jay Garrick arrives to visit, they talk about the whole Godspeed affair, and then Jay says that Bart will make a great Flash one day.  But when he mentions his wife Rose, it makes the kids realize that something is VERY wrong.  After Jay leaves, they head to the  Flash Museum, and discover that the timeline had been changed by a temporal energy wave.  They trace the source of the wave to New Year's Eve, 2013.  It was on this day that their grandfather, Joe West, is shot by a robber, and it alters the course of time.  They need to go back and fix it, but Nora reminds Bart they need to do what they can to NOT interfere with anything time related.  

There, they arrive at the CCPD, and end up running into new CCPD detective Eddie Thawne. They pass themselves off as interns for the CSI lab, as their current CSI - their father Barry - is still in a coma at this time from the lightning strike hit him in his lab after his return from STAR Labs before the Particle Accelerator Explosion.  He just considers them gophers and sends them for coffee.  It's while getting the coffee that they bump into another intern, but this time for a company called Mercury Labs - a woman named Avery.  Avery has notes on quantum physics and time travel, and she and Bart seem to take a shine to each other.  But Nora tries to keep Bart's head in the game, as they are there to stop Joe from being shot.  They do, however, happen upon the crime, and Bart springs into action, and just slightly moves Joe out of the way of the gunshot from the clumsy robber.  He is saved, and the robber arrested, but it didn't fix time....it just made things worse.  Bart inadvertently altered the timeline again.  They try to get the security footage from Eddie, but he doesn't let them have it.  They take off, talking to each other about being the only metahumans making mistakes, but is overheard by a young woman.  This woman is Mona Taylor, who then meets up with a few other criminals like herself, and she gives them the idea to team up and rob the local casino in town just before midnight...thus, the Royal Flush Gang is born.  

Nora and Bart work, and try to switch flash drives with the security footage form the botched robbery earlier, by overhearing Joe talk about how he blew it with Cecile Horton, who just got divorced, and layed into Joe earlier in the day.  When they review the footage, they find out that Mona Taylor overheard them, and now the Royal Flush Gang is going to commit the robbery at the casino.  They need help, but Bart---having felt like he screwed up---doesn't feel worthy of becoming The Flash, and takes off.  Nora tracks him down to STAR Labs, where Barry is still laid up in his coma.  Bart tells his dad that he failed, but Nora assures him that they haven't failed yet, and that she needs him.  She'll always be there to pick him up when he falls.  They then deduce that Avery is the one person who can help them solve their problem with the timeline.  Because while there's supposed to be people who die in the casino robbery, the bodycount keeps altering, meaning it's in flux.  When they confer with Avery, she tells them that as long as they allow the robbery to happen, they'll restore the timeline, but the body count is the only thing that can be altered.  So, they put their plan into action, as Bart handles the people in the casino, while Nora races to find the bombs.  When the Royal Flush Gang arrives, Bart is busy speeding people out as quick as possible without being detected, but Queen and Ace notice.  Bart then disguises himself as the casino manager in order to distract them long enough for Nora to locate the bombs.  He manages to convince them to let the people live, and take whatever they want.  They complete their heist, and are off, but not before Queen tells them to enjoy the fireworks.  

With Nora desperate and panicking, Bart tells her to take a breath and think.  She manages to find all 5 bombs and gets them out of the casino, and runs up a building, throwing them skyward, as they explode like fireworks in the sky at midnight...thus no one dying, and no one the wiser as to them being there.  We then see Iris show up to offer food to her father, and she meets Eddie face to face for the first time, thus putting time back on track.  Later on, at the CCPD, they have the photo taken at the precinct with Nora and Bart in it, as time is reset. Before they leave, Bart says his goodbyes to Avery, and they share a kiss before he and his sister race off for 2049.  Once back in their time, they meet up with Jay, and retell thier story.  Bart apologizes for messing with time, and says it's okay if he's not worthy of being The Flash.  Jay laughs, and says if that were the case, their father would be just as unworthy.  Jay talks about how he hopped around time, fought criminals in World War II, and bounced around for the better part of 16 years.  Tells him that they may not be able to fix time, but they can still make things right.  

Back in 2022, Team Flash is ready for a trip to Paris, as they await for Iris to get ready.  She sets the brush she was using down, and they all bundle up, and take off holding onto each other as Barry speeds them away.  Meanwhile, we see the brush mysteriously disappear...meaning that their time troubles may not yet be over...

This was a fun little episode that gave us some perspective on the happenings in Central City with the Allen clan while Barry was still comatose.  It saw Nora and Bart work together as a team to solve a problem, and they have such a great brother/sister dynamic.  We also got to see the birth of the Royal Flush Gang, which---mind you---HAD existed before Barry became The Flash, though time said differently to Nora and Bart.  But THAT was before Eobard's screwing with the timeline for his own selfish means.  We also got to see Eddie once again, which gave us some wave of nostalgia, as well as just how badly things were for Cecile BEFORE her and Joe started to date.  It's also always a welcome sight when John Wesley Shipp returns to the show as Jay Garrick.  His interaction with the youngsters breathes new air into the show.  And despite what some may say, I do feel that Jordan Fisher and Jessica Parker Kennedy have great chemistry.  Jessica's old hat at this now for the last few seasons, having spend a whole year as Nora, so for her, she's slipping into old running boots.  For Jordan, I still feel he's finding his way, but he's getting there.  The introduction to a new character on the canas, Avery Ho, is going to be VERY interesting IF they decide to use her somewhere down the road on this show.  Especially IF she figures out WHO The Flash is, and, for that matter, be used in a way as to help him with whatever new crisis or villain the team will face sometime in the future.  But there are no coincidences on this show, and characters aren't brought in for no reason whatsoever.  Same reason we got the Booster Gold Easter Egg in this episode that I loved, because I have a feeling he and Flash will cross paths eventually.  I also believe that this is honestly the first episode we did NOT honestly see Barry as The Flash at all, and NOT use his speed until the final scene as well. 

While this show was definitely a one-shot for the Allen kids, we DID get to see the hairbrush Iris used disappear, meaning that they STILL have not solved HER problem with phasing in and out of time as yet---and I feel THAT is going to become an issue down the road here before this season ends.  And...at some point...they HAVE to get this woman pregnant, so that we an actually HAVE Nora and Bart in the future.  So, while it just gave us some insights as to some things going on in Barry's absence during this time in history, it gives the kids a mini-adventure to see what happened to THEM after the Godspeed affair.  Fun episode, but didn't move anything along story wise until the final scene.  

What did YOU all think of this episode?  What did you think of Avery Ho?  And were you finally happy to see Eddie again?  Subscribe and comment below....would LOVE to hear YOUR insights.

Until next time....keep on running!