THE FLASH 8.16

 

RECAP - THE FLASH  8.16:  "The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen" 

This latest episode of our Scarlet Speedster saw the hero face a new villain.  Not a super villain, per se, but a man who managed to use some super technology to cause physical harm to our hero in the form of aging him.  It's an episode that takes a look at aging, and how to learn to appreciate the life ahead, instead of dwelling on the past, and having regrets.  Because not only did Barry have to face the fear of not stopping this new villain before he died because of his powers---but we also see how time and age has effected our patriarch of Team Flash:  Joe West.  

For Barry, the episode begins fairly simple:  saving lives and then racing home to toss some dice onto the West kitchen table, as the team has gathered for a game of Dungeouns & Dragons.  He said he tried it with Iris, just to try something different.  But he gets interrupted by a call from CCPD, as he races out to meet Police Chief David Singh, who asks him to look into a special case involving a machine that's emitting gamma radiation.  When Flash arrives to check it out, it zaps him.  The perpetrator - a man named Dr. Peter Orloff, tells the Monarch of Motion he's on borrowed time.  Back at STAR Labs, they look Barry over, and he's feeling a little worse for wear---and it turns out the gamma radiation he got nailed with is aging him within.  They urge him to take it easy, of course, but he's insistent on finding this guy before he does something worse.  They get a hit on him again, and Flash races off to face him, only he's slowed, and his powers don't work as well.  Orloff informs him that he's going to die, and there's nothing he can do about it.  

Barry is now not just again internally but EXTERNALLY as well.  Cecile urges him to slow down, otherwise he's going to die.  This Orloff, they find out, is collecting other pieces for this machine in order to help him turn back the clock---as all the people he's absorbed energy from, has rapidly de-aged him.  His work was questioned because of his ethics, and thus fired from his job.  But once he completes the machine fully, he'll kill everyone in Central City so he can achieve immortality.  Barry and Cecile try to gather more info, but his memory is starting to slip, and they wind up on the Great Wall of China.  She sits him down, and he is scared that he's going to forget everyone...including Iris. She tells him the story of her grandmother...who continued to live her life, despite her age and her body slowing down, for as long as she could.  It's what made Cecile aspire to live her own life to the fullest, and Barry should embrace the life he HAS.  He can't outrun time...but he can embrace it.

With that in mind, they the team figures out that the only way to stop Orloff is to contain the gamma radiation energy...by speeding it up.  Flash says he's the only one that can stop it....and if it means he dies...so be it.  So, he meets Orloff yet again, and the machine goes off.  And despite his body breaking down....Flash speeds up just enough to cause the energy to implode into itself.  With the threat over, Flash is back to normal, if not better than before.  As for Orloff---he's now aged again, and wonders what to do with the little time he has left.  Flash tells him he can ponder than in prison.  

Now, while Team Flash is dealing with the Orloff threat, Joe has been feeling old and useless in his retirement---unfulfilled.  This brings David Singh into the fold, as he sits Joe down for a real heart-to-heart.  The reminisce about work in the past, and embrace the future himself.  Joe has been so set in his ways, that he hasn't adapted to retirement well.  But, apparently, the talk does him well, as he and the team play a little D&D at the end of the episode.  However, Barry gets a call from Carla Tannhausen, as she's been worried about Caitlin...who hasn't returned her calls or texts.  Barry races over to her apartment, and notices the lab that Caitlin has set up there.  He sees that she is trying to resurrect Frost, and she asks him what it would be like for him if he could bring back his parents, and that she has the ability to do so.  Barry tells her that no matter how hard it is for her to let go, she has to move on, and this isn't the way.  He apologizes to her, as he unleashes his lightning power to destroy her recent work.  He then takes off...leaving her to her own devices, and wondering what to do next. 

This episode, directed by Caity Lotz, hit on the emotional nerve, as we had the two main men of Team Flash dealing with having to face the next step....and their resident medical scientist.  For Joe...he's been so set in his ways, and it's worked for him.  But now in retirement, he's having trouble adapting to a world that's moving by him at a high speed, and it's alarming to him.  He feels useless when he's not, and he's not sure how to handle the future.  But thanks to David Singh...being the great friend he is, manages to show Joe that change is not a bad thing, and that it's just the next evolutionary step in life.  He tells Joe to embrace the next step, and we see that Joe takes his advice to heart, and it will allow Joe to move on gracefully (and allow for Jesse L. Martin's exit smoothly).  

For Barry....his life is in constant motion.  So, when he realizes that his biggest power is now his greatest enemy, he's worried that his rapid deterioration....along with Iris being gone somewhere in the Still Force...that he'll eventually forget those he loves---mostly her.  Cecile, recalling her grandmother, tells Barry that he needs to embrace the life he has NOW---live in the moment, and embrace what future may come.  Cecile, as always, being the fantastic mother hen that she is, helps provide Barry the ability to face down Orloff and stop him.  And speaking of the villain---he too was facing this issue.  Orloff wanted immortality---he didn't want to face old age or death---but was willing to kill others in order to obtain it.  His reasons selfish, and those selfish reasons backfired on him at the end---because he wanted to play God.

Finally, there's Caitlin.  For all that pomp and circumstance when she gave that eulogy at Frost's funeral, it was nothing more than simple lip service.  Caitlin cannot HANDLE life without her sister, and she's doing the same thing she did when Ronnie died---she shut down emotionally, and pushed everyone away.  Before Ronnie had been found the first time, being a part of Team Flash helped Caitlin realize that there was life to live.  When Ronnie died again, she was willing to shut herself off, but the team didn't let her.  Caitlin has been stuck in neutral for the last few years, and she's never really moved forward. With Frost, she had a companion of sorts to fill that void where Ronnie wasn't.  But losing her, Caitlin feels more alone than ever.  Despite having a whole family that loves her, she's once again pushing them away, so that she can have what she wants....Frost back.  And she's willing to violate her own moral codes and hypocratic oath in order to fulfill HER selfish means.  Barry....who has lost more than ANYONE on that show NOT named Caitlin...tried to bring back his mother, and that caused Flashpoint.  Her death is a fixed point, and he cannot bring her back, nor can he bring back his dad.  Henry Allen always told his son to move FORWARD.  Barry has leaned on Joe, Iris, and the rest of Team Flash to get him through the hard times....and he's always found a way to pull through.  But Caitlin would rather push everyone out, and do it her way.  This is going to end BADLY, and I feel we'll see her cross into the dark side.  Especially since Barry destroyed all her work.  She'll now do what she can to not only get her sister back, but make Flash pay for destroying her chance to get her sister back.  

Will this send Caitlin over the edge?  Will she come to her senses?  And, in the aftermath, will Caitlin leave Team Flash for good?  Only time will tell, as we only a handful of episodes to see how it all plays out. 

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Until next time.....keep on running!