THE FLASH “Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash” Review

Flash — “Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash”– Pictured (L-R): Danielle Nicolet as Cecile Horton and Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West — Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW

THE FLASH “HONEY I SHRUNK TEAM FLASH” REVIEW

BY JUSTIN CARTER

The morning before this episode of The Flash, Marvel Studios released a trailer for their upcoming superhero flick Ant-Man & the Wasp. With the two titular characters having the ability to shrink, it’s hard to not think of them as this episode concerns Cisco and Dibny being shrunk down to microscopic size by the villain of the week. Unfortunately, the similarities end there, much to the detriment of this episode.

The two members of Team Flash wind up shrunk by resident thief, Sylbert Rundine, a Bus Meta granted his powers of shrinking down anything he blasts at. Once he turns Dibny and Cisco into figurines, he sort of disappears for the remainder of the episode until the requisite final encounter. That leaves us with the heroes working to get their friends back to normal size, and it’s admittedly a mixed bag. Watching the Cisco and Dibny bicker back and forth about their misfortunate is funny, but then it becomes clear that’s the only gag the show has for this storyline.

Not that I was expecting Ant-Man levels of chaos to happen to this pair, but something more substantial would’ve been nice. Rundine, later blessed with the codename of Dwarfstar by Mini-Cisco after the item he stole before being granted powers, doesn’t have much personality to him despite the fact that he keeps his “trophies” as actual figurines and a form of arrogance. His funniest moment comes during his last battle, in which he just keeps pulling out various vehicles to throw at Harry and Iris before straight out taking a bazooka from of his pocket in a chaotic Looney Tunes homage.

Surprisingly, Cecille also gets brought into the orbit of Team Flash a little more with this episode. Because of latent dark matter combined with her pregnancy (roll with it), she’s now got the ability to read minds. Danielle Nicolet’s reactions to every thought she hears is hilarious and endearing, whether that’s saying “Bulbasaur” over and over or bringing up how a random woman has been stealing staplers from her office for weeks. She’s just delightful and it’s never been more apparent how well she and Joe bounce off one another than when he’s trying to keep up with her newfound abilities. It’s a shame that her powers are tied to her pregnancy, if only because she’s got both wonderful comedic timing and the emotional heft necessary to deliver a classic speech about love.  

Rundine also ties into Barry’s plot, having murdered a guard 15 years ago and framing Barry’s prison BFF Big Sir. Since Barry hasn’t asked for anything but help proving Sir’s innocence, the team surmises that Rundine’s past as a crook would make it all the more likely for him to have killed someone during a botched job all those years ago. Sir is predictably pessimistic about the odds of ever getting out of jail, but Goldberg plays the role so well that Rundine’s refusal to confess makes him even more detestable.

But Barry, being as optimistic as he is, decides to just jet Sir off to the other side of the world where he can live as a free man. Before this can be counted as a win, though, the warden of Iron Heights reveals that he put a hidden camera near Barry’s cell, and now armed with definitive proof that he has the Flash as an inmate,  decides to turn him over to Amunet for a quick buck. Barry’s been riding high on the hope train since his incarceration, and now that he’ll be a victim of metahuman trafficking, it’s time to see how far that hope will take him.

Additional Notes

• Of the great visual gags this week, Iris accidentally stepping on Dibny takes the cake. The way he flops off her shoe is perfect.
• Embiggening is totally a word, Iris. Ray used it back in Crisis.
• Tom Cavanaugh got to say “Gorilla prison is worse than human prison. They throw their scat at you,” and like all of his line reads, it is perfect.
• Pikachu is the cutest one, Cisco, what the hell is wrong with you.