THE FLASH “Untouchable” Recap

By Justin Carter

There are two very fun moments in “Untouchable” that perfectly cement what The Flash is all about. Our first is the opening, wherein Barry and Wally race around Central City to help the latter increase his speed in the hopes of taking down Savitar in a few months. Prior to the race, the other members of Team Flash (sans Julian) place bets on who will win; HR puts money on Wally — he’s delighted to do so since gambling was banned on his Earth after an “unfortunate incident” involving VP Al Capone (yes, really) — while Joe backs out, and the others throw some scratch down for Barry. It’s a great sequence, with HR appropriately getting back into his obvious gambling habit and then asking for IOUs when Barry wins the race by phasing through a building, a trick Wally has yet to fully learn.

Later on in the episode, Joe gathers the West family to meet his girlfriend Cecile’s daughter for coffee. The daughter, Joanie, is a huge Kid Flash fan who asks Joe to make a choice between his favorite speedster. He tries to dodge the question as best as he can as both Barry and Wally are sitting next to him, but both prod him to give an answer before he can make a choice. These are really good scenes that make good use of comedic timing and character history between this cast. Unfortunately, they’re both few and far between, with a good amount of not good material in between.

This week, our rogue Meta is one Clive Yorkin, granted the ability to kill anyone upon touching them. He’s going after random people who are later revealed to be the cops who brought him in in Flashpoint, and one of those cops just also happens to be Joe. After Yorkin attacks him at the coffee shop, Iris decides to spill the beans about her unfortunate end to her dad. He’s mad and sad, then everyone’s sad, and by now, you know how that goes. There’s a bit of a mix up with the formula when Yorkin decides to give Iris his death touch, but Caitlin freezes her arm to halt the progression long enough for Wally to phase through Yorkin and neutralize his powers. Julian and Caitlin make a cure to give to Iris, everyone promises to stop lying to each other, no matter how big the secret, and also remark that they’re at their best when they work together.

If that sounds at all familiar, it’s because that’s literally the moral of many episodes each season. These people have spent three years with each other and have weathered many storms, and have little reason to lie to each other now. Reiterating what the characters (and the audience) surely already know feels like a recycle of things the team should’ve grokked by now; Caitlin’s worried about going full Frost while icing up Iris’ arm, but Julian talks her down and she helps him loosen up, both of them realizing that they’re stronger when they’re with the others. (I already know the show’s going to pair them together, and given Caitlin’s recent streak of boyfriends, I wish I could hide Tom Felton in a bunker.) Wally spends the episode learning how to phase and gets nowhere for most of it, but Barry helps him master it with a “believe in yourself” pep talk.

“Untouchable” is a largely forgettable episode and not one of the series’ best. Thankfully, we’ve got one hell of a one-two punch coming up following Jesse Quick’s end of episode appearance at STAR Labs asking for help saving her dad, who’s trapped in Gorilla City. That’s right: Gorilla Grodd is back!

Additional Notes

• Unfortunately, we have to wait until the 21st for that Grodd two-parter. Bummer.
• Yorkin didn’t even get a nickname from Cisco, which is damning enough for him.
• I am incredibly curious as to what HR’s Earth is like, especially with Al Capone as a former Vice President.
• This week, all the DC shows have had little Lego versions of their end credits animations in celebration of the Lego Batman movie releasing this Friday. Suffice to say, they’re all adorable, and there’s a funny little short with Lego versions of the DC leads–Ollie, Kara, Barry, and Ray–interacting with Lego Batman.
• It’s never explained how Yorkin is able to track down the people he’s killing, so either he’s got one hell of a surveillance network, or Flashpoint gave him a mental connection with each of them.
• Barry phased a train, and that was admittedly pretty cool.