TV REVIEW: The Flash “The Man in the Yellow Suit”

By Justin Carter

Well, that certainly happened.

Despite Barry’s opening narration at the start of each episode, honing in on finding his mother’s killer hasn’t really been the central focus for him so far. Admittedly, he’s had a lot on his plate, what with the Captain Colds and the Arrows and boomerangs. But aside from some small detective work by Joe, we haven’t seen much in the way of progress with the yellow lightning until tonight. And in the final minutes of the episode, the man in the yellow suit’s identity is finally revealed.

He is none other than … Harrison Wells.

Well, sort of. Wells has the Flash ring and a mannequin to hold the costume when he’s not using it, but how he was able to be the Reverse-Flash imprisoned and kick his own and Barry’s asses is a mystery. Still, Wells is the villain! I don’t know anyone who didn’t put him in the running for most likely candidate., as the show has been incredibly open–a little too open– when it comes to telegraphing its intentions.

What was interesting is how Wells overlooked Eddie when facing the cops and turned his attention towards Joe instead. It’s possible that he left Eddie alive in order to eventually drive a rift between both cops when Eddie finds out Barry is the Flash, or it could be because Eddie is his ancestor and he want s to keep him as intact as possible to ensure his own survival. Another likely scenario is that Wells is just a puppeteer, a way of misdirecting everyone in case it actually does turn out to be Eddie somehow. While in the yellow suit, he says that he and Flash have been at this “a long time.” There was a recent promotional picture of him and Flash speeding around what looked like a ruined Central City. Could that be what he meant by “a long time,” the two of them running through the time stream repeatedly until Flash disappeared? That could be the case, given that time travel has already been established on the show. Not to mention that it would make sense for why young Barry saw yellow and red lightning the night his mother was killed.

But before we get to the reveal of the Opposite Flash (you almost had it, Cisco), the main focus of the episode is spent drawing him out. A tech theft of tachyons puts the team in an uneasy alliance with Mercury Labs head Christina McGee as they attempt to trap him once and for all. Barry, of course, is more focused on figuring out how to bring this yellow-clad speedster to justice and making him answer for killing his mother. It’s even worse when Barry chases him only to find out his identity and get the absolute mess kicked out of him. The two fights between the Flashes are appropriately epic, with quick bursts of lightning and sped up fist fights abound. Reverse-Flash being able to vibrate his entire body to conceal his identity makes him a lot more scary, if the deep voice and red eyes weren’t doing it on their own.

Two things help make this a great way to end the fall half of the season. The big one being that Caitlin and Ronnie do reunite, and it’s as much of an emotional gut punch as expected. He’s drawn to her, but he has no idea who she is or even who he is–they just keep ending up near each other. Caitlin’s griefing to Cisco in the accelerator is more heartbreaking than Barry talking to his dad in prison, and Danielle Panabaker deserves special props for being able to carry a chunk of the emotional core of the episode. Her tragedy is underlined by Ronnie coming to save the Flash and telling her to never look for him again before flying off.

On the other hand, Iris finally knows how Barry feels about her! It’s weird how literally everyone but her managed to pick up on that, Barry’s dad who’s been behind bars for over a decade included, but yay for closure! Sadly, even that doesn’t get to have a comedic moment in it. The whole time that he’s confessing to her, she’s completely silent, just taking it all in as a tear rolls down her cheek. What’s worse is that earlier in the episode, Barry and Caitlin lied about this to her face while Eddie tried to tell her. It was one of those TV moments where her saying nothing was more painful to watch than actually speaking.

The Flash doesn’t return until late January, which will be plenty of time to think about where the series will go next. With the face and a name put to Barry’s nemesis, Ronnie’s return, and new plot threads for some its less involved characters, there’s plenty to get excited about when the show comes back next year. Hopefully one of those will be Gorilla Grodd…

Additional Notes

• Didn’t think it was possible for someone besides Robot Santa from Futurama to make “Merry Christmas” sound creepy. Tom Cavanaugh has proven me wrong.

• Ronnie named himself “Firestorm,” therefore cutting Cisco’s relevance to the show in half.

• Yeah, it’s sad that Ronnie just shut Caitlin out, but…him flying away was pretty cool.

• Iris and Eddie move in together finally and don’t get engaged like I was half expecting to happen.

• The look in Eddie’s eyes as Joe tells him about meta-humans. It’s the right mix of discovery and awe. That can’t be a good sign down the line.

• If the mention of red and yellow lightning at the end means what I think it means, the final episodes of the season in May are going to be an emotional roller coaster for Barry. But first, we have to get to January. See you next year!