TV REVIEW: The Flash Questions if Compassion is a Weakness in “Power Outage”

By Justin Carter

Well, that’s one mystery on The Flash solved. After weeks of ambiguity and stabbing people who admittedly deserved it after a bad wheelchair joke, Harrison Wells is actually revealed to be a hero! Or at the very least, an anti-hero. The cause of this revelation? Barry losing his powers, courtesy of metahuman of the week Farooq, who absorbs the electricity in Barry’s body. He was hanging out with his friends when the particle accelerator went off, killing them and giving him a constant need to feed on electricity.

Rather than focus on the aftereffects of a city without the Flash, the episode wisely splits its time between showing Barry getting his powers back and how it affects the people closest to him, namely Joe and Iris. Robert Knepper returns as the Clock King after his stint on Arrow last year. Farooq’s rampage through STAR Labs also causes a city wide power outage, and Tockman uses that to his advantage by taking the police department hostage. Knepper is back in his old Prison Break element here, playing the Clock King with the right amount of menace. He speaks and moves like he’s mentally keeping track of the time in his head constantly, and what makes him even more of a threat here as opposed to Arrow is the way he makes his demands with the police and keeps track of the time down to the very nanosecond.

When Farooq comes to STAR Labs and siphons all the power looking for Wells, Wells releases Tony Woodward from last week as a distraction while Cisco and Caitlin help Barry restore his speed. Of course, Woodward isn’t going to be able to beat him, and anyone can see that. Barry is shocked, less because Tony died and more because Wells released him.  The doctor views Barry’s compassion as a weakness, but Barry rightly calls him out for not caring about people at all, despite listing off ways Barry’s powers could help people later on.

Tom Cavanaugh continues to play Wells here as he has been the rest of the season–cryptic, occasionally angry and more often than not patronizing. Here, there’s finally some vulnerability shown by the time traveler. He rightfully admits to Farooq that the deaths of the people in the accident were all caused by him, and it’s easy to believe that he truly does remember the names of everyone who died that night. Even more telling are his monologues to his AI about Barry. Whatever endgame he’s working towards, there’s no doubt that he cares about Barry.

At the end of it all, Barry gets his powers back because he believes in himself again. The episode opens with Barry elated at getting mugged and being able to put the attempted mugger in jail, just because his powers give him the opportunity to do so. It’s so refreshing, so nice to see someone with powers relish in moments like these, and Gustin is again one of the show’s smartest casting decisions. His youthful appearance helps sell Barry’s delight immensely. With his powers growing enough to shut down Farooq, there’s clear signs that he’ll be kicking things up like Wells wants. But whether or not this is good for everyone is currently up in the air.

Additional Notes:

• “I got mad skills.” “Please never say that again.”

• Joe, I know you didn’t believe that Barry lost his powers, but you didn’t have to knock down his favorite mug to test him. Not cool.

• Next week is The Flash vs. Arrow. I absolutely can’t wait to see these two on the small screen together, and am immensely proud of everyone working on both shows. I’ll be reviewing them as one entity instead of separate items.

• Man, Barry really does run worse than a normal person when he’s depowered.