TV REVIEW: The Flash’s “Fallout” Gives FIRESTORM the Sendoff it Deserves

By Justin Carter

Holy crap.

After an admittedly lackluster pair of episodes focusing on an annoying love triangle, “Fallout” deals with the, well, fallout from Ronnie and Martin Stein being split from Firestorm. It’s a sweet moment, doubly so for Caitlin, who’s had a rough go the over the past month or so. Of course, now that they’re split, Ronnie and Stein aren’t entirely happy having spent over a year setting people on fire and sharing one body. The banter back and forth between them is fun and very much true to the comics.

Despite being separated physically, the two are still bonded mentally, and it’s there where the episode gets fun. Clancy Brown shows up again as General Wade Eiling, intent on grabbing Firestorm any way he can. Just like when Brown voiced Lex Luthor in the animated Justice League series, a normal human proves a more than formidable foe for metahumans, able to take Barry out with a fragment grenade that turns him into a walking pincushion. It’s a shame the episode does away with Eiling for good at the end, if only because seeing him go up against Flash and Firestorm with new tech would have been fun to see.

Eiling’s persistence eventually gets him the Stein half of Firestorm, courtesy of Harrison Wells. It’s weird how he didn’t tell the rest of Team Flash that their good old doctor drugged him and handed him over to the army–maybe he thought they knocked him out and Wells was helpless to do anything, but that’s a bit of a stretch. Barry manages to save him in the nick of time, but the army isn’t so quick to let him or Firestorm escape the second time around. While Barry deals with running the white phosphorus off his suit, Stein and Ronnie merge together to form Firestorm, and it is awesome. The CG has improved since the winter finale, it’s just fun to watch Flash and Firestorm run and fly away side by side. Firestorm leaves the show to find one of Stein’s colleagues in Pittsburgh, but with the eighteenth episode being titled “All-Star Team Up,” I doubt it’ll be long before we see these two again. One could easily have made the assumption that this was the backdoor pilot for a “Firestorm” TV series.

On the other side of Central City, Iris is starting to get closer to finding out her childhood friend is the Flash. Her coworker Mason Bridge, combined with Ronnie’s familiar looking face during his time as “The Burning Man,” has her investigating STAR Labs. It’s nice to see signs she’ll get something to do besides be “the love interest.”

I’m just hoping that the show doesn’t try to paint her in the wrong when she gets upset at Barry and her father for keeping this secret from her.

In terms of a storyline actually concerning its title character, Barry is introduced to the concept of time travel. Joe follows up on the information he and Cisco gathered last week and lays it all out for him to see. This news inspires Barry to try to go back to the past and save his mother. Anyone who’s read the “Flashpoint” comic book arc from 2011 or seen the “Flashpoint Paradox” film knows that this won’t end well for Barry. At least, not for the world as he knows it.

Additional Notes:

• Ronnie is VERY insistent on not being called Ronald. Like a child.

• Wells kidnaps Eiling and takes him to Grodd’s hiding place. He even goes so far as to take off his cowl and states “I protect my own.” Metahuman solidarity.

• On that note, GORILLA GRODD. ACTUAL FOOTAGE OF GORILLA GRODD. AGAIN, THIS IS HAPPENING. NOT A DRILL AT ALL.

• New episodes of The Flash will return March 17. I will see you then.

• Seriously, Firestorm bursting into the sky was pretty cool.