THE FLASH Season 2 Episode 4: The Fury of a [Lackluster] Firestorm



Despite being hyped up for the past few episodes, the re-introduction of Firestorm this episode of THE FLASH was pretty lackluster. Which isn’t to say there weren’t any exciting or enjoyable moments but those were definitely in the minority this time around. This episode focused mainly on introducing Jefferson “Jax” Jackson, Ronnie’s replacement. Jax seems like a perfectly fine character and I have little doubt he’ll be enjoyable to watch in LEGENDS OF TOMORROW. The problem is that his story really doesn’t overlap with Team Flash’s.

Since the character of Firestorm was first introduced on THE FLASH, it makes sense the show would want to wrap up the loose ends from that subplot to some degree before shipping him off to a different show. But whereas Ronnie had connections to all of the STAR Labs gang, Jax is a total outsider. So putting him the spotlight meant Team Flash were left sitting on their hands for most of the episode.

The only tenuous connection made to the main cast was Caitlin going out of her way to discourage Jax from being Firestorm’s new host, due to a previously unseen streak of elitism that made her skeptical of someone who hadn’t gone to college and was “only” a mechanic had what it takes to be a superhero. She predictably comes around by the end of the episode, but it was an odd character choice, made even more puzzling since her late husband was Professor Stein’s previous partner. It would have been easier to understand her being reluctant to see someone take Ronnie’s place rather than her suddenly being a snob.

With nothing much to do in the main plot, Barry had nothing better to do for most of the episode than continue to stutter awkwardly at Patty. The two of them still have no chemistry and their scenes are really a chore to sit through. The fact that Joe, a character who has previously been pulling for Barry/Iris, was suddenly going on about how Barry “can’t keep his eyes off of [Patty]” made the pairing feel even more forced. We already saw Barry attempt to move on with a new girl while secretly mooning over Iris last season with Linda, and it wasn’t that compelling then. Why the writers felt the need to repeat that subplot is beyond me and I hope it won’t go on for that much longer.

Since she’s been temporarily pushed out of the romantic spotlight, Iris has been pretty underutilized so far this season which is a shame because Candice Patton is one of the strongest actors the show has. We still haven’t seen her reaction to her boyfriend’s death and she’s been mostly peripheral in her scenes with the STAR Labs crew, but now at least it seems she’s getting her own family drama storyline. After twenty years of complete silence, Iris was understandably skeptical of her mother’s new desire to reconnect and politely but firmly told her to hit the road. After it came out that Francine was terminally ill with MacGregor’s Disease (a sly wink to Batman fans), Iris was almost inspired to give her mother a second chance but once she discovered the existence a long lost brother that her mother had been hiding from her and father, Iris was livid and warned Francine not to contact her again.

Let’s not beat around the bush here... this brother is undoubtedly Wally West, future Kid Flash, who’s scheduled to appear later this season. Most figured since Iris appeared to have no siblings that Wally would re-imagined as some type of cousin instead of a nephew, but the show clearly saw potential for more drama with a sibling angle. I previously wondered how the West family subplot would tie into the larger storyline and it seems pretty clear now that it’s tied to Wally’s introduction. While Iris has decided to keep this a secret for now — a nice change of pace considering she’s the one who’s usually being lied to — she clearly feels conflicted about having a sibling out there that she’s never met. I’d say it’s only a matter of time before she recruits someone from STAR Labs or possibly Linda (who notably is Wally’s main love interest from the comics) to help her track down her brother.

Before we get to the episode’s other main twist, I would like to take a moment to say those thirty seconds of King Shark we got were incredible. And I'll be very sad if that’s the last we see of him.
One of the things that makes this show work so well is that it doesn’t shy away from the ridiculously campy yet awesome elements of comic books like giant man-sharks attacking people on the street. Of course, this glorious moment was soon ended when Barry was saved by none other than Harrison Wells, who was able to take King Shark down with a zap from a mysterious weapon of his. It’s good to see they aren’t dragging out Wells and Barry’s reunion, since it looks like that will be the main focus of next episode. I’m particularly interested to see how Cisco reacts, since he took Wells’ betrayal the hardest, and his influence seems to be a large part of why he’s so hesitant to embrace his meta-human abilities. A confrontation with Earth-2 Wells could be just the motivation Cisco needs to get some closure and possibly even suit up.

Written by Kaitlin Roberts, THE FLASH Beat Writer