THE FLASH Season 2 Episode 9 Midseason Finale Review: So There's Luke Skywa... Nevermind



This week’s THE FLASH was heavy on the Christmas cheer, giving us a rather light- hearted midseason finale. After a prison breakout, Barry finds himself going up against both the Weather Wizard and the Trickster just as the holidays approach. The two made for a very fun team up. Mark Hamill is clearly having a ball, and Martin makes for a surprisingly enjoyable straight man. Their team-up led to some wonderfully over-the-top moments like the spinning dreidels of death and all of the presents being sucked into the sky vortex, but it fit with the camp, comic book-y tone of the episode.

Martin’s return also meant Patty finally got the chance to confront her father’s killer. While it was nice to see Patty have something else to do besides make googly eyes at Barry, her subplot ended up being a standard ‘if you kill him you will be just like him’ story that didn’t offer any sort of new angle to the trope. It was also a little bit unsettling to watch Patty pretty flagrantly abuse her position as a police officer for her own personal vendetta without any kind of consequences—especially given the current conversations on police accountability going on. 

But seeing Patty decide to let of her grudge led to a really nice moment where Barry reflected on his own vendetta against Wells. I’ve really appreciated the fact that even though the Reverse-Flash isn’t physically around anymore, he’s still very present in Barry’s mind. Barry was obsessed with him for over half of his life; that kind of thing doesn’t really disappear overnight. Seeing how Patty’s anger nearly ended up destroying her entire life helps Barry realize he too has to let go of his own hatred. It’s a very nice moment, infused with a healthy dose of irony given that he’s forgiving Wells just as his Earth-2 counterpart decides to betray him all over again. 

Of course, the scene everyone will be talking about over the break is Wally’s long awaited introduction. While ending on Wally’s first appearance does make for a neat cliffhanger, it also feels a little cheap from a writing perspective. Since it’s extremely unlikely the show will pick back up during the middle of the Wests’ Christmas party when it returns next year, we’ve missed Wally’s first meeting with nearly everyone on the show. The West family storyline has definitely been given the short end of this stick this season. Most of Joe and Francine’s interactions have occurred off-screen, even important character moments such as Joe finally agreeing to bury the hatchet. Iris is shoved to the sidelines more often than not and barely ever given time to react to everything taking place. 

And now, after being built up for the past few weeks, we’ve missed Wally being introduced to the rest of his family. It feels like we’re only getting half of the story. Considering how central the West family is to the Flash mythos, you can’t help but wish these characters were being treated with a little bit more care and respect. Hopefully now that Wally is actually present, the writers will be less likely to put the Wests on the backburner going forward. 

The other big revelation the show ended on was outing Zoom as a Speed Force vampire looking to feed on Barry’s powers. This does feel like a bit repetitive twist, given that we’ve already had a speedster villain obsessed with making Barry faster, but it’s worth noting that this information is coming from Wells, who, after all, doesn’t really know that much about Zoom himself. The truth is probably a bit more complex than Wells is able to guess, given his limited knowledge. Still, it’s a bit of an underwhelming note to end the year on. This season has been pretty hit and miss so far, but going into the new year, what the show needs more than anything is shot of adrenaline to help it get back the suspense and sense of momentum its been missing these past few weeks.

Written by Kaitlin Roberts, THE FLASH Beat Writer