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The Flash: Infantino Street

“Make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan.”

This episode—rather like this season—felt like two different episodes smooshed together. One was a charming buddy-caper movie with sharks. The other was a desperate battle against stubborn fate. It’s an odd juxtaposition: not unpleasant, but an indication of how Flash seems to be struggling to figure out how maudlin it wants to be.

Let’s start with the charmingly funny: Leonard Snart and Barry Allen against King Shark. I adore Snart, and I wish he had a bigger role in the SuperFlarrowLegendsVerse this year. I had a hard time not including all of his lines in the Flashpoints section down below, but it’s as much Wentworth Miller’s delivery as it is the dialogue. As Cisco said, Smart Snart.

And, hey! It’s King Shark! (Snart: “That’s adorable.”) I wish we hadn’t gotten a glimpse of King Shark at the end of the last episode, because that would have been a fun surprise that managed to be both frightening (it's a giant shark!) and meta (as when Snart mentions that Jaws didn’t show the shark because they couldn’t afford it and a fin pops out of the mist in the Argus cell). I like King Shark so much more than Grodd, even if he does have baby-seal breath.

But the Snart portion of this episode wasn’t all shark jokes and mazel tovs; his temporary partnership with Barry was filled with beautiful character moments. As Lyla pointed out, Barry never thought twice about saving Snart’s life, although you could tell Snart was briefly worried he would do so. I wonder if Snart’s experience with Barry influenced some of his actions over in the world of Legends of Tomorrow, especially since Snart’s line “There are no strings on me”—meant to evoke his self-image as a free agent with no particular ties, an obvious lie—echoes what he said in “Destiny.”

And now for the sad: Iris’s death. It was so grim to see the clock count down as the puzzle pieces fit together. Iris putting on her gray vest, or giving her father the engagement ring. Barry’s hair getting floppier. Wally’s leg breaking, so he couldn’t play the savior role he was supposed to play. I wanted somebody to stop them. I wanted Barry to say “No, not that vest, no matter how cool it is!”

But that’s the same flawed logic Team Flash used with the newscaster. Changing random things, like Iris’s fabulous vest, doesn’t change where we’re headed: Savitar creating the circumstances of his own birth in order to achieve vengeful god status. (A plot that reminds me of Season Four of Angel.) No matter what the team did, it was not enough.

With one episode left this season, I’m very curious about what’s going to happen next. Is Iris’s death real? Is it permanent? We started this season with Barry realizing that he couldn’t bring his parents back. The price was too high. Will Barry do what Barritar says he did: create multiple time remnants as he runs around the timeline trying, futilely, to change it, but never succeeding?

I don’t want Iris to stay dead. We saw what that would lead to in “The Once and Future Flash.” Even if Team Flash managed to avoid that fate, they’d all be impossibly sad. And, in terms of the show as a whole, I felt like the writers were just beginning to realize they hadn’t given Candice Patton enough to work with, and that she could work with whatever they threw at her.

And I really, really don’t want Killer Snow to hurt Cisco, or vice versa. Fingers crossed, everything will be okay in the next episode…

Flashpoints:

• Snart: “I’m up to my fuzzy hood in teamwork.”

• Barry: “You have a…particular set of skills.”
Snart: “Great movie.”
I thought they’d go with an Ocean’s Eleven reference, but Taken is also good.

• The song that played at the beginning and end of this episode—“Murder Song” by Aurora—was perfect:


Four out of four Elvis, banana word-association codes.

Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)

3 comments:

  1. I loved this episode. The Snart and shark stuff was great, exceptionally funny, and I loved all of Wentworth Miller's lines. And I wasn't expecting the ending. I thought they'd find their way around it somehow.

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  2. Here's what I wrote in may in my notepad:

    I loved the episode, all the call-backs to the history of the show and crossovers with Arrow and Legends. I said it in many other epsiodes but I love how they treat it as normal to use all of it in such a vital place as the end of the season.

    I also loved that they went through with Savitar killing Iris because that means they don't shy away from major developments. Of course they will probably reverse it in the last episode, but averting it would not be as powerfull.

    HR seems to have decided to leave, I guess Tom Cavanaugh has a clause in his contract that he needs to play a different Wells each season or he leaves.

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  3. I loved Snart's appearance. As much as I like Michael and Lincoln on Prison Break, I love their alter egos in this multiverse so much better. Snart is so snarky. And just the way Wentworth Miller delivers those lines. We really need him back. (Deleted above for misspelled word)

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