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The Flash: Honey I Shrunk Team Flash

"When you hit one of those walls, you find a way to get through it."

The Thinker may not have appeared, but his presence was most certainly felt, and our heroes are left wondering if there is any aspect of their lives this man can't touch.

Even in prison Barry can't help but try to save people. Convinced there is more to Big Sir than meets the eye, Barry pressures him until he reveals how a little mistaken identity and some circumstantial evidence landed him in prison. Barry, in true hero fashion, promises him his freedom without any means of granting it. Like the scorpion in Aesop's fable, it is simply in heroes' natures to believe they will always find a way. To be fair, they usually do.

Since Team Flash is frustrated by their inability to either figure out The Thinker's larger agenda or to find a way free Barry from Iron Heights, they agree to take on Barry's challenge. Sylbert Rundine AKA Dwarfstar, this week's bus-meta, just so happens to be the person who actually committed the crime Big Sir is accused of. As Harry has said repeatedly, this can't be a coincidence.

In an effort to capture Rundine, Cisco and Ralph are miniaturized. This should have led to far more hijinks ensuing than it did. Instead, after a couple of amusing lines, we had bathroom humor, a reminder of Iris's impending doom of last year, and an excuse to try out some new special effects. Harry uses dwarf star alloy, Ray's technology, and Cisco's bazooka to reverse what happened to Cisco and Ralph. Unfortunately, all it does is add a time lock to our story. If they can't get Rundine to "embiggen" Cisco and Ralph within ten hours, all their cells will explode.

It also leads to Harry's meltdown. Truth be told, this seems to have been building for a while. The Thinker's existence has Harry calling his own intelligence into question. His failure with the Embiggening Bazooka just sealed the deal. Cisco calls him out on his supposed stupidity as only a true friend can, leading Harry to discover how to save him in return. Unsurprisingly, with less than a minute to spare, Harry tricks Rundine into returning Cisco and Ralph to their normal size.

While Team Flash manages to capture Rundine, they are unable to get his confession to the Mercury Labs robbery or the security guard's murder. This leaves Barry in the unenviable position of breaking the bad news to Big Sir after getting his hopes up. Hope, we are given to believe, is the most dangerous thing that can be found in prison. On this, both Warden Wolf and Big Sir agree. Despite this, Barry's confession only garners gratitude. This provides more proof, as if it were necessary, that Big Sir is a good guy. Big Sir's innocence coupled with a Papa Joe pep talk (I've missed those) convinces Barry to take matters into his own hands. In the moments that the camera is turned away from Barry's cell, he speeds Big Sir to the secluded Chinese village of Jiaju. Unbeknownst to Barry, Wolf had a second camera installed outside of Barry's cell in the event Big Sir retaliated. Now aware of Barry's secret, Wolf moves him to the meta-wing and contacts our old pal Amunet. We are left with the assumption that this too is part of The Thinker's plan.

Our subplot revolves around Cecile's new-found ability. Latent dark matter in the brain during pregnancy triggers abilities and OMG Science, what? Cecile isn't a meta, and the baby isn't a meta yet somehow Cecile can now read minds. I have to admit the idea that Cecile can't understand why reading Joe's mind would give him the wiggins is beyond me, but it was nice to see Dr. Finkel again. Given the ending of the episode and Harry continually hammering home that there are no coincidences, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that The Thinker is aware of this too.

What have we learned?

Say it with me, everyone. There are no coincidences!

We also learned that Warden Wolf has a side deal to sell metas to Amunet of all people. We also know that she’s been working with The Thinker. Is this some backdoor way for The Thinker to get his hands on Barry after all? Could my pet theory come back to life? Hope springs eternal.

I didn’t have any major issues with this episode, but I also didn’t care that much. Big Sir may be a good man, but I didn’t know him well enough to be invested in his fate. My only concern was the possibility that he would take Team Flash’s failure to secure his release out on Barry. I cared even less for the Dwarfstar’s storyline. Although I do care about Joe and Cecile, the “I can read minds” thing came so far out of left field that it left me puzzling about why The Powers That Be would need for this to take place instead of being engaged by the story. That is never a good sign.

2.5 out of 5 pink elephants

Parting Thoughts:

The poker game did put a smile on my face, Although, I did wonder if Barry was cheating the whole time or just to give Big Sir the win.

Once again, I have to ask, can no one else see Barry's lightning? And if he's too fast to be seen by the human eye how does the camera pick it up?

Barry believes that his father saved Big Sir's life because he was a good man. Given the Hippocratic oath and what we know of Henry Allen, I have to believe he would have saved Big Sir anyway.

Central City has a new Mayor. Did we know that before?

We got some much needed Papa Joe time. The addition of Ralph, the necessity of juggling the search for the 12 bus metas, and fighting The Thinker has given Joe short shrift this season.

I know I probably don't need to mention this but the title is a play on the 1989 comedy Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

Quotes:

Cecile: "Where did these powers come from? Nope, I wasn't on the bus. No, I was not abducted by aliens. No, I didn't inherit a mystic totem from my grandma! Really, guys? Why are you still thinking of Bulbasaur?"
Cisco: "He's the cutest one of all!"

Mayor Van Buren: “I hate this city.”

Iris: "Why does every villain in this city have a name that sounds like it came out of a comic book?"

Barry: "If there is anybody that can prove you're innocent, it's these guys."
Big Sir: "Cause they did such a bang-up job of clearing you.

Cisco: "Are we doing okay? Does it look like we're doing okay? We're two inches tall, Caitlin!"
Dibny: "Yeah, I'm like, Cisco size now."

Cisco: "I guess your body just finally shrunk down to a size that's proportional to your brain."

Harry: "You are no less annoying at that size."

Cecile: "It's almost as if I've become aware of Joe's thoughts. Like I read his diary."
Dr. Finkel: "Your pregnancy made you read Joe's diary?"

Big Sir: "It happened in a–"
Barry: "Flash?"
Big Sir: "Snap."

Harry: "Rundine's in the wind. These two are small. We need to embiggen them, and we need to free an innocent man, so–"
Iris: "First of all, 'embiggen' is not a word."

Dibny: "What do you mean we only have 20 minutes till we explode?"

Cisco: "We're falling too fast."
Dibny: "Think light thoughts."

Cisco: "You just passed up a dig at Dibny. You sure you're all right?"

Shari loves sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural, and anything with a cape.

3 comments:

  1. To be frank the Cecile reading minds thing was quite funny that I was willing to overlook how it didn't make much sense.

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  2. Yes, what Neal Sastry said. But I don't like the Barry-in-prison plot and I dislike Dibny. Sigh. And like you said, Shari, I think they could have done something a lot more fun with this shrink plot.

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  3. This episode felt like the writers were moving the chess pieces around for the next major push. Unfortunately, the concept was much better than the execution. That said, I did love how excited Cecile was at the crime scene. "Thief!" And the scene in Dr. Finkel's office was probably my favorite of the night.

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