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The Flash: Harry and the Harrisons

"We've been looking at this from the wrong direction."

Harry may be the headliner for the week, but it is literally in name only.

Three questions drive this week's episode. The first being how to stop The Thinker from launching his satellites when he controls all things tech-based. The second, if DeVoe has everything he needs to move forward with his plan, why hasn't he, and the distant third being how to get Killer Frost back. Unable to help out with the first, Harry focuses on the second. However, since the third dovetails into the primary storyline, it leaves Harry feeling like an afterthought.

So let's balance the scales a little by starting with Harry. Harry has spent this whole season being frustrated, first by his inability to outthink The Thinker and then over his diminishing intelligence. Why should this week be any different? His answer is to seek out the smartest person he knows. Himself.

Harry and Cisco reach out to the Council of Wells for help. They refuse on the grounds that they only work with their intellectual equals and Harry no longer fits that category. Undaunted, Cisco reaches out to other Harrison Wells in the multiverse and discovers a second team, focused more on emotional intelligence than intellectual acumen. For them, Harry's ability to use an "I feel" statement is a major accomplishment.

Discouraged, Harry retreats to clean out the workroom he'll no longer need. But with Cisco's help, he realizes the Council was onto something. Maybe The Thinker's delay wasn't strategic but emotional. If so, the only thing the DeVoe has shown any emotional attachment to is his wife. This is something Team Flash can work with.

As for a Kilgore-proof weapon, Joe and Caitlin's missing person discussion held the key. Maybe they need a who and not a what. Amunet's alnico shards can destroy the satellites and are immune to The Thinker's stolen powers. Whether Amunet, the woman responsible for kidnapping Caitlin and willing to sell Barry into meta-human slavery, will assist them is another story. Either way, they have to find her.

It seems Amunet disappeared after the botched sale with Warden Wolfe leaving Norvork, her second in command, eager to fill the void. Amunet may have vanished, but Leslie Jacoy is alive and well and getting her inner-Molly Bloom on. The bad news for Leslie is Joe put an end to her underground casino. The good news is Amunet is back and ready to help. There's just one teeny-tiny catch. Her storage space where she kept her big job stash o' alnico shards was stolen... by Norvock.

But all is not what it seems. Caitlin didn't lie about Amunet's ability to help them. She just didn't tell the whole truth. Caitlin believes Amunet has tech that can restore Frost. Amunet's self-absorption is outweighed by her soft spot for Caitlin, and she decides to come clean.  The tech in question, which was stolen along with the shards, can't bring Frost back because it could never control Frost in the first place.

Amunet's intentions are even less honorable. She never needed her "big job" stash to help Team Flash. She just wanted their help getting her stash back. They succeed after a slight altercation with machine gun wielding goons and a run-in with a venom spraying eye-snake.  However, self-preservation is a powerful motivator. Amunet provides Team Flash with a one-shot deal – enough alnico to take out one of The Thinker's satellites.

Our other storyline revolves around Iris wanting to arm Central City with knowledge by explaining who The Thinker is, what he is capable of and what his plans are. Barry inarticulately argues that informing the city might not be the wisest choice. What he could have said is that it could cause a panic, or it could lead people without abilities to try to take DeVoe on by themselves, or Iris could run the risk of people believing that she's doing this out of revenge for the fact that DeVoe had her husband locked up for his "murder."

Barry says none of these things. And after Amunet steps up and gives him the alnico IED he gives Iris his blessing to print the article believing in the essential goodness of people. And since we are in a comic book world, he's right. This gives Team Flash the one thing they still needed. A way to find DeVoe.

So. What do we know?

Team Flash knows how to destroy at least one of The Thinker's satellites. Since he needs all five to proceed with his plan, this could stop DeVoe in his tracks. Why don't I think it'll be that easy?

If Harry's theory is correct, and we know it is, finding Marlize may provide Team Flash with DeVoe's or the satellites' location. If nothing else, she could flesh out The Thinker's plan and offer other opportunities to defeat him.

Caitlin/Killer Frost does not seem to follow any of our established meta-human origin stories. Her abilities are genetic. Did the dark matter from the particle accelerator explosion activate dormant genes or are the events unrelated? Considering this is all a product of Flashpoint, we don't know. However, The Powers That Be would not spend this amount of screen time on a question they didn't intend to answer.

It may not have the emotional punch of last week, but it succeeded in laying the groundwork for our final episodes in well-crafted and an entertaining way.

3 out of 5 alnico shards

Parting Thoughts:

Loved that Amunet recognizes Barry even with his mask. Makes you wonder what took Iris so long.

Our Emotionally Astute Council did not disappoint.

Amunet does know how to make an exit.

Quotes:

Barry: "Not ideal? I mean she kidnapped you. She tried to sell me into meta slavery."
Iris: "And she ruined my bachelorette party!"

Norvock: "Caitlin may look like a librarian, but she's a cold-hearted beast."

Harry: "You got me a council of rejects!"

Cisco: "You have to do the sharing if you want the helping, okay?"

Amunet: "The professor turning everyone in the world into a dimwit is tragic. It's brilliant! But tragic."

Amunet: "You see, normally I would just pop down to my storage locker to grab my big job stash, but last week, a naughty boy, or girl, or non-binary gendered individual snuck in and robbed the place."

H. Wells: " Let's close our eyes and take a moment to imagine that we are all sociopaths trying to conquer the world."

Norvock: "Well, if that decrepit hag didn't want them stolen she shouldn't have told me where she hid them."

Caitlin: "If you leave now you'll be mind-melded just like the rest of us."
Amunet: "Good point. Just for the record, this is not me helping. It is entirely self-preservation."

Amunet: "Go save the world now, darling."

Cisco: "Eye snakes. Why did it have to be eye snakes."

Barry: "We're always stronger, better together."

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

3 comments:

  1. I really, really enjoyed this one, but that was probably because I'm such a fan of Katee Sackhoff's. Her Amunet is so weird and droll.

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  2. I love how you almost take on Amunet's voice when you write about her. It amuses me to no end. Great review!

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  3. I loved everything about the Amunet scenes and was ho-hum about almost everything else. Which might have been why I was channeling her in my review. Oops.

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