It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The midseason finale of The Flash brought a little holiday festivity along with the return of some of the Flash’s more pesky and prone to monologuing villains. The Flash saves Christmas in Central City from the Weather Wizard and the Trickster thanks to a tip from Captain Cold, Joe and Iris meet Wally West, and more on The Flash: “Running to Stand Still.” Spoiler alert.
Running to Stand Still
Last week on The Flash, we had that epic crossover with Arrow. And in true TV amnesiac fashion, this week’s episode, “Running to Stand Still,” had little to nothing to do with last week’s episode. The only mention of it, or the Green Arrow for that matter, was when Detective West remarked to Iris, “Don’t nobody want a toy of that crazy man,” after she mentioned not being able to find a Green Arrow toy in Central City, of all places. Wrong city, doll. Other than getting confirmation that Joe doesn’t like the Green Arrow, it was right back to business as usual in Central City, rogues and all. The episode did, however, tie in with previous storylines involving quite a few main characters, namely a certain mystery revolving around the West clan. That and the fact that it was a Christmas themed episode so…ho, ho, ho!
To kick things off on “Running to Stand Still,” Mark Mardon aka the Weather Wizard got a head start on fulfilling his own Christmas wish when he broke Leonard “Lenny” Snart aka Captain Cold and James Jesse aka the Trickster out of prison so they could permanently take out the Flash. As ridiculous as that plan sounded, they did manage to create a conundrum for the Flash that ultimately baited him into submission. Ok, that sounded weird, but basically the Weather Wizard and the Trickster almost got away with their clever scheme to force the Flash into agreeing to his own demise in lieu of them taking out thousands of innocent Central City civilians with bombs masking as Christmas presents. That is, until Wells came up with a plan to extract all of the presents/bombs at once using magnetism, forcing them through the breach right over Central City. Needless to say, once Wells—with the assistance of Jay and Cisco—were able to rid the city of the bombs and Cisco gave the word to Barry, it was on. The Scarlet Speedster was back in action, kicking butt and taking names.
Letting Go/Moving Forward
After the Flash immobilized the two rogues, it would have been all she wrote if it weren’t for Patty showing up to exact some revenge on her father’s killer, Mardon. Luckily for her, though, her masked boyfriend was able to talk some sense into her so that she didn’t end up in prison for the rest of her life. Sure, putting a bullet in Mardon would have felt good, and some would argue it would have been justice served, but as Barry/the Flash put it, doing so would still mean that Mardon was in control. Thankfully, she listened to the Flash, and was able to enjoy some cute same-sweater-wearing time with her boyfriend Barry, the rest of Team Flash, and the West clan at the West’s Christmas party.
Speaking of the Wests, “Running to Stand Still” also brought some much needed closure in the aftermath of Francine’s traumatizing visit earlier in the season. After she dropped the bomb on Iris that she had a son, Iris then kept that secret from her father, until this week. Unable to no longer keep that big of a secret, Iris—with the emotional support of her best buddy, Barry—finally came clean to Joe, and to be expected it was quite an emotional blow; although it didn’t take long for him to come around to the idea of having another son. Yep, that’s right, another son. Remember, he already has one son in Barry. As sweet as that is and all, it was still awesome to see Joe’s biological son, Wally, show up during the West’s Christmas party, unannounced, yet still welcomed. Kid Flash has officially entered the building.
Also, on “Running to Stand Still,” current Flash ally Harrison Wells of Earth-2 found himself in a not-so-fun game of chase with the only man faster than the Flash, Zoom, and when Zoom caught up with Harry, all he could do was wish Zoom would end his life. Unfortunately, that was a no go, but Harry did manage to strike a deal with Zoom to steal the Flash’s speed force in exchange for his daughter’s safety. And just like that Harrison Wells becomes Barry’s nemesis, once again. We should have known that this one was coming, right? Oh, and Caitlin and Jay are progressing along nicely as clearly they are into each other. It wasn’t exactly a crossover episode with Arrow, but it’ll do, for now.
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8:00pm EST on CW.