If heat is your thing, then the latest episode of The Flash is definitely right up your alley. From romantic heat to actual heat on a molecular level, there was no shortage. Joe helps Barry realize that it’s time to get over Iris (and pursue Patty), Iris meets up with her mom—twice—and we meet the new Firestorm on The Flash: “The Fury of the Firestorm.” Spoiler alert.
The Hunt for a Match
Last week on The Flash, Professor Stein’s condition began to worsen as he started to demonstrate obvious signs of molecular instability due to a lack of a match to merge with. This week, however, the overarching storyline of the episode picked up right where we left off. Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry were tasked with finding a match that would help stabilize the Professor and ultimately save his life. That was no easy task.
As one would imagine, there weren’t a crap load of people walking around Central City that would fit the description of someone who was affected by the dark matter that resulted from the particle accelerator explosion; basically a metahuman who would serve as a power source for the Professor. Initially, quick-thinking Caitlin found two viable candidates, but after the first candidate—the best candidate on paper—wasn’t a match, the gang had no choice but to pursue the second candidate, Jefferson “Jax” Jackson, at least to see if he was a match. After some convincing, mostly from to Caitlin, Jax was on board just in time to help the Flash deal with the first candidate, Dr. Hewitt aka Tokamak, who decided to go to Jax’s old high school and wreck havoc during a football game. Yep, he lost his mind, if he ever had it. What’s worse is that dude had a sealed rap sheet full of anger management type prior offenses, which the gang only found out about after his initial interview. Not to worry, between the new Firestorm and the Flash, Dr. Hewitt was taken care of and no doubt sent to the metahuman prison in S.T.A.R. labs thereafter. But for Barry/the Flash, his day wasn’t even close to being over. Barry had other issues, of the romantic variety, to contend with as well this week. Enter Ms. Patty Spivot.
Something New
Just in case you thought you were the only ones who noticed a little something-something going on between Barry and Patty, this week’s episode of The Flash should have confirmed that there indeed was some flirting going on. Ha! Thanks to Detective Joe West, Barry was forced to confront his interest in our new dear Patty. In fact, it was during yet another one of their heart-to-heart conversations that they often share as surrogate father and son, Joe went right in with the questioning so as to force Barry to cough up something, specifically the truth.
Unfortunately for Patty, however, his response to Joe’s inquiring was less than enthusiastic from her perspective. Seriously, what would you think if someone had this to say about you “she’s great, adorable, and we have a lot in common…?” Yeah, yeah, we get it; you could also feel the but coming from miles away, which is why Joe obliged with “but, she’s not Iris.” And just like that the hearts of women across America broke for Patty because they felt her pain of being a runner-up to another woman. Ouch! That’s when Joe offered some solace by way of a reality check, “you’re never gonna feel the same way about anybody else, but you can’t let that stop you from experiencing something new.” Wow, that almost sounds like Joe knows what he’s talking about.
Thank goodness for the wise Joe West giving Barry a much needed push in the right direction, by the end of the episode Barry was well on his way to following up on that spark with Patty. He even went so far as to give Caitlin the same advice about her situation. For much of the episode Caitlin struggled with the idea of pursuing Jax to merge with Professor Stein because, I don’t know, he didn’t look perfect on paper, as they say. In Caitlin’s eyes, aside from his star days as a high school quarterback, Jax had no real potential; not like Dr. Hewitt, who seemingly was more deserving of merging with her treasured mentor. Too bad he (Dr. Hewitt) was a nut, and with that they had no real other options but to see if Jax was a match, which he was. Something new.
Shark Man
As if Barry/The Flash didn’t have enough on his plate this week, a giant man-shark shows up in Central City. Hey, Patty tried to warn everybody, but nobody would listen. Luckily for the Flash, our favorite what-is-he-good-or-bad-this-week Barry/Flash nemesis Dr. Harrison Wells, formerly Eobard Thawne/The Reverse-Flash, swooped in to take care of the Shark Man/King Shark. Turns out, the Dr. Harrison Wells that blew the Shark Man to smithereens was actually the Dr. Wells from Earth-2. So, that means that he too came through the singularity breach, but so far it seems like he’ll be an asset. That is if Barry can manage to see this Harrison Wells for what he apparently is, instead of the evil manipulator that was the Harrison Wells that he was familiar with on Earth-1 (last season’s Dr. Wells).
Also, this week on The Flash, Iris saw her mother for the first time in over twenty years, twice actually. And while both meetings didn’t necessarily go well for Francine anyway, at least the second meeting started out like it was going to go in her favor. That is until Iris confronted her mother about a secret child—a son—perhaps explaining the very reason why Francine was brought into the storyline for the past couple of episodes: setup for Kid Flash, everyone. Obviously, Iris was well within her rights of initially denying her mother a relationship with her given everything that has happened, but now that she knows Francine is terminally ill, and with her dad’s urging, it’s likely we’ll see a bit more of Francine, and hopefully get the deets on the new Kid Flash.
Then too, after helping take care of Dr. Hewitt, Firestorm 2.0 departed Central City for Philadelphia, but not before the Professor offered some advice to Cisco to tell his friends about his secret—you know, the vibrations. Hey, its like Barry said, it’s all about second chances, at glory, at life, at family and at love. Hopefully, next week we’ll get to see more of Cisco’s vibrations in action and hear what Dr. Harrison Wells from Earth-2 has to say. This should be good.
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8:00pm EST on CW.