"She seems nice. You don't."
Watching Captain Cold and Heat Wave cause trouble in last week's episode was good fun, but after that awesome midseason finale, many of us had one person on our minds: Harrison Wells. Thankfully, "The Sound and the Fury" focuses heavily on the brilliant man and, as expected, there's some major fan service and focus on his development. Oh, and this episode also introduces Hartley Rathaway, a.k.a. Pied Piper. After seeing so many different villains in this series, it's tough to imagine a kid in a hoodie who loves to use sonics would pose much of a problem, but the show managed to do a great job adapting the character and made him a legitimate threat.
First and foremost, I have to get a minor criticism out of the way. Don't worry, I liked the episode, but this is the second week in a row now where it feels like Barryand the police are blatantly downplayed. I understand Flash can't always move at top speeds and he needs to face physical challenges, but watching this elaborate plan for him to catch the Royal Flush Gang (nice!) seems a bit silly when he has no problem catching up to each of them, grabbing the keys and then maybe taking them off the bikes. The dude has crazy speed feats involving vehicles later in the episode, too. But hey, maybe he doesn't want to hurt them in a crowded section of the city, so that's fine. What did get to me is the first encounter with Hartley. This is another scenario where Barry goes out of his way to do things other than just knocking down his enemy. It's almost like you're wondering, "Dude, why haven't you just punched him yet? Wouldn't that be way easier?" It's also odd to have a villain fire at the police and they don't respond at all when they have a clear opening. I wish these scenes could be handled in a more careful way (maybe he's bombarding them with blasts before Flash shows up?), but overall, it remains a minor criticism.
Surprisingly enough, this episode gives Cisco plenty of attention and I continue to absolutely love the character. The "but every once in awhile" comment? Oh man, that made me burst into laughter. Whoever wrote that line deserves a cookie. This is a show that often has a good heart-to-heart scene, and this one had a few. One of them happened to be between Cisco and Wells, and it pretty much expressed why so many of us are rooting for kid. And speaking of Wells, this is a huge episode for his story. Not only do they give us some much needed follow-up to the midseason premiere's reveal (the plot thickens!), but it also manages to bring Detective Joe West back into the bigger picture. It's an episode that does a good job handling the immediate threat while also doing a mighty fine job teasing future conflicts. It should go without saying, but more of Jesse L. Martin and Tom Cavanagh is always a good thing because the two sure can act.
Pied Piper may not look like much of an obstacle, but his intellect and history with team Flash presents an enjoyable conflict. One of my biggest criticisms of the earlier episodes is the villains lacked depth and seemed like they were just there for a spectacular action sequences. Now, we have a far more complex character who offers just okay action sequences. That's fine, though, because having an interesting character who can produce gripping dilemmas is far more engaging than one scene of spectacle; there's way more potential here. This episode borrowed Arrow's "flashback" format and it served the story well. It was able to give this villain way more depth while also focusing on Cisco. It's impressive just how many characters they successfully juggled in just this episode. Cisco, Flash, Iris, Harrison, and Pied all receive a proper amount of focus and there's even attention-grabbing teasers with others. You sure know how to keep my attention, The Flash.
Unfortunately, Iris' story plays out in a very standard and predictable way. The dialogue is good -- it even mocks cliches at one point -- but the developments definitely weren't up to par with the other story elements. It's not a bad plot, but it's not really doing anything to make an impact, either. There's a lot of possibilities with that storyline in upcoming episodes, but it didn't add all that much to this episode. Another criticism is how Barry Allen, the forensic scientist, didn't notice Wells got out of the violent situation without a single scratch. It's his job to analyze a crime scene and we know he's good at it, so it's a little odd the thought didn't cross his mind. As for why Joe didn't bring it up, I'm just assuming it's because Joe knew it could lead to a big argument and he wants to get some compelling evidence before approaching Barry about it.
"The Sound and the Fury" didn't have jaw-dropping action and the plot with Iris wasn't all that original, but everything else delivered big time. This episode had a great buildup of tension, plenty of strong laughs, solid use of drama, and it most certainly didn't forget to lose some heart. And watching Barry rescue people? It's always a blast. Even when the show dips into darker or more dramatic territory, it's able to lift us back up and remind us these are fun characters that we want to root for. The Flash is having one heck of a strong first season and you can tell there's exciting things on the horizon. Oh, and who else smirked and thought of Arrow during the "failed this city" line?
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