What I’m Watching: The Flash

The Flash: Season 1, Episode 8 “Flash vs. Arrow” (B+)

There had to come a time where Barry’s powers got the best of him, in this case when he used them for evil rather than for good when he got hypnotized into being really, really angry by a metahuman. I remember how Clark or any of the humans on “Smallville” used to have their personalities glazed over by some foreign entity on an almost weekly basis, and I’m glad to see that this show hasn’t reached that status yet. It did, however, call in another CW hero to help make sure that Barry didn’t get ahead of himself, in the form of Oliver Queen and the Green Arrow. I stopped watching that show a while ago so I missed a few of the references, but it was good to have Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle around to make things more interesting and to give Cisco and Caitlin fellow tech and science enthusiasts with whom to bond. Oliver definitely exudes a different mentality about being a hero than Barry does, and it’s useful to have his sobering outlook presented to the often overeager Barry, who managed to let his anger get the best of him and lash out at Eddie at exactly the wrong moment. Losing Iris’ adoration, and more importantly her trust, is going to be extremely damaging to our superfast protagonist. It’s hardly surprising to learn that Robbie somehow survived the explosion, and it’s just a question of how much of a danger he’ll pose now that he’s back in fiery form and if he’ll be coming for Caitlin, with or without an open embrace.