The Flash: All-Star Team Up
April 15, 2015 3:25 PM - Season 1, Episode 18 - Subscribe
Barry is surprised when Felicity Smoak arrives from Starling City along with her boyfriend, Ray Palmer, who flies in as the Atom. They've come to visit S.T.A.R. Labs as Ray needs help with his suit. Their timing turns out to be fortuitous because it’s all hands on deck after a meta human named Brie Larvin unleashes hundreds of robotic bees to attack and kill her former co-workers, including Dr. Tina McGee. A group dinner with Barry, Felicity, Ray, Iris and Eddie turns into a disaster.
He's so primed to shrink. Last time on Arrow, Palmer was injected with nanobots that can shrink things (to cure a blood clot in his brain). Now, on The Flash, Cisco turned him on to the idea that miniaturization can help his suit designs. All that's left for Ray to do is accidentally wash a dry clean only sweater so he can have his "Eureka!" moment.
posted by Servo5678 at 3:59 PM on April 15, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by Servo5678 at 3:59 PM on April 15, 2015 [9 favorites]
Sub-par pun-slinging villain; Joe being absolutely fucking disappointing with his "your vote will count as much as mine when you're her husband" bullshit, and the show STILL carrying on with this painfully bad Not Telling Iris Ever arc -- it is really dragging; don't care yet about Ray, probably because I don't watch Arrow. So, not thrilled with this episode, though it had some nice character moments. I enjoyed Dr. McGee's small role and the info Barry got from her about Wells, the development where Cisco is getting some weird memory echoes of being killed, and Felicity helping Barry find his feet on who to trust.
Haw haw and Cisco's "are you married to that" + skeptical face, but he gets on board with it later.
posted by automatic cabinet at 4:09 PM on April 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
Haw haw and Cisco's "are you married to that" + skeptical face, but he gets on board with it later.
posted by automatic cabinet at 4:09 PM on April 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
I think the next Arrrow/Flash crossover should be Iris and Quentin becoming completely justified supervillians where they kick everyone's arse for not fucking telling them the dumb fucking thing they are not being told already.
posted by fullerine at 6:16 PM on April 15, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by fullerine at 6:16 PM on April 15, 2015 [8 favorites]
It makes me so happy that Cisco got a memory of his alternate-timeline death - I was fine with the actual death being erased by the magic reset of the day, but, it was such a terrific scene it made me kind of sad that nobody in-show would ever know that it had happened.
posted by oh yeah! at 7:13 PM on April 15, 2015
posted by oh yeah! at 7:13 PM on April 15, 2015
I really enjoy this show, but god damn this was a silly episode.
posted by Naberius at 8:10 PM on April 15, 2015
posted by Naberius at 8:10 PM on April 15, 2015
I don't watch Arrow, but Felicity is a really good character. And a good actor -- I thought the "mike drop without a microphone" was very well delivered with the acknowledging gesture to the microphone in front of her. I've noticed a lot of subtle things about how the actor is playing Felicity in that she's much more a real person who happens to be a bit of a goofy nerd, rather than just the stereotype/trope. Caitlin and CIsco are both enjoyable characters, too, even though they're stereotypes, and both actors have done pretty good jobs making them more three-dimensional -- but not nearly so much as Rickards has with Felicity.
Honestly, none of the characters on this show seem fully three-dimensionally human to me. My sense is that Gustin, Cavenagh, Martin, and Valdes are all pretty good actors but for whatever combination of reasons they can't quite breathe full life into these characters. Gustin is not given very much to work with, Barry Allen is sort of boring by design, and there are moments when I notice in his acting choices that he gets a little more out of the character than I'd expect him to be able to -- I suspect he's a better actor than we realize and the material isn't really doing him any favors. Cavenagh and Valdes, too, give me the sense that they might be very talented, but they don't really have that much to work with, they're both boxed in by the writing (which is partly a function of how the characters are conceived). Maybe Martin might be a pretty good actor -- he seems kind of journeyman. Panabaker as Caitlin ... I don't know. I actually like Caitlin, but Panabaker isn't really making her compelling (and we should care more than we do about her life recently).
Cosnett as Eddie and Patton as Iris -- they're both painfully two-dimensional and one-note for me. I'm not inclined to think either are good actors even outside these roles, but it's certainly true that the roles aren't doing them any favors.
After that rundown of the acting, I'm surprised that I like this show as much as I do. I can be equally critical of the writing, and I have been. In my view, the show ends up being slightly more than the sum or its thoroughly mediocre parts. It's also moderately consistent week-to-week. But the Iris thing, man. I suppose there are fans out there who like Iris and enjoy this UST between (effective) siblings and the keeping-secrets stuff, but it seems to me that the majority opinion I see is that it's annoying and drags the show down. It's also both icky and predictable and contrived. I also dislike Iris as a character and I dislike Barry when he's around Iris. For that matter, I often dislike Joe when he's around Iris, too. I think a lot of stuff would work much better with the relationship between Barry and Joe if Iris wasn't in the equation.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:45 PM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Honestly, none of the characters on this show seem fully three-dimensionally human to me. My sense is that Gustin, Cavenagh, Martin, and Valdes are all pretty good actors but for whatever combination of reasons they can't quite breathe full life into these characters. Gustin is not given very much to work with, Barry Allen is sort of boring by design, and there are moments when I notice in his acting choices that he gets a little more out of the character than I'd expect him to be able to -- I suspect he's a better actor than we realize and the material isn't really doing him any favors. Cavenagh and Valdes, too, give me the sense that they might be very talented, but they don't really have that much to work with, they're both boxed in by the writing (which is partly a function of how the characters are conceived). Maybe Martin might be a pretty good actor -- he seems kind of journeyman. Panabaker as Caitlin ... I don't know. I actually like Caitlin, but Panabaker isn't really making her compelling (and we should care more than we do about her life recently).
Cosnett as Eddie and Patton as Iris -- they're both painfully two-dimensional and one-note for me. I'm not inclined to think either are good actors even outside these roles, but it's certainly true that the roles aren't doing them any favors.
After that rundown of the acting, I'm surprised that I like this show as much as I do. I can be equally critical of the writing, and I have been. In my view, the show ends up being slightly more than the sum or its thoroughly mediocre parts. It's also moderately consistent week-to-week. But the Iris thing, man. I suppose there are fans out there who like Iris and enjoy this UST between (effective) siblings and the keeping-secrets stuff, but it seems to me that the majority opinion I see is that it's annoying and drags the show down. It's also both icky and predictable and contrived. I also dislike Iris as a character and I dislike Barry when he's around Iris. For that matter, I often dislike Joe when he's around Iris, too. I think a lot of stuff would work much better with the relationship between Barry and Joe if Iris wasn't in the equation.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:45 PM on April 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Joe being absolutely fucking disappointing with his "your vote will count as much as mine when you're her husband" bullshit
WTF was that? I like this show, but some of the writing can be really terrible.
posted by homunculus at 10:24 PM on April 15, 2015
WTF was that? I like this show, but some of the writing can be really terrible.
posted by homunculus at 10:24 PM on April 15, 2015
The showrunners' sentimentality in casting sometimes works out well (e.g. Barry's dad, the Trickster) and sometimes works out poorly (IMO, Mercury Labs lady). Every time I see McGee on screen I feel like she's over-en-un-ci-ating every word. It also doesn't help that for a leader of a massive scientific organisation, she seems to spend a huge amount of time running errands and meeting directly with unimportant people.
Getting sick of this Iris thing. I assume it will be resolved before the end of the season though, in a painfully predictable 'now I hate all of you' way.
Having just watched all of Daredevil, which unsurprisingly also involves a secret identity, I can really understand why Marvel chose to skip that entire nonsense with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, etc.
posted by adrianhon at 1:20 AM on April 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
Getting sick of this Iris thing. I assume it will be resolved before the end of the season though, in a painfully predictable 'now I hate all of you' way.
Having just watched all of Daredevil, which unsurprisingly also involves a secret identity, I can really understand why Marvel chose to skip that entire nonsense with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, etc.
posted by adrianhon at 1:20 AM on April 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
And what is the deal with Joe and that damn knit cap? Seriously.
posted by Naberius at 9:13 AM on April 16, 2015
posted by Naberius at 9:13 AM on April 16, 2015
It was definitely a filler episode in terms of the villain stuff to accommodate the likely future spinoff with Ray. But I was so happy to see happy Felicity that I forgive the show for it.
Except that "when you're her husband" BS. NOT COOL.
posted by immlass at 1:47 PM on April 16, 2015
Except that "when you're her husband" BS. NOT COOL.
posted by immlass at 1:47 PM on April 16, 2015
Confession: I think Joe's knit hat is lovely. It's sort of ridiculously "cool dad trying to hard" which, let's face it, is in character.* (Unlike the line about who gets a vote about Iris's well being, which was not only fucking horrible but felt like it was coming from a character unlikely to say it. Joe's overprotective dad thing has always been more Keith Mars than Sexist Dumbass.)
As andianhon says I'm sure Iris will go "now I hate all of you" when she finds out about Barry's secret life. My only hope is that she will somehow go Dark Iris supervillain for a while after it happens. (Honestly, at this point, she'd have every right to.)
* Follow-up confession: it is also something I would probably totally try to pull off and I am not much younger than Jesse L. Martin.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:52 PM on April 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
As andianhon says I'm sure Iris will go "now I hate all of you" when she finds out about Barry's secret life. My only hope is that she will somehow go Dark Iris supervillain for a while after it happens. (Honestly, at this point, she'd have every right to.)
* Follow-up confession: it is also something I would probably totally try to pull off and I am not much younger than Jesse L. Martin.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:52 PM on April 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
I was fine with the actual death being erased by the magic reset of the day, but, it was such a terrific scene it made me kind of sad that nobody in-show would ever know that it had happened.
So you're gratified now that Cisco is having nightmares and flashbacks to the moment where he discovered his mentor was a horrible person, right before his heart was yanked out of his chest? Do they need to be prepping a cell down in the reactor for you too?
posted by phearlez at 9:10 AM on April 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
So you're gratified now that Cisco is having nightmares and flashbacks to the moment where he discovered his mentor was a horrible person, right before his heart was yanked out of his chest? Do they need to be prepping a cell down in the reactor for you too?
posted by phearlez at 9:10 AM on April 17, 2015 [2 favorites]
Somehow I find the show having a good laugh at itself (and Arrow) through Felicity and others to be hilarious, even though in other shows I've found it incredibly grating (last disaster season of Glee, I'm staring at you). I liked it better when Cisco was killed off. This is interesting at least, having him sort of remember being about to get murdered. But I'm having a hard time getting over the early writing of his character, with all of his really smarmy disgusting comments about women, so I don't like him being around.
posted by ktkt at 5:50 PM on April 17, 2015
posted by ktkt at 5:50 PM on April 17, 2015
So you're gratified now that Cisco is having nightmares and flashbacks to the moment where he discovered his mentor was a horrible person, right before his heart was yanked out of his chest?
Angst in a comic book character that isn't tragically-dead-woman driven? Yaaaasss! Bring it. But seriously, now all of Cisco's scenes with Wells are going to have this dramatic tension because he has to keep pretending that everything is still normal so that Wells doesn't kill him again. And, last time he just stumbled into the secret without realizing his life was at risk, but now he'll be taking risks knowing the possible consequences. So many opportunities for good acting.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:10 AM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Angst in a comic book character that isn't tragically-dead-woman driven? Yaaaasss! Bring it. But seriously, now all of Cisco's scenes with Wells are going to have this dramatic tension because he has to keep pretending that everything is still normal so that Wells doesn't kill him again. And, last time he just stumbled into the secret without realizing his life was at risk, but now he'll be taking risks knowing the possible consequences. So many opportunities for good acting.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:10 AM on April 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
And what is the deal with Joe and that damn knit cap?
It's sort of ridiculously "cool dad trying to hard" which, let's face it, is in character.
OK, I give up. What am I missing about the hat?
Because it looks like a standard wool watch cap to me, which is exactly what middle-aged balding guys wear when their heads are likely to get chilly.
Or is it just that everyone figures Central City is in southern California or Florida or somewhere where it never really drops below 65° F?
posted by soundguy99 at 2:10 PM on April 21, 2015
It's sort of ridiculously "cool dad trying to hard" which, let's face it, is in character.
OK, I give up. What am I missing about the hat?
Because it looks like a standard wool watch cap to me, which is exactly what middle-aged balding guys wear when their heads are likely to get chilly.
Or is it just that everyone figures Central City is in southern California or Florida or somewhere where it never really drops below 65° F?
posted by soundguy99 at 2:10 PM on April 21, 2015
Nthing that this one was a bit of filler pretty much all about the bad puns and in-jokes and self-referencing nudges and crossover goofiness. Plus a certain small amount of moving a bunch of plot threads forward just a little in order to set things up for the mad dash to the end of the season.
So I thought it was actually a pretty fun watch in the moment, if more dessert than main course.
The "not telling Iris" part has reached the point of ridiculousness, and for all that she's not my favorite character, I'm afraid she's going to become the Laurel Lance of this show. (For the non-Arrow-watchers, the writers of that show have a habit of making Laurel do and say all sorts of nonsensical shit simply as they need in order to move the plot or create Teh (overwrought) Drama - IOW, they treat her as a device, not an actual 3-dimensional character, with the end result being that Laurel Lance is pretty much awful at everything.) How the show has Iris behave when she learns the truth (it's got to be coming soon) is gonna control a lot of the emotional heft of the show going forward. If they just have her pout and sulk we're in for a rough ride next year.
posted by soundguy99 at 2:42 PM on April 21, 2015
So I thought it was actually a pretty fun watch in the moment, if more dessert than main course.
The "not telling Iris" part has reached the point of ridiculousness, and for all that she's not my favorite character, I'm afraid she's going to become the Laurel Lance of this show. (For the non-Arrow-watchers, the writers of that show have a habit of making Laurel do and say all sorts of nonsensical shit simply as they need in order to move the plot or create Teh (overwrought) Drama - IOW, they treat her as a device, not an actual 3-dimensional character, with the end result being that Laurel Lance is pretty much awful at everything.) How the show has Iris behave when she learns the truth (it's got to be coming soon) is gonna control a lot of the emotional heft of the show going forward. If they just have her pout and sulk we're in for a rough ride next year.
posted by soundguy99 at 2:42 PM on April 21, 2015
It's a nod to Jesse Martin's role in Rent
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:34 PM on April 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:34 PM on April 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
So hard to get back into this after watching a bunch of Daredevil.
posted by ODiV at 7:16 PM on April 23, 2015
posted by ODiV at 7:16 PM on April 23, 2015
Unpopular opinion but Joe is just slow to trust people. Eddie is not the first boyfriend Iris has had, they've been dating for less than a year, and for all Joe knows he'll be out of Iris's life within another year. Eddie's "vote" will count more when he's made a commitment to stick around for the consequences of it - and when he's been around long enough to earn Joe's trust.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 9:06 AM on November 1, 2016
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 9:06 AM on November 1, 2016
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posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:38 PM on April 15, 2015