I struggle to say this was a *much* better episode, but it was better than last week. Is that just because of Hartley Rathaway, a character this show has *always* underutilized? Maybe. Who really knows.
What I do know is that I got bingo this week! And screw it, the only thing that happened in the premiere was that New Captain Boomerang was introduced, so I'm gonna retroactively cross off "Filler Episode" and give myself another bingo! Wow I'm already at two bingos. This does not bode well for the rest of the season.
I actually do like Khione/Snow. Danielle Panabaker brings a fun innocence to the role that really made me smile. That scene where she went and hugged everyone for letting her choose to be her own person felt surprisingly genuine. It even got me to like Cecile when she said "Okay, now my turn." I'm sure that's not gonna stick, but still. It happened.
I'm sure they retconned some stuff about Thomas Snow in order to make the story work, but I haven't watched season five in a while so I can't confirm that, but it's Eric Wallace, and retconning stuff is his favorite thing to do.
But despite the positive that Khione/Snow is a character I don't despise yet, there is a really disturbing part of this that I don't think anybody considered. They're talking about killing someone in order to bring somebody that's dead back, right? You know, the thing Caitlin was trying to do that Barry destroyed her lab for (which they show a pointless flashback of here, so thanks for that. Definitely should've put that on the bingo card). Ignore the fact that they already had the "we don't kill" argument last season during Armageddon, alright? I'm not the only one who sees the hypocrisy here, am I? They're voting about which personality in Caitlin's body is more worth saving (even though Frost died so there should be exactly zero votes for bringing Frost back), and not even acknowledging that Khione/Snow is the person they're gonna sacrifice in order to resurrect one of them. Do you see how messed up that is?
And I have several more questions that *aren't* about the morality of that situation. Are Team Flash gonna mourn Caitlin? They spent an entire episode mourning Frost last season, so is Caitlin gonna get the same treatment? How is Cisco gonna react to the news? What about Caitlin's mom? And most importantly of all, do the writers care?
And for the love of god, how many times did they say the words "Choice" and "Rogue" in this episode? We get it, writers. You're making a new Rogues Gallery without Captain Cold, and this episode is about choice. I appreciate your subtlety, and yes that was sarcasm.
And then we get to the episode's B-plot, which really *should've* been the episode's A-plot. The return of Hartley Rathaway! Hallelujah! And I really wish I could've enjoyed his return, but the episode basically has nothing to do with him! The show is *still* sidelining Hartley! You could cut him out of the episode and nothing would change! Well, basically nothing. His gauntlets are needed to save Red Death from... Wherever she was trapped. So okay, we needed a single line of dialogue saying that the New Fiddler killed Hartley in his sleep or something like that to steal his gauntlets (and for the record, it still wouldn't be the most messed up thing in this episode). Don't get me wrong, I want Hartley back. I want Hartley back for the rest of the season! He's great! But his inclusion in this episode just feels so pointless!
Did I miss something about Hartley having a heart condition when he last showed up? I know he's deaf, or at least he was when the show was still good, but what does that sonic blast even do to him? It clearly affects his heart somehow, but it's never explained what happens to him.
And why did the writers forget they gave him powers in season 6 until the very end of the episode? He even acknowledges in that very episode, "Grodd Friended Me", he doesn't need his gauntlets anymore because he has a Canary Cry.
Also, why doesn't Barry just speed punch out New Fiddler instead of letting her damage Hartley's hearing even worse?
*Also* also, how can New Fiddler vibrate people at different frequencies? And why didn't she just do it to Hartley at the top of the episode since she just needed his gauntlets? Because then the episode can't happen? Well crap, you got me there.
*Also* also also, how can Red Death interact with the real world (she tosses a crate at New Captain Boomerang in "Wednesday Ever After" and attacks New Fiddler in this episode) if she's trapped somewhere? How can she even recruit a new group of Rogues if she's trapped? Is there going to be an explanation for any of this? Actually, I can answer that last question myself. No.
But that scene at the end of the episode where everyone was dancing at the club put a genuine smile to my face. The last time this show made me smile like that was in "Good-Bye Vibrations" when Barry and Cisco did karaoke to "Poker Face". Granted, it was nowhere near that big of a smile, but it did make me smile. It just felt like the characters being allowed to have fun and destress, and we've gotten very few moments like that since Eric Wallace took over as the showrunner.
So the episode had two and a half things I liked about it, and nothing else made sense. In other words, the sky is blue. What do I even expect at this point? For an episode to be good? Well I shouldn't. But what really disappoints me isn't even that this season isn't very good, it's that *this* got renewed when Stargirl, aka an exponentially better show, got cancelled. I'm never not gonna be disappointed by that. I guess they still have eleven episodes to fix this season, but I honestly don't think the writers want to or care enough.
4 / 10.
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