Flashback Ep 2

In episode two of the Flash rewatch podcast, the host reflects on the positive feedback from the last episode and mentions the unorthodox way it was recorded. The host then gives a brief summary of the episode, mentioning that Barry saves lives but passes out before capturing the robbers. He discovers a metahuman who can make multiples of himself and Iris becomes intrigued by the red streak. The host gives their opinion on the episode, saying it's alright, but the metahuman is forgettable. They also comment on Barry's hotness and the fashion in the episode. The host ends by questioning why Barry lied about a weird moment with his powers and discusses the consequences of his tardiness at work. Hello everyone and welcome to episode two of Flashback, a Flash rewatch podcast where I am rewatching The Flash. No shit. I wanted to thank everybody for being so kind on the last episode that I did. I had a really fun time with it and it was really nice, like, getting to ramble about the show and really going into it and I don't know, I'm glad people enjoyed it. So thank you very much. It was also a little bit of a weird trip because I definitely, I don't know if it was obvious, but I did not like sit down and record it all in one go. I was literally just like recording random voice notes to myself across the space of a few days and then splicing them together. I re-recorded half of it as well and I think it was kind of obvious because there were bits where I was like doing my like masking voice without even being able to. I feel like most people, like, masking it's supposed to be like, oh, you're more like confident, but mine's more like, I'm all soft and soft spoken, which is absolutely not what I'm like. And then you also hear like my accent change halfway through it because, like, I started off, like, actually pronouncing things properly and then at some point around the, like, 30 minute mark I just start dropping my t's, which is really funny because that's a more accurate representation of what I sound like. So I was kind of trying to be mindful of, like, whether people could understand me. But who gives a fuck? Sorry, I'm sure you'll figure it out. I have been told that I garble, but it's fine. Anyway, so, episode two of The Flash, the fastest man alive, and I figured that I would, like, read the little description on IMDB just so that we all know where we're at. The, like, plot summary on IMDB is this. Barry escorts Iris to a university gathering honoring the scientist Simon Stagg. When six gunmen storm the event, Barry changes into The Flash and tries to stop them. While he does save a man's life, he passes out before he can capture the robbers, which frustrates him. As Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and Cisco scramble to find out what's wrong with Barry, Joe comes down hard on Barry for taking the law into his own hands and risking his life. Barry realizes it wasn't six gunmen, but a metahuman named Danton Black who can make multiples of himself. Meanwhile, Iris becomes intrigued by the red streak. So, episode two. Um, it's all right. It's okay. Danton Black is not a massively memorable metahuman, again. I feel like the early seasons, they had a couple of metas that were, like, really, really good, like Hartley, and then obviously we've got Len who's not a meta, but, like, you know, he's a big villain. But there's also a lot of small, forgettable ones that I don't think anybody has ever thought of since the episodes aired, and I think Danton Black is one of those. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so we'll go back. We start off with another Simpsons voiceover, but this one ends a lot more quickly than the first one, and we kind of dive straight into the episode, and I'm fine with that. I think the sort of Dear Diary type thing of talking to the camera, it's a little bit like a teen movie, so I'm not mad when they kind of stop doing that. We open on Barry as he's racing to put out a fire in a building, and he's sort of like, oh, yeah, that's me. I'm on my way to stop a fire. I'm going at 352 miles an hour, and it's a slow day. I'm like, okay, stop bragging, babes. Calm down. And then Sisko's shouting at him, like, Barry, Barry, and he's like, what? And Sisko's like, you overshot by six blocks. Now, I don't know how this happens, because this would make a lot more sense if Barry couldn't see where he was going when he was running, but like, for him, the world is moving at normal speed, so surely he would not have missed the giant burning building. I think they kind of sometimes forget that our perspective of Barry moving that fast is not what it looks like to him, so that part doesn't really make sense, but whatever. And then Sisko is like helping him with the fire, and then Caitlin walks in like, what are you doing? Sisko immediately panics and shuts down all the computers and plays innocent. He's like, I don't know. I don't know what's going on. What's happening? And Caitlin's like, were you talking to Barry? And Sisko's like, who? No. And then Barry's like, ah, Sisko, everything's on fire. There's fire everywhere. And Caitlin just gives him this look. Oh, God, it's so funny. She's just so mad. And then Barry saves a bunch of people from the fire, swaggers out. He is so hot in this episode. I'm really sorry for those of you who don't thirst over Barry, but I will be excessively, because he's so fucking hot in this episode. His hair looks great. His outfits look great. He looks great. Oh, God, I just can't be fucking dealing with this man, let me tell you. But he swaggers out. He's so smug. Like, oh, I just saved everybody. What have you got for me next? And then Caitlin comes over all like mum friend and she's like, Barry. And he's like, oh, shit, I'm in trouble. Which I'm like, yeah, Caitlin definitely strikes me as a type to like, self identify as the mum friend. Like, you know, those people who are like, oh, my God, I'm the mum friend. But like, it's not because they're actually like mothering or like nurturing or whatever in the group. They're just like bossy. And they've kind of self appointed themselves this role. That's kind of the vibe I get from Caitlin here. But then Caitlin's like, come back to the lab now. And then Barry goes to head back to the lab. And then he has this weird moment where he like falters and like has a strange moment where his powers stop working for a second. So this is our first hint at Barry's sort of low blood sugar and the fact that he needs to eat more. We will return to this later. I'm not going to elaborate on it right now because it's literally we we don't know what it is yet in episode time, but whatever. So Barry returns to style labs and he gets this massive lecture from Caitlin and Dr. Wells who are both like telling him off. Caitlin's like, oh, you know, you're irresponsible. You're being reckless. Wells is like, oh, you need to know your limits. Obviously, they both have different reasons for doing this. Caitlin, because she's just lost Ronnie. And so she's quite sensitive about like losing people that she cares about and, you know, people putting themselves in danger. And then Wells, because Barry's basically his fatted calf and he needs to protect him because if Barry's dead, then Wells' entire plan is fucked. We don't really know this as an audience at this point, but that's where it's at. So Barry sort of gets completely bollocked by Caitlin and Wells. And then Cisco is like, hey, so what happened with your suit? There was like a weird spike in your vitals. And Barry's like, oh, nothing, nothing. It's fine. Why? Why does he do that? Why does he lie? I genuinely don't understand it. Like. He's just like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm just going to completely ignore this like weird moment that I had where, you know, my powers completely stopped working and I just. It's stupid. It's stupid. Why did he do that? I know it's for plot reasons, but why did he do that? This man is so dumb. Don't lie to your like doctors. Come on. Again, he looks so fucking hot in this scene. He looks like really wind swept. Again, I don't think they did this as much later, but they really kind of liked to remember in the very early episodes that he has been running around the city. And so like his hair is all like sexy and wind swept. Again, it would probably not look like that. It would probably be like flattened from, you know, the leather cowl that's crammed down over his head. But like, I'm not mad about it because it's just so good. I'm sorry. I'm so thirsty for him. I just can't help it. And then Joe calls and is like, where the fuck are you? Because let us not forget, Barry does have a day job. And I can't remember like what time he's supposed to be at work. I know he finished at seven because Julian gives him a lecture about it one time. I feel like his work hours are between nine and seven, which is an insanely long work day. But also, why is there a fire happening in Central City at like 8am? I know that, you know, fires can happen at any time, but it does seem a bit weird. Maybe someone was trying to make fried breakfast and they set fire to the kitchen. I don't know. But yeah, Joe calls. He's like, Barry, get your ass to this crime scene because you have a fucking job. Where are you? And Barry runs off and then he's still wearing the suit and Wells is like, hmm, when do you think he's going to realize he didn't take that off? Which again is really funny. So Barry shows up at this crime scene, walks up, he's in the middle of walking across the street. And then he's like, oh shit, I still have the suit on. Suit on, mask down, at work, in front of like all these people that he knows. If any of them had looked his way, he would immediately just have outed himself as the Flash, which I know he does all the time anyway, because the man has some kind of weird compulsion to tell literally everybody his secret identity. But come on, dude. He then runs into a clothing store and I'm like, did he steal those clothes? Because unless he's got a wallet inside the Flash suit, he certainly didn't pay for them. Len would be proud. But he, yeah, he runs into this clothing store to get a little outfit change and he gets this little black jacket. Again, he looks so fucking good. He looks so good. So good. The fashion in this episode, there's some hits, there's some misses. For Barry, it's all hits. He literally looks impeccable in everything except the suit. Not like the super suit, he wears an actual suit. We'll get to it. I'm not hugely sold on it. He runs into the crime scene. He's in trouble because once again, he's late. How has this man not been fired or disciplined? Because again, at this point, I don't think he's very well established. I'm not sure exactly how long he's been a CSI for, but I think Americans graduate college at like 23, right? So best case scenario, two years. So he's very much entry level. Dude should not be allowed to be turning up late and doing a shit job. I feel like he should have some kind of file against him. He's very lucky he's not been sucked, is all I'm saying. So we get a little bit of a similar take on the Sherlock-style crime scenes where Barry is looking at these footprints, guesses the shoe size somehow just by looking at the shoe prints, which again I feel is unrealistic. And then he's like, oh yeah, like there's six sets of footprints and they're the same size. I think they're a size 10, the same size as Captain Singh's shoe size. And then he's like, uh, not that I'm accusing you of being the suspect. And I'm like, hmm, I have questions. First of all, how does Barry know Singh's shoe size? He then gets very, very flustered and they all act as if he said something incredibly offensive instead of something that is at best a little bit goofy. I really think that the reaction is out of proportion because then like when they go back to the precinct, Joe tears him a new one for embarrassing him in front of Singh. He says like, oh, your ability to multitask is incredible because you've embarrassed not just yourself, but also me. It's a weird moment. I'm like, oh, come on. He said something a little bit daft. I feel like if you compare this to the poo pen debacle from last week, this is really a very minor social faux pas. Like what is Joe's problem? I don't understand. I guess you could argue that like, you know, uh, do you have something to add? Yeah. Do you think it was a very bad social faux pas? You know what else is a social faux pas? Interrupting me while I'm recording a podcast? Yeah, you do it. That's so rude. Come on then. If you've got things to say, if you've got things to say, you come and say it. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like this was a very minor, like stupid thing he could have said. I guess the argument you could make is that he did say something stupid while also being late, but it doesn't feel like a proportionate reaction. I can only assume that maybe Joe is mad about it because maybe Joe pulled some strings to get him the job. I guess I can kind of understand why Joe would be frustrated if it's like, okay, well I stuck my neck out for you. And so if you are making a tit of yourself, that's also kind of affecting my reputation. But I don't know. I really think that Joe overreacted a little bit. I'm not going to lie. And then he's like, oh, well, you know, you've got to forgive me because my whole worldview has been shifted on its axis because I used to think the fastest man alive could run mile in four minutes, not four seconds. And Barry's like, I think I could do it in three. And then Joe's like, no. And Barry's like, not, not relevant. I'm like, you know, what's relevant? How fucking hot you look? So he tells Barry to go and do his job. Barry runs upstairs. We get another one of those like cool shots where like we cut from like a grown adult Barry running to a kid Barry running. So we see him like running down the street. Joe pulls up in the police car and stops him and drags him home. Iris is like, oh, did Barry run away again? And Joe's like, mind your own business. And then so they have a little bit of an argument because it's revealed that Barry is like being prevented from going to see his dad. Joe's not letting him go see Henry. And they have like a big fight over it. And Barry's like, oh, well, you're not my dad. And Joe's like, no, but I'm the only adult who gives a fuck about you. I'm like, oh, oh, Joe, that's not that's not a very good way to handle that. I know we've got to give this man some grace because kids are difficult and especially like, you know, kids of that age. I did notice throughout this episode, Barry acts like a very young 11. To my mind, like I know 11 is like a kid, but to me, he's giving more like seven or eight. 11 years old is like a year seven. And this Barry is not giving like a year seven vibes to me. I don't know. So then we cut back to Barry in the lab doing some CSI stuff. The machine is broken. And so he like he like shakes the test tube by hand, which I'm pretty sure like, I mean, don't get me wrong. I am hardly an expert, but I feel like if you're going to like do that kind of thing, it should probably be done to like a set amount and like not just sort of I'm going to shake it a little bit at super speed and get the same result. Like I feel like there'd be some kind of irregularities in that. I don't know. I'm not a scientist. I read scientific papers for a living, but I never pretended to understand them. But I do. Yeah, I feel like maybe it's like Hugh and it's a funny moment, but I also am like, does that not affect the result? Should you maybe like not do that properly? And then he gets dizzy again just from shaking his little test tube, which is quite funny. Then Iris turns up and I am once again having to question what kind of workplace environment is this where Iris can literally just walk into like a police precinct and go upstairs into a lab full of samples from active crime scenes and just hang out and nobody has any problems. Like I know that Joe works there so they all know Iris, but I feel like, you know, at most normal jobs, you can't just walk in and just start like chilling and hanging out in the middle of someone's work day. I guess it's TV rules, but you know, that's not generally how jobs work. If you're at work, you can't just have a friend randomly come over to hang out. But Iris is like, oh, you know, this is your fault. I could have done European folklore for my sociology requirement, instead I picked journalism because of you. I'm going to need some answers here, people, because I was incredibly confused by this. So in December 2013, Iris was doing her dissertation and we know this because it was on her laptop, which was stolen. She did, however, get the laptop back because Eddie saved the day and grabbed the guy. So we know that she didn't have to start over. So it's been nine months. She was doing her dissertation, but she now still has like other classes that she has to do. Is that normal? Because like when I was in uni, like English unis, actually, well, to be fair, I actually don't know anything about what it's like to go to an English uni because I went to a Welsh one, but it's like the same principle. Universities in the UK, your dissertation is like the last thing you do. If you're doing a BA, your dissertation is like the final thing. So I think it's kind of similar in terms of like, by my understanding of like the U.S. college system, you have like classes and they're each worth different amounts of credits and you have to have the right number of credits in order to graduate, which is kind of the same as it is over here, except over there, by my understanding, you have to take credits in a bunch of different subjects, whereas over here, you're just taking like classes to get a certain number of credits for different classes. It's all in the same subject, right? So I did, to be fair, my degree was like a bit unusual because I did a joint honors degree where I did English literature and creative writing. So it was like 50-50. So I had to take like a certain amount of creative writing classes and a certain amount of English classes, English lit classes, to like add up to like the full amount of credits that are needed to graduate. So by my understanding, you know, the American system is like similar, but if she's like already done her dissertation, why is she still taking classes? That really confused me. Again, I know it's like a four-year degree as well, whereas ours is in three and I don't know if maybe she was doing a master's or like what the situation was, but it seems very weird to me that she was doing her dissertation nine months ago. You'd have thought she'd have finished it by now, but then she's still taking like random other classes. I don't understand how that works. So if anybody can enlighten me, please let me know. But yeah, she's so cute in the scene. She walks in, she's like, I'm bored, entertain me. Barry's like looking at her because he always looks at her and she's like, what? And he's like, you look nice. She does. She's wearing like a really cute pink dress. It's very sweet. Again, they really changed her fashion up. I do enjoy her latest season's fashion a bit more. I feel like it suits her better. Like there was something about like this, this dress, like it was cute, but I wasn't a hundred percent sold on it. Yeah. He's like, oh, you look nice. And she's like, you don't. Why not? And he's like, what's going on? She's like, we're supposed to be going to this like event thing. And he's like, oh shit. Yeah. So basically Iris is going to an event where this scientist guy, Simon Stagg is going to be out because she wants to get a quote for an article she's writing for her class. She's also like, oh, journalism's boring. And I'm like, oh, bless. It's so funny how like she feels that way. Whereas obviously later on, like it becomes her like entire reason for living. But to begin with, she's like, eh. And then also like Barry apparently is the one who encouraged her to pick journalism, which I think we had a debate about this on Tumblr or like somebody shared a really good post that like pointed out that like a lot of Iris's agency is like attributed to Barry in this sense, where in the comics she just is a journalist and she meets him and she's already a reporter. But in the show, she basically becomes a reporter because of him. He encourages her to take the class in the first place. And then she becomes interested in journalism when she starts like looking into stories on the street because she's really bored with like the Simon Stagg science thing. But then like when it starts like becoming about the street and she could maybe investigate like the impossible and figure out what's going on with like, you know, she could figure out who killed Barry's mum. That's what gets her into it. So it's kind of a shame that like they kind of attribute her entire like journalistic journey to or at least like not the entire journey, because obviously she's responsible for all the cool stuff and the hard work. But like her getting started in journalism is attributed to Barry, which is a bit yikes. And then Eddie comes in and like they're a little bit weird and like Iris is like, detective. Her bedroom eyes in this scene are insane. She's like flirting with him so hard. It's so hot. I'm like, oh my God, if she would look at me that way, I would simply combust. It was crazy. Barry's like, guys, just kiss. It's fine. I literally, you know, I know, remember. Eddie's like, oh, thank you for being so cool about this, Barry. And Eddie is like so nice. But there's something almost like cloying about it. It's like, like, he's so nice. It's a little bit like, I don't know. He does such a good job of it because like, you get the impression that he's absolutely sincere. But you also, as a viewer, you're like, God, this guy's a little bit insufferable. But like, you can't really hate him for it because like, he's so clearly not trying to rub it in Barry's face. Like he's genuinely just the nicest dude. It's a really fascinating performance because he really manages to nail the whole thing of like, oh, like I'm really genuine, but also you can't fucking stand me for some reason. So Barry and Iris go to this award ceremony and Barry's supposed to be there to explain the science. So he starts trying to explain it to her and Iris immediately is like, oh, champagne. And Barry's like, no, and he just like takes it off her. And then they end up kind of having a little conversation about Eddie instead. Again, Iris is so clearly not interested in like the whole journalism thing at this point, like, which to be fair, you know, I can't imagine this Simon Stagg guy is the most interesting thing. Like, I don't know why she would have picked that to write about. But yeah, she just doesn't give a fuck. Again, party girl Iris is out here to have a good time and learning about science is not her idea of a good time. She does make an attempt to get a quote out of Stagg and he just brushes her off, which is where we get our first impression that he's a bit of a twat. And she's like, oh, I'll just make something up. And I was like, oh my God, if future like journalistic ethics Iris had heard her say that, she'd have been absolutely mortified. Like baby girl, you can't just make up a quote. I know that she's literally only writing for like an assignment, but that's so against the code of journalistic ethics. But she's so fun and silly. Like I have to laugh because she just doesn't give a fuck. She's like, I'll just make it up. Fine. So then enter our villain of the week. We have these six dudes, the same dudes who presumably were at the crime scene earlier that Barry was investigating. They show up and like Barry like goes to like intervene and Iris is like, nope, nope, don't do it, don't do it. So cute how he like jumps to defend her instantly. And then they all go to shoot this like cop at the same time and Barry runs in and saves him. And then he goes and tries to chase the guys. And then he just like immediately passes out on the floor. Iris goes and finds him outside and Barry's like, oh, I fainted. That's embarrassing. And then Iris like takes him inside and immediately goes, oh my God, Barry fainted. And he's just telling everyone, including Eddie, that he passed out. And Barry's clearly like, hmm. And this is like a little micro trope. I don't even know if it's technically a trope, but it's something that I like find quite enjoyable in the show where like Barry has to pretend to be useless. And you can see like that it grates on him. There's also like a really good example in season two where King Shark shows up and tears the roof off the house and Barry like runs off to go and like grab the flash suit and be the flash. And then while he notices that Barry just ran away, he's like, where the fuck were you hiding under the bed? And Barry's just like, hmm. And he can't say anything, but like he's so like pissed off about it. But yeah, like Iris really just goes around like, oh my God, Barry fainted. Joe's like, hmm, Barry, can I have a word with you? And then they like have this little conversation. They go off, Barry. He looks so cute with his hands in his pockets, but the suit, I don't know. I'm not a big fan of the suit. I feel like the suit is wearing him. I like Barry in a black suit. I'm not really feeling the grey, to be honest. He looks cute, but it's kind of giving like high school or a prom. Joe tells him off for trying to intervene with like the whole like crime thing. He's like, you're not bulletproof. Wait, are you? And Barry's like, no. And then we conclude the scene with Joe telling Barry that Iris isn't stupid and to come up with a better excuse than he fainted. Barry's like, I did faint. I did faint. And again, it's really funny. But also, hey, Joe, have you thought about maybe just telling Iris the truth? No? Okay. We then cut back to Star Labs where Barry finally tells like Wells and Caitlin and Cisco, hey, I've been having these weird fucking dizzy spells that I probably should have told you about before. And Caitlin like yells at him. And she's like, oh, you're in a constant state of flux. And I always laugh when I hear this phrase come up in like sci-fi shows, because sci-fi shows fucking love this phrase. What does it mean? Absolutely nothing. It's like, oh, reverse the polarity of the neutron flow. If anybody's a Doctor Who fan, it's just absolute, it's just words. They're just saying shit. It doesn't mean anything, but it sounds quite good if you don't know what they're talking about, which to be fair, I don't. So Barry sits there with his shirt open, looking so good. Again, I wasn't a fan of the suit, but him like sat in his little like nice shirt, like unbuttoned. Half this episode just me being like, he looks so good. But he does though. Caitlin has a proper fat go at him and then like storms off. And then it's like, oh, yeah, she's like being like this because she's mad about Ronnie. And like we get our first like little mention of Ronnie. And also I've got to say, so I'm not a Snow Barry in any sense of the word. And I'm a little bit wary of Snow Barry's in general, because, you know, they do have a reputation of being kind of racist. But I can kind of understand why people ship it, particularly in season one. Like, you know, you can't lie. There are plenty of like Snow Barry moments that give ammunition for the ship, even if I don't personally ship it, like, you know, it's there. But then they decide to run some tests to figure out exactly why Barry keeps having these weird moments. Barry gets on the treadmill and starts running. The main thing I noticed in this scene is why was he running on the treadmill with like his normal shoes? Should he not have put some like trainers on or something? I feel like it was asking for trouble. He literally was just like running along in his dress shoes. And then he obviously faints on the treadmill. We have this like great physical comedy moment where he like shoots back and like crashes into a big pile of boxes. Again, it's just funny. It's just a bit of fun, you know. Then we have Joe finding the murder board and like we have a little flashback to him wearing an incredibly funky hat, which I'm absolutely, abjectly convinced that like in every flashback scene in this episode, Joe is wearing this incredible hat and this jacket that make him look like the manager of like a 1990s boy band. I am absolutely, abjectly convinced that they put this hat on him to hide the fact that he has had the same receding hairline since 1990. Though it's a very brief flashback scene, like Iris is lying for Barry. She's like, oh, he's in the shower. And Joe is like, are you lying? And Iris is like, yeah. And then we have like scenes of like Barry waking up from his little faint and they're like, oh, guess what, Barry? You have low blood sugar. Again, this is a detail that I think is so fun and so interesting. I really enjoy when they address the logistics of his speed in the show, which they very rarely do. This is another detail where they like addressed it once and then basically seem to forget about it in 90% of instances. Generally, they are quite good at remembering in terms of like when he is eating, he normally has a lot more food than everybody else, but I don't think they go out of their way to have him like eating in scenes where other people aren't. I saw a really good post on Tumblr a few weeks back where somebody was like, he should just be eating constantly, like in the middle of fights when he's running down the street, like, because he would have to be, I think, I can't remember. They don't actually specify in this episode how many calories he has to eat a day, but I'm sure the number 15,000 has been floated around. That's a lot of food to be eating, like he would just have to be eating constantly. And you kind of don't think about what a bore like that would be. It's very easy to go like, oh, you know, content warning for like weight stuff, I guess, but like it would be very easy to be like, oh, he can just eat whatever he wants and stay skinny. Yeah, that's great for him. But if you actually think about the logistics of it, it would be expensive as fuck. It would be incredibly annoying to have to like be eating that much food. Like it's so much food. It is kind of funny how in like, you know, nine seasons, they don't ever have him just like forget to eat and faint ever again, which I think, you know, would be realistic because he's always busy. He's always doing shit. There's always like world ending insanity going on. It would totally be normal if he was like forget to eat or skip a few meals and then just like faint. But there's like one scene where they remember it in season nine. And I'm abjectly convinced that they did this because basically they revisited quite a bit of season one stuff in season nine, partly because they realized they had a bunch of loose ends to tie up and partly because they brought Eddie back. And so what I think happened is somebody in the writer's room rewatched season one, and then remembered that they'd forgotten all these like details because the fandom is always better at remembering tiny details than like the writers of the actual show in the canon. So like fans tend to pick up on and make a big deal out of things that the show itself will brush over in a lot of instances. But they did revisit the whole like not eating enough hyperglycemia thing because Barry runs back to the night, well the day his mum died. He meets and hangs out with his parents, and he tries to leave and then he almost passes out. And they're like oh shit are you okay? He's like oh yeah I just I need to eat. And they invite him out for dinner. And it's really funny, maybe this is just my dirty mind, but the whole time I was just getting the distinct impression like because they were doing this thing that they like to do in time travel shows where like the parents meet their like future kid as an adult and then they just inexplicably have this connection. It's supposed to like I don't know show that family transcends whatever. But they always have this inexplicable like oh I feel really drawn to you. But like with the way that they play it in season nine, all I got the impression of was that Barry's parents were swingers looking for a third. So yeah they reveal to Barry that he's like extremely dehydrated and extremely like hungry, which how he didn't notice I don't know. Like because I don't know about you but when I'm hungry I feel like shit. Like I'm very aware of it. And then Joe comes in and busted and he like has a massive go at everyone. Caitlin's like don't look at me I'm on your side. And I'm like shut up Caitlin you big suck up. Shut up. I love Caitlin but like sometimes she's a little bit like hmm. I'm like lighten up girl come on. We get some good arguing in because Joe has a go at Wells. He's like Barry's just a kid. He's my kid. And then Barry's like fuck you you're my dad. We actually do get to like touch a little bit upon the resentment that Barry has for Joe not believing him his entire life. So I guess I did them a disservice. They did actually build up on that a little bit. After that we then get to see a scene of Danton Black like talking to Simon Stagg's corrupt security guard and he's like hey so I fucked up killing him so I want his complete itinerary and I want like passcodes to get into his house. The security guy's like yeah I'm not going to do that because I'm literally a security guard and I know that I am actively going against my job description by betraying this guy and like literally you know telling you where he's going to be and stuff but there's got to be a limit because people are going to figure it out and I will get fired. Black is like hmm okay well I guess I'm going to kill you then. We then see Black split up into multiples. It really like reminded me of like the like supernatural like shapeshifter thing which is so like to this day that transformation is one of the grossest things I've ever seen on TV with like the teeth falling out and stuff. This is nowhere near as bad as that but it does kind of remind me of it because it looks really painful. They do like a good job of like making it look like uncomfortable. However the scene of the guard getting beaten up is really really funny because like so many of the like guys are very clearly not hitting him. So Danton Black aka Multiplex has the ability to divide into like he basically clones himself. He splits off into multiple guys and then they all start beating up the security guard. There's like six or seven of these clones like all beating the shit out of this dude but some of them are very clearly not hitting him. There's this one guy in the back that was just like not even touching him he was just vaguely swinging his arms in the right direction which I thought was incredibly funny. Come on my dude I know that you probably had to record this like 10 million times but please try. You know I'm not saying you actually have to hit him because it's a TV show but you could actually make it look a little bit more realistic. Again Danton Black is just not a villain that I have ever really thought about again. I don't think there's a reason that I've never seen him show up in a fic like except you know when people have like done straight season one rewrites. He's just not memorable. So we cut back to CCPD. They have so many scenes and they're all like short and snappy and cutting constantly but I think it's really good for the pacing. It makes the episodes feel like they last like five minutes. So Joe comes in and gives Barry the work related thing. He's like look at this thing. I don't know. I wasn't really paying attention to that part because I was paying more attention to Iris walking in in this incredibly cute black dress which I think looks a lot better on her than the pink. Iris in black she just looks so good. She's so fucking pretty and then she's instantly like why is my dad mad at you and Barry's like work stuff and he's like oh why are you mad at me and she's like because you stood me up we were supposed to go jitter so you could explain like the science to me and like she's like pissed off and I'm like to be fair to him though Iris he did try and explain the science to you at the actual event and you were like champagne so is this really his fault? I mean it is his fault that he like didn't show up when he told her he would but also he did actually go to the event with her and he tried to explain the science and she very clearly was not listening so kind of a little bit unfair but she's like you know I'm not mad that you didn't show up I'm mad that you're like there's clearly something going on with you and you're not telling me what it is and so Barry does like he does this really fun thing that where he like speeds up and he like monologues at her and he's like oh like there's so much shit going on in my life and I can't tell you about it and also I'm in love with you um all while like she's just like frozen again they don't do fun stuff like this as much later they like save the speed for like the fight scenes but it was really fun I enjoyed this little like thing of like he gets to like get his feelings out and like talk to her but like she's just frozen and she can't hear any of it. Barry then does his little CSI forensic analysis whatever and discovers that the cells that they got from the crime scene are naive stem cells that can replicate so you normally only see them in newborns and so Ira's like oh so the killer's like a baby which is a really funny image just imagine like a giant killer baby I'm sure somebody somewhere has done that um and I'm also like this information should probably be confidential again Ira should not be in this lab where they have like stuff from crime scenes and she should definitely not be getting the inside scoop on all the like CSI stuff it's actually really funny because I can't remember what episode it is but there's definitely an episode later on in the season where like Barry's trying to keep Iris away from all the CSI like stuff and the flash and everything like that and he's like oh I can't discuss the details of an ongoing case with you and she's like since when and it's true because he just doesn't give a fuck he's like hey do you want to come look at some confidential information and then we have Joe and Eddie like interviewing Simon Stagg or like asking him questions or whatever Eddie also looks good he's wearing this little blue waistcoat and everybody in this episode is so fucking fit like can they not can they not it's really rude I just I can't fucking deal with this Jesus we find out that Simon Stagg fired Danton Black and that is like the his motivation for trying to kill him um eat the rich you know fair fight breaks out so Joe and Eddie call for backup presumably and then Barry runs downstairs to all this ruckus going on at CCPD and he's like oh what the fuck's happening and Captain Singh is like not now Barry Joe and Eddie are being attacked by the Stagg Industries or whatever and Barry's like oh shit so he runs upstairs where he's keeping the suit in his fucking like in a big bag in his locker which actually makes a whole lot more sense because I feel like in later seasons until he gets their like ring that he can put the suit in he just has to run back to Star Labs and like you know he there's like a big fight going on and he has to like delay things so he can like run back to grab the suit so it's actually probably quite sensible that he took it to work with him and just had it on him but it's also so cute that he's clearly so into the whole superhero thing that he has to carry his little super suit around like everywhere Barry shows up and has this fight scene uh with Danton Black and he like there's this quite fun moment where he like punches him and the guy like does what I like to think of as the Doctor Strange where like you know in uh I can't I think it maybe was Endgame um no actually it was Hulk that it happened to in Endgame maybe it's the fucking Doctor Strange movie I don't know there's a whole thing where like Tinder Swinton like punches him and a bunch of like astral projection versions of him like fly backwards out of his body basically it does that um and I don't know I really liked it it's quite a good moment so Barry's like oh that's how he discovers what Black can do I guess and then Barry discovers that he fucked up because for the second episode in a row we get a scene of Barry getting the shit beaten out of him by multiple guys at once and he just gets like thrown on the floor and like kicked and pretty you know violently attacked and then they go to shoot him and then he runs away and then we have this great shot that I'm absolutely fucking obsessed with where he like goes outside and then like reams up against this like chain-link fence like and drapes himself over it in the sluttiest manner imaginable he's there covered in blood like heavy breathing chest projected out like lounging against this fucking chain-link fence like he's doing a high fashion photo shoot while this train goes by and he's like covered in blood it's I don't know I really like it Central City I feel feels so much more like real and like a place with character in these earlier episodes I feel like you know the more the show goes on they kind of stop having these little moments that make it feel real you know just even little things like you see the train and like you're seeing all these like fuels and like a random like fence somewhere you know the later they go on in the show the more they just reuse the same three sets it's like we're at Star Labs we're at CCPD we're at Barry and Iris's house we're at Joe's house that's it whereas they were doing a lot more kind of like on the street stuff and I don't know it was nice it just made this like the place feel more like authentic and like people actually live there so back at Star Labs Barry's sulking and Cisco's like you've got blood on my suit and Barry's like hmm yeah well not all of it's mine some of it's his um and I'm like hmm yeah but most of it's yours though isn't it to be fair he didn't actually have that much blood on him I prefer him you know a little bit more bloody personally Cisco also has his first attempt at giving a villain a name and he calls him Captain Clone which is obviously a fun little like haha you know for people who know the comics presumably it's like Captain oh Captain Clone no not quite and then he's like hmm yeah I'll take another shot at it Barry's also like you have this really funny scene he goes I'm not a warrior and I'm like a what a what babes like the way he pronounces it is so weird like he put so much emphasis on like a war a warrior and I'm like you mean a warrior I don't know I just love the way he said it like scratched something funny in my brain also the whole time this scene was going on I was like looking at Dr. World and thinking about the really interesting physicality that Tom Cavanagh does for this role where he's just so like still and like it's just so different from the way he is as Harry like the body language everything it's genuinely like you're looking completely different people and it's kind of crazy how he just does like such a good job of it anyway Barry then immediately is like I just got the shit kicked out of me I'm clearly bad at this and I quit which a relatable king and then we flash back to him visiting Henry and Iron Heights and he like Henry's like hey how did you get here and Barry's like I ran I'm like isn't Iron Heights quite a long way from the fucking like anywhere I thought Iron Heights was quite a while out of the city he ran there he couldn't get a bus or something I know he was 11 but god and then we get the reveal that in like when Joe was preventing Barry from going to visit Henry it was actually Henry's choice because Henry did not want Barry to see him in prison um which is so like sweet and so sad that Joe was just completely willing to take the fall out and to be the bad guy in Barry's eyes and to just take that abuse Joe's such a good dad I know that I've been like Joe fucking stopped being so harsh and like you know but he is a good dad he really is a good dad then we're back to CCPD see what I mean when I say that they're constantly cutting scenes it's crazy Simon Stagg is there and Wells is also there and we get this like indication that they fucking hate each other for whatever reason um and like Stagg is like don't get up and Wells is like ha ha ha and you know again I don't know I think it must have been intentional but they really make Simon Stagg incredibly dislikable in this episode which is weird because like we're supposed to want him to not be murdered but they make Danton Black incredibly sympathetic um in a weird way so I don't know what's going on there Joe and Wells then have this conversation and Joe is so smart because he immediately is like hey you came and asked me if we could take Barry to star laps did you know like did you know there was like something like that the expert that the fucking explosion did something to him like was this all a big plan of yours and Wells was like maybe they have this little thing where Joe's like stop trying to encourage him to fucking risk his life because I need him for my nefarious plans and then he does it like he does the fucking hand thing like where he like totally he goes to like he I don't know they're having a conversation he's like oh if you instill doubt in him and he does the hand thing like he's going to put his vibrating hand through Joe's chest and it just gives me chills because again you wouldn't really think of it knowing like you know when you're seeing it at first glance it just looks like he's doing like a weird hand gesture but when you know what that hand gesture means oh it makes me shiver because it's so visibly a threat oh it's so creepy and then uh Wells just goes hey you know I care about him too and I'm like hmm yeah but you care about him in a real fucked up way and for very different nefarious reasons do I believe that like Eobard cares about Barry in a way that's like different from like I need him oh absolutely I genuinely think like Eobard has really complicated feelings for Barry that like I I you know he's in love with him basically um and I haven't really thought about this or focused on it too much until I like started like following a couple of Eobarry shippers which I'm not but again like it's so clear that like Eobard has this like infatuation with him in every sense like yes he hates him but he's also like psychosexually obsessed with him it's fun and then we have a conversation between Barry and Iris at jitters where he's like oh you know I'm sorry like I've been a bit of a dick and then Iris is like you should apologize more often you're very good at it I'm like stop flirting stop flirting she's so good at flirting like Candice Patton oh just just like the the way like her eyes they're so like warm and her little smile and like oh god I'm getting all like flurry just thinking about it she's so cute oh she's so cute and like it's so good it's so good um but like Barry's like hmm and like they're such besties like they're so they're so good at like conveying that vibe that like you know they've just the besties that bitch together stay together is all I'm saying and then Barry's like oh you know I know you and I know you'll come up with a great new article and Iris is like oh what's the prize I actually did I'm writing about the streak and Barry like shits himself he's like oh no this is not good and he like immediately pulls back hard and he like it's such a shame because Iris is so excited about it and it's so nice to see her kind of have that where you know obviously earlier she was like oh journalism's boring I'm just not interested and like I don't care and then she finds something that makes it click for her and she's got this excitement and like she has no one to share it with because Barry's just not like obviously he wants her to back off because Joe is like we have to lie to her so Barry immediately is not receptive to this at all and it's such a shame because poor Iris you know she's finally found something that she's clearly very passionate about and that like she wants to share it with him and he just shuts her down immediately which is just such a shame but we don't really get to go into that too much because Caitlin then like called Barry like you have to come to Star Labs now and like they're staring at like a very angry looking danton black they definitely did this for like effect because like Barry shows up and he like goes to like beat the shit out of the clone he's like he's not doing anything um and Caitlin's like yeah I grew him and I'm like well first of all we don't have time to unpack all of that I mean why did you go on the phone and go Barry oh no you have to come here right now because we're being like she was acting like they were being attacked and they obviously weren't you know again I get why they did it from like a show perspective but from a character perspective it makes no sense because she was like oh my god this scary man that I literally like grew myself on purpose I have so many questions she grew him she's like yeah I grew him from a blood cell I feel like to grow an entire like again I don't know how science works but if you're going to grow an entire man even like a special magic metahuman man I feel like it should take a bit longer than that you know they grew him also where did they get the clothes from like did he did he grow with the clothes and also why did you grow a man that is it's just so she's so normal about it Caitlin's a freak like I think she's so funny because like she acts like she's so like normal and like she's the most like emotionally and mentally well-adjusted of the entire group and then she's just like oh yeah I just grew a dude and he he's just standing there in the middle of the room it's just so funny and so bizarre and then they sort of reveal oh yeah you know this is Danton Black's weakness like he has to control all the clones at once and then if you like find out like the original one and then take him down all the rest of them will go down cool the clone then starts moving Caitlin freaks out and then Joe comes in and shoots him immediately which is just like this is Joe's second kill Joe's kill count is now up to two in two episodes this man is so trigger happy like I know American cops are kind of like that but Jesus Christ he just didn't even fucking take a second to figure out what was going on he just walks in and immediately shoots the dude it was kind of wild like Joe's kind of giving like anti-metahuman I'm not gonna lie he really did just fucking every single metahuman he meets he meets he just fucking shoots them it's kind of mad and then he's like Barry you know you need to go and take on Danton Black and Barry's like but you you said and Joe's like yeah but this is beyond me and all the other cops and I think you should do it and like he's like you could handle this and I'm like oh he did get pretty badly beaten up though so um you know can he um but then they have this like moment where they like smile at each other and they're like forgiving each other for their little fight I just love their like relationship like the Joe Barry relationship is just so like lovely I adore it okay so Barry charges off to go and confront Danton Black and then they start having this fight and he's like oh you know I know that like you like want Simon Spagged dead because he stole your research or whatever which honestly valid like again like I said I'm kind of on Black's side at this point I'm like yeah I'm not saying I'd kill the dude but you know if he stole my groundbreaking research I would also be pretty pissed and then Danton Black is like oh no it's not about the research really it's because my wife was dying of some disease and I was gonna like grow her a new heart and then um Simon Spagged stole my research so I couldn't do it I'm not entirely sure why that meant he couldn't like unless he just didn't have the facilities like would he have been ethically allowed to just grow his wife a new heart or I feel like that should probably have been like you know gone through like clinical trials or something I don't know um of course it's a dead wife thing like whenever they want to like have a random dude on tv have motivation it's always like a dead wife and then he just creates like a billion clones like there's got to be hundreds of them he just fills the room with them and it is overkill like I get you know they wanted to be like oh how is Barry going to handle this he couldn't even handle like six how is he going to handle fucking hundreds of them but like it's too much because only the first five or six are even close enough to touch him he's like surrounded by like hundreds of clones and most of them are fucking doing nothing because they can't even get near him um I also was like this is very nitpicky but some of those extras did not have the same hair like they basically just picked like random dark haired men of like a vaguely similar build and I get that they needed a lot of them but I was looking at them like these men are standing next to each other and you can clearly tell that like they have different shades of like dark hair they don't look the same so you have this fight scene he's like oh my god I can't beat him what am I gonna do it's Joe's turn to give him the pep talk this time again they sort of did have like a nice little formula with like season one where like every single episode Barry like tries to beat the villain he fails he goes back for a second go and he's like oh my god I can't do it and then like somebody whether it be Joe or Iris or like Wells will give him this like motivational speech and he suddenly like gets the like I don't know the like a last boost of power to save the day I don't know it's fine I like it it's cute so then like Barry identifies like which one is black because he sees him like stumble and he sees him like sweating and stuff and he like runs in he takes the guy down all the rest of the clothes go down at once I feel like this happens completely silently like I don't know about you but I felt the sound of hundreds of like identical men falling to the floor at once would kind of create some kind of like disturbance but you literally just don't hear anything happen which is fine I guess and then like black have a go at attacking Barry Barry dodges and then black immediately just charges and runs through a window which I'm like a window is that easy to run through I again this is a very much a tv show thing where like they love to have like heroes like smash through windows but I feel like it would take a bit more force than that like to like smash through a double glazed window then black is like dangling from the fucking roof Barry runs and tries to save him and like he grabs his hand and stuff and then a hand grows out of dancing black's arm and I'm unclear on like whether he was trying to like grab onto Barry with like an extra hand or whether he was trying to like pry Barry off but either way he falls and dies so I have questions because then like you know at the end of the episode I'm like what do they do with all the bodies like because obviously black dies all the clones are now also dead but the clones I don't think the clones just disappear I think they have to go back into him or they're just there so whoever had to fucking clean up that scene must have gone and been like there are literally hundreds of identical bodies what the fuck do we do with all of them like the coroner's department must have had a field day like what the fuck are they even going to do with them it's like an entire army of dead guys what a nightmare they have a little like nice star labs pep talk I was not concentrating on what they were saying because Barry his hair his hair looks so good and he's wearing a little cardigan I miss the season one cardigans he just looks so fucking good in a cardigan so good so good and then he had this thing where he's like we were all struck by that lightning and like I'm so pedantic but like whenever they do that I'm always I always find it really annoying because I'm like they literally weren't though I know it's like a metaphor of oh we're all connected and we're all in this together but I don't know it's stupid you weren't all hit by lightning then we have our like little scene back in the lab where like Joe shows up to reconcile with Barry and he brings him three pizzas and I wrote down the toppings specifically because I have even more questions so he said pepperoni jalapenos and olives and I'm like hmm so are these like separate toppings and each pizza has one of the toppings or do all these pizzas have all three toppings because if so that's the most disgusting combination I've ever heard of in my life I like jalapenos I can tolerate pepperoni I hate olives so immediately he loses point for that this is apparently Barry's favorite like just how he likes it I'm like this man is disgusting you like again I can maybe forgive him if he has like individual pizzas and they each have one topping but if these are like three pepperoni jalapeno and olive pizzas then I think this man needs to be in jail and then we have a moment where like Joe reveals that he's discovered the murder cork board and he's like oh you know I I kind of let you down when you were a kid but we're gonna find who killed your mom and like this is such a big moment for Barry it must be so good because his whole life he's just been desperate for somebody and I wanted to believe him and to take him seriously and to help him on this quest that he has been like doing on his own his entire life and to have Joe who was always like against it and not on his side at all to have come around must have been such a really big moment for him and then like Barry's like oh you know I know I said that I wasn't that you weren't my dad and Joe's like yeah I know and Barry's like no but like you did all this stuff for me like you raised me you like sat by my bed at night you took me to college like you did all this stuff like you know you are my dad and like oh I I cried a little bit I'm not gonna lie like I I did tear up because it was just such like a but like oh and I kind of thought that Joe was going to be like ah shut up but he didn't he just like they just sit with it and it's like a really lovely emotional beat it's just so great um I don't know I really liked it and it made me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside and then they sit down and eat pizza in the crime lab surrounded by samples and presumably sterile equipment which is disgusting don't eat in a lab so well you could end it there don't eat in a lab but especially don't eat in a lab that's full of bits of like cells and dead bodies and like blood samples and shit that's fucking disgusting guys please and then our final scene of the episode is wells showing up to confront simon stag wells like oh what the fuck's going on out there it's kind of busy like you're having a party and stag's like yeah well you might have heard that this employee of mine got fired and now he's dead I'm like are you having a party that's so jesus christ like I get that you're glad not to have been murdered and everything but like jesus it's a little bit insensitive and then stag has this whole thing where he's like ah you know you saw him too didn't you like the the man in the red lightning like you know we need to figure out who he is like can you imagine if you could control him if you could harness his abilities you could change the world and like immediately wells is like no and he like gets up stags like yeah and then wells just fucking stabs him um because he's like he's like no like barry is mine he must be kept safe like you you're not fucking going near him and it's just such a good like possessive moment where he doesn't even think twice he's just like yeah I'll just I'll just kill this guy and like you know it's like I do wonder like why he went there in the first place because you can kind of understand it from the perspective of like when this guy who's like known to be morally unscrupulous starts being like oh like I want to find him and harness his abilities you could understand why that would set off alarm bells and like have him like have wells decide to kill him but like he didn't know that stag was going to do that beforehand so he presumably had already intended to kill him when he like went in the first place so I'm not entirely sure where he perceived the threat unless it was just like well barry saved you and like it was like a jealousy thing I don't know it's strange like I'm interested in like what his motivation was because you know even if it's like oh well you set these things in motion that caused barry to like get involved in this and almost get beaten up so I'm going to kill you I guess I could kind of understand because it's eobard and he his thought processes are insane but like it I don't know it's fun it's interesting it doesn't really make sense for him to kill him but I'm not mad about it because the guy was a dick and again like they've kind of spent this whole episode like kind of emphasizing what a absolute prick simon stag is so you don't really care when he gets murdered but um and again it's also like it is funny how like they have eobard just stab him because like they can't have him like you know obviously normally he just uses speed but they can't have him do that because that would immediately give the game away as to who like who he is or the fact that he's a speedster so like they just have him like just stab him with a knife once again I'm left with no idea how to round this off uh to the extent that I recorded the entire episode a week ago and I was about to like finish editing and upload and then realized I never actually recorded an outro so this is it uh thank you so much for listening I hope you enjoyed it if anybody has any questions comments input of any kind you know where to find me on tumblr um I did get a couple of questions last time or like inboxes about um theories that I'd mentioned in headcans and stuff like that and I am always willing to elaborate because I again you know I've talked for a solid hour and I'm sure I could still find plenty more to talk about thank you so much and I'll see you in the next one so bye