Flash 1.18

All Star Team Up

Felicity Smoak and Ray Palmer come to Central City for a visit. Ray needs some help with his suit and hopes to get it from the scientists at STAR Labs. It is her third and his first appearance on Flash. While they are in Central City a new villain strikes, the Bug Eyed Bandit. She doesn't have superpowers but controls a swarm of robotic bees  She is out for revenge. Her first two victims are former coworkers. After that she goes after Christina McGee, the head of Mercury Labs. It is her second appearance on Flash. I didn't notice in her first appearance but this is a character from the 1991 Flash TV show. She was a regular member of the cast of that show. She is played by Amanda Pays, the same actress as on the 1991 show.

There is a major subplot involving Eddie and Iris. She can tell that he is hiding something from her. She just doesn't know what it is and that is driving her crazy. Things go from bad to worse over the course of the episode. Barry tries to intercede. For a moment it looks like his one-on-one with Iris might do the trick. In the next-to-last scene in the episode it becomes clear that it doesn't do the trick. She still wants to know what he is hiding from her.

Cisco starts having daydreams in which he sees that Dr. Wells is the Reverse Flash. The dreams are right out of what happened before Barry went back in time a few episodes back. He sees Dr. Wells revealing his true identity and then killing him. It leaves him shaken. I'm starting to wonder if Iris is having similar dreams in which she sees Barry revealing himself to be the Flash before he goes off to save Central City. I wonder if that is why she is pushing Eddie so hard to cough up that which he is hiding from her.

Throughout the episode Barry agonizes over whether he and Joe should tell Cisco and Caitlin about Dr. Wells being the reverse Flash. They don't know everything but they know quite a bit. Barry asks Felicity for advice. He is worried that Caitlin and Cisco are in league with Dr. Wells. Felicity thinks that they are good people and that Barry should trust them. In the end that is exactly what he and Joe do. Caitlin thinks they are crazy until Cisco opens up and talks about the dreams he has been having.

Overall this wasn't a great episode. I think there was a little too much focus on Felicity and Ray. They really didn't need to be in this episode. I don't feel as though they added anything substantial to it. There wasn't as much focus on the villain as there quite often is, I assume that is because Felicity and Ray gobbled up that screen time. Thumbs down for the inclusion of the two visitors from Starling city. Thumbs up for the Eddie and Iris thread and the thread that saw Barry and Cisco open up and share what they know about Dr Wells.