FLASH: SPOILER Review 1×14 – “Fallout”

The Flash (1×14) – “Fallout”

Written by: Keto Shimizu & Ben
Sokolowski

Directed by: Steve Surjik

This week picks up pretty much right where we left off,
Barry carrying Caitlin as he tries to outrun the blast. After Well and Cisco determine that Barry and
Caitlin are alive, Cisco notices that despite the blast there is almost no
radiation. They return to the epicenter
of the blast and find Ronnie and Stein, separate and alive. The group then returns to STAR Labs.

While Ronnie and Stein are warmly welcomed back by Cisco and
Wells and given a chance to get cleaned up and checked out, the US Army
investigates the blast site. They inform
General Eiling that there are two imprints of bodies in the crater which
confirms his suspicions that it was indeed Firestorm.

Back at the Lab, Caitlin’s finishing up her tests on Ronnie
and Stein. She’s found that while both men are alright, they are both have a
body temperature of 100.6 degrees. Dr.
Wells points out that now that they’ve been separated that they can no longer
manipulate the FIRESTORM Matrix. Neither
is terribly concerned and after a year of sharing one body between them Stein
and Ronnie are looking forward to some time apart. While Caitlin and Ronnie go to get pizza, Barry
takes Stein home to reunite with his with.
Both thank Barry for his help and he leaves.

When Barry returns to the police station he finds Joe. After making sure Barry’s alright after the
explosion he takes him back to the former Allen home. Joe shows him the mirror and the images Cisco
extracted from the backing, he then explains that somehow Barry was there that
night as an adult.

They return to STAR Labs and discuss the implications of
time travel with Wells and Cisco and if it is even possible to manipulate past
events (ala Back to the Future) or if you can only travel into the past because
you were meant to be part of the events in the first place (like the original
Terminator.) Unfortunately, Wells
doesn’t have the answers but he believes Dr. Stein might.

At the News Paper, Iris has found blueprints for STAR Labs
at Mason Bridge’s desk. He arrives,
offering a pastry and explains that while he doesn’t understand the physics
behind the particle accelerator he’s suspicious of Dr. Wells and wants her
help. When she asks why, he tells her
it’s because he suspects she is too.

Barry visits the Steins that evening and learns that Martin
has been acting odd according to his wife.
Specifically, he’s been craving pizza when he’s never liked it
before. Stein comes to the door in the
hopes of finding the pizza delivery man.
Barry leaves and returns with a pie and the three go inside.

When Barry asks about time travel, Stein takes him into his
den where he shows a “few” of his “random” thoughts on time
travel. Stein explains his thoughts and
even fantasizes about traveling back in time to meet Tesla before he asks Barry
why he brought it up and Barry explains that he believes he will very soon
travel back in time and fail to stop his mother’s murder.

At Jitters, Caitlin and Ronnie are discussing their plans
and Ronnie expresses a desire to get out of Central City. Caitlin is resistant because of the good she
feels she’s doing at STAR Labs but Ronnie says that the lab has already robbed
them of a year and he doesn’t want to lose more. Moments later, they’re attacked by soldiers
firing tranquilizer darts. Across town,
Stein experiences Ronnie’s panic and tells Barry that he’s under attack at
Jitters.

Ronnie is cornered in the alley behind Jitters and
confronted by General Eiling. He intends
to bring Ronnie in and learn the secret of the FIRESTORM Matrix, Barry arrives
in costume a moment later and incapacitates Eiling’s troops. However, before he can do any more than that
Eiling produces a device which turns out to be some sort of grenade. The grenade spreads shards of metal that are
attracted to the energy Barry gives off and incapacitates him. Caitlin arrives with the STAR Labs van and
she and Ronnie help Barry escape.

Back at STAR Labs, Caitlin is in the midst of pulling the
dozens of metal fragments from Barry and berating herself for not realizing
that Eiling was seeking out FIRESTORM sooner.
Barry remarks that they have to hurry so he can go after Dr. Stein but Ronnie
says that he’s already at the Lab. Stein
enters a moment later. Later, Caitlin is
running a scan of Ronnie and Stein’s brain waves and finds them to be in sync
with each other.

Stein is frantic to contact his wife but Barry promises to
help her out of the city. He asks the
pair to trust them while they come up with a plan. In the meantime, Barry brings Ronnie and
Caitlin back to Joe’s house in the hopes of them hiding out there. Joe is understanding and happy to meet
Ronnie. Iris arrives to cook Tuesday
night dinner but is confused by the sight of Caitlin and Ronnie. Caitlin claims a gas leak in her apartment
and when Iris remarks that Ronnie looks familiar, Barry claims he’s her cousin
visiting from Coast City.

Wells arrives at Eiling’s office; Eiling smirks and asks if
they’re still pulling needle from “Barry Allen’s hide. He explains that he saw Barry’s face when he
removed it to talk to Plastique after he shot her. The threat is very clear that Barry and the
others aren’t safe anywhere. He wants Ronnie
and Martin. He tells Wells to call him
when he’s ready to give him Ronnie and Stein and he’s certain Wells will decide
to do that.

Joe finds Barry looking at a picture of his mother. He asks if it would have been better if he
hadn’t told Barry. Barry tells him he
had to know, Joe then says that he hated that he was adding to Barry’s burden
but Barry says it’s better since they can share this knowledge. Barry then asks how Cisco though to run the
blood on the wall against his and Joe tells him that Cisco ran the blood
against everyone that worked at STAR Labs.
Barry realizes Joe means Wells and he tells Joe there is no way Wells
could have killed his mother. Joe is clearly unconvinced.

At the Lab, Wells and Stein share a drink while they discuss
their situation and shortly after he finishes his drink, Stein collapses. Much like Stein felt Ronnie’s panic, Ronnie
becomes dizzy but he doesn’t connect it to Stein. Eiling’s troops enter the lab and take Stein
into custody.

At the Paper, Mason tells Iris about a report on the attack
at Jitters and shows her photos that place Caitlin at the scene. Based on the description of witnesses of
soldiers shooting up the place he contacted the Army but was stone walled. Iris remarks that she finds it odd that
Caitlin didn’t mention the attack when she spoke to her and while she’s sure
there’s an explanation she keeps the photo.
After Mason leaves, she checks her Flash blog and finds a picture she
had of the Burning Man and compares it to the picture of Caitlin and Ronnie at
Jitters.

Back at the Lab, the Team and Ronnie are trying to decide
what to do but Wells says that it’s useless since they don’t even know where to
look. When Ronnie asks how they can find
him they come with a plan to use Ronnie’s like to Martin to try and track him
down.

At that same time, Eiling is interrogating Stein. He first tries to convince him of the good
meta-human soldiers could do but when Stein says he’s rather die than see his
work perverted, Eiling graduates to enhanced interrogation. Ronnie feels Steins pain and takes a broken
glass to cut into his arm.

When Caitlin tries to stop Ronnie Barry stops her and we see
he’s cut the word “Where” into his arm. Stein sees the word in his flesh as well
after Eiling and his people leave and uses his cuffs and his chair to tap out a
message in Morse Code. Cisco translates
the Morse into the number Twenty-Seven.
Barry points that Military facilities are listed as a number like Area
51. Cisco finds a defunct military research
base three hundred miles away. Barry
gets ready to go but Ronnie demands to go with him to help. They take the Quantum Splicer as well.

Arriving at the Army Base, Ronnie can feel Stein stronger
than before. Wells warns that he thinks
the two may merge again and that there may not be a way to separate them this
time. Inside the base, one of Eiling’s
scientists has isolated the FIRESTORM Matrix within Stein. Eiling responds by pulling a gun on Stein,
Ronnie feels it and Barry runs into the base.
He saves Stein and gets him out and moments later troops show up with a
rocket launcher.

He fires and when Barry tries to redirect the rocket it
explodes covering his suit with a chemical that is burning through the
material. Wells tells him that he has to
create a vacuum to snuff out the reaction and Barry begins to run in a circle
to put it out. Meanwhile Stein and
Ronnie are left with few options other than becoming Firestorm again, Wells
tells him he believes that their last merging was so traumatic because they
were both fighting it and hopefully if they embrace the change they’ll have
more control.

The two become one again and make quick work of most of
Eiling’s men but Eiling has another grenade.
This one bombards Firestorm with ions to disrupt his powers. Just as he’s about to execute Firestorm, Barry
returns and knocks him out. The pair
then returns to Central City.

Back at the Lab, Ronnie and Stein are able to separate
themselves willingly. After Ronnie and
Caitlin hug, she tells him she knows that he and Stein have to leave and she
understand. When he asks how she knew,
she states that they’re as connected as Ronnie is to Stein. The next morning at the Stein residence,
Ronnie and Martin tells the other they intend to go to Pittsburgh to find help
to better control the Matrix. Stein then
approaches Barry and tells him he believes that Barry will get his second
chance to save his mother. The pair
become Firestorm again and fly away.

At Jitters, Cisco is helping Caitlin vent about losing
Ronnie again but she tells him that she’s not as heartbroken as she was after
the Explosion. She loves Ronnie but she
loves her life as well. Iris arrives and
asks about her “cousin.” Iris
leaves them and seeks out Mason. She
tells him she thinks that he’s right about what’s going on at STAR Labs and
intends to help him find out what that is.

At the Allen home, Barry’s invited Joe over. He explains to him that he sees the images as
instructions on what not to do. He
intends to figure what happened that night so he can change. Someday soon, he’s going to travel back in
time and save his mother.

At the Army base, Eiling is abducted out of his office by
the Reverse Flash. He races him back to
Central City and deposits him in the sewer from two weeks ago. Reverse Flash removes his cowl to reveal
himself as Dr. Wells. He tells Eiling
that he looks out for his own. They hear
growling and Eiling hears a voice in his head say, “General.”

When Eiling realizes who the voice belong to he can only say
“Dear God.” To which Grodd replies, “Not God. Grodd.” before
he drags Eiling off screaming.

Another episode jammed full of great stuff. I loved the completion of the Firestorm arc
and that it set up new adventures for the hero (at least I hope.) Also
enjoyable was the time travel debate as well as the numerous nods to other time
travel stories, such as the nod to Looper when Ronnie cut his arm and it
appeared on Stein’s as well.

Clancy Brown as Eiling adds such a great quality of almost
justifiable menace that if that was the end of the end of him I’ll be sad to
see him go. Another set up that I
enjoyed was the Iris and Mason plot, it seems pretty clear she’s now on a
collision course with either Barry or Wells and it should be interesting to see
play out.

Lastly, I guess there’s little room left for doubt, Wells is
the Reverse Flash but at the same time it seems his plan is more of a mystery
than ever. He is protecting both Barry,
Cisco and Caitlin and working with Grodd.

Another great episode that is going to make this month long
break pretty tough to take.