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FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 4×16- “Run Iris, Run”


The Flash (4×16) – “Run
Iris, Run”

Written by:          Eric Wallace

Directed by:        Harry
Jierjian
 
So by now I think we’ve had the “tropes and clichés as the
foundation of Television writing” conversation more than once. We’ve
firmly established that they aren’t something that has to be avoided so much as
something the producers have to make their own when they use them.
 
There’s three BIG clichés that pretty much every superhero show
has done over the years: “The hero loses his/her powers and has to live
life like a mortal for an episode,” “The hero visits a world where
they never existed or never got their powers” and “The hero’s love
interest gets their powers” episode. 
The Flash has done the first one already (actually, they kind of did the
second one two last year when Barry visited the future.)
 
The “love interest gets the hero’s powers” story goes
way back.  It happened several times in
the Silver Age comics, there’s currently a Spider-Man book based on the premise
and Lois Lane is pretty much the Queen of getting superpowers as you can see:
 
 
 
However, Iris is no slouch in the “getting my
boyfriend’s/husband’s powers” department so this week’s episode was a
matter of time.
 
I don’t think I have to recap the episode as it was a by the
numbers Flash story with Iris doing the running instead of Barry.  That’s not to say the episode wasn’t
entertaining, it was and that’s acceptable. 
Not every episode has to blow me away.
 
The B-plot of Harry developing his own “Thinking Cap”
and trying to out-think The Thinker was where most of the importance was and
that was probably the point.  Using a
fun, if clichéd, story to bracket the arc points and introduce another
bus-meta.
 
Besides, after last week’s deep dive into Flash lore, I’m more
than willing to let them coast this week so I guess you can guess the score I’m
giving this episode.
 

 
Three Things We Learned This Week:
  1. In
    addition to meeting Matthew Kim, Harry has used the Thinking Cap to determine
    the names of the remaining bus-metas. 
    Their names are: Janet Petty and Edwin Goss. (Gauss is the name of a
    second-tier Flash Rogue called the Folding Man and many people assume that
    Janet will be Null. This seems logical.)
  2. Iris
    quit her job at the paper after Barry disappeared last year and has now
    restarted her Flash blog.
  3. The
    Team intends to try and use Matthew’s powers to defeat DaVoe.
 
Three Questions:
  1. What
    was Iris doing for money?
  2. Why
    was Iris’ lightning purple?
  3. Has
    Matthew unintentionally given powers to someone before Birch?
     
    One Nitpick:
  1. Can put the “Run Barry/Wally/Whoever,
    Run” line to bed for a while?
    (There
    was actually going to be two because of Joe teasing Barry at the end of the
    episode but I remembered that Barry didn’t create a tidal wave with his speed,
    he stopped and since it caused him to travel back in time and stop that tidal
    wave from ever starting he’s never done it.)

Just another guy on the internet.