Television

FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 6×17- “Liberation”

The Flash (6×17)- “Liberation”

Written by:         Jonathan Butler & Gabriel Garza

Directed by:       Jeff Byrd

We start off with Cisco, Ralph and Barry making at first attempt at the reboot of the Speed Force and it goes about as well as you’d expect any attempt at something like this to be while we’re still in late Act Two of our story arc. A whole lot of noise, then a whole lot of nothing. (To be fair, there were some promising signs to suggest that something will reignite the Speed Force but we’ll get there.)

That’s when Cecile shows up trying to get Barry and Iris to reconcile but Barry’s not interested. So it’s time to check in with Eva, Not-Iris and Not-Kamilla. Working on their evil plan but before we can find some details of that plan Cecile shows up and tries to convince Not-Iris to bridge the gulf between them.  Since this is all part of Eva’s plan, Not-Iris is even less receptive than Barry was.

Cecile heads home only to find Barry there and he’s gone a little bit conspiracy crazy.

Barry’s determined that Iris isn’t Iris.  He’s finally added up all the weird things that have happened the last few episodes and he’s put two and two together.  He’s even tracked it all the way to the night she went to McCulloch Tech.  Unfortunately, Barry looks a bit crazy to Cecile since she isn’t in on all the stuff we’ve seen but she’s trying to listen.

After a quick hop over to Caitlin’s place where Ralph and Cisco find her dying it’s time to check in with Iris and Eva on the other side of the mirror.  Iris has been thinking of ways to get them back home but all she has at the moment is trying to figure what’s going on with the mirror.  Eva’s not keen on all that broken glass (or letting Iris get home) so she freaks out which stops Iris but after Eva leaves Iris notices a button that she somehow hasn’t noticed until now.

She presses it and finds some sort of secret but before we can see they go back to Barry and Cecile at the Paper. Where Barry’s doing some light espionage to try which is better than…

But not by much, fortunately Barry finds the pick that Kamila took of Wally and Not-Iris a few weeks back and he hits on an idea to test out his theory.

Over at Iris and Barry’s, all the Not-People are putting up mirrors and we finally get a hint of their plan. There’s not a lot of details but Bloodwork is involved so I’m a bit excited for that part.  But Not-Iris gets called back to STAR Labs where Barry, Cecile and Nash confront her about the whole “she’s Not-Iris” thing.  Unfortunately, much like his attempt to reboot the Speed Force was too early in the season, it’s too in the episode for Barry’s plan to work.  It goes so badly in fact that somehow Barry’s outed as the mirror clone and he’s locked up in the Pipeline.

Back in the mirror dimension no time has passed for Iris and she sees Eva’s secret lab and it shows her Eva’s actions this season but something about her equipment is too painful and Iris collapses only to be found by Eva.  Then it’s back to Caitlin’s where Cisco has whipped up some tech that serves two purposes. First, he gets to convince Ralph to shock the hell out of himself and second it’ll jumpstart Caitlin’s immune system.  It gets Caitlin out of her near coma but she needs serious help and that means they have to get her in contact with her mother.

Meanwhile, Not-Kamilla and Not-Singh are waiting outside of ARGUS for Not-Iris before the three go in since Not-Singh has pulled some strings as Police Commissioner to see Bloodwork.  But before that there’s a flashback that shows us how Eva saved Not-Iris’ bacon and turned Barry’s trap back on him.  Once in the room with Bloodwork they ask for some of his blood for Eva to use in exchange for his freedom.  Once Bloodwork agrees, Not-Kamilla sacrifices herself to free him and Bloodwork takes Not-Singh out however before he does the same to Not-Iris he gets he to admit that she’s not a perfect drone for Eva.  He still gives them some of his blood but he returns to his cell.

Back at STAR Labs, Cecile lets Barry out of his cell to help him get Iris back.  Barry finds Not-Iris at their apartment and tries to stop Not-Iris but it seems she’s got some tricks as she turns into the T-1000 and uses Eva’s command of mirrors to give Barry the death of a thousand cuts.  It works so well that if it weren’t for Iris pressing Eva’s psychological buttons that would have been the end of Barry Allen then and there.

Barry tries to talk Not-Iris into helping him get Iris back but before she can Eva severs their link and she dies.  What’s worse is Eva’s able to use her device and Bloodwork’s blood to cross back to the outside world.  Barry tries to stop but his powers are almost gone and even if she’s crazier than the proverbial bag of cats she’s more than a match for him and she escapes.

Barry comes to later, healed for the most part but Eva is long gone.  He tries to talk to Iris through the mirror and on the other side she tries to talk to him each of them promise to find each other and fix this.

Solid episode this week. Pretty standard superhero stuff but that’s fine. Not every story has to be original, they just have to be told well.  I’ll be interested to see how things play out since the season has apparently been cut short due to but as for this there’s not a whole lot to say.  This was a C+ episode, good but not great and not a whole lot stands out good or bad.  So I guess it’s time to wrap it up.

Things We Learned:

  1. Barry has learned of the survival of Eva McCulloch as well as the abduction of Iris, Kamilla and Singh.
  2. Caitlin’s injuries are severe enough that she needs help from her mother.
  3. Eva has been freed from the mirror dimension.
  4. Not-Iris and Not-Kamilla are dead.
  5. Some of Bloodwork’s blood is out in the open.

Questions:

  1. Does Barry have any speed left?
  2. Can Caitlin’s mother help her?
  3. What is Eva’s plan?
  4. Is enough of Bloodwork’s blood out in the open to free him?

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