FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 8×03- “Armageddon, Part 3”

The Flash (08×03)- “Armageddon, Part 3″

Written by: Sam Chalsen

Directed by: Chris Peppe

So we left off with Barry telling Black Lightning about “Injustice” and it turns out that wasn’t just Barry being dramatic. It seems that “Injustice” is a protocol for taking the powers from a member that is going rogue. Barry explains everything that’s been going on and Jefferson is (logically) hesitant. After all, that’s (supposed to be) a permanent solution to what might be a temporary problem. He tries to get Barry to relax for a moment but let’s be real here has asking someone to calm down ever actually worked?

In the end, Jefferson agrees but he wants to make sure it’s the right choice before he does it.

Back at Chester’s garage, Cecile has basically taken command of the situation. Iris arrives and she believes that something’s going on here because like we established last week isn’t all this tragedy a little too much a little too fast? I believe in the rule of threes when it comes to problems but Barry lost his job, STAR Labs and his surrogate father in the span of a day…

However, things get strange when Iris tries to plead her case Cecile lays down the law. Hard. Joe is dead and she won’t hear otherwise. So Iris and Allegra head out to find proof that something is wrong while Cecile… I’m just going to say it, Cecile strong-arms the rest of the team into helping her find Barry. To do that, she wants to pump up her powers and… doesn’t this seem a little suspicious? Caitlin? Chester? No red flags at all?

Iris and Allegra head to the train station where Joe died to search for clues and Iris sees something on the tracks where it happened. Allegra doesn’t but she does notice the cameras so they go to ask security guy. He shows them the local footage and it does look Joe just fell… Kind of. Iris decides to leave but she looks about as convinced as I am.

Across town, Cecile finds The Top hustling pool and the pair get a little catty with each other before Cecile tries to get Top’s help finding Barry. She agrees in exchange for legal help.

Back at the Hall of Justice, Barry and Jefferson work of the equipment to take his powers and the pair bond over fallen comrades. Jefferson tries to get Barry not to just throw away his powers but after eight seasons of The Flash we know how Barry gets when he decides to do something stupid. Barry finishes the tech and it’s time to take Barry’s powers away.

Back at Iris’ office, Allegra has found some interesting information. The train that hit Joe was supposedly running early that day which Allegra thought was suspicious as the Red Line had a reputation for always being behind schedule and with good reason as it turns out the train had passed a maintenance inspection just two days prior. She also found several other strange coincidences surrounding Joe’s death that, while not proving Joe’s still alive, do point to someone manipulating the situation.

Iris is losing hope at this point but when Allegra tries to get her to look at what she found Iris sees more of the strange particles she say at the train station and she decides to get in touch with Deon at the train station.

At Chester’s, Caitlin and Chester have whipped up some Chester-tech to help Cecile and Top boost their powers enough to find Barry. Cecile starts to freak out but Top goes tough long on her until she can power through. They almost find Barry when Chester’s machine shorts out and he has to make repair. Their search also alerts Despero and he decides to wait for them to find Barry, because never do the work someone else is doing when you can just capitalize on it.

Iris and Deon meet in the train station and she shows him the particles she’s been seeing. Deon can’t sense any manipulations to the Timeline but Iris is sure that what she’s seeing means something and asks him to remove the Still Force energy he’s been using to keep her in place in the Timeline. Deon does as she asks and through her he sees the remnants of time manipulation that points to someone using the Negative Still Force to manipulate time without his notice. “Negative Still Force” Deon?

Back at Chester’s, Caitlin tries to talk with Cecile about what Top is trying to get her to do and when Cecile tries to play the “You don’t understand the depth of my pain” card Caitlin shuts her down because if there’s one person on Team Flash that knows what it’s like to lose someone they love it’s Caitlin. But just as Caitlin starts to get through to Cecile, Chester’s phone warns them that the Particle Accelerator has been reactivated. You know, just in case things weren’t bad enough.

At STAR Labs, it turns out that Despero fired up the accelerator and for good measure he puts the whammy on the government shut down team so they turn on each other. He then starts to syphon the energy from the accelerator to give himself an extra boost.

The Team try to find Barry again and this time Cecile can see Barry and Jefferson at the Hall of Justice and that’s about when Despero shows up looking for Barry. Top tries to cut a deal but that goes just about as bad as it can go for her and she ends up collapsed with blood pouring out of her nose. So when he turns his third eye on Cecile she uses her love for Joe to fight back and she seems to get the upper hand.

Back at the Hall, Jefferson’s almost severed Barry’s connection to the Speed Force and Barry’s starting to get desperate and that’s when he lets Despero’s name slip. Jefferson is rightfully upset that Barry withheld the vital information that a super powerful alien they know nothing about claiming to be from the future says Barry will turn evil and Barry just blindly believes him with no real proof and the confrontation the two get into about it turns into a fight.

Barry and Jefferson are pretty evenly matched but while Jefferson can control Barry’s lightning he can’t counter Barry’s speed the fight ends up destroying the memorial the League set up to honor Oliver which finally get through to Barry that he’s acting crazy because he’s afraid.

That’s when Despero shows up, fortunately for Barry so do Deon and Iris. While Jefferson holds off Despero, Deon sends Barry into the future to see what finally sets Barry off in 2031. He finds all of his friends gathered at a private party honoring the engagement of Iris to Harrison Wells… and that’s where things end.

Another good episode this week. I like where things are heading a lot, there were a couple of times when I kind of looked at what was going on and said to myself “Come on!” (How anyone could watch that CCTV of Joe falling off the platform and take it a face value is beyond me. Meanwhile, Cecile is acting super suspicious. Yes, she’s torn up by Joe’s death but the way she just seems to flip a switch should be giving people just a little pause.)

I like Jefferson acting as a voice of reason because from an outsider’s point of view Barry does seem to be completely panicked without sufficient cause.

As for the end, we discussed it in the last review too much happened in too short a time to be anything other than someone pulling the strings and there’s not a lot of people with both the power an motivation to not only ruin Barry’s life, not only manipulate Time and Space to do it but to still Iris from Barry while he did it other than Eobard Thawne. The Negative Still Force concept is a little clunky but I’m willing to let it slide for now since Iris has basically screwed herself by asking Deon to remove the energy that was keeping her from going on an unexpected trip through time which should make for a good story.

I’ll be interested to see how the final two episodes play out for this story and where Despero fits into the landscape when it does play out. So yeah, Armageddon has been a good thing for the show.

Things We Learned:

The Injustice Protocols were agreed upon by the members of the League that if a member went rogue the other members would take steps to take their powers.
Iris is still at risk of becoming unstuck in time.
The Negative Still Force allows for manipulation of time without Deon’s knowledge.
“Harrison Wells” is seemingly behind the manipulation of events leading to Barry destroying Central City in the future.

Questions:

Will Top die from her injuries?
It’s safe to assume why that “Harrison Wells” is Eobard Thawne so why isn’t really in question therefore, how has he been able to do this?
Is Cecile compromised in some way?
Can Despero be convinced that Barry isn’t the danger?