FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 8×08- “The Fire Next Time”

The Flash (08×08)- “The Fire Next Time”

Written by:         Joshua V Gilbert

Directed by:       David McWhirter

We open at O’Shaughnessy’s after closing time and it seems a guy named Stan has been left to lock up.  He takes a look around before he’s attacked by an unknown assailant. Unknown to us anyway since Stan seems to know who they are. Whoever they are, Stan owes them money, they like glam rock and they have some sort of heat power.

The next morning at Barry and Iris’ loft, Iris finds Barry getting ready for work but notices he is distracted and kind of sullen.  She glances at the calendar and suddenly realizes whatever the problem is so she offers to cancel her evening plans to spend the evening with him. Barry is appreciative but declines before he heads to work and we’re left with another ominous look at the calendar.

It’s just a haircut, Barry. You don’t have to be nervous.

Barry arrives at the scene of Stan’s death and finds Chester already on the scene and he’s also a bit skittish but we know why he’s acting off, since he told Allegra about the time he burned a friend’s house down.  Stan was torched but there’s not as much as a scorch mark on the floor.

There is a ton of dark matter in the air and a witness.  After she mentioned their argument was about a “LIPS” concert Barry remembers a meta with fire powers named “The Hotness” aka Jaco Birch.  The bartender recognizes Birch and this is looking to be really open and shut.  Maybe the rest of the episode will be an in real time experience of the booking process at CCPD? Stay tuned for the Act II Drama when Jaco accidently gets the ink they used to take his finger prints on the little white board they make him hold during his mug shot!

Or maybe not. Chester is kind of concerned because while Stan was burnt to a crisp, as I pointed out the rest of O’Shaughnessy’s is completely unharmed which doesn’t quite fit with The Hotness’ power set.

Over at CCC Media, Iris is giving Allegra a new assignment, she wants to run profiles of everyday people around town which Allegra seems to be really into until Iris reveals the first focus of these profiles is Rosie Levin. A social media influencer. Suddenly, it seems like a character that’s spent a large portion of this season talking about D&D is too good for the Instagram blogger.

Settle down, Allegra. You just racked up some a-hole points needlessly.

Iris agrees, mostly because Levin has a lot of follower that might start reading the CCC if they like what they find when they profile Rosie.  With adblocker becoming built into browsers at this point, you’ve got to pay the bills if you want to be the “vOiCe Of ThE pEoPlE.”

It seems Allegra is also mad because Taylor from the bullpen brought the idea of profiling Levin to her and she said no. Taylor then, and I’m going to highlight this because it’s important for later she went behind Allegra’s back and took the idea to Iris anyway. Remember that part.

Iris asks her to work with Taylor on the story to try and to build a rapport with Taylor.

We find Birch working security at a concert venue. Hey! I’ve worked at concert venues most of my life too! I hope Jaco didn’t do it now, ‘because I feel a real sense of comradery with him suddenly.  Also on the scene is Jaco’s estranged son, Harold.  It becomes clear quickly that Harold and Jaco don’t get along too well and Harold doesn’t respect his father or people that work in Sports and Entertainment which I’m not going to tolerate! 

Harold, you’re a little jerk!

Things go from bad to worse when the cops show up to arrest Jaco for Stan’s murder.  Barry lends a hand in the arrest but when he sees the way Jaco pleads not to be taken away from his son, Barry has a flashback to the night his mother was murdered.

Barry takes Jaco’s file to Cecile and while she thinks this is pretty by the numbers Barry’s just not convinced anymore.  He thinks they’re missing something and he’s hoping Cecile will help Jaco in court while he tries to find evidence to exonerate him.  Cecile agrees for his sake but she’s definitely not convinced.  Barry even tries to get her to use her powers to read him but she seems to think that’s an ethical problem which… You know what? I’m not sure either way on that one, the legalities of psychic lawyers is above my paygrade.

Over at Jitters, Allegra is putting in some serious effort trying to help Taylor on her interview… It’s all bad effort though. You’re really not getting me on your side here, Allegra.  Allegra then runs into an old friend from foster care and it seems she’s not having an easy a time as Allegra which plays on Allegra’s guilt and… I smell trouble here.

Back at the Police station, Jaco is meeting with Cecile and he explains that he’s been working so hard to turn things around while he was in prison for his son.  He admits to arguing with Stan but then he went home which mean he doesn’t have a good alibi.

Cecile and Barry meet later and Cecile admits she believes Jaco believes he’s innocent but she’s not convinced.  It doesn’t help that Jaco breaks out of custody and runs off to confront the waitress that id’d him.  At STAR Labs, Barry gathers the team to help him find Jaco but it seems like Chester, Cecile and Frost are not going to be too helpful here. Which I find particularly ironic coming from Frost.

They get word about a fire behind O’Shaughnessy’s and when Barry and Frost arrive on the scene they find the waitress has been burned to death in the same manner as Stan the Bartender.  This is really looking bad for Jaco.

Barry returns to the team with Lab Results and he believes there’s no way Birch could use his powers precisely enough to completely replicate the cause of death twice. Meanwhile everyone is now convinced Barry’s on some sort of wild goose chase and Cecile refuses to help any further.  Which we should probably talk about in a bit.

Barry’s has pulled out the old cork board he used to work on his mother’s murder to work on Jaco’s case when Joe finds him.  Joe gives us a key piece to Barry’s motivation to clear Jaco, today is his father’s Birthday.  Barry believes Jaco because he saw the look in his eyes and he doesn’t believe that look can be faked.  Joe tells Barry if he truly believes in Jaco then the last thing he should do is give up on him.  That’s when Chester sends a message that he found something.

Back at CCC Media, Allegra presents a profile on the friend she met up with at Jitters.  You know, when she was supposed to be helping Taylor with her profile of Levin?  Now, Allegra got really mad earlier when a subordinate went off assignment to do what she wanted so I’m sure that Iris will be thrilled that Allegra went off assignment to do what she wanted…

She’s not?

That’s weird!  I wonder what happened there!

Instead of firing her, which is probably what a lot of editors would do, Iris is going to run Allegra’s story but… She’s going to make Allegra apologize to Taylor for doing what she did.

When Barry returns he finds that Chester has analyzed the murders and determined that the victims were killed by a fusion based attack instead of fire which means Jaco could not have done it so all they have to do is get this evidence to Kramer and everything’s fixed, right?

Well… There’s a little problem of Jaco trying to take his son back from social services by force.  It seems the stress of the situation is getting to him and that’s kind of a problem since Jaco’s powers are driven by his emotional state so as he gets more and more stressed his powers get too strong to control.

Barry arrives and talks him down but there’s a thing about what Jaco’s powers do.  Seems he’s essentially drawn up magma from deep inside the Earth and it’s about to cause a volcanic eruption.  Barry quite literally phases through the Earth at this point and causes an eruption of steam which Jaco absorbs into him.  Not too shabby, Jaco.  Even your angsty son agrees.

Some time passes and we return to Cecile’s office to find that Jaco’s finally been cleared of all the charges and is reunited with Harold.  Very good work, Barry.

Someone that isn’t getting congratulated for very good work this week is Allegra.  She tries to apologize but Taylor is having none of it and frankly I agree with her.  Especially her accusation that Allegra lacks journalistic ethic and she vows to destroy Allegra.  “Good” work, Allegra.

Barry, Iris Cecile and Joe spend some time on the front porch remembering Henry before he returns to STAR Labs to file away Jaco’s case but there’s a problem. If Jaco didn’t burn up those people who did? And why?  Barry’s concerned that they may be seeing an emerging serial killer with cold fusion powers… That might be pretty serious for sure.

I liked this episode quite a bit, despite some problems.  The core story of Barry trying to make sure an innocent man doesn’t get put in prison is good but what carried it was primarily our Meta of the week, Jaco Birch as played by Max Adler.

Max did a hell of a job with his part, he tugged on the old heart strings when he had to and also did a pretty good job of being the father trying to impress his son.  It helped justify how far Barry goes to clear his name.

There were some problems, the Allegra plot fell flat. Especially since, while I believe we’re supposed to be sympathetic to and siding with Allegra but there is a big problem with her being way out of line.

She didn’t listen to Taylor when she came to her with a story because of her personal biases. When Taylor correctly assessed why Allegra shot her down and went to Iris, Allegra was upset. As a result, Allegra pouts when Iris asks her to help Taylor with her story then bails on her to write her own story. I could have understood if that had been the end of it but she went on to undercut Taylor and write her own story.  Everything Taylor said to Allegra was true and pretty justified so if she’s going to become Allegra’s rival I don’t blame her at all.

Then there’s a weird issue that keeps cropping up. For some reason the last few times they’ve played out the “no one believes Barry” plotline it seems like Cecile is leading the charge on this.  I’m not sure whether this is going somewhere or not but right now I’m not sure I like the idea of even a mild power struggle in Team Flash.

The end of the episode set up another ongoing plotline and a new possible villain. I’m interested to see what happens. I liked the meta-serial killer plotline they did with Cicada so I’m pretty hopeful to see what they do this time with the idea.

So despite some concerning moments in this episode Season Eight is still going along pretty well and it seems the show’s been renewed for another season so we can put the discussion of the end of Flash to bed for a little while longer.

Things We Learned:

1. Henry Allen was born on February 1^st and 45 the day Eobard murdered his wife.
2. There is a Meta pattern killer with some sort of power over nuclear forces.
3. Allegra has made an enemy of one of the reporters at CCC Media.
4. Jaco Birch has been cleared of the charges against him and, in addition to reconciling with his son, is now a potential ally for Team Flash in the future.

Questions:

1. Is there a special rehabilitation program for Metas exiting prison and if not why isn’t there?
2. Is the person that killed Stan the bartender this week connected more to Jaco or was that a coincidence?
3. Will this murderer also be connected to whatever is happening to Iris?
4. What will Taylor do now that she’s decided to “destroy” Allegra?
5. Will there be unforeseen problems in the future with the magma displacement Jaco caused?
6. Is it possible Jaco becomes a more regular friend of the Team now that he’s gain greater control of his abilities?