While I certainly donât think Barry should be getting forced aside on his own show too often, I also canât complain too much when we get to focus on a character I already love in Cisco and one whoâs continuing to grow on me in Chester. These 2 have a great dynamic together, and as cheesy as they got during this episode, itâs still just a lot of fun to see them get excited about everything and continue to bond. I also figured that this specific time jump would allow for some added character background instead of just giving everyone an excuse to engage in a bunch of â90s tropes, and I really thought the attention given to Chesterâs past w/ his father was pretty great. Between previously thinking that his dad was always too busy to spend time w/ him and then realizing that he only worked so hard on his inventions for Chester, we got some really important details on his character that served to increase our investment in him going forward. I was definitely skeptical about him being a regular after what seemed like a pretty quick introduction, but Iâve definitely been warming up to him and can now say more confidently that Iâm looking forward to seeing how his role on the team continues to progress as the season goes on
For as much as Barry obviously misses his mom, I think itâs a struggle for him seeing the Speed Force w/ his motherâs face for this long. In their previous encounters, they only met for a little bit at a time, but this feels like the longest amount of time the Speed Force has been around, and itâs only going to keep growing. He knows that this obviously isnât his mother, but perhaps heâs worried about falling into a trap where he, in some twisted way, starts to convince himself that it is her, or certainly come close to something like that. Even after all these years, I think this experience w/ the Speed Force is really gonna bring up some complicated, unresolved grief that Barry still holds toward his motherâs death, and youâd think that wouldnât still be around after about 20 years, but then you remember that this hasnât been a straightforward grieving process. True, it was more like that for the 1st 15 years of his life, but between going back to watch his mother die as an adult, losing his dad a year later, saving his mom shortly after to cause Flashpoint and then having to allow Thawne to murder her once again, thereâs a lot of messiness surrounding Barryâs experience w/ his motherâs death. But while this all certainly wonât be easy to address, I do still think that Iris will be right about this being a gift for Barry in the end. When this is all said and done, I think Barry will be able to finally move past so many of these complicated, lingering emotions in a healthy way. Itâll be fine for him to still hold onto a piece of his mother, but in a way where he maybe doesnât have to still feel guilty for not being able to save her on multiple occasions
Iâm not gonna lie, Iâm really upset and disappointed that we didnât get that scene. I know it wasnât technically promised to us, but I donât see any good reason why we couldnât have gotten it. The fact that they glanced over it tells me that Kelly didnât already secretly know, and so even if her reaction wouldnât have been that strong, it still wouldâve elicited some strong emotions regardless. The fact is that Kelly finding out about Karaâs identity after all this time is an incredibly important part of her development and strengthening of her relationship w/ the Super Friends. Not actually seeing that moment play out even when we know it happened off screen means that weâre less able to connect w/ what Kelly and Alex were going through at that point, and so it really reduces both of their developments. Itâs just disheartening to see Kelly getting sidelined once again, and Iâm gonna be very curious to see if that scene was shot but then deleted, written but never shot or never even written at all
I feel like it was a little of both, as this couldâve easily been a case of Andrea seeing a path to helping them both out. In her eyes, Lena would get the satisfaction of making her brotherâs conviction more likely and Andrea would reap the benefits of the added attention that such a story would provide to CatCo. I can certainly see how sheâd view this as a win-win situation for them, and even further as an attempt to continue fixing their friendship, but I also think she really shouldâve waited a little longer to bring it up, or at least ease into it more. Youâd hope that she wouldâve realized that this was a sensitive topic for Lena, and that she probably wouldnât want to just dive into it so quickly when she really needed the comfort of Andreaâs friendship more. But like Lena admitted later, her reaction to Andreaâs proposal also couldâve been toned down more, so you can really argue that they were both at fault while also both having good points. Lexâs trial might not have turned out the way they wanted, but I am interested to see how theyâll both work to finally take him down, and hopefully for good this time. I still love the way Jon Cryer portrays Lex, but heâs still well overstayed his welcome and really needs to just go
I do enjoy seeing the whole cast, especially because it feels like they never have the whole of Team Flash in one place. Someone is always missing. So it was cool to focus on a couple of them and then bring it back to everyone.