‘The Flash’ Episode 1.20 “The Trap” (9 out of 10) Starring Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Rick Cosnett, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Tom Kavanaugh, and Jesse L. Martin. First broadcast April 8, 2015.
Unlike sister production “Arrow,” which seems to be veering off in random directions each week, “The Flash” has remained consistent, running a true course to the end of the season. The second half of the season has had Barry Allen and his allies racing to find the identity of Reverse Flash, and in last week’s episode found the last pieces of the puzzle that confirmed that he’s been right under their noses this entire time — Dr. Harrison Wells. More accurately, a time traveler named Eobard Thawne that killed and took the identity of Original Dr. Wells. Poor guy.
We get all of the answers about Reverse Flash.
The cliffhung episode started in the same place, With Barry, Caitlin and Cisco in the “Time Vault,” the secret room at S.T.A.R. Labs. They see Reverse Flash’s costume and meet the A.I. “Gideon,” who gives them the rest of the information they needed. We get all of the answers. There’s also a newspaper (probably a website or something actually, but in a newspaper format) from the year 2024 that tells them about the Flash’s disappearance in a crisis…and if you freeze frame, the article mentions Flash working together with the Atom, Green Arrow, and Hawkgirl. Yeah, “Green” Arrow, not just “Arrow.” Yay. Um…back to Reverse Flash. Now they just need a confession to get Barry’s dad out of prison for Nora Allen’s murder 15 years earlier.
They do some lucid dream-diving with Cisco, they perfect a trap he had begun, and they get ready for their ambush. It all goes pretty seamlessly. To a point.
On the domestic front, we have Eddie (Thawne, remember) ready to propose to Iris. We also have Iris’s name credited in that Time Vault newspaper ten years in the future as “Iris West-Allen,” implying that at some point, it’s Barry who weds Iris (his practically adopted sister, remember). So there’s that relationshippy stuff muddying the waters, but not derailing the story. Which is good. Joe West dad-blocks the proposal temporarily, and then Reverse Flash does so perhaps less temporarily. But temporally. BECAUSE TIME TRAVEL. The final ten minutes of the episode have Reverse Flash/Dr. Wells/Eobard Thawne monologuing a lot. We get some of his motivation, his thinking, his process, and even some of his future plans for the Flash. If Wells is departing the show as a series regular, he’s going out with a bang.
There are a number of flashbacks in this episode that add some layers to the relationship between Barry and the Wests, and that give Iris some hints that will help her further unlock the mystery of the Flash. They don’t do the flashbacks nearly as much as “Arrow,” and I like that. This series is better at just about everything, and for me is still the model that “Supergirl” and “Titans” should look to when coming up with their own template for a series. So do that, DC Entertainment.
Next week we finally meet Gorilla Grodd. He’s been teased, he’s been glimpsed, but this will be the first time he gets a dedicated episode. Something I would have been dreading on a television show five years ago…but an appearance I’m pumped for now. Get your hands on me, you damn dirty ape!
Gross.