The Flash Review – “Fast Enough”

Kyle’s Review

We waited the entire season to see Barry go back in time and “Fast Enough” delivered on the pilot’s promise. We saw Barry and the Reverse-Flash go back to the night of Barry’s mother’s death. But it didn’t go exactly as we thought it might. This review will have major spoilers (there’s no way to get around that unless I speak in code and then you won’t understand much of anything), so don’t go any further with this review if you haven’t seen The Flash finale and you want to avoid spoilers.

Barry doesn’t save his mother. He likes the timeline he’s in (the one this season was set in) and the man he’s become, so he upholds the past where Thawne kills Mrs. Allen. I’m not sure if Henry Allen’s (Barry’s father) died in the fury too – he didn’t look so hot on the floor of his house – but Barry gained the closure he needed, so this wasn’t too shocking of a turn. The real shocker came based off of something I said off-the-cuff a few weeks ago, when I asked, “What’s keeping Eddie Thawne from killing himself now that he knows his offspring turn evil and they yield Eobard?” We got our answer. Eddie took his own life and the Reverse-Flash faded into the nether. The Flash Writers Room must have noticed how silly of a decision this was for Eobard. He had nothing to gain from telling Eddie his lineage and everything to lose.

What happens after Eobard’s fade to nothing makes me wonder if we won’t see a lot of “correcting” the past next season. I don’t believe or can’t believe that Eddie, and more importantly, Eobard stay dead. We might have to wait a full season or until the midseason break before getting reacquainted with Eobard/Harrison Wells, but he will be back—eventually. Comic book characters have a nasty way of coming back from the dead (i.e. Captain America: Winter Soldier with Cap, Winter Soldier, the Hydra scientist, and Nick Fury). Of course, there has been more than one Reverse-Flash. Hunter Zolomon, anyone?

I’ll share one last revelation from “Fast Enough”: Cisco knows about the alternate timeline because of his vibe powers. I’m on the fence about this for a couple of reasons. 1) Cisco remembers that one timeline but not the others—I know that he probably doesn’t die as dramatically as he does in this one timeline, but you’d think he’d have some recollection of another timeline. 2) Wells says that Cisco was affected by the particle accelerator but in the comics, and according to the The Flash Writers Room when asked about the future, Caitlin Snow will become Killer Frost. So, why is Cisco exhibiting Vibe powers while Caitlin doesn’t show a hint of Frost?

These last points are by no means deal breakers for me. The Flash proved its worth this season and I intend to keep watching.

Not Flashy enough for you? Check out our Flash secrets page and yes, I didn’t spoil all the secrets.

iZombie Review – “Mr. Berserk”

Kyle’s Review

Several story arcs collided in this week’s iZombie, “Mr. Berserk”: Liv deals with the fall out of her zombie beau’s death, Major thinks he’s going crazy – because who would believe in real zombies? – and checks into a mental institution, folks start questioning Blaine’s ties to the Seattle Police Department, and Major Rager rears their ugly head again.

As you can see, a lot happened with the ongoing story arcs and the weekly mystery fed into these arcs, leaving the show’s conclusion in an unprecedented place. I won’t say where iZombie left us this week – I don’t want to give away any spoilers – but “Mr. Berserk” ends in a satisfying way.

I’ve been on the fence with iZombie since the pilot. It looked too much like Pushing Daisies at first, but it found its voice after a few months and stepped out of that show’s shadow, for the moment. Usually, the ongoing stories introduce drama, while the weekly mysteries brighten things up. That wasn’t the case with “Mr. Berserk” as Liv turns from eating PTSD brains last week to eating the brains of a raging alcoholic this week. Oddly enough, those same alcoholic brains were of an investigative reporter, so Liv took the role of a detective like she’s never done before. That’s another welcome change but hopefully, iZombie will return to form; it’d be too easy for Liv to become a full-fledged detective by continuing to eat the brains of detectives.

But the most welcome change this week came in how the deadly cocktail of PTSD and alcoholic brains played out. “Mr. Berserk” promised us a dark episode of iZombie and it delivered on that promise.

Bob’s Burgers Review – “The Oeder Games”

Kyle’s Review

“Hawk & Chick” was the sentimental half to Bob’s Burgers season finale, while “The Oeder Games” ends things with a laugh. Even though Bob’s Burgers appropriates the episode’s name from The Hunger Games (Zeke, addressing Jimmy Junior, says, “You’re the Katniss to my Pita Bread”), this episode plays more like a classic Community water gun finale.

Mister Fishoeder plans to raise everyone’s rent and when his tenants tell him that they plan to strike, he sets up a last-man-standing water balloon fight. Bob tries to keep everyone together in their strike but no one listens because Mr. Fishoeder promises half rent to the winner. Wet and wild fun breaks loose.

Linda forfeits her bra for a water balloon cannon, Gene and Louise search for high ground, Tina steadies her solo balloon to gain Jimmy Junior’s affections, and Jimmy Senior uses his twins as human shields. I won’t go into any further detail but “The Oeder Games” ends well, with Mr. Fishoeder coming clean with why he wants to raise the rent and both sides coming to a compromise.

“The Oeder Games” is mindless fun but it’s a good way to end Bob’s Burgers’ fifth season. I just think it would’ve been more at home with Community.

Bob’s Burgers Review – “Hawk & Chick”

Kyle’s Review

I’ll start this Bob’s Burgers review by saying that there’s no way I can be impartial; “Hawk & Chick” hits too close to home. I also don’t like giving away too much of the plot during these reviews but it’s going to be hard this week. That said, here’s a quick run-down of the episode.

Louise grew up watching a samurai movie series with her father where a father and daughter fight monsters, and that reminds me of my daughter and me watching anime and reading manga together. Getting back to Bob and his daughter, they run into the father in those samurai movies and find that he hasn’t seen his daughter in decades after his wife took her in their divorce. The actor shares that his daughter is in town, and after hearing this, Bob and Louise plan to reconnect the estranged father and daughter by putting on a midnight showing of Hawk & Chick at the local theater and inviting the two stars, unbeknownst to the daughter. Halfway through the screening, the daughter tries to leave and that’s when she bumps into her father. Awkwardness ensues but the episode finds a happy ending.

In short, I liked “Hawk & Chick.” How could I not? You knew that Bob would draw parallels to his and Louise’s relationship – much like I did with my daughter’s – but Louise found similarities as well. Louise found herself saying, “It’s cool working with your dad—I mean, your dad. Wait! Is that what’s going to happen to me?” Bob reassures her that they’ll stay close and that thread ends as happily as Hawk and Chick’s.

We didn’t get too many revelations from the other members of the cast, except for Linda who has underwear that’s thirty-years-old, but “Hawk and Chick” was still a strong episode in a great season of Bob’s Burgers.

Orphan Black Review – “Scarred by Many Past Frustrations”

Kyle’s Review

The latest Orphan Black, “Scarred by Many Past Frustrations,” had plenty of twists and turns. Helena and Sarah’s reversal of fortunes came about organically. Helena’s been on the short end plenty of times that it’s fitting that she escapes her prison cell, while Sarah cools her heels. Bu the twist where the male clones pass on some sort of disease to any woman they have – ahem – relations with came out of no where and felt forced.

I think this is the episode that shows just how big the cast of Orphan Black has gotten. The writers jammed as much plot as they could into “Scarred by Many Past Frustrations” and we didn’t get a single scene with Alison (her story, while interesting, has nothing to do with anyone else’s) and this is the second week in a row where we haven’t seen either Delphine or Rachel. Granted, I don’t think we’ll see Rachel again any time soon, but there’s so much going on this season that you can’t latch onto one character before another one takes their place.

Rachel made a compelling villain last season and no one has stepped into her shoes—yet. There’s still another half to Orphan Black’s third season, but Castor needs to grow an identity. I’m still not sold on Ari Millen as the male clones because they act the same way. I know that all of the boys are part of the military and that’s part of it, but there needs to be some variance to how these guys act and I haven’t seen much if any. And the mother character is too shrouded in mystery for her own good. She’s kind of like a less interesting Mrs. S.

Speaking of which, Mrs. S opened up about her husband and I liked that a lot. We knew she was married before and it was touching to see her open up to Gracie, and I also liked how Gracie is Felix’s new pet, now that Cosima’s back on her feet.

The scenes with the Maslany female clones were stellar. Cosima’s new relationship broke up the other clone girls’ escape plan. Helena’s the most abused female clone and it makes sense that she can’t trust her sister Sarah—it also makes sense that she can’t leave her either because she has no one else.

As a result of these disparate story arcs, “Scarred by Many Past Frustrations” teetered between good but shaky and excellent, and we’re left with an interesting crossroad for Orphan Black by episode’s end.

Grimm Review – “Cry Havoc”

Kyle’s Review

Arrow started the trend of no cliff-hangers for next season and it looks as though Grimm continues that trend. That’s not to say that “Cry Havoc” didn’t leave things messy. A major character died, a few other minor characters died, too, and we finally had a resistance sighting—Grimm teased us with them earlier this season. I’m not convinced that the major character died but even without that, Grimm should be darker next season like it was during its first season and that should get fans excited.

Grimm fans rejoice. The show was renewed for a fifth season in February, so we should see resolutions to this season’s loose-ends. I know I said that Grimm had no cliff-hangers but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of story threads to work with after the finale. Adalind should give birth to her and Nick’s child. Adalind’s other child, the magical one-year-old who looks like she’s four (Grimm still hasn’t explained that), was all kinds of creepy and should factor into the aforementioned resistance. Trubel’s back and she may have brought more trouble with her. About the only thing that didn’t carry over was the Renard/Jack the Ripper storyline—Renard got a convenient alibi/patsy. I thought that story was dead last week and this week confirmed my suspicions.

I still would’ve liked more (consequences or something) with the Renard story arc than what we got but overall, this was a solid Grimm season four finale with plenty of revenge and backstabbing that it earned the episode’s title “Cry Havoc.”

Arrow Review – “My Name is Oliver Queen”

Kyle’s Review

The title for this week’s Arrow, “My Name is Oliver Queen,” was prophetic. Sure, it showed up in dialogue but the entire episode got wrapped up in a nice little bow: Ra’s was defeated, the accident that turned Atom into a hero in the comics happened, a new Ra’s assumed control of the league, and we’re left with a scene where Ollie can be Ollie. Frankly, it was too neat. Don’t get me wrong, I liked seeing Ollie happy at the end, but this felt like this was the end of the series instead of Arrow getting renewed for another season. Maybe it’s the mark of the Arrow 2.0.

I won’t spoil anything more than I’ve already spoiled but I bought Ollie’s original plan of dying along with Ra’s. His second plan, while preferable to him dying, wasn’t nearly as plausible as the first, and the third plan required an even larger leap of faith, in terms of suspension of disbelief.

Still, we got a lot of great action and saw Ollie happy for the first time. I’m not sure most people know the exact moments when they’re truly happy—that’s more of a Hollywood thing. Happiness usually dissipates before we realize we were happy in the first place, but it’s nice to see Ollie smile. Hopefully, this will lead to Ollie becoming more light-hearted.

Verdict:

Despite having to take several leaps of disbelief, Arrow’s season finale “My Name is Oliver Queen” finished well but it begs the question, when does the other shoe drop?

Want more Arrow? Here’s our secret page.

The Flash Review – “Rogue Air”

Kyle’s Review

This week’s Flash, “Rogue Air,” was an odd one. As the name implies, the Rogues made another appearance and they added to their roster, just like the comics, but these new recruits escaped from their prison (the particle accelerator) in a manner I didn’t see coming and that was a good thing.

I thought that since the Reverse-Flash had freed one of the prisoners, he’d just free the rest of them – he had access – but he used Barry’s desire to save everyone against the do-gooder. The Reverse-Flash turning on the particle accelerator (last week) would kill the prison’s residents if they were still in their cells once the device came on-line, so Barry had to relocate them. Unfortunately, the Flash trusted Captain Cold – of all people – to help him contain these meta-humans. In short, the plan didn’t work and I’m left wondering why Barry would trust Snart.

Barry’s mind had to be shifted to neutral on that one and he didn’t listen to Detective West, who told him not to do it. I guess we all make mistakes, but this was a big one, Barry, and you added Snart and his monotone monologues to the screen.

I don’t know why, but Wentworth Miller’s Snart annoyed me more this episode than in previous ones. Perhaps it’s because I know he’s getting his own spin-off series (here’s a link to our take on the new Arrow/Flash spin-off) or maybe the ever increasing gravity of The Flash/Captain Cold sequences brings out Miller’s inner Super-Ham. I don’t know but slowing down your speech doesn’t make you sound more sinister/intelligent; it makes you sound daft. That’s why I gave the credit to the escape plan to the aforementioned Reverse-Flash.

Speaking of the Reverse-Flash, we saw a great action sequence between him and a trio of heroes: the Flash, Firestorm, and Arrow, who doesn’t explain how he got to Central City from Nanda Parbat or how Ray Palmer could’ve designed a specialty arrow to stop the Reverse-Flash while he was in a coma. But let’s not quibble about semantics, that was some good eye candy but the resolution for the heroes was so quick and clean that Wells must have something up his sleeve for next week’s Flash finale.

Verdict:

“Rogue Air” took some odd turns but it set up The Flash’s season finale well.

If you didn’t get enough Flash with our review, check out our Flash secrets page here.

iZombie Review – “Patriot Brains”

Kyle’s Review

iZombie killed off a character in this week’s “Patriot Brains.” I won’t say who dies but the death makes for a compelling scene and sets a few things straight, sending iZombie into the home stretch with a good stride.

Per the better episodes of iZombie, we didn’t get much of Liv’s narrative voice, the week’s victim has an interesting backstory, and the abilities and neuroses Liv gained from the victim played well with both the mystery’s solution and the ongoing story lines. A lot came into focus and the slow boil of the zombie underground could make a good season finale.

I also liked that Liv’s love life will take a backseat. Perhaps we’ll see a slower build toward future zombie lovin’. If you’ve followed my iZombie reviews up to this point, you’ll know that I need a little time to wrap my brain around a zombie love story. I can get there but iZombie will have to work for it and “Patriot Brains” put in a lot of work this week.

Orphan Black Review – “Newer Elements of Our Defense”

Kyle’s Review

“Newer Elements of Our Defense” continued the entangled genetics of the male and female clones with delicious results. This week’s Orphan Black ended with a cliffhanger, so I won’t be able to go into too much detail, but believe me when I say you won’t be disappointed and if you haven’t been following Orphan Black, “Newer Elements of Our Defense” would be a difficult entry point.

Orphan Black found a way to give all the main clones – both male and female – even screen time. That doesn’t happen in most episodes – it may have never happened in a single episode – and it’s nice to see here. We pick up where we left off last week with Sarah in a cornfield with Mark, who’s bleeding out. They dance a Tango of I don’t trust you and we’re family all the way to unearthing something every organization on Orphan Black has been looking for since the first episode. I won’t spoil the surprise but the two clones were good dancing partners and their little dance factors into the show’s cliffhanger.

As for the rest of the clones, they filled certain roles for a well-rounded episode. Cosima give us our romantic angle as she moves on from Delphine and hits the dating scene. Allison has great comedic timing with her bumbling husband and they give us a break from the heavier scenes. But Helena shows off her stealth abilities. While Sarah delivered some great psychological thrills, Helena had the physical thrills on lock down.

After a slow start, Orphan Black has reached its stride with this week’s “Newer Elements of Our Defense.”