Friday TV Flashback Review: The Flash, Episodes 21-22

Though I’m sure “Trial of the Trickster” wasn’t intended to function as the series finale, it works substantially better as one than I’d expected it would. Make no mistake — it’s definitely a better as a season finale, but it doesn’t particularly fall flat as the end installment, either.

This is mostly thanks to how the episode sort of carries itself as an open-ended, “the adventure continues” type of ending, whether intentional or not. On one hand, it continues and concludes longstanding threads, leaving Megan and Trickster both open to return, but with satisfying endings when they never did, and gives ample material and moments to every main character. Julio and Sabrina move along their relationship, Murphy gets plenty of funny lines, Bellows gets to face down The Flash, and Garfield manages to get the last line of the show. Tina and Barry don’t end in a perfect place, since the show still ends with him smooching on Megan, but Megan practically gives her blessing for Tina and Barry to eventually end up together, even if they aren’t ready yet.

On the other hand, there’s a consistent sense throughout that this is the world of show moving onto the next stage. The Trickster is the only full-on costumed villain we’ve had on this show, and that’s important. Sure, we’ve had goofy looking villains or ones with gimmicks, and The Deadly Nightshade sort of counts, but their looks were always incidental. James Jesse chose to be in a costume specifically to counter The Flash’s costume, and the psychology behind that  was touched on in his first appearance. Throwing the Harley Quinn-esque Prank into the mix this time suggests that there are more people out there who could put on a suit, too, marching in what could have been an even more costumed comic book-centric second season. We already saw the show adapt more and more of Flash’s classic rogues gallery as it went along, for better or worse, so there’s no reason we wouldn’t see more in full colorful costumes. Throw in Captain Boomerang down the line, and we could have a team-up of Flash’s biggest bads a la Justice League Unlimited‘s “Flash and Substance” (which I found myself watching after completing this episode as a celebration and palate cleanser, and because it’s so delightful.)

That team-up never happens, of course, but there’s very much the sense that it can. It’s disappointing that we never saw it on screen, but the show deserves credit for setting up a universe where that seems not just possible, but likely. The episodes in which Captain Cold and Mirror Master appeared may not be among the show’s best, but that had nothing to do with the quality of how those characters were adapted. The Flash struck a balance of realistic, cost-effective adaptations while retaining the tone and spirit of the comics, which few other live action shows have been able to, perhaps until our current Arrow/The Flash universe.

It’s easy to get that sense in “Trial of the Trickster,” which has equal parts great and terrible special effects, and manages to keep things mostly grounded and believable while simultaneously being completely silly and ridiculous. It’s worth noting now that Mark Hamill’s Trickster made such an impact that Hamill will be reprising the role on the current The Flash. He’s the only villain that’s appeared twice on this iteration, and he voiced the character on the aforementioned JLU episode, which is clear evidence of how much he owned this role. Trickster works so well here because can indulge in the most colorful and imaginative aspects of a superhero show, but all of his methods are, at their core, rather grounded. Weapons are disguised with toys and vibrant colors, but they’re still just bombs and poison, so it’s not impossible that someone like The Trickster could do what he does without much suspension of disbelief.

Hamill continues to revel in the role, even when much of the material is clearly inspired/ripped off of Jack Nicholson’s Joker (the laughing gas being a prime example.) Hamill ups the ante as an even more as a more menacing Trickster after Prank strips him of any weaknesses, removing his need to be lovestruck and giving him a take no prisoners attitude. If his introduction was akin to his early episodes as The Joker on Batman: The Animated Series, then this darker Trickster is more akin to Joker in the Batman Beyond movie or Arkham Asylum games. The changes are subtle, but he’s noticeably more murderous and angry, and the cartoonishness is slightly toned down (only slightly, though.) Hell, at one point Trickster jumps out and shoots into the street with a couple of freakin’ uzis. You want a terrorist? You’ve got a terrorist.

Megan is sadly a little superfluous in the episode, even with substantial screentime, but that’s mostly because more interesting thematic and character work is done on everyone else. Overall though, the significant development between Megan’s first appearance as an ethically dubious detective and her final appearance as a successful fighter of justice stands out as the best, helped by Joyce Hyser’s entertainingly abrasive performance. Also, she punches The Trickster in the face, twice, so she’s pretty much the best character to come out of this show.

As the final adventure for this Barry Allen, it’s serviceable, though the parts admittedly work better than as a whole. The early parts of the episode hammer in a full circle feel, with Tina comparing Barry’s yearning to get rid of his powers in their initial meeting to the full embrace of his persona now. Sure, he gets fed up with the secret identity (though we admittedly haven’t seen him have too many problems with it over the course of the show.) And, in a nice touch, he acknowledges being all-but broke because of how much he eats. But, we also see that Barry is in a place where he can do the most good: “Central City, Home of The Flash,” as the change to the sign shows. This is Barry settling in and fully accepting his life as The Flash, and while we didn’t get as much of him grappling with his identities as his conversation suggests, it’s still fitting with this episode tying up what the season began. It’s perhaps par the course, as the episodic nature of this series has led to more contained types of character development, rather than much overarching change. This episode at least tries to acknowledge that the characters have changed over the course of the year, so even if it doesn’t ring completely true below a surface level, it suggests that the show may have embraced it more fully in subsequent seasons.

Megan’s fame causes Barry to seriously contemplate unmasking himself, something that may have also been influenced by Dr. Powell’s fame after being unmasked as Nightshade. This gets pretty much dropped on Barry’s end, but is kind of laterally brought up once The Trickster gets to brainwashing Barry: without the mask, The Flash is just some normal guy who doesn’t matter. “Fast Forward” heavily hammered also heavily hammered in the notion that The Flash is a symbol and a legacy, reflective of the comics, which at that time had three different people who took on the mantle of The Flash (and a fourth years after this show ended.) So in that regard, unmasking himself would tarnish the legacy of this urban legend that grew into a hero people rooted for, not unlike how The Flash has become less and less of an urban legend in the current series.

The brainwashing is the piece that doesn’t quite fit into all this. Logically, it’s silly that the one episode with The Flash blatantly playing the villain, with little explanation to the outside world, would somehow end in Central City changing its sign to “Home of The Flash.” Conversely, consider the aftermath of The Flash’s smaller scale rampage in “Flash vs. Arrow,” which ended in losing a confidante and the start of a Flash Task Force. In this case, it’s surely due to dissonance between this episode’s story and its status as a maybe-final episode, but it still unfortunately undermines the catharsis that last shot could have brought.

That said, the brainwashing itself is still a ton of fun, mostly thanks to John Wesley Shipp generally being hilarious. There are plenty of little gags throughout that are laugh-out-loud funny, even in their excessively cartoonish style. But it’s balanced with ample high stakes, recognized by Tina and Megan considering there aren’t any other superheroes in this universe. The last few episodes have done great work with giving Tina integral roles in the plots, often making her the key to defeating the villain, and it’s no different here. The confrontation between Tina and brainwashed Flash is one of the best dramatic sequences of the series (though it would have worked better had Barry realized then what Tina meant to him, leading to a last episode hook-up…but can’t win them all, I guess.) Either way, this is a fitting last hurrah for Amanda Pays and Tina both, as Pays puts on her strongest performance and Tina stands right in the heart of danger and succeeds. Tina McGee might just be one of the most consistent and well-written superhero love interests on TV, and Pays grew on me substantially over time. It will be fun seeing what more she does on the current series now that she’s started appearing.

This is a good place to praise Shipp for all his work as Barry Allen, a character that was often written as a generic male hero, but lifted with nothing but Shipp’s charisma. Shipp’s Barry embodies all the quick-witted fun and enthusiasm we expect from The Flash, but he also gave Barry a slew of ticks and moments of awkwardness, obliviousness, or arrogance when they fit. Barry could be a dick or kind of stupid in certain situations, but it never felt out of character when he was. He’s the epitome of an everyman, which means he isn’t someone with larger-than-life ideals or goals. He’s just a regular guy who got struck by lightning, only involved with fantastic threats because he happens to have superspeed that can counter them. The Flash as an icon represents light and justice in this version of Central City, much like he does in the 2014 update. But this Barry is not one with a predestined origin or epic mystery trailing him. He’s a guy that fell into his powers and started using them to do good, because what else are you supposed to do with superpowers and a cool suit?

That lies at the center of The Flash as a character, at least in his television interpretations. And while The Flash was never a particularly inventive or important series, it did what it could do and what it wanted to do very well. It’s a supremely solid and confident show, one which had way too much potential to grow than its brief tenure allowed. But given how much the current adaptation seems to be lifting from this series, it’s clear that it made a stamp on the character’s iconography, even if not as overtly as we might realize.

 Odds & Ends