TV Review: The Flash Season 6 Episode 9

The Flash Season 6 Episode 1 “Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three”

Director: David McWhirter

Starring: Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Hartley Sawyer, Danielle Nicolet, LaMonica Garrett, Stephen Amell, Brandon Routh, Matt Ryan, David Harewood, Tyler Hoechlin, Cress Williams, Ruby Rose, Melissa Benoist, Ashley Scott,

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 42 minutes

Crisis has done an admirable job so far of including a massive amount of cameos and other fan-service without detracting from the core story but in the third episode, it finally starts to noticeably strain under the weight of its own ambition.  Which isn’t to say it’s not still an absolute thrill to watch because it is but “Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three” can’t help but feel a little overstuffed.  This is The Flash episode and the distribution of its strengths and weaknesses is fairly similar to that of most Flash episodes of the last few years.  Most of the comedic and fan service elements work well but the episode has trouble prioritizing which story beats deserve the most attention.  The episode devotes a lot of time to subplots which really only serve to position characters for their roles in the rest of the event, tasks that could be accomplished much quicker, and then rushes through key moments for the main characters and plot that are subsequently denied sufficient weight.

We start off with another brief cameo from DC TV’s past as the Huntress of Earth-203, Helena Kyle (Ashley Scott, reprising her role from short-lived WB series Birds of Prey) who faces the anti-matter wave while speaking frantically to her partner Barbara Gordon/Oracle (Dina Meyer) before they’re both destroyed.  This scene serves as an encapsulation of the episode as a whole.  It’s fun to see the creators continue to stretch to honor as many different corners of DC’s live-action history as they can but these cameos don’t fit in as neatly as others have.  The opening tour throughout all those Earths in “Part One” worked because it illustrated the point the Monitor’s voice-over was making about the wide range of possibilities in the multiverse and the all-encompassing nature of the anti-matter threat.  The opening of “Part Three” doesn’t have any such relevance, instead feeling like a piece of that earlier sequence that was randomly edited into the wrong episode.  This somewhat random inclusion is characteristic of the episode’s problems with pacing and flow.  “Part Three” often feels like it’s just stringing a bunch of, often exhilarating and impressive, scenes together arbitrarily, without the thematic coherence that ties together the first two installments.

With only seven universes remaining, we pick things back up with the actually relevant characters on the Waverider, where Ray has completed a machine that identifies the final three Paragons: J’zonn/Martian Manhunter, Barry, and civilian Ryan Choi (Arrowverse newcomer Osric Chau).  Iris departs with Ray and Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man (Hartley Sawyer) to recruit Choi.  John Diggle (David Ramsey) arrives on the Waverider to the rough welcome of finding Oliver’s soulless body and hearing that his wife, Lyla, is missing.  And with his Vibe powers restored against his wishes by the Monitor Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) locates an energy source that may be the cause of the anti-matter wave.

The Choi material is probably the weakest throughout the entire crossover so far.  The decision to include an everyman among the Paragons is understandable, as the creators likely intend to make some point about the human spirit being as important as superpowers or vigilante training, but in an event meant to celebrate the Arrowverse’s long history and wide-ranging success introducing a new character for such an important role feels disrespectful to the rest of the franchise’s cast.  Any of the more down to Earth supporting characters from across the shows, such as Jesse L. Martin’s Joe West or Chyler Leigh’s Alex Danvers would’ve been more acceptable choices.  There’s also the fact that Choi himself is far from a compelling character.  This isn’t the fault of Chau, who seems to do the best he can, but the writing for the character makes him far too similar to the half dozen other friendly dork scientist characters across the franchise.  The creators think they can guarantee investment in Ryan by making him a husband and father but without seeing his family or getting any meaningful account of what they mean to him this falls flat.  Arrow has gotten meaningful character development out of exploring topics of marriage and parenthood but Flash uses them as emotional shorthand, assuming that just because someone has children and or a spouse that they’re automatically worth investing in and the disappointing introduction of the final Paragon is just the latest example.

The other plot-lines are much more engaging, although there are still problems in how they’re executed.  Leaving Sara to watch over Oliver’s body, Diggle sets out with Constantine and Mia to retrieve Oliver’s soul from Purgatory.  The anti-matter spreading throughout the multiverse continues to restrict Constantine’s magic so he’s unable to get them there himself but he knows a guy.  He leads Mia and Diggle to the appropriately numbered Earth-666, where they get help from the devil himself, Lucifer Morningstar, played by the star of Netflix’s DC Vertigo adaptation Lucifer, Tom Ellis.  It turns out the devil owes Constantine a favor (this shouldn’t shock anyone) and pays it back by giving them a card that will grant them entry to Purgatory.  Ellis’ irreverent, charismatic take on the former lord of hell is a welcome addition and he and Ryan have great chemistry, quickly establishing a believable and entertaining uneasy kinship between the characters.  Ryan gets one of the best deliveries out of the entire crossover so far out of John’s smug greeting to “Lucie”.  The nature of the history between the two is left ambiguous but knowing them both they certainly came together through some dark, crazy events.  This is one of many partnerships Crisis has established that’s really worthy of further exploration, whether that’s through Ryan appearing on the upcoming final season of Lucifer or Ellis stopping by Legends of Tomorrow.  Katherine McNamara is also very good at conveying Mia’s confused reaction to Lucifer’s alluring influence.

Once in possession of the card, Constantine, Dig, and Mia finally arrive in Purgatory.  In a detail that shouldn’t surprise anyone who has ever seen a single episode of Arrow, Oliver’s personal version of the otherworldly realm is Purgatory’s Mandarin namesake, Lian Yu.  The group isn’t on the mystical version of the island long before they’re attacked by Oliver himself, who, as Constantine warned, has lost his memories.  Diggle manages to talk him down and Oliver comes back to his usual self absurdly quickly and it’s here that the episode’s frantic pacing becomes an issue.  The Arrowverse has gotten a ton of storytelling mileage out of the power of love so no one should have ever expected that saving Oliver’s soul to consist of much more than a Diggle pep talk but it could have at least been a slower, longer sequence for the sake of maintaining tension and Mia should have contributed in some way.  Stephen Amell and especially David Ramsey’s performances go a long way toward selling the scene but it’s still not given enough weight.  Even more problematic is the next scene.  Just as they’re preparing to return to Earth they’re halted by Jim Corrigan (Stephen Lobo), though not the one Constantine is familiar with.  As in the comics, Corrigan was once the host for the entity known as the Spectre and he tells Oliver that now he has been selected to “light the torch,”, presumably meaning to take on the Spectre mantle, to help save all of existence from the Crisis.  While Oliver’s quiet acceptance of this latest task is a testament to his heroism and Amell underplays the moment well, the introduction of Corrigan and the Spectre mythology is so out of nowhere that the whole sequence falls flat.  Still, it’s good to know that Oliver will continue to play a big part in the event.

Back on Earth-1, Cisco takes Barry and Caitlin/Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker) to the source of the anti-matter wave, in the tunnels underneath Central City.  There they’re greeted by Nash Wells/Pariah (Tom Cavanagh), who explains how his quest to kill the Monitor was a trap set by the Anti-Monitor that resulted in him freeing the latter.  They arrive at the site where he did so, the Anti-Monitor’s hideout, and go inside, in the hopes of ending him.  What they find instead is the Barry Allen/Flash of Earth-90 (John Wesley Shipp, again reprising his role from the short-lived 90’s Flash series), trapped, running on a cosmic treadmill powering an anti-matter canon that is causing the Crisis.  Cisco is able to teleport Barry-90 to safety but after thanking his rescuers he insists he must return to his place on the treadmill, saying that if he does not keep running the canon will explode and the ensuing anti-matter eruption will destroy the rest of the multiverse simultaneously.  As the team debates the best course of action Pariah summons another hero to aid them, none other than Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning (Cress Williams), who is devastated to hear that Pariah brought him from his home Earth seconds before it was destroyed, his family along with it.  Those events can be seen in Black Lightning‘s mid-season finale, which features the characters of that show reacting to the early events of Crisis.  It’s an excellent episode but it is heavily steeped in the lore of the individual show so while it makes Jefferson’s appearance here part of a more complete experience those who don’t regularly watch Lightning may be confused, and can safely watch Crisis without it.

Jefferson understandably lashes out, and in the episode’s most startling moment of raw emotion angrily tells Pariah that he should have spared his family and left him to die.  Williams is fantastic throughout the episode, giving it a real tragic weight, but this moment, and the haunted energy he brings to it, is particularly stunning. Barry is eventually able to calm Jefferson down by appealing to his heroic nature and secures his help in delaying the destruction of the canon.  In an impressive display of willpower, Jefferson is able to use his own energy powers to stabilize the machine, but the Flashes know this is only a temporary solution.  However, they realize that if they reverse the machine while one runs on the treadmill they can disable it without triggering the additional anti-matter wave.  Barry-1 believes this is the moment he is fated to vanish in Crisis as the time vault newspaper has always foretold on Flash.  He will sacrifice himself to save the multiverse just as the Monitor predicted and after a heartfelt goodbye to Cisco and Caitlin, and a flashback revealing a precautionary final farewell to Iris, he readies himself to do so.  But Barry-90 has other ideas.  Using an as yet unseen Speed Force ability he temporarily siphons his doppelganger’s speed and a reluctant Cisco breaches him back onto the treadmill before he, Caitlin, Jefferson, and a protesting Barry-1 leave through another portal.  Barry-90 runs until the machine starts to collapse and he begins to fade, after which a clip from 90’s Flash in which he and love interest Tina McGee (Amanda Pays) share a warm moment.

The death of Barry-90 is another element that only partially works.  Ever since it was announced that Crisis would release this year, as opposed to at the end of Flash as most assumed since the newspaper was introduced in the pilot, it was obvious that the teased disappearance/death of Gustin’s Barry would not be permanent, because, unlike in the comics, none of the other Flashes or speedsters the show has introduced are complex or compelling enough to take over, to say nothing of the fact that the producers would obviously never get rid of Gustin.  Given all that, some might be satisfied with the choice of the Shipp Barry as the sacrificial lamb, given that it allows for a death that can be permanent and contributes to the events an overall celebration of DC’s live-action history.  And between Shipp’s classically heroic, charming performance and the well-chosen archive clip, the sequence works very well.  But the jam-packed episode doesn’t have much room to give him significant screen time prior, so viewers like me whose knowledge of Shipp’s Barry is limited to his appearance here and in Elseworlds, and even more so those only tuning in for Crisis, were never going to be affected that strongly.  Simply put, this plotline will only work at its optimal strength for viewers who also watched and were invested in the 90’s version of Flash and given that show’s limited run and the much wider success of the current version and the Arrowverse, that’s not a big part of the audience.

Recruiting Choi, the Purgatory storyline, and the death of Barry-90 are the plotlines the episode is most devoted to but there are still a couple of smaller subplots to check in on.  Back on the Waverider, Lois gets to know both Clark-96 and the Monitor a little better.  The latter in particular is finally allowed to show more layers and complexity to his character as we learn that he used to have a family and has lost them and his own world.  LaMonica Garrett makes the most of the brief material to show warmth and humanity that the character has previously not revealed.  And as Kara reaches her breaking point she has a crucial confrontation with Kate that furthers each of their development and deepens their quickly-forming bond.  Kate is eventually able to talk the desperate Kara out of using the Book of Destiny to try and restore the fallen worlds.  Kate confesses to keeping the Kryptonite and offers to turn it over to Kara as a show of faith but the Girl of Steel allows her friend to keep the rock in case she ever gives cause to use it, trusting that that won’t happen.  Meanwhile, another new super-duo is formed as Barry offers comfort to Jefferson, and the two agree to soldier on in memory of their respective late fathers.  Jefferson’s emotional recovery is, of course, a little fast but since his family will certainly be revived (Black Lightning still has much of its third season and a recently ordered fourth, at the very least, to go) so it’s something one can suspend their emotional disbelief about.  Cress Williams and Grant Gustin quickly establish a strong, warm rapport and it’s simply a treat to finally see the former among other DC TV heroes.  Nothing will ever replace the Barry/Oliver friendship but the one between Barry and Jefferson is similar enough in terms of having an elder statesman to contrast with Barry’s fresher hero while being different enough to offer new potential stories.  Hopefully, we see more of Gustin and Williams as a duo in future crossovers.

A shocking, well-executed ending can often make up for a lot of flaws in a big event story like this and “Crisis Part Three” certainly has one.  After Diggle, Mia, and Constantine return, without Oliver, Lyla does as well.  While Diggle is relieved the others quickly realize the only way she would have escaped the Anti-Monitor is if he wanted her there, and the villain proves them all right.  Having possessed Lyla’s body the Anti-Monitor quickly disables Diggle and the others before engaging in a brief duel with his opposite.  As he has pointed out numerous times the Crisis has been constantly weakening Monitor and his rival easily defeats and seemingly destroys him.  Anti-Monitor Lyla then summons a rejuvenated anti-matter wave that quickly washes over the ship.  Seconds before the heroes, and Earth-1, the last surviving world, are wiped out Pariah’s powers activate, teleporting the Paragons to the safety of the Vanishing Point, a facility that exists outside of time which Sara has been to with the Legends.  Already horrified by the loss of their friends and the rest of the multiverse, the Paragons receive one last nasty surprise when Clark-96 is killed by an eruption of light out of his chest, out of which climbs Lex Luthor.  It turns out that while still in possession of the Book of Destiny Lex rewrote reality to make himself the Paragon of Truth.  Still smug despite the calamity he just escaped Lex happily asks “What do we do now?”  It’s a good question.  Obviously the seven (likely aided by a Spectre-fied version of Oliver) will be able to undo at least a significant part of what’s happened, so, you know, there’s life in the universe again, but how they’ll do so is entirely, delightfully unclear.  The choice of this as the big cliffhanger probably won’t help reduce the amount of comparisons being made between this event and the last two Avengers movies but in Crisis‘ defense, one of the comic book issues ends more or less the same way, though with no immediately apparent survivors.  And there’s likely not going to be a significant time skip here as I can’t imagine Barry, Sara and the rest living as the only beings in existence for five years, so for my money the creators have done enough to distinguish their tale from their big-screen rivals’.  It might not make up for all the episode’s faults but anyway you look at it it’s a great ending that makes the viewer desperate to find out what happens next, even if the sheer ambition of this move puts even more pressure on the final episodes to stick the landing.

Best Cameo- Ellis.

MVH (Most Valuable Heroes):  Everyone’s more equal tonight but I think it’s got to be a tie between Williams and Ryan.  John Wesley Shipp and David Ramsey are both really good too.

Notes:

• Meyer’s vocal cameo reminds me I neglected to mention the last episode that the voice of Mick-74’s Waverider AI is provided by Wentworth Miller, who played Leonard Snart/Captain Cold on Flash and Legends for several years.
• That little look of reassurance Clark-38 gives to Iris as the anti-matter wave hits the ship was pure Superman.  Perfect delivery by Hoechlin.

Click here for more TV reviews