Spoilers The Flash - Season 4

[Christopher]

Or maybe it's just the needs of the story. He can't suit up while he's in jail. And not suiting up while investigating DeVoe was at least in part a contrivance so that Barry would be caught on camera.

If it had happened once, maybe. But it's happened in 3 of the past 7 episodes, nearly every other week, even though I'm pretty certain it never happened before even once in the preceding 73 episodes. That's a pretty spectacular statistical fluke if it's just random story needs.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Knowing where they were going with this storyline, maybe they were trying to wean us off the costume slowly.

 

[Scout101]

I don't see it being a big deal, and just a consequence of the story they are telling. He's not fighting a speedster this season, so the Flash persona isn't as important to the story as Barry is. Speed won't help him here, so costume isn't important.

Not really seeing it as saving CGI money either, as they haven't really skimped on that, and he's still moving fast, just not in costume. Effects cost what they cost, not sure if matters if he's wearing red or not. And still be lots of CGI involved in Stretchy Man, so they're spending the money...

This is just what happens when speed isn't part of the story...

 

[Christopher]

I don't see it being a big deal, and just a consequence of the story they are telling. He's not fighting a speedster this season, so the Flash persona isn't as important to the story as Barry is. Speed won't help him here, so costume isn't important.

Even so, the show is called The Flash. You'd think it'd be a matter of branding. In Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, the first season tried to downplay Superman's appearances, and there were a couple of episodes where Clark barely donned the costume at all, but they'd still put in a token Superman-catching-bad-guys moment in the teaser, just because Superman's name was in the title and he had to be at least nominally present. Obviously that wouldn't have worked in this episode, but something similar could've been done in the earlier two.

Not really seeing it as saving CGI money either, as they haven't really skimped on that, and he's still moving fast, just not in costume.

As far as I recall, we didn't see a single superspeed effect in "Girls Night Out." There was a moment where a drunk Barry said he'd super-sped to the bar to get peanuts without apparently moving, but really Gustin just sat there, and it was basically just a riff on the old "quick-draw" joke -- "Wanna see it again?" And in the other two episodes, yes, we see Barry do a bit of speedster stuff, but in a way that minimized the actual need for visual effects and avoided digital models altogether -- basically just superimposing a bit of lightning animation over live-action footage, for the most part. For instance, in "Therefore I Am" when Barry phased through the wall into the DeVoe home, the actual phasing happened off-camera -- we saw him approaching the house, then heard the phasing sound effect, then the camera moved to show him inside, walking away from the wall as if he'd just come through it. It's the kind of thing they do that makes you think you've seen a special effect when you actually haven't, because your mind fills in what you expect to have seen.

 

[dahj]

Trickster Jr and Prank blasphemed against Beebo, they should not have gone to prison, they should have gone TO THE PYRE!

Fun Fact: This was the 300th aired Arrowverse episode.

 

[CorporalClegg]

So I had one of those "wow" moments. It just suddenly occurred to me that it's been almost ten years since Jessi Kennedy first appeared as Bette on Smallville.

Yikes.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

There was also Paula Marshall, but explaining how she could be named Iris West would be complicated.

Maybe a short cameo in a Terminator "Are you Sarah Connor?" bit.

 

[The Realist]

^ That's kind of genius, actually. I like it.

 

[Gaith]

Good to see Mark Valley back as a lawyer. I assume he’s representing Crane, Poole and Schimdt?

You mean Chang, Poole and Schmidt, surely.

And why didn't Iris have a running recording in her purse when she confronted the Mechanic outside the court room? If she had secretly recorded the conversation, that would have exonerated Barry.

I thought that too. Sure, we haven't seen Iris doing any reporter work in ages, but this really pushing it.

Speaking of which, it must be said: especially in the courtroom scenes, Kim Engelbrecht looks a lot like Rachel Weisz. Obviously, I am totally okay with this.

 

[Romulan_spy]

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[Christopher]

I rewatched last week's episode just now, and I realized that Corinne Bohrer wasn't the only '90 series cast member to "appear" in it -- the late Biff Manard (Officer Murphy, partner to Bellows) appears in one of the "file photos" about Zoey Clark/Prank.

In order to confirm that, I popped in my DVD with "The Trial of the Trickster" on it, and I couldn't resist rewatching the whole episode. I was right -- the Clarx Toys logo was exactly the same, and the music cue used for Prank was a direct lift of the cue called "Prank" from Shirley Walker's score. (I trust Walker's estate will get residuals for that.) Also, the Gadzooka Bubble Gum company they referenced was another nod to the episode; Trickster and Prank used a Gadzooka truck as a getaway vehicle (spilling epoxy-laced gum to capture the Flash). The new episode also has Prank/Zoey telling Axel she wants to "paint the town red," which was something the Trickster-brainwashed Flash said in "Trial."

"The Elongated Knight Rises" did change things about the Trickster/Prank relationship, though (or rather, it went differently on Earth-1). It painted them as an inseparable Bonnie and Clyde, but in the original version, Jesse barely tolerated Prank despite her pathological devotion to him -- presaging the Joker-Harley Quinn relationship from a few years later. (Although it was more obvious to me than ever that Mark Hamill was totally doing a Frank Gorshin Riddler impression as the Trickster, not only in voice and expressions but in body language.) Although I guess the Earth-1 Trickster was kind of similar in how he abandoned Zoey and Axel and, as Zoey said, never wanted to be a part of that family.

Interesting to view the two Flashes back-to-back like that. The old show had much cruder speed effects (though they were cutting-edge for their day) and was much more backlot-bound (the Clarx Toys building being the same Warner Bros. backlot facade that would become the Daily Planet exterior in Lois and Clark a couple of years later), and the writing and acting were broader (and the acting was honestly not very good in some cases, notably John Wesley Shipp and Joyce Hyser). Even at its wackiest, the modern show feels more naturalistic and emotionally grounded. Of course, the '90 show started out trying to be dark and serious like the Tim Burton Batman movies it was emulating, but by "Trial" as the season finale, it had become full-on, nearly Batman '66-level camp.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I rewatched the two Trickster episodes of the 1990 series this week as well. One of Zoey Clark's first lines was that she was carrying the Trickster's child. It's a complete lie to try to get into his trial. They had not even met yet. But given on the new series she really is the mother of his child it adds a bit of foreshadowing to that scene it never had before.

 

[CorporalClegg]

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That's a pretty old (and overdone) SFF trope, but it still looks like a lot of fun.

 

[Christopher]

I rewatched the two Trickster episodes of the 1990 series this week as well. One of Zoey Clark's first lines was that she was carrying the Trickster's child. It's a complete lie to try to get into his trial. They had not even met yet. But given on the new series she really is the mother of his child it adds a bit of foreshadowing to that scene it never had before.

Oh, good catch.

 

[Phoenix219]

So are they going to make the time traveler that I hoped/assumed was Jenni, and instead of being Barry' Grand daughter, she is his...step sister slash sister in law?

 

[Dick Whitman]

I am still pissed on how Julio was killed off last year. Sure he was not "our Julio" from the original series but it was a meaningless death. So much of last season's arc of Flashpoint leading to Alchemy tied to Savitar is was just a huge mess! Even Wally getting superspeed is tied to that cluster$&@#! I wonder if on Legends Wally will ever explain to his new friends how he became Kid Flash? Sounds like he is a Time Aberration! I would love a throw away line that Barry defeating Savitar "realigned history" somehow. Or maybe the Time Bureau fixed things, Julio is alive. Wally got his powers same way Jesse, they just were slow to kick in... which is what should have happened all along.

 

[Christopher]

The episode was called "Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash," but they didn't really do much with the shrinking thing. The fun of a shrinking story is getting to see the characters interact with giant props and navigate an oversized environment, but this was mostly just Cisco and Ralph standing on a table and shouting up at people. Finding a new use for the Lego model of the city was cute, but it's a coincidence that they were shrunken to the right scale for it.

Really, it would've worked better if they could've gotten Ray Palmer to appear as a guest, have him and the shrunken Cisco and Ralph on an adventure together. After all, Dwarfstar is an obscure Atom villain in the comics. They kind of had to come up with a convoluted excuse to turn him into one of the bus metas.

It was pretty clear that Warden Wolfe would turn out to be a bad guy. Although I thought he was working with DeVoe to assemble all the bus metas in one place as an organized army. Now it looks like he's selling them to Amunet -- although maybe DeVoe is her buyer.

Cecile shouldn't have been so thrilled about being able to read minds. As a lawyer, she should be more familiar with the concept of invasion of privacy. And it should've been clearer that Joe was uncomfortable because of the power imbalance it created in their relationship, her having an advantage he lacked. Unequal power in a relationship is never healthy.

 

[CorporalClegg]

It's okay, Cecile; I don't know what a semicolon is either.

 

[Dick Whitman]

While this was the 81st episode of this series it's the 25 episode to feature a cast member of the 1990 series. With another appearance of Vito D'Ambrosio as ex Mayor Bellows. Which is amazing because that is more episodes than its whole run.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'm not watching the show this season, but, from the outside looking in, what they're doing with this "Barry in prison" thing just doesn't make sense in any way.