This season ofThe Flashhas had quite a few ups and quite a few downs but one of the weirdest things its done is that it has had these “standalone” episodes that don’t really fit into the bigger, longer story. The last time this happened was all the way back in Episode 6when The Flash’s kidswere at the center of the episode and had their own little adventure. The bad news there is that the episode in question was not remotely good.
The latest episode ofThe Flash, titled “The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen” was better than that one. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this episode, standing alone doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the grander scheme of the previous episodes. It’s almost as though this particular installment was shot earlier in the year and the showrunners and the network simply weren’t clear on when they should air it. The oddest part of that particular side effect is that there are quite a few issues that are out there, totally unresolved that Barry and the rest of the gang just sort of ignored. Some of that was addressed at the end of the episode, but it still felt out of whack when talking about what had happened so recently.
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That sort of disjointed approach tothis episode ofThe Flashstarted almost immediately, as the gang is sitting down to have some fun and play a littleDungeons and Dragons. That seemed a bit odd considering that Iris was just flat-out missing somewhere in the Stillforce. There’s also the fact that the gang isn’t hanging out with Caitlyn, at all. It seems like after the death of someone so close to them, they might still mention the fact that Frost was gone. But It’s almost as if the character simply doesn’t exist and never did. Certainly, that kind of twist has actually happened in the show before so there were a few moments, where audiences were likely waiting for that particular reveal to come and it never did. The writers really just did feel like it was time to just move on entirely without an explanation.
Stand Alone Could Work In The Flash Some Other Time
Putting aside the confusion that is the episode simply deciding not to worryall that much about Iris or Caitlyn, the episode had some charm. It started out with The Flash doing what he does best, saving random people all over Central City. Of course, even this particular aside was a little weird considering that he took the gun away from an armed robber and replaced it with a banana, apparently not caring that the man was going to threaten people with a weapon of death. Then there was the fact that when he saved an old lady from being run over in the street, he made the comment that he took the driver to the police. That seems a bit backward when it comes to punishment since the driver wasn’t actually breaking the law.
Ignoring those little oddities, which might have actually been intentional in order to play for laughs - the driver was listening to “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” - the show is at its best when it’s a little light and airy in these moments. Of course, if it’s done too much, then it just comes off as sort of strange and like things are being ignored. But when the episode starts out with a bit of fun, it can be quite charming. These moments are also when Grant Gustin shows off the charisma that has made somepeople want him to be The Flashon the big screen, as well as on television.
However, that particular charisma isn’t enough to carry the episode entirely, and it turns out that the episode soon takes a bit of a turn when the bigger theme of the episode presents itself. That particular bigger theme presents itself when The Flash is aging prematurely thanks to being hit with a wave of gamma radiation that rather thanturning him into The Hulk, he just starts to age. Although he tended to age from the inside and didn’t really show that aging from the outside. It’s possible that the show simply didn’t have the budget to actually have him age beyond some gray hairs.
Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number In The Flash
While it’s not entirely clear whythis episode ofThe Flashdecided to try and tell an allegory about why aging isn’t all that scary, it’s very, very clear that was the goal of the installment. For Barry Allen, the aging is a very sudden thing that is brought on by the bursts of gamma radiation issued by this week’s less than imposing villain. At first, he simply loses a bit of speed and then eventually he starts to lose his cognitive abilities. To some degree, the whole thing seems incredibly contrived. Especially during the moments when the “very special moment” music was playing and he’s talking to Cecille about the fact that he’s forgetting things.
The problem with this particular approach in an episode like this is that it’s well known that he’s going to fix himself. So there really isn’t a reason toworry about The Flash. Without there being any real danger it just seems like the show is making fun of people who actually do have these kinds of cognitive declines.
On the other side of this is Joe West, who is coming to grips with actually aging and having memory issues of his own (though not to the extreme of Barry). It seems as though there is a message there, about not having to worry about aging because people can adapt. But it seems mostly that this particular side story was there only to make the “theme” of the show fit. It’s done better than Barry’s part, but it still seems like something that just wasn’t needed, and is still a bit weird when put up against the larger story of Iris going missing and Caitlyn just off on her own.
In what has been anup and down season ofThe Flash, this episode was certainly not the worst of the year. However, especially with a one-week break coming, people would be right to question why the episode exists at all and whyThe Flashwriters wanted fans to spend a week not really caring about the ongoing stories of the season.
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