The Flash "Tricksters" Review

Mark Hamill says "I Am Your Father" this episode gets a 10/10 for that alone! So this is Tricksters, where 20 years ago, a terrorist named The Trickster committed the greatest terrorist attacks in Central City, in present time a fan of his has now taken up that title, committing similar crimes, so Barry and Joe take this on Silence of the Lambs style to find new Trickster, only for it to be revealed that the two were working together all along and the original Trickster escapes prison, taking Henry Allen hostage. In the end, Flash is able to save his dad, capture the Tricksters and even learns how to phase through walls, and both Henry and Eddie learn the truth about The Flash's secret identity as Barry begins to suspect Harrison Wells of being the Reverse Flash, which we learn in flashbacks that Eobard Thawne used future tech to transform himself into Harrison Wells as the original was killed 15 years ago by Eobard.

For those of you who don't know, this was a pretty big episode, back in the 1990's, Mark Hamill appeared in the original Flash TV Series as The Trickster, opposite John Wesley Shipp as The Flash. So seeing the two on screen together again would give any fanboy reason to be giddy. And this episode made me more than just giddy, this episode was great! And Mark Hamill is a big reason for that, the guy is a great actor, and seeing him onscreen again in this role was great, lord knows how I'm going to handle seeing him as Luke Skywalker again. But seriously, everything about him was great, his performance was great, his dialogue was great, his scenes were great he was...well, great.

Apart from that, all the stuff with Harrison Wells was cool, the opening scene of Flash and Reverse Flash fighting looked awesome and the twist of another Reverse Flash (Kind of) was a very interesting choice and i liked it. Although i wasn't sure where they were going with the whole Barry investigating Wells thing, for one, he came across as too spiteful before having any actual proof of Wells' involvement in anything, just a hunch. Also there came a point in the episode where it looked like Barry was doubting himself in thinking Wells could be a bad guy, which i'm glad they didn't go down that route because they already did that and it would be seriously stupid to pull that on us again, if they're going to investigate Wells then make it official this time, don't back out like you did before.

Then there's Barry revealing his identity to both his father and to Eddie, his decision to reveal it to his father seems to come down to..."why the hell not" and yeah, i'm okay with that, I'd trust him with that kind of secret. Eddie seems to be out of necessity, they're going to need his help in investigating Wells' involvement in the murder of Barry's mother, though I question how interesting of a plot thread this is going to be when we know more than they do. But even still, i congratulate them for doing what Arrow seems to refuse to do, that being moving the plot along! Seriously though, so many shows (ARROW!) refuse to develop anything unless it's at a snails pace, Flash actually has very smooth pacing and has a lot going on in developing both the story and the characters, and i applaud it for that.

So i'm giving Tricksters a 9/10. Feels so good to have some good television to talk about, i was worried we were in a slump there.

-Danny