Don't ya love a traditional Christmas episode? Family gathering around, celebrating peace, joy, love and having Santa give you explosives that will kill you and your entire family. Ahh the holidays. In this episode, Weather Wizard decides to break Captain Cold and The Trickster out of prison and go on a little bit of a holiday rampage and to kill The Flash.
So let's talk about the villains, starting with Captain Cold who almost has nothing to do in this episode, they break him out, he refuses to work with them, he warns Barry, he's gone by the 10 minute mark. I get why they had to break him out because he can't be in prison for Legends of Tomorrow, but you could have given him more to do. Then Weather Wizard who...I have no real opinion on, he's threatening in a way as he's the only villain who seems to be consistently challenging Barry but personality wise there's just not much to him. Then there is Mark Hamil returning as The Trickster, something I did not expect but goddamn am I glad he did because it's Mark-freaking-Hamil, i'd watch this man eat a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. I want it to be a yearly tradition that this man appears in at least one episode of The Flash every season, he's insanely enjoyable.
However the best thing about this episode is without a doubt Jesse L Martin's performance. Joe is arguably my favourite character in the show and this is just another great episode to add to the list of reasons why, for nothing else but Martin's acting skills. His reaction when finding out he has a son, the emotion behind his eyes, the subtle change in his body movement, you fully see the mixture of shock & sadness all with just an expression. Everything about the way Joe handles this is excellent, he doesn't blame Iris & Barry for not telling him, he doesn't go into a state of denial and he reminds Barry that no matter what, he is still his son. Also now that we're at the halfway point I just have to give praise to Iris, we're halfway through the season and she has not been annoying at all, she has not made any stupid decisions, she has not acted irrationally, she has kept other people's best interests in mind and she is not being forced into anyone else's story or as part of Team Flash. If they keep this up then they will have fixed what for me was the only major problem with The Flash.
Now let's talk about Mr Jiggle Wiggle. Now despite the fact that it was without a doubt the funniest line in the episode hearing Tom Cavanaugh say in the most serious voice "That's Mr Jiggle Wiggle" the huge guessing gap this creates is too big to be ignored. The Trickster posts a video, in that video there is a reflection in his eye of a toy called Mr Jiggle Wiggle and from that information alone they are able to figure out his location is an abandoned factory. But not only did they figure it out, but Patty figured it out as well, and The Trickster expected them to have figured it out and laid them a trap. There are only so many times you can shout "Well that was convenient!" in a matter of 5 minutes.
Speaking of Patty, we got a fair bit of development for her in this episode, yes some might complain that she's giving The Flash her life story after just meeting him once before, but it's The Flash, who wouldn't trust him instantly? Besides Patty needed this development, because so far while she's not a bad character, she's been heavily side lined for most of this plot and needs a more active role, learning more about her is a good way to start. However I agree with a complain a lot of people have had and that is that she should have killed Weather Wizard at the end. A man who killed her father and she has been seeking revenge for years, to the point where she has thought this through so much that she actively incapacitated The Flash to make sure he couldn't stop her, not to mention she's been willing to shoot criminals in prior episodes as a precaution. This isn't a woman that would hesitate when it comes to killing the man who killed her father, and you know something else? It would have been so much more interesting to see where her character would have gone if she did shoot Weather Wizard. You could have shown how it affected her job, her relationship with Barry or her personally, there is so much narrative potential here but instead we've just gone back to the status quo.
Then finally there is Zoom and Harry, we find out Zoom's plan all along was to make sure Barry got faster, which would explain why he hasn't just killed him already, because he wants Barry to get faster so Zoom can steal it and become faster himself. So Harry in a final desperate attempt to save his daughter agrees to help Barry get faster for the sake of Zoom. Though i am worried about Harrison Wells yet again being a villain, i am still interested in seeing where they take this, maybe he doesn't become a villain, maybe he makes Barry faster just for the sake of helping Barry, or maybe his daughter will play a huge role, or maybe he will have to make a noble sacrifice, i don't know and that's what makes it so exciting!
Oh yeah, speaking of exciting, Wally West appeared! I'll be honest, even though I knew he was going to be showing up this season, i didn't expect him to show up this early. Now we didn't get enough of him to establish what his role in the rest of the season is going to be, for all we know he may not even get super speed, that feels like a season finale cliffhanger type of thing. But just seeing him on screen is really cool.
Overall this was a really good episode, Joe's story was emotional , the villains were entertaining and a lot was set up for the rest of the season, i'm giving this episode an 8/10.
-Danny
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