The Darkness and The Light was a huge episode for Season 2. We saw the return of an old foe and the development of some fun new characters. Because of how successful it was, we chose this week to start back up our weekly Flash Character Coolness Rankings. Below are the completely subjective coolness rankings from Matthew Kelly our resident Flash expert for Week 5. As always, let us know if you agree with our rankings and who you think should be number one in the comments below.
1 Harrison “Harry” Wells (previously – )
Few people expected new Wells to be anywhere near as fun as old Wells but I don’t think anyone expected Harry to be better. He is running at a near nuclear level of snark including his wonderful “You missed” line and his chemistry with the team is perfect. My only concern is that this kind of attitude is unsustainable and we are headed for a crash but until that comes, this is going to be a fun ride.
2 Cisco Ramon (previously – )
Harry drama aside, this week should be remembered as the week Cisco became a man. Even if the episode ended with his initial rejection, I would still give him a lot of credit. Hitting on Hawkgirl was a bold move. But then when it actually worked out, I was awestruck. And on top of that, we finally established Cisco as a metahuman and an incredibly helpful one at that. If next week is anything like this one, we could see Cisco at the number one spot. Also his “You’re just a dick line” was poetry.
3 Patty Spivot (previously – )
No one can stop the positivity of Patty Spivot! No one! She is the CCPD version of the Little Engine That Could. I mean, come on. Last week she pulled out her gun and attempted to shoot a street shark! This week’s date only cemented the fact that she is the most fun new addition to the show. Sure, she clearly is hiding some terrible secret, right. No one can be that good. Can they?
4 Barry Allen (previously – )
A good showing from Barry is going to keep him in the top half this week. He was able to subdue Dr. Light without killing her, which is a huge plus. Barry also attempted to reason with one of his villains which is a good step in the right direction for future episodes. Barry also named Cisco, even though Cisco has been dropping that line since we first saw him on Arrow so it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise.
5 Iris West (previously – )
Everyone else had a great episode but that shouldn’t take away from how mature Iris was this week. She took the news of Harry incredibly well and even helped Barry with his date. Plus she shot someone! However, what would otherwise have been a good showing was hindered by the Linda Park scenes where Iris’ dialogue was so vague and crappy that John Mulaney would swear she was about to find a dead body…and she did. Does that mean she gets to be editor now? That might destroy the paper.
6 Jay Garrick (previously – )
Coming off of a bye week, the last thing Jay wanted to see was Harry. He took Jay apart and made him look like a huge whimp and based on Jay’s reaction, Harry might have a point. He didn’t defend his actions. He basically agreed that he was a slow coward and left. Jay can get points back when next week’s plan inevitably fails and he gets a nice “I told you so” moment. Until then he is comfortably in the bottom half. You’ve gotta give it to Jay though. He could have taken shit from Harry for weeks before throwing a punch but he got right to it. Good for him.
7 Joe West (previously – )
Seriously, Joe. You see Wells standing casually with the team and you pull a gun on him? If evil Wells was back, don’t you think anyone would be slightest bit concerned? Also since when does shooting the Reverse Flash even work? Use your head. Otherwise Joe didn’t have a ton to do this episode but sometimes doing nothing is a better move than doing something really really dumb.
8 Caitlin Snow (previously – )
Geez Caitlin. Do you really have to make out with Jay already? Maybe you’ve gotten over Ronnie’s “death” but that doesn’t mean the audience has. Also your little hook up happened during a crucial lookout mission that you failed miserably resulting in the editor’s death. Also, Caitlin had the “None of us would turn evil” line that would be a nice bit of dramatic irony if her character’s trajectory weren’t taking so long. Just get to it. Cisco is called Vibe now. Caitlin doesn’t have to go full Frost but maybe some sort of change would help make her less boring.
Matthew Nando Kelly is an incredibly cool and handsome staff writer for Pop-Break who was allowed to write his own bio. Besides weekly Flash recaps, he focuses on film, television, music, and video games. Matthew also has a podcast called Mad Bracket Status where he discusses pop culture related brackets with fellow Pop-Break writer DJ Chapman. He has an unshakable love for U2, cats, and the New Orleans Saints. His twitter handle is @NationofNando. Did we mention how handsome he was?
So Caitlin shouldn’t move on with her life because an audience she doesn’t know exist isn’t ready? When Ronnie died the first time -lol, comics- she grieved for over 18 months, didn’t even take off her ring. She only accepted the IDEA of moving on right before he came back. And now he’s dead, there’s no “” for her and the team, he’s dead and this time she’s stronger because sadly she got some practice. Ronnie died over 7 months ago now, after being back a total of 2 days in the first place. Do you want to see her crying half of the season? No. It’s called character development. And about the Killer Frost arc, do you want Arrow S3 all over again where absolutely everyone in the show except for one character (Felicity) is wearing leather and running around town? Flash will hopefully last many years, let’s take things as they come. We don’t need any more metahumans in the main cast so soon, especially considering Wally West will be here soon.