Geez, Cisco! Next time, could you NOT invent a suit that’s incredibly reliant on technology the day before the first technology-themed meta shows up?
Like most episodes of The Flash, Mixed Signals was a show about relationship issues peppered with the occasional superhero or two.
It is shocking to me that four years into this whole Flash endeavor, characters keep having to have the “I can’t both be a superhero and keep regular appointments” talk. To be fair, Iris wasn’t in the wrong. She’s mad that Barry left at the end of Season 3 with almost no warning or explanation. Iris was left in the difficult spot between “Hold it together for the sake of the universe” and “Tell friends and relatives that the wedding is off”. And her outburst made sense, especially considering Barry decided to wake up early and write all of those invitations without consulting her. And he skipped practice. And he turned right. Barry was acting strange this episode, which is reasonable considering he was recently resurrected. Both Barry and Iris had logical characterizations.
Gypsy, on the other hand…
Cisco. Listen, buddy. I understand that Gypsy is attractive and she’s interested in you and you guys even have the same powers.
But
Run Cisco, Run!
Gypsy should understand that sometimes superhero-ing takes priority since she is herself a superhero. It also seems a little early in the relationship to be throwing the L-word around, especially considering Cisco and Gypsy seem to see each other so infrequently that when Gypsy vibes into the lab, everyone assumes it is an evil breacher.
You’ve got a lot going for yourself, Cisco. You’re smart. You have a good job. You have a certain charisma that confounds all of the main characters but seems to pull in the most attractive villains. And speaking of that, Golden Glider’s other project is canceled, so there is a very good chance she will show up in Central City any day now. This Gypsy relationship was fun in the beginning but if we are only going to use it as an excuse to retread all of the Iris/Barry fights that the show outgrew two seasons ago, Gypsy has to bounce.
Speaking of bouncing, how about that new suit? This week we learned that not only did Cisco recolor Barry’s suit; he also turned Barry into Iron Man. Seriously. Cisco managed to invent a suit that contains a repulsor blaster, flotation device, defibrillator, comm device, H.U.D., lockout mode, and self-destruct feature. And, while Iris and friends were ripping him apart for the modifications, I thought they were all pretty good and his logic behind their inclusion was sound.
Sometimes Barry needs an electric jump-start. Barry could easily drown. Villains constantly try to take the suit off of Barry to learn his identity. Having a palm-mounted gun is awesome. Maybe the self-destruct was a bit much but outside of the very narrow set of circumstances this episode presented, I do not agree with everyone’s assessment of the new suit. You do you, Cisco.
And finally, the villain. Uhhhhhh. He could control technology…with his mind. And that technology included an elevator, an insulin dispenser, a bomb squad robot, a Flash suit, and some weird Saw-like torture device that I guess he also made? And I know it sounds like I’m being overly critical but I kinda liked Kilg%re (correct spelling); more than the usual Flash villain for sure. Dominic Burgess was campy as hell. His square eyes looked cool. And he fell into my favorite class of Flash villains – guy who was dicked over by business partners and gets revenge using superpowers.
So all in all, this episode was pretty good. A bit uneven but no Flash episode is perfect. I believe now what every single person related to the production has been parroting in interviews: this season will be lighter. More jokes and less dead parents. And that’s a very good thing.
