TV Recap: The Flash, ‘Things You Can’t Outrun’

Written by Matt Kelly

Plot: A new metahuman (Mist) is killing people using some sort of toxic gas and the members of the team are forced to confront the memories associated with the only place they can use to imprison these criminals, the particle accelerator.

This episode is called “Things You Can’t Outrun.” Let’s list some things Barry (Grant Gustin) and friends can’t outrun.

• Their dead friends/relatives
• Guilt
• Not telling dad/boss about your relationship

Now here are some things they CAN outrun…

• MIST!!!

Barry beats him by outrunning him. That’s exactly how. He just runs away while Mist (Anthony Carrigan) is trying to do his misting. One of my biggest issues with the show thus far is that Barry and the gang are able to beat the villains without anything particularly interesting happening.

Here is how an episode of a show like this usually goes. “(Main character) has to defeat (villain) but at the same time (main character) is having trouble with (character flaw). Eventually (main character) is able to overcome (character flaw) and grow as a person and that is DIRECTLY related to stopping (villain).” Flash seems to be halfway there. They have the character flaws and they have the villain but there isn’t a link between them.

This week the gang took on Mist. He’s a rogue who had the ability to turn into poison gas because he was being executed at the time of the particle accelerator explosion. Mist’s plan is to use his powers to kill everyone that led to his execution which included a crime family, a judge, and (wouldn’t you know it) Detective West (Jesse L. Martin). This is another issue I am starting to have with the show.

http://youtu.be/0I_pRvRM4Hg

Why does Central City have to be so small? It’s filled with coincidences and chance encounters. What are the chances that Barry’s third villain has a personal connection to Barry? Why can’t he just be trying to poison any police officer or maybe even the entire force? That would be just as exciting, especially since West didn’t really do too much besides get poisoned. Do they not have a budget for extras? The main characters are already connected in more ways that it is possible to count. Last week, the villain just happened to have it in for Dr. Wells’ (Tom Cavanagh) old rival. This week Mist is after Barry’s father/boss/partner/father-in-law. We’re working with a huge city here. It doesn’t feel huge. It feels like Star’s Hollow.

At the emotional center of the episode was Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) and her fiancé. You see, he “died” in the particle accelerator during the explosion and she has a tough time dealing with that. Those issues are magnified by the fact that the team has to go back down to the accelerator in order to turn it into a meta-human prison. We see flash backs of the day of the accident. Ronnie heroically sacrificed himself to save the rest of the particle accelerator staff (which seems to consist exclusively of Wells and a bunch of 25-year-old models) from a far more catastrophic disaster by turning the accelerator off from the inside. Like I said before, this only seems to set events of a future episode. It doesn’t have anything to do with catching Mist. Cisco and Wells have that covered. The Flash seems to want to be a really fun show, but by not connecting these heavy emotional moments to what’s going on with the metahumans, there is very little time to have fun.

Speaking of the prison, that really is terrible idea. It might be the worst idea ever. First of all, this isn’t a real prison. They are stuck in these tiny cells forever. That seems pretty extreme especially since eventually one of them is just going to be a bank robber or something. How do you feed the ones that need to eat? You can’t. Second and more importantly, how long are they going to go before the first break out? Five or six episodes? It can’t be longer than that. And when that happens, I imagine everyone but Flash is going to die considering how little is protecting the Flash gang.

Also can we talk about the ice puns? I mean come on. We get it. Her name is Caitlin SNOW. She is going to be an ice villain in the future. Does every single thing that comes out of her mouth have to be related to cold? This week it was the “We were like fire and ice” line. They also had to eat iced cream. After a couple move of these, I am going to hear all of Cailtin’s lines in the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Despite everything I just said, I really enjoy this show. I really really like the effects. This week I think they really succeeded with Mist. The shot that stands out is near the end of the episode where he is trapped in his prison and he is trying to break through by throwing himself at the wall. He turns back into Mist and just breaks like a wave. It looked really good. Also the humor was very solid. The moments between Det. West and Iris (Candice Patton) and Thawn (Rick Cosnett) stood out as the funniest. The show is very good. Next week we are introducing Captain Cold, the most popular rogue, so I am expecting some really great things.

Rating: 7/10

http://youtu.be/nOMlphcvYhw?list=UUPWQWav6BpPvtanCtloXkiw

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Matthew Nando Kelly is a contributing writer for Pop-Break. Aside from TV reviews, he also writes about films, 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 loves U2, cats, and the New Orleans Saints. He can also occasionally be found writing lists on Topless Robot and his twitter handle is @NationofNando

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