What to Watch Verdict
This is one of the corniest episodes in The Flash’s history, and that’s not even a little bit of an insult.
Pros
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⚡️A nice, warm, hug of an episode.
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⚡️Harrison. Wells!
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⚡️Very ready for the Central City Citizen to get back on its feet!
Cons
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⚡️"Run, Barry. Run towards love," was a little much even for me.
This post contains spoilers for The Flash.
Check out our last review here.
What a wonderful, cheeseball episode “Mother” is! To be clear, this is one of the corniest episodes in The Flash’s history, and that’s not even a little bit of an insult. Team Flash finally realizes how how to beat Mirror Master, but it takes a special visit from an old friend to remind Barry Allen that he’s the Paragon of Love. Sometimes we forget that superhero media can be warm, and tonight’s episode is just that. If you haven’t watched it yet, go get your hug from a television show, we’re headed to spoiler town.
The real Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) is back for good now that the artificial speedforce is destroyed, but that doesn’t do anything to solve Iris’ (Candice Patton) problem. After a quick inspection from Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), the prognosis ain’t great: her neural pathways basically aren’t connecting. That would signal bad news for Iris at this point in a traditional season, but we’re still working on the end of last season’s narrative. Usually I’d gripe about how easily she was pulled out of it, but something about all this ended up working for me. Maybe that’s just excitement that Iris got to be the hero, but I’ll let you decide!
Harrison Wells’ (Tom Cavanagh) return ends up being the universe’s attempting to restore balance after the loss of the Council of Wells. He’s not 100% up to speed, but he remembers enough to know why everyone’s calling him Nash and to remind Barry that the bit he’s missing is his heart. Don’t get too used to him sticking around, though. He immediately leaves to go be with his wife before their inevitable deaths. It sucks to have him just to lose him again, but his time travel abilities make his return open ended at the very least.
With the help of Wells and the miraculously cured Iris, Barry is able to get his speed back by organic means. The Flash is back! But he’s still not fast enough to take on Mirror Master alone. Eva has dubbed herself as “Mother,” and is bending all of Central City to her will. In her mind she’s creating a more perfect world with kinder and more reasonable mirror clones. She can’t see past the fact that her army — and her clones — are tearing the city apart. So, Iris helps.
The Flash has done Candice Patton dirty for some time, whether that be narratively or behind the scenes. Because of that, I’m willing to look past some of the fluffier moments of this episode in favor of celebrating our girl Iris being the one who takes out the bad guy. Barry thought it was his lack of speed that was stopping him from besting Mirror Master. Instead, it was the heart that he was so willing to toss in the bin. When Iris realizes the missing piece, she’s right there with Team Flash talking Eva off a ledge.
The “big win” not being a battle of might may turn some folks off of “Mother.” Admittedly, “Run, Barry. Run,” is my favorite line in The Flash — yes, even after all these years — and “Run, Barry. Run towards love,” was a little much even for me. But all of the other cheese was just right. Let superhero shows be warm more often!
