Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: barry allen, cw, entertainment, Harrison Wells, television, The Flash, wally west

Six Important Moments From The Flash – Fast Lane

This article contains spoilers for the Flash episode Fast Lane.

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Last nights episode of the Flash, called Fast Lane, was all about relationships and making decisions. It addressed both the West family and Team Flash as well as introduced another comic villain into the television universe. Here are the important moments form the episode:

1 –  We are introduced to Tar Pit, a villain created by Geoff Johns during his run on the comic series. The set up for the character was pretty cool. He was dropped into hot tar just as the particle accelerator exploded. He then was trapped underground for two years… which made him kind of pissed off. He goes after the guys who put him there. The downside is that basically cooling him off takes him out and they do that pretty easily. He's more of a plot device than a character in this episode, attacking at just the right time to further along other story arcs. Hopefully they'll do more with him in the future.

2 – Harrison Wells has attached a device to the underside of the log on Barry Allen's suit. So when the Flash taps into the Speed Force, Wells is able to siphon a small percentage of it off. He does so when the Flash first takes on Tar Pit. Wells is then able to take that speed and give it to Zoom. He tells Zoom he will only get him the rest of Barry's speed after Jesse is released. Zoom of course calls his bluff and threatens to torture Jesse over and over until he gets what he wants.

3 – Meanwhile Joe West, Iris and Wally are all having dinner when Iris brings up the street racing. This makes Wally take off. Iris wants to know why, even after their Mother's medical bills are paid, Wally is still racing. She follow him to the races and even threatens to do an expose on the criminal running the races if he doesn't stop them. Basically she's doing the way over-protecting act that Joe should be doing but isn't because he's afraid of pushing Wally away.

4 – At the lab, Barry tries helping Wells work on a way to close the portals. Wells keeps pushing Barry away, not wanting to get close to him because he knows he will have to betray him in the end. But they work together and start to bond, the last thing Wells wants. They figure out a way to close the portals, using the writings of Earth 1 Wells as the key.

5 – Cisco Ramon checks with Barry, asking him if he's okay because he's moving slower than normal. This comes up bigger later when Tar Pit attacks the third person he feels did him wrong who just happens to be the guy running the street races. Tar Pit causes the racers to crash / flip. The Flash saves Wally, but debris from his car flies towards the crowd. Barry knocks all but one piece away, he isn't fast enough to stop a jagged piece of glass from stabbing Iris. She ends up being okay and it's a the bonding catalyst the West family needed… but it's still a problem for Barry.

6 – Back at the lab, they are talking about how Barry is 2% slower. He is upset that it almost cost Iris her life. Wells, who is now emotionally invested in Barry, reveals what he did. Joe decks him. Joe also decks Tar Pit at the end. Joe has some anger issues to work out. They're all furious at Wells for the betrayal and he asks to be sent home and have the portals close. Then Zoom wouldn't be able to get through and Earth 1 would be fine. But Barry can't do that. He can't leave Jesse in danger and Earth 2 at the mercy of Zoom. He forgives Wells and decides to head to Earth 2 with him to stop Zoom.

This wasn't one of my favorite episodes. I'm glad we are past the whole 'Wells is going to betray Barry' thing and the Wally West story has moved forward, but there was a lot of convenience writing here. The connection between Tar Pit and the street racing was a reach and his attack on the racers made no sense to his motivation nor was he stopped at that time. He just messed with the racers and left. And he just happened to show up the moment they took the bait / assassin outside of the station? The show does big episodes very well and we are coming up to the Earth 2 stories… but this felt like a quick connect the dots to connect from the last big episodes to the next.

Speaking of which… preview for next week:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/_9UnnTMvBug[/youtube]

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