The Flash Review: Luck Be a Lady (Season 4 Episode 3)

It’s official: The Flash Season 4 is good.

Sure, it might be premature to say so only three episodes in. Yet, “Luck Be a Lady” strikes a near-perfect balance between the villain-of-the-week plot, character development, laughs, and lighthearted emotion.

Basically: The show genuinely hasn’t been this appealing in years.

Last week’s “Mixed Signals” managed to tie up loose ends from Season 3 and reorient key relationships in the wake of Barry’s return from the Speed Force, but it didn’t feature a particularly memorable in-episode story.

On that episode, the metahuman Kilgore largely served as a backdrop to the other, more important relationship plots. In fact, the only thing most of us probably even remember about him is that he made Barry’s suit inflate to laughable proportions.

With “Luck Be a Lady,” The Flash takes significant pains to thoroughly introduce us to our villain of the week. We see almost all of Becky Sharpe’s — whose name must, I assume, be some kind of Vanity Fair shout out, even if it is comics-based — transformation from literally the unluckiest woman in the world to supervillain, thanks to a mysterious blast of energy.

Reborn as “Hazard,” Becky now possesses the ability to give those around her terrible luck (while basically keeping all the good luck for herself).

The Flash displays this ability to great effect, as increasingly hilarious scenes depict a variety of unfortunate events happening to everyone in Becky’s immediate vicinity. Even Barry takes a header on a spilled shipment of marbles (yes, really) while trying to apprehend her.

Did I mention this is also one of the funniest episodes ever? It is.

Hazard is one of The Flash’s most successful minor villains in quite some time, precisely because she’s so… normal. Or, at least, as normal as anyone can be under these circumstances.

She doesn’t want to take over the world, or destroy Central City, or punish Barry and his friends. Becky simply believes that the universe owes her after a lifetime of crushing failure — and now she’s finally hit her hot streak, so to speak.

Her luck powers challenge Team Flash in new and interesting ways. How do you fight an enemy you can’t even really get near? Or one that seems to make everything in your life go wrong?

When it turns out that Becky’s powers are a result of Team Flash’s decision to pull Barry from the Speed Force, it feels like both an obvious and a perfect twist. It gives the team a distinct and clear mission for the season going forward: Find the 12 metahumans from Becky’s bus.

However, it also serves as another, more subtle reminder that what Barry and his friends do can have serious repercussions. It’s certainly a gentler, less depressing method than, say, a Flashpoint, but the underlying message is still important.

For all that The Flash is generally a lighthearted romp, there are consequences to the decisions that Team Flash makes, both for themselves and for strangers they may never meet.

So when it turns out that the only way to stop Becky’s growing bad luck field is to let the particle accelerator explode again, there’s a real emotional undercurrent to the moment that actually feels earned.

Hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Hazard. Good villains make the show so much stronger.

Elsewhere, the Harrison Wells from Earth-2 returns to deliver the equivalent of an alternate dimension text message break-up to Wally from his daughter Jesse.

Honestly, the fact that The Flash can’t seem to let go of Harrison Wells should probably be very irritating, but Tom Cavanagh’s too good an actor to waste. Earth-2 Harry’s cynical, snappish demeanor provides a much-needed balance to the more frequently saccharine elements of the show.

While the subplots about Joe’s decision to sell the West family home, as well as Iris and Barry’s failed shotgun wedding attempt, are both entertaining, it’s Harry’s return that packs the biggest emotional punch.

Kicked off his daughter’s Earth-2 speedster team, Harry returns to Central City adrift and directionless. Though his reabsorption into Team Flash seems pretty inevitable, the episode nevertheless handles the moment gracefully.

Cisco’s speech about how Harry is family and will always have a home with them on Earth-1 is extremely moving. Perhaps even more so after watching the pair snipe and argue with one another for the better part of this episode. That is, after all, what family generally does.

It’s also part of the reason that this particular version of Wells is so appealing. For all his bluster and gruff attitude, Harry has a lot of heart and is looking for a place to belong as much as anyone else on the team.

With the return of Wells and the departure of Wally, The Flash feels as though it’s really taking things back to basics as a series. Where will it go from here? I honestly can’t wait to find out.

Stray thoughts:

• Unpopular opinion, party of one (possibly): I’m obsessed with Tom Cavanagh’s Earth-2 Wells look. That hair!
• Becky Sharpe having a MySpace page is maybe the saddest thing about her.
• How is it possible that The Flash is doing so much right this season, yet still failing so badly when it comes to Caitlin? This is possibly the absolute worst way they could have ever handled the next phase of her Killer Frost arc.
• When Joe West is happy, I am happy, but I don’t know if I could possibly be less interested in his relationship with Cecile. Plus (not to sound ageist or anything) aren’t they a little close to the upper limit for a pregnancy storyline?
• While I’m sad to see Wally go, they haven’t known what to do with his character at all this season. (Let’s put it this way: The members of Team Flash aren’t the only ones who completely failed to notice Wally wasn’t around.)
• Maybe Wally West should get a test run on Legends of Tomorrow? I’d watch that.

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The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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