The Flash Review: Enter Flashtime (Season 4 Episode 15)

After several tedious episodes in which the show largely felt like it was spinning its wheels, The Flash roars back to near-Season 1 form with the excellent The Flash Season 4 Episode 15, “Enter Flashtime.” This tension-filled adventure is one of the most enjoyable episodes of Season 4 thus far, managing to not just tell a good story, but to use almost every character well while doing so.

After complaining for so long that The Flash feels overstuffed with new sidekicks, villains, bus metas, and various other hangers-on, it feels a bit odd to praise an episode that adds even more people to the cast.

Yet, the reason “Enter Flashtime” works is that these are already people we care about. The appearances of Jesse Quick and Jay Garrick not only make perfect sense as part of the crisis of the week but in the larger context of the show’s story, because they have existing relationships within this universe.

(Also, it’s probably because we haven’t seen either of them in a while. I might feel more kindly toward Ralph if I only had to watch him twice a year.)

The episode’s set-up is a complete gimmick, but it’s an extremely entertaining one. (Even if it does continue the show’s careless destruction of its own mythology when it comes to anything to do with the Speed Force.)

The entirety of “Enter Flashtime” occurs in just ten minutes, over eight of which are a flashback setting up the episode’s ultimate crisis: a nuclear explosion.

Though we eventually learn that (of course!) DeVoe is likely somehow connected to the nuclear bomb heist, the Thinker plot is largely absent from this week’s story. Honestly, it feels like a relief.

Plus, since we know there’s no way Central City is getting nuked, the episode’s tension comes almost solely from its emotional stakes. Barry’s increasing desperation, Jesse’s regret over her final conversation with her father, and Killer Frost’s quiet plea for Caitlin’s life all land, and they land well.

There’s something to be said for a simple story, after all.

And you can’t get much simpler than talking. Most of “Enter Flashtime” involves Barry, Jesse, and Jay gaming out potential ways to stop the explosion and explaining why they don’t — or can’t — work.

Cisco can’t vibe the bomb to a dead Earth. Killer Frost can’t freeze the reaction. Jay can’t run long enough to create a lightning bolt to short it out. Time travel is a universally poor solution. (Duh.)

There’s a lot of comic book show garbled science jargon in this episode, but at least The Flash is trying to provide reasons for why things happen. Which is, again, something that’s sorely missing from the bulk of the Thinker plot.

With each failure, everyone’s a little more worn out, and a little more hopeless. Even though we know they’ll get out of it somehow, the situation still feels urgent and real.

The only really irritating part of this episode is that the Speed Force and all things connecting to it — the limits of Barry’s speed and the whole concept of Flashtime — seem pretty made up at various points.

The idea that Barry can run fast enough to cross dimensions, run around the earth in minutes, and turn back time but can’t go fast enough to find other speedsters to help or to ferry people out of Central City before the bomb goes off is… weird.

As usual, The Flash makes Barry’s power equal to whatever the story needs it to be, and we’re all expected to just go with it. Happily, this episode is fun enough that it’s hard to mind too much. But it’s still lazy writing.

The fact that it’s Iris who ultimately figures out the solution to save the day is strangely satisfying. Plus, it’s a nice callback to her initial days of running the team during Barry’s l Speed Force imprisonment, and the pair’s brief second of “quality time” is extremely moving.

The use of the random MacGuffin sphere from “The Flash Reborn” (Season 4 Episode 1) also makes very little sense. Does Barry have to go take his original place back in the Speed Force? Or is everything just cool there now?

However, Grant Gustin sells every minute of Barry’s uncertainty and fear so well that we all breathe a collective sigh of relief when everything works out in the end. Things like internal logic and plot consistency don’t matter so much then.

Now, if only we could bring this level of emotional stakes to the Thinker plot.

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

• I can’t believe DeVoe has been orchestrating this bus metas situation for three years and we still have no idea why or what his ultimate goal is. Whew.
• At least Barry rejected time travel! Finally!
• So Barry sends Jesse to another dimension to fetch Jay Garrick, but can’t be bothered to find Wally West? Ummmmm….
• I love love love the idea that Killer Frost has somehow grown to care about Caitlin. Frost’s request that Barry save “Catie” — and her alter ego’s subsequent memory of it — is surprisingly touching, too. What I don’t love? The fact that we have no idea how either woman got to this point.
• I’ve never cared that much about Harry and Jesse’s relationship, and even I got teary when he let her share his memories of her mother. I’m not made of stone, y’all.
• Clearly that random girl that keeps popping up is someone. But who? Many internet theories seem to believe she’s Barry and Iris’ future daughter. Not really sure how I feel about that possibility, but it’s something to think about.

What did you think of this episode of The Flash? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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

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