Plot
A new metahuman dubbed Hazard proves to be bad luck for Team Flash and the rest of Central City. At the same time, Harry Wells returns from Earth Two with a message for Wally from Jesse Quick which leads to a momentous decision.
Influences
Roy Thomas' Infinity Inc. (character of Hazard) and Superman III (the slapstick direction of the chaos around Hazard is very Richard Lester).
Artistry
The sequence of Hazard robbing the bank is amazing, from the slow-motion effects showing the chaos breaking out around her to the musical score.
Flash Facts
This episode takes its title from a song from the 1950 musical Guys and Dolls. Originally performed by Robert Alda, it was sung in the 1955 film adaptation by Marlon Brando and became a standard of Frank Sinatra. Indeed, Frank Sinatra's cover of the song is used during the first scene in which we see Hazard's powers in action.
Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Todd McFarlane, Hazard first appeared in Infinity Inc. #34 (January 1987). Rebecca "Becky" Sharpe was the granddaughter of Steven Sharpe III - a super-villain known as The Gambler, who was a continual foe of The Justice Society of America. She fought against Infinity Inc. - a superhero team founded by children and proteges of the JSA - under the name Hazard, as part of a super-villain group called Injustice Unlimited.
Hazard had the power to manipulate luck and probabilities, making things turn to her advantage or against her enemies. Like her grandfather before her, she was a master of games of chance, even ignoring her powers. Unlike most of her partners in Injustice Unlimited, however, Becky had a strict code against killing, which eventually made her turn on her teammates and turn herself in for her past crimes.
The DCTVU version of Rebecca Sharpe has terrible luck and considers herself jinxed until she gains metahuman powers that make her lucky while causing bad things to happen to the people around her.
Becky's work uniform at her job as a blackjack dealer is a perfect replica of Hazard's costume in the comics.
Cisco quotes Oliver Queen's catch-phrase from the early seasons of Arrow - "You have failed this city!" when Barry is the first to be shot playing laser tag.
It is considered bad luck in some cultures for a groom to see his bride in her wedding dress before the wedding. This fact is mentioned after Barry accidentally walks in on Iris trying on her wedding dress.
The pilot who is said to be bad luck appears to be Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger - the hero of the famous Miracle On The Hudson, where Sully was able to make a successful water-landing of his plane with no casualties after a goose flew into the engine. The 2016 film Sully was based on the incident.
Wally decides to leave Central City to stay with a friend in Blue Valley for a while. In the comics, Blue Valley, Nebraska was Wally West's hometown. It was also the hometown of Courtney "Stargirl" Whitmore.
Technobabble
According to Harry, Atlantean plastic on Earth Two is poorly made.
Break-Up Cubes are a piece of technology used on Earth Two used to end relationships. You record a hologram of yourself, select an appropriate piece of music and once the message is done, a tissue pops out so the person you gave it to can dry their tears. It is, as Caitlin remarks, a really convenient way to break someone's heart.
211 is the CCPD code for a robbery. It's also the code for a robbery in California, in the real world.
Harry says that what Cisco calls juju, he calls quantum entanglement. Quantum particles are connected and, when triggered, they simulate a synchronicity that, to the untrained eye, appears to be luck. Barry guesses that Becky affects the particles around her in a positive way, which causes the connected particles to spin negatively. In other words, she has a good-luck field and when good things happen to her, bad things happen around her.
Cisco detected trace amounts of dark matter on Hazard through the censors on Barry's suit.
Newton's Third Law Of Motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Harry evokes this when explaining that the more good luck Hazard experiences, the more bad luck she spreads around her.
The hydrogen particle hatch and electron hatch are parts of the STAR Labs Particle Accelerator.
The hydrogen electron collision released a charge that temporarily negated Hazard's quantum field.
Dialogue Triumphs
Wally: I thought Jesse and I were having date night?
Harry: Yeah. That's what you thought.
Wally: What did she say? In the message?
Harry: You know - you heard. You - "you're a great guy." I don't remember.
Wally: Don't you have total recall?
Harry: Yeah. (suddenly) No! No... don't. I did! I don't. (pauses) I did but I don't.
Barry: If we can stop evil time-traveling speedsters from destroying the planet, we can find a wedding venue!
(The Mechanic and The Thinker are watching as Hazard causes the boyfriend who was cheating on her to suffer a series of accidents in the restaurant where he just happened to walk in with his other date as she was eating.)
The Mechanic: I don't understand. Your plan revolves around this dolt?
Boyfriend: (on monitor) Who makes soup so hot?!
(The Mechanic stops the video feed.)
The Thinker: As lusterless as Rebecca is, she may be the most formidable of them all.
The Mechanic: (impatiently) Then why don't we get her now?
The Thinker: The capricious nature of her powers warrants further observation.
(The Mechanic sighs and unpauses the video feed.)
Boyfriend: (screaming) Are those live lobsters?!
Becky: Listen, CSI guy - my entire life has been one piece of crummy luck after the next.
Barry: Look, we all have ups and downs in life-
Becky: (laughs) Not Becky Sharpe. I have only ever been dealt bad hands. But I knew one day the universe would see it made a mistake, and then I'd have the run of the table. I got on that bus and Lady Luck smiled on me.
Barry: Becky, this isn't some higher power fixing a miscalculation. You have powers. And they're affecting everyone around you, making them feel as awful as you made them feel.
Becky: I'm sorry about that but... maybe it's just their turn? Maybe, for once, everyone else can feel how bad I felt my entire life. Anyway, there is nothing you can do to stop me.
(Barry looks around the room as Becky walks off, noting a waitress just barely stopping herself from spilling a tray of drinks, a coffee pot that is continuing to boil past the safety point and a workman with a nail gun pointing it downward and clicking the trigger in frustration as a mother with a baby carriage walks underneath him.)
(After Harry lets the Particle Accelerator activate, saving the day.)
Cisco: How did you know to do that?
Harry: (shrugs) Lucky guess.
Joe: I don't want anything more than for you to find what you're looking for. But I've... I spent so much time without you in my life... I don't want to lose you.
Wally: (smiling) You'll never lose me, Dad. Plus, I 'm a speedster. You need me, I'll come running.
Dialogue Disasters
The whole of the "Iris wants to get married in a hurry" scene. It's at this point that the humor of the episode crosses the line from decent slapstick into poor farce, with Iris acting wholly out of character and disrupting a funeral in an incredibly tacky display. The worst part though is the final lines, as the choking priest is being led away from the ceremony.
Barry: (weakly) You know, it was a... very nice funeral.
Iris: (angrily) Really, Barry?
Continuity
The Thinker's second subject is Rebecca "Becky" Sharpe.
Becky Sharpe is severely lactose intolerant.
Central City has legalized gambling.
We see Rebecca Sharpe board a bus with three other people on board besides the driver. One of them is Ramsey "Kilg%re" Deacon, from 402. The others are a man and a woman. The show's opening ends with them all being exposed to a bright flash of light.
Joe West's house has distinctively noisy pipes.
Jesse Wells dumps Wally West through a Break-Up Cube message.
Jesse Wells apparently lost her virginity to Wally West. It's unclear if she was his first time as well.
When we first see Hazard in action, the app breaks for her Uber driver, a security guard starts choking as she enters a bank, knocking over the ladder which a workman is using. This, coupled with a suddenly spilled cup of coffee setting sparks to flying on a computer and a distracted teller talking to her mom about not using an oven allows her to talk into an open bank vault unnoticed. The Flash is unable to catch her, due to a barrel full of marbles suddenly turning over in the street, causing him to slip and fall.
Cisco claims his cousin Hector was cursed by an ex and has not been able to find a parking place at the mall for three years.
Becky Sharpe is 24 years old and has no prior criminal record. She is still in the CCPD criminal database, due to having been rear-ended four times, having her identity stolen twice and having a cat burglar literally burgle her cat in the three years she's lived in Central City.
Again, the question is raised of how Becky can be a metahuman when she wasn't in Central City at the time of the STAR Labs Particle Accelerator Explosion.
Cisco did leave some new sensors in Barry's suit, despite claiming to have removed all the new tech in 402. They are capable of detecting trace amounts of dark matter.
Joe West finds out it will cost $15,000 to replace all the piping in his house. He says that is more than his great uncle paid for it originally.
Barry accidentally sees Iris in her wedding dress as she is trying it on at home. It is considered bad luck in some cultures for a groom to see his bride in her wedding dress before the wedding.
The venue where Barry and Iris wanted to hold their wedding burned down shortly after they booked it. Their back-up venue booked another event the morning they found this out.
Barry and Iris' wedding is in six weeks.
When Barry left The Speed Force three weeks earlier (in 401), a wave of dark matter came with him. This triggered the new wave of metahumans, according to Harry.
Harry Wells created the calculations to access The Speed Force. He warned Cisco against using them, however.
Joe's house suddenly starts leaking water from the ceiling.
Iris refers to The Dominators, Savitar and gorillas when listing bad things that have happened to her and Barry in the past.
Iris' attempt at a rushed wedding ends when the priest has an allergic attack to the cinnamon incense the altar boy used.
Over the past few months, Harry Wells organized a support team for Jesse Quick on Earth Two. He was voted off the team, however, due to being his usual dickish self.
Harry decides to stay on Earth One.
Team Flash determines there were 12 people on the bus that Barry infected with Dark Matter.
Wally went to Earth Two an spoke with Jesse. She said she needed time to focus on herself and he decided he needed to do the same
Wally leaves Central City to stay with a friend in Blue Valley for a while.
The Thinker has a camera inside the head of the Samuraoid that is now in STAR Labs, allowing him to spy on The Flash.
Joe and Cecile decide to keep Joe's house.
Cecile reveals that she is pregnant to Joe.
Untelevised Adventures
We don't get to see Wally's journey to Earth Two and his talk with Jesse Quick.
The Bottom Line
There's a good episode here. Unfortunately, it takes place entirely off camera while we watch random stupidity occur. Maybe I'm alone in wanting to see Wally talk with Jesse about their relationship troubles over dated references to famous disasters (seriously, what was up with the Sully reference?) and Iris suddenly becoming Bridezilla and wanting to have a hurried church wedding without any of her friends and family present... but I doubt it. Every major revelation revealed in this episode seems forced and could have used more time to be developed instead of being shoved into the last five minutes while we watch Becky being quirky and adorable as all hell breaks loose around her.
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