Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Three #20 - A Review

Things have gone from bad to worse for The Resistance. Caught between a furious Trigon and Mister Mxyzptlk, things already looked dire with Superman and his Regime forces hot on their heels. But now The Swamp Thing has shown up and he's not going to listen to John Constantine's lies anymore...


Apart from some philosophical musing from Constantine at the start, this issue of Injustice is all action.  The plot isn't advanced much but there are a lot of great combat scenes.  The best part is that the fights are quite unpredictable with some unexpected victories.


Pete Woods returns to the art duties after a lengthy hiatus from this book. You'd never know it, though.  All of the cast look true to form and the combat is well blocked visually.  Rex Lokus offers up an amazing display of color artistry and Wes Abbott does a fine job on the lettering.

The Flash: Season Zero #12 - A Review

I fear I may be turning into a skipping audio file (kids these days don't say 'broken record' unless they're hipsters)  but I find myself running out of ways to say how much I enjoy The Flash: Season Zero.


The story this fortnight is a gripping one, as our heroes investigate a frightening possibility - that the explosion of the STAR Labs particle accelerator affected animals as well as humans.  Worse, one of these so-called Meta-Animals - a humanoid shark - is on a feeding frenzy in Central City, seeking out the scientists who abused it. Could this be a hint as to how Gorilla Grodd might be brought into the TV show?  Probably, but this comic is a ripping yarn regardless of that question.


Comedy continues to be the best thing this series has going for it.  The humor of The Flash is intact and all of the characters are written true to form.  You can hear the voices of the actors from the show speaking the dialogue by Kai Wu and Lauren Cetro in your head as you read the comic.


The only real negative thing I have to say about the book involves the art.  Understand that I love Phil Hester's work and have enjoyed it since his run on Green Arrow.  But for every awesome page like the one above  featuring King Shark feeding, there are several pages where the human characters look blocky and stiff. Hester and Eric Gapstur are amazing when it comes to drawing monsters jumping out of the shadows.  Humans on a sunny day?  Not so much.

Constantine Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 12 - Angels And Minsters Of Grace

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

A tip from Manny leads John, Zed and Chas to a nearby hospital, where an overdosing drug addict shows signs of dark influence. When Zed becomes sidelined by seizures and Manny stays mum once too often, John grounds the angel - literally. Unfortunately, Manny is totally powerless when he is in a mortal body and Heaven's Light may be the only thing that can counter the darkness that they encounter.


Influences

The Garth Ennis run on Hellblazer (the idea of John binding an angel to his will & John's gambling to win various rare magic items) & The John Ostrander run on The Spectre (new mythology for Eclipso and The Black Diamond).


Performances

Angelica Celaya and Harold Perrineau play off one another beautifully as Zed and Manny finally meet in the flesh... so to speak.


Artistry

The fake out regarding the ultimate villain of the episode is very well played.


Pub Trivia

The title comes from a line from Halmet - Act I, Scene 4 - "Angels and ministers of grace defend us!".  The line is spoken by Halmet, as he sees the ghost of his father.

During the Garth Ennis run on Hellblazer, John was able to bind an angel to his will.  With the assistance of a succubus, John was able to remove an angels' heart.  So long as John held the heart, he could command the angel to do what he wanted. This binding was somewhat more permanent than what John does to Manny on the show, however.

The black diamond called The Heart of Darkness is a reference to the DC Comics super-villain Eclipso - specifically the re-imagining of the villain orchestrated by writer John Ostrander as part of his run on The Spectre. It was there that Eclipso was revealed to be the first manifestation of God's Wrath.  Eclipso became more obsessed with Revenge than Vengeance, however, and was imprisoned inside The Heart of Darkness.  The Heart was broken int 1000 pieces by a gem dealer, which weakened its power to hold Eclipso.  After that, any human who held one of the black diamonds would become possessed by Eclipso and turn upon whoever had made them angry.


Arcana

John's shopping list includes tannis root, adder's tongue and catnip.

Tannis Root is a fictional herb first mentioned in the film Rosemary's Baby.  In the movie, Tannis Root is used both as a reagent in dark magic and as way of devil worshipers marking one another by its distinctive smell.

Adder's Tongue is a name applied to a genus of about 25-30 different ferns.  Their leaves are used in the treatment of wounds by alchemists and white witches.

Catnip - in addition to being a recreational substance for felines - has a number of magical and medicinal purposes.  It can be used to sooth colicky babies or as a blood purifier for infants. Magically, it is often used in love potions and charm spells meant.

The Mill House contains a room that holds a sunny, outdoor meditation garden.  Zed's visions do not trouble her while she is in this room, for some reason.

Zed uses Ariadne's Thread to stop herself from becoming lost in The Mill House.  In Greek Mythology, Ariadne was the Princess of Crete, daughter of Minos. It was she who told Theseus the secret to navigating the great Labyrinth under Crete - using a great ball of string - and how to slay the Minotaur that lived there. Depending on the legend, Theseus either abandoned her once his quest was complete or was informed by Dionysus that he had already claimed Ariadne as his bride to be.

Manny tells John to go to a hospital named for St. Catherine.  There are a number of Catholic saints named Catherine, but the first was Catherine of Alexander who is the patron of nurses and maidens.

John knows a spell that can reveal the spark of life in living beings and dead bodies - aka Elan Vital. The spell produces a bright light capable of burning human corneas.  The spell also reveals the absence of that spark as well as the dark matter radiated by evil forces.

A vial of the air from Hades can be used to temporarily stun an angel while they are possessing a human body.

John apparently knows a siren and had a wild weekend with her once.  Sirens, in Greek Mythology, were creatures who attempted to lure men into danger with their beautiful voices. The myths differ on whether or not sirens had beauty to match their voices or if they had an appearance similar to that of a harpy, with bird-like body parts.  John's description seems to suggest the former.

Angels can be trapped in a human body if a magician can carve an appropriate sigil into the flesh of the human host before the angel can leave the body.

When possessing a human body, angels lose all connection to The Heavenly Host as well as all of their angelic powers.  To that end, a bound angel is little better than an ordinary human. In fact, given most angels lack of experience in managing emotions, they are likely to be more hindrance than help to the magician who binds them.

When an angel possess a human body, magicians will see the angel as however the angel wills their normal selves to look, albeit it dressed in the clothing of their human host.  Reflections will show the face of the human host and non-magicians will also see the possessed mortal as looking perfectly normal.

The Heart of Darkness is a black diamond made of calcified evil. Reportedly forged from the power of a dark sorcerer whose infernal powers once threatened the earth, the diamond was broken into many pieces by an angel's sword.

Since then, humans who came into possession of a piece of the diamond become possessed by darkness, becoming super strong and homicidal, acting upon whatever impulses enrage them most.  In this case, a doctor began killing people who wasted their second chances at a new life.

The presence of dark matter interferes with illumination, either causing lights to flicker or by extinguishing them outright.

The Mill House contains a piece of The Heart Of Darkness in a puzzle box.  Jasper's note says that the box was retrieved from "a gift of God".  John later realizes this was a literal translation of the place where the diamond was found - "bagh dadu" or Baghdad.

The pieces of the Heart of Darkness are drawn to one another like magnets.

The light of Heaven is the only thing that can destroy dark matter.


Dialogue Triumphs

John: Heroes are usually jerks at heart.

John: Hopefully I've got our psychic out of sensory deprevation.
Chas: She needs to rest.
John:Why don't we all just take a bloody holiday, eh?
Manny: (possessing Chas) Don't even think about it!
John: Oh, I forgot - angels.. they can't read sarcasm.
Manny: I can read it. I just don't have the patience for it.

Zed: The thing about Ariadne... Dionysus rescued her but she ended up dying anyway.

(As Chas gets ready to sneak out of his hospital room)
John: Yeah, that's a good idea.  Stay here and they're likely to experiment on you in the name of science.
Chas: Oh, like you did?
John: That was in the name of magic.

(As Manny throws up after smelling a dead body for the first time)
John: (deadpan) Oh yeah.  Go ahead.  That's great.  Just contaminate the crime scene.

John: (To Manny) Oh, and speaking of infernal power... can you use a computer?

(After Manny experiences the pleasure of the flesh)
Manny: I don't know how you get anything done.
John: Well, a little bit of denial and a lot of gin

Zed: My visions?  Are they a gift from God?  Or do my abilities come from somewhere evil? And the tumor is my punishment?
Manny:.Do you think your powers are evil?
Zed: Sometimes they feel that way. But since I've met John, I... I've been able to use them to save lives. And if this is my gift, I'll put up with the pain.
Manny: Exactly.
Zed: So my visions do come from God?
Manny: Like I said, John grounded me in this body. So I'm cut off from my power. But based on what you told me, Zed, you have all the answers you need.

John: I want to tell you something about me that nobody knows. I wake up every morning and for the first five minutes of the day... I imagine that everyone I care about is dead. I lie there and... I mediate on that. So that when it inevitably happens then uh... it lessens the blow.
Zed: Then what do you do?
John: I spark a ciggy and fry an egg.


Continuity

John once again makes use of his enchanted playing card as a fake ID.  It was last seen in 104.

John makes reference to the events of 110 and Zed pushing herself too hard in New York.  In a callback to the flashbacks from that episode, John refers to what he did to Chas to make him semi-immortal as being done "in the name of magic."

Manny destroys The Scry Map.

Zed is able to see Manny as John does by the episode's end.


Untelevised Adventures

John makes reference to a wild weekend he once spent with a siren.  At some point, he won a jar full of air from Hades from her.


John Screws Up

John's binding Manny very nearly gets him and Zed killed.

John also misidentifies the killer and is slow in figuring out what "gift from God" means.


The Bottom Line

The villain of the week is a bit crap and all too easily disposed of in the end - a waste of the potential for Eclipso from the comics.  But the build up and the fake-out are handled well.  And the business of the core cast - particularly the scenes with Zed and Manny playing off each other - are so good you won't mind too much.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 3, Episode 12 - Uprising

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Oliver Queen is a long way from healing but he knows that his city has need of him. Brick's gang has been in control of The Glades for a week and Team Arrow is fighting a desperate war to try and keep the peace. Help may come from an unlikely source, but will they be willing to accept the aid of Malcolm Merlyn?

In the flashbacks, we see how Merlyn came to kill his first victim - the man he thought had murdered his wife - and how he came to seek out the League of Assassins.


Influences

The Green Arrow/Black Canary comics of Judd Winick and Andrew Kresiberg and every Robin Hood legend where Robin is presumed dead only to miraculously survive.


Goofs

One wonders why the governor of whatever state Starling City is in hasn't seen fit to do something about a mayor giving away land to a crime boss. You'd also think they would have sent in the National Guard to deal with Brick by now.

For that matter, why haven't ARGUS and Amanda Waller taken action, given what happened the last time some bulletproof madman started tying to take control of Starling City?

It seems somewhat unlikely that Captain Lance can recognize Roy Harper as Arsenal and not make the connection between Oliver Queen and The Arrow at this point.

Laurel apparently votes against accepting Merlyn's help, despite arguing in favor of the idea before Roy tells the rest of Team Arrow about Merlyn's saving Thea from Deathstroke's men.

You'd think, even if Kendrick Weller had reasons for not killing Merlyn after Merlyn tried and failed to attack him, he'd have stolen Merlyn's gun.

Why did all of Team Arrow save Laurel go back to the Arrow Cave once Ollie showed up at the fight with Brick's men? Even if things were under control, you'd expect them to be there for Ollie's big speech to the city.


Performances

Honestly, the entire cast get at least one great moment in this episode.  Here's a list of the best.

Paul Blackthorne: Quentin Lance snarking at Roy Harper's efforts to hide his secret identity.

John Barrownman: Every damn moment of every flashback scene.

Colton Haynes: Roy attempting to convince the rest of the team that Merlyn can be trusted in so far as protecting Thea and Starling City are concerned.

David Ramsey: John Diggle telling off Malcom Merlyn.

Willa Holland: Every scene of Thea trying to convince Merlyn that he is better than he thinks he is.

Katie Cassidy: Laurel's moment of inspiration, using the people of The Glades as an army to fight Brick's men.

Emily Bett Rickards: Felicity's speech to Oliver at the end of the episode.

Stephen Amell: Oliver's wordless response to Feliicty's big speech.


Artistry

The script for this episode may be the best ever, with a lot of quotable lines.


Trivia

One of Brick's thugs asks Arsenal if he's "The Red Streak" he saw on TV.  This is a reference to The Flash.

Ollie mentions Tatsu's skill with a sword - a reference to her identity as the heroine Katana in the comics.

We see a blue neon sign on the outside of Ted Grant's gym that resembles his mask as Wildcat in the comics.

In the comics, Merlyn was known as Merlyn The Magician among The League of Assassins for his near-magical accuracy with a bow.


Technobabble

Felicity says walkie-talkies operate on the FRS (family radio service) somewhere between 462-467 MHz. She uses a frequency burst to triangulate their position.


Dialogue Triumphs

Thug: Looks like we got ourselves a real live superhero here. You that Red Streak I've been hearing about on TV?
Arsenal: Wrong city.

Captain Lance: Arsenal? What, are you guys just pulling names out of a hat now?

Arsenal: (voice deepened by voice modulator) Captain Lance.
Captain Lance; Harper.
Arsenal: I'm not sure what you -
Captain Lance: Look, I've seen you wearing a red hoodie. I've seen you shooting arrows at people. You think I don't recognize you with a little extra leather and lace?
Arsenal: Well, I guess I won't be needing this anymore... (turns off voice modulator)

Tatsu: Only the student has a hope of defeating the master.

Laurel: Do you think that you could - I don't know - use those signals to locate Brick?
Felicity: You haven't been down here that much.

(To Thea, as he finds her leaning on the rail of the balcony overlooking Verdant)
Roy: You stole my idea. I was going to lean here and wish my problems away.

Roy: Oliver is gone. And there's only so much the four of us can do. I just found this out but ...the night of the siege Malcolm saved Thea's life. He didn't have an ulterior motive. He didn't have an agenda. He just wanted to protect what he cared about. He cares about this city.  He just went about it in a completely unimaginable way. So just like Thea did on the night of the siege, we need him.
Felicity: I can't think of a world or a universe or a plane of existence where Oliver would agree to any of this.
Roy: Well, Oliver isn't here anymore, so we need to stop pretending like his is.  We need to make decisions on our own. I genuinely have no idea how else we're suppose to stop Brick!
Felicity: And I genuinely don't know how we live with ourselves if we go about doing it this way!

Merlyn: Has the jury reached a verdict?
John: It has. Guilty.
Merlyn: I guess that means 'no' then.
John: You were expecting something different, Merlyn?
Merlyn: What?  That you'd have some measure of common sense?  Yes!
John: You really thought we'd throw in with you? After what you did to Thea? To Sara? To Oliver?
Merlyn: To save your precious city? Yes.
John: Well, that's the thing. Once we let the ends justify the means, that's just the first step.
Merlyn: Towards what?
John: Becoming you.

Thea: You protected me! Risked your life for me! Just like my mother did!
Merlyn: Thea, I know you want to believe there's more to me than a killer. But the fact is, there's not. That man died with his wife.

Laurel: We made the right choice, right?  By refusing Merlyn's help?
John: I don't know if we made the right choice, Laurel, but we definitely did the right thing.

Felicity: Is what we're doing crazy?
Arsenal: I've learned it's better to ask that question when I'm not wearing a mask.

Brick: My two favorite trick-or-treaters. Look at that - Didn't anybody tell you Halloween was three months ago?
Laurel: Daniel Brickwell....
Arsenal: You have failed this city.
Brick: And you seem to have failed in your maths. Can't you see that there's a lot more of us than there is of you?
(Brick's men line up behind him.)
Sin: Guess again, Brick-head!
(Sin, Wildcat and the people of The Glades walk up behind Arsenal and Laurel)
Brick: Is this little parade supposed to mean something?  I'll tell you what it means. It means that the population of The Glades is gonna plummet severely. Get 'em!

Laurel: (To Ted) You're going to be fine. It's okay.
Ted: It's a good thing you fight better than you lie.

Arrow: Drop the gun! No more death!
Merlyn: That's easy for you to say. You just returned from the grave.

Merlyn: Thea will never forgive me.
Arrow: Then start giving her reasons to.

Arrow: I've been gone and I'm sorry. Sorry for what the city has had to endure in my absence. But you did endure it!  And the evidence of that struggle is lying at my feet. You did not fail this city! And I promise I will not fail you by leaving it again!

Thea: Are you okay?
Merlyn: I am, in fact. I didn't do it.
Thea: For me?
Merlyn: For me. But because of you.

Ollie: I'm sorry.
Felicity: For what?  Maybe you could be a little more specific? For letting us believe you were dead? For weeks? Or for abandoning every principle you claim to have by getting into bed with Malcolm Merlyn?
(Ollie tries to step forward but Felicity shakes her head)
Felicity: Uh-uh.
Ollie: That's not why you're upset...
Felicity: While you were gone, for almost a month... I allowed myself to... fantasize.. to dream that maybe, just maybe, Merlyn was wrong. That you were alive. And that you would come back. And that you would be different. That almost dying would give you a new perspective on life. That you would just do things differently!
Ollie: Things between us, you mean...
Felicity: Before you left, the last thing you said to me... was that you loved me. Now you're back. And the first thing you tell me is that you're working with the man who turned your sister - a woman you're supposed to love - into a killer, who killed a woman you used to love! I don't want to be a woman that you love.


Continuity

As the episode opens, it has been one week since the SCPD were pulled out of The Glades.  Halloween was three months earlier and Oliver Queen has been gone for nearly a month.

After watching Laurel beat up several thugs, Arsenal notes that "Grant must be some teacher."  Ted Grant was last seen in A306.

We see Sara and Roy's friend Sin for the first time since A220.

Merlyn believed his wife's killer was a man named Kendrick Weller.

Felicity refers to herself and the rest of The Arrow's support team as Team Arrow - a nickname she first used in A212.

Quentin Lance refers to The Arrow's support team as The Hood Squad.

Danny Brick used the same gun to kill Alderman Ford in A311 and Rebecca Merlyn - Malcolm Merlyn's wife.

Rebecca Merlyn was killed 21 years earlier.

Malcolm Merlyn planted a hidden camera in the Arrow cave.  It is through this he overhears that Brick was the real killer of his wife.

Thea tells Roy about how Malcolm saved her during the events of A223.

Brick killed Rebecca Merlyn to gain membership in The Orchid Bay Butchers.

Sin tells Captain Lance that another woman is impersonating Sara.

Oliver tells Thea that he was in Bludhaven and in jail for the month he was gone.

Oliver asks Merlyn to train him so that he can fight and kill Ra's Al Ghul. Merlyn agrees.

We find out the origin of Merlyn's League of Assassins' name: Al Su-her - The Magician.  It is because he performed slight-of-hand magic (the coin behind the ear trick) to amuse Nyssa Al Ghul as a girl.


Location

The cabin where Tatsu cares for Oliver's injuries.


The Fridge Factor

Ted Grant is seemingly killed by Brick in order to give Laurel one more person to feel guilty about dying in order to push her transformation into Black Canary.


The Winick Factor

Granting that there's a long tradition of corrupt or incompetent politicians running Star City in the comics, it still seems somewhat unlikely that any mayor hoping to be reelected or avoid serious issues with the state or federal government would ever hand over part of their city to a crime boss.  It seems even less unlikely that the police officers would agree to such a demand.  Especially with Quentin Lance in charge.


The Bottom Line

Logically, very little of the scenario for this trilogy of episodes makes sense.  But the cast sells it through sheer charisma and the snappy dialogue more than makes up for the holes in the plot of this third act.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 12 - Crazy For You

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.



Plot

When a new metahuman with the power of teleportation breaks her boyfriend out of Iron Heights and goes on a crime spree, The Flash and his team at STAR Labs are quickly on the case.  And Henry Allen takes it upon himself to become a jailhouse spy to help his son.

Meanwhile, Caitlin decides to take advantage of a stakeout of the local bars to drag Barry out for a night on the town, having further decided to move on from her fiance.  But Cisco isn't quite so ready to give up the chase for Ronnie Raymond... even if it means letting the Pied Piper loose on a short leash.


Influences

The Flash comics of Geoff Johns.


Goofs

How does Clay Parker get out of the car and away in the dark faster than Barry can return to the car once he's disabled it?


Performances

When playing drunk, there is a temptation for actors to go over the top to a ludicrous degree.  Danielle Panabaker manages to stay on the right side of the line as we get to see Caitlin Snow cut loose.  The chemistry between her and Grant Gustin is quite good and you get the feeling that only her total inebriation and Barry's being a total gentleman is the only thing that stops the characters from going further after Barry changes her clothes at super-speed.

Once again, John Wesley Shipp delivers a masterful performance as Henry Allen.  We dare you to keep your eyes dry during his final speech!


Artistry

The prison break scene is very well directed and filmed.  Nice choice of music for the action.

The special effects for Peek-A-Boo are quite impressive and the fights between her and The Flash are cinema-level quality.


Flash Facts

Peek-A-Boo's secret identity on the show is Shawna Baez.  In the comics, it is Lashawn Baez. Curiously, the IMDB page for the episode names the character as Lashawn Baez.

Peek-A-Boo is based on a character from Geoff Johns' run on The Flash.  Both characters are teleporters and African-American women, but there are differences between them apart from their names.

One difference is their weaknesses. In the comics, Peek-A-Boo's powers are reflexively triggered whenever anyone makes physical contact with her.  This can cause dangerous implosions if she is startled and teleports reflexively.

On the show, Peek-A-Boo's weakness is that her teleportation is based on a line-of-sight.  She can't use her powers in darkness or if her vision is otherwise obscured.

In the comics, Lashawn Baez was a medical student who dropped out of school to take care of her sick father. When he needed a kidney transplant, Lashawn offered up her own but the stress of the surgery triggered her latent metahuman teleportation powers. Unfortunately, the powers triggered whenever Lashawn was touched, so she could no longer donate her kidney.  She resolved to use her powers to steal a suitable donor kidney to save her father - an action that brought her into conflict with The Flash.

On the show, Shawna Baez is a career criminal who gained teleportation powers after the accident at STAR Labs.

Clay Parker is the name of a character from The Brave And The Bold #46 - Strange Sports Stories.

Cisco uses a hand-held device to shut-off Hartley Rathaway's hearing-aids, noting that Rathaway isn't the only one who understands vibrations.  This is a reference to Vibe - the vibration-controlling superhero whose secret identity in the comics is Cisco Ramon.

Barry notes that he is "a lot faster than a speeding bullet."  This is a reference to a line from the introduction to the 1950's The Adventures of Superman show, which eventually entered the comics as the most frequent description of how fast Superman was.  Since The Flash has usually been agreed to be faster than Superman, clearly The Flash would be "a lot faster than a speeding bullet."

Linda Park - the reporter who picks up Barry at the karaoke bar - is based on a character from the comics.  In the comics, Linda Park was an investigative television reporter who came to know the third Flash, Wally West, and eventually befriend him.  The two eventually began dating, married, and had twins together.

The DCTVU version of Linda Park is a sports reporter for the Central City Picture News - the same newspaper that employs Iris West.

At the end of the episode, two sewer works find the name "GRODD" scrawled on the walls of a sewer before being attacked by an unseen creature.  This is likely our first appearance of Gorilla Grodd - a super-intelligent, psychically empowered ape who is one of The Flash's deadliest enemies in the comics.


Technobabble

Barry collects organic particulate residual from Clay Parker's cell at Iron Heights.

The particulates contain the DNA of both Clay Parker and Shawna Baez.

Shawna's cell samples move faster than Barry's unless they are in total darkness.

A bomb shadow or "nuclear shadow" is created by the carbon imprint of an object being burned onto a surface during a nuclear explosion. The "shadows" of people burned onto walls during the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are prime examples of this phenomena.

Clay Parker's cells adopt the properties of Shawna's cells when they come into contact with one another.

Wells describes Peek-A-Boo's power as quantum entanglement - the ability to manipulate interconnected particles over an infinite distance.  Or as Albert Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance."

Professor Martin Stein specialized in transmutation, molecular transmography and quantum splicing - the act of making two things into one.

Hartley theorizes that the dark matter unleashed by the particle accelerator explosion merged Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond into one being - one with Raymond's body and Stein's mind.

Peek-A-Boo's cells become dormant without light.


Dialogue Triumphs

Hartley: The mystery isn't why Stein went to STAR Labs that night. It's why he didn't leave.

Cisco: (To Hartley) How can you speak six languages and sound like a dick in every one of them?

Cisco: (after activating his device to disable Pied Piper's hearing aids) You're not the only one who understands vibrations, Hartley!

Barry: My social life consists of running at superhuman speed and Netflix.

Peek-A-Boo: Not too many men can keep up with me.

Barry: Every time I got close, she disappeared. It was like we were playing a game of -
Caitlin: Peek-A-Boo! (beat) Come on!  Can't I name one?

Barry: I keep making this mistake. Every time Iris falls, I race to pick her up thinking that one of these times things are gonna change. But I... things never change. I am just destined to be just the friend.
Caitlin: At least you're not pining for someone who bursts into flames and wants nothing to do with you.

Caitlin: You're fast AND you can sing? What can't you do?
Barry: Stop you from drinking, apparently.

Caitlin: Let's just say I envy your inability to get drunk. I don't remember much from last night.
Barry: Yeah.  That's probably for the best. (singing) Summer Lovin' ...
Caitlin: Oh God.  THAT I do remember...

Caitlin: I told you to let it go!  I didn't want you looking into that for me!
Cisco: I wasn't doing it for you!  I... I sealed Ronnie into the accelerator before it blew.  He told me to wait two minutes and I waited.  But he didn't come back.  And I can't stop thinking... 10.. 20 seconds and... Ronnie wouldn't be like he is right now.  I wanted to tell you so many times.... I'm so sorry.
Caitlin: So you carried that around this whole time?  Do you know what Ronnie would say if he was here?  He'd say you did the right thing.

Henry: (To Barry) Look, I.. I.. .I don't get to feel useful very much in here. So if I can help you for a change, I'm gonna wanna be there for you. Just like you were there for me, all these years.

Peek-A-Boo: Why the hell do you care what we do? Are you a cop or something?
The Flash: Something.

Henry: (holding up a newspaper) Hey.  Did you see this?
Barry: No. I haven't.
Henry: The Flash.  I saw him once.  In here?  Watched him save Joe's life.
Barry: Joe told me about that. I guess he was lucky.
Henry: Hmm.. Lucky Joe. (beat) Strangest thing.  I get roughed by Julius.  End up in here.  Next thing I know Julius is caught trying to escape. Claims The Flash broke him out. Won't be seeing Julius for a LONG time now. Guess I'm lucky too, huh?
Barry: Dad... If I was... The Flash, don't you think that you'd be the first to know about it?
Henry: Well, if The Flash were my son I'd tell him a few things. First off, I'd tell him it's a dangerous world, so be careful. Then I'd tell him he's a hero and he's saving a lot of lives. But the most important thing for him to know, I feel, is that his father's proud of him.


Continuity

Caitlin says that Barry's speed when he saves a couple from a car that is about to explode is his fastest clocked speed ever, though we do not get an exact number.

Martin Stein was at STAR Labs the night of the particle accelerator explosion.

Hartley Rathaway can speak six languages, including Japanese.

Caitlin bites her lower lip when she's upset about something.

Barry is faster than a speeding bullet at close range.  At least, he's fast enough to catch a bullet behind his back before it can do more than break the skin.

Barry and Caitlin sing Summer Nights from the musical Grease.

Caitlin is not a drinker.

Hartley Rathaway escapes.

Cisco reveals that he sealed Ronnie Raymond inside the particle accelerator, on his instructions - an act we saw for ourselves in the flashback of 103.

The penalty for attempted escape in the state Central City is located in is ten years added onto the convict's sentence.

As The Flash, Barry gives Iris information on his most recent battle for her article.  As he is doing this, Iris is able to take the first clear picture of The Flash with her camera phone.

By the episode's end, Barry has gone on one lunch date with Linda Park.

Henry makes reference to the events of 103 and how he saw The Flash save Joe West from The Mist.

We see another reference to Grodd from The Pilot.


The Fridge Factor

Some of the changes to Peek-A-Boo's character from the comics for the show are a little disturbing. They took an African American medical student who turned to crime only to save her father's life and turned her into a career criminal who was trying to help her boyfriend pay off a mob boss.


The Bottom Line

The weakest parts of the episode involve our villain-of-the-week, which is surprising given how good the effects work is for all of the action scenes.  The best parts of this episode involve the dialogues between various pairs - chiefly Hartley and Cisco, Caitlin and Barry and Barry and his father.  The drama is well-played though and the development of these characters more than make up for the lack of action.  Shame that for all the focus on Barry's love life, the only real chemistry we see is between Danielle Panabaker and Grant Gustin.