DJ Watches: The Flash Season Three: Episode Three: Magenta
After the emotional turmoil and angst Barry subjected himself to last time, this week’s adventure in Central City begin with Mr. Allen…getting ready for a date with Iris. Oh joy. It goes basically the way one would expect – Barry picks Iris up using super speed, she makes him promise to just be Barry and not The Flash, they get to restaurant, and they are immediately interrupted by an incident that requires The Flash to show up, and once everything is settled, whoops, both are summoned to STAR Labs for something important. Welp.
Still, upon arriving at the Lab, they discover that a wormhole was opened from the other side, which worries everyone, but fortunately, it turns out to just be Harry from Earth 2, with a quicker then usual Jessie in tow. It seems that the mini black matter wave from last season that disintegrated Barry and hit Jessie and Wally and was certainly never going to affect them…ended up affecting her, and surprise, Jessie Wells is now a speedster, much to Harry Wells’ chagrin and Wally’s odd disappointment. After a quick lesson in how timeline alterations don’t affect people in different universes, Wells reveals they’re here to run tests on Jessie to make sure she’s okay, and absolutely nothing else. At all. Yup.
Meanwhile, in another part of town, a swell guy comes home after a hard day’s work, and in the most polite way possible asks why dinner isn’t done yet, and after the not-at-all terrified lovely wife scurries off to finish, his foster daughter is kindly reminded that he works hard to provide for her and foster mom, and if she would sometimes stop and think about that since he never brings it up. After she freaks out, she eerily and calmly proceeds to smack him upside the head with a street lamp. Without touching the streetlamp. Later on, when confronted at CCPD by Detective West over what happened, the girl, Frances, explains that she blacked out during the time dear old foster dad met the metal pole, and admits that the blackouts aren’t exactly rare. Still, Joe still sees her as a scared, confused young lady, and lets her go. However, good ol’ Julian managed to sneak in and get a sample from Frances, explaining to Barry that all the weird human husks from last week all shared the exact same protein marker that no other meta-human has, and it’s the very same one Frances seems to have. Rushing down to confront her with absolutely no tact whatsoever, the poor girl naturally freaks out, and as a result, her “other side” comes through, proclaiming herself as Magenta and after trying to crush both Julian and a random surprised cop in a car outside, escapes.
Back at the lab, they realize that Frances has a split personality that was worsened due to the Flashpoint shenanigans bringing her powered self form the other world over, prompting Iris to track down the hospitalized jack ass foster dad for some questions. Meanwhile,. Harry is as tactful as ever, and while trying to help Jessie, instead raises her ire as he tries to get Caitlyn to talk to her to not be as excited to be a speedster as she clearly is. Caitlyn of course has NO IDEA what to do with having powers, and as such stumbles over her advice, making it abundantly clear that Wells put her up to this. One more quick slip up later, and Jesse takes off. Wally assures Harry he’ll have a talk with her, fresh off his own talk with Joe trying to get him to calm down on wanting powers of his own. Harry and Barry have a heart to heart about how terrible they are at helping others, and to wrap it up, Alchemy also gives Magenta some advice (of sorts) on what she should do next.
While Wally and Jessie certainly have a conversation that puts things in perspective, it does more harm then good, as it gives Wally the wrong idea and puts himself directly in danger in hopes of his powers awakening. Jessie, naturally, shoves him to safety because it’s a suicidal idea, which everyone points out to him back at the lab. Iris, meanwhile, realizes what a fantastic human being foster dad is, but manages to cut through her disdain long enough to realize that Frances was striking out in revenge, and she would probably try again. It’s all a little too late, however, as she sees the cargo ship floating outside the hospital window….from something like the 18th floor, miles away from the harbor.
Flash runs in to save the day, creating an updraft to keep the ship from crashing into the building, but it’s pointed out that he can’t do that and confront Magenta at the same time. Finally giving in and deciding to be a supportive Dad (for this episode anyway), Harry encourages Jessie to quickly get down there and be a hero. Happily doing so, she gives Flash the time to talk Magenta down like only he can, and Frances manages to overpower the Magenta personality and move the ship away, collapsing in tears in Flash’s arms as the hospital is safely evacuated, and all is well. Frances is taken away to a safe house in Keystone City where she can work on her issues, that absolutely kind hearted foster father is charged with abuse for some reason, Harry and Jessie have an honest chat where the former finally accepts the latter’s life and powers, even giving her a name and a uniform, and Barry and Iris have a date. I think. Also, Joe, Barry, and Julian watch Clariss from the last episode get murdered by an invisible man in his cell at Iron Heights. All in all, a good day.
So another good episode of The Flash, and while I’ve said I’m tired of all these people who run fast, It’s super cool, thy made good on bringing in Jessie Quick, and complete with costume to boot if the next episode preview is indicative. It’s nice to have a somewhat more light hearted episode as well that only lightly touches on the season arc, mostly being about the insecurities of Harry being worried for his daughter’s safety, Jessie being bothered by her Dad’s over protectiveness cropping up again, Wally being depressed his powers that he feels he has haven’t manifested, all set against Frances’ mental torture and abuse at foster dad’s hands culminating in a heck of a breakdown, albeit one she happily manages to step back from. I guess being honest and forgiving one’s self was sort of the point of the episode, as Barry and Iris had to be honest with themselves about the nature of their relationship not being “normal” by most metrics. I guess.
I like how Flash managed to talk a villain down for once instead of fighting one, since that is a notable part of the character that they hadn’t done too much of in this series, and I’m glad they sorta just left Frances’ split personality at that. Yeah, it would’ve been nice to dig deeper, but they could’ve also portrayed it horrendously wrong, here at least there is the established excuse that the alternate timeline and Alchemy’s influence has something to do with anything overly negative or illogical about it.
I was also glad they condensed what would’ve been an entire episode’s plot into the first five minutes with Barry and Iris’s failed date, a lesser show would’ve dragged that out so long and milked so much overwrought drama out of it, I’m glad they just got it and the resolution out of the way without it tarnishing the episode’s A plot. Good job guys. I also note Caitlyn’s continued feigning ignorance at having powers, which only brings up the question of how no one, especially Cisco, has figured it out yet since she’s so terrible at hiding it. Still, it all makes that Kevin Smith directed episode in a few weeks with that spoiled title be more interesting, I suppose.
One thing I am concerned about was how they hand waved away stuff being different being the result of the Flashpoint paradox. It was fine lat episode to set up that Barry messed up big time, but now the appearance of a brand new set that was always there makes me hope the writers don’t fall back on that excuse too much, or it’s going to get real old real fast.
So, a nice pace for the season so far, three episodes in, and Harry and Jessie sticking around for a bit will be nice. Looking forward to where all these threads will go, an Alchemy still hasn’t done more then walk, so it’s all looking up. Now, after a strong episode last week, can Arrow keep it up?