Was “ All Star Team Up ” The Flash ’s wacky episode to date ? Yes . Was it full of jumbo plot holes ? Sure . Was it bad ? Not at all . Because no Flash episode in which Felicity Smoak drops by could ever be anything but delightful , no matter how nonsensical it gets .
“ All Star Team Up ” is a very silly episode , and not just because Felicity and Brandon Routh ’s delightfully straight Ray Palmer arrest by STAR Labs for help with the ATOM suit . confessedly , Ray ’s cheesiness and felicitousness ’s predilection for saying anything that ’s on her brain helps , but when the villain is the barely - classic DC villain the Bug - Eyed Bandit , it ’s hard to take thing too seriously despite the fact that her army of robot bees literally kill Barry and Cisco at different point in the episode . Also , the bee puns do n’t aid .
That say , I greatly enjoy “ All Star Team Up , ” I conceive chiefly because I have intercourse this utmost silliness is the elision , not the convention . I mean , it ’s supremely hard to hate an episode that begins with The Flash catching speculative guy after bad guy , depositing them in Joe ’s police car , and Joe literally cackling at how well-to-do fighting regular old crooks in Central City has become . Of of course , that sorting of hubris ca n’t go unchecked , and it ’s checked jolly heavily by a drove of robot bees that drink down a roboticist . But who has time to investigate that when Felicity and Ray Palmer come to town ? ( Not only do the C&C Science Factory utter the “ It ’s a razzing ! ” “ It ’s a planing machine ! ” lines , but shortly after Ray asks for help with his wooing , he does so explicate “ I ca n’t keep it up . ” ‘ Tis a very empty-headed installment . )
That ’s not to say the instalment is altogether devoid of serious-mindedness . Eddie chafes against Joe ’s refusal to get him tell Iris about the Flash , and Iris is catch exceedingly - pissed that Eddie is clearly maintain a secret from him . Barry agonise over whether he can tell Cisco and Caitlin about Wells ’ identity as the Reverse - Flash , and more specific whether they ’d side with him or their wise man . ( This is also thanks to Joe , who basically try Barry into not following his intestine about his friends . ) Barry , as per usual , ca n’t conceal his emotions from a distracted six - year - old , so Wells already knows something is up . And in the most surprising development , Cisco has started have vision of the original timeline — the timeline in which Dr. Wells murdered him .
So this stuff keep the show ground even when Barry run short on a hilariously badly - advised dinner date with Felicity , Ray , Iris and Eddie , as well as when another swarm of robot bee attacks another scientist , and Felciity says , out loud , on purpose , “ Bee careful ! forged pun , deplorable , please do n’t break down . ” However , Barry fails to take her advice and pall after about a million bees twinge him and he ’s goes into anaphylactic shock ( no , I do n’t know why he did n’t just outrun them or even create a wall of wind to keep them away ; the show seems to indicate there were just too many bees for Barry to keep up with , even at super - speeds , but I ’m not bribe it ) . At any rate , Cisco put a defibrillator in the Flash suit , so Barry gets better .
After a second dupe is stick , the chemical group realizes that Mercury Labs roboticists are being targeted , and enquire scientist Tina McGee ( who you might remember as the scientist whose tachyon thingamajig the Reverse - Flash stole , or who was the love involvement to John Wesley Shipp on the original Flash show ) . In a bracing bit of downrightness , all Tina has to get wind is “ robot bees ” and she immediately points to Brie Larvan , a former employee fired for … well , making sea wolf automaton bees , mostly . Barry and Joe warn Tina she will be likely targeted next , but Tina brandish them off , so they have another action sequence to terminate the installment with .
Brie , of track , immediately send a swarm after Dr. Tina ; Ray use his suit to portion out with those bee , while Felicity tracks the bee ’ web to find out where Brie ’s den is . The Flash head there , only to be shock when he encounter another swarm of bees — but eventually happiness literary hack Brie and shuts off the bee assault the Flash as the Atom lead his swarm into the bay . Between the Atom ’s humorously tiresome Iron Man potpourri and the Flash ’s double-dyed inability to grapple with the bees ( again ) , let ’s just say no one ’s going to jumble it for an Age of Ultron trailer . ( However , I ’m betting Age of Ultron will be severely miss in Felicity ’s endearingly dorky bon Ministry of Transportation test . )
candidly , the more I suppose about it , the more giant , goggle plotholes this sequence has . Why is the Flash completely outmatched by the robot bees not once but twice ? Why does Dr. Tina reject protection when there is a psychopath with an army of killer automaton bees after her ? Brie hid a bee on the Flash ’s costume and saw everyone at STAR Labs — is n’t the fact she knows the Flash ’s identity a job ? If this was somehow your first instalment of The Flash , or perhaps if this had aired in the first half dozen instalment , back when the show was imperfect and more formulaic , I imagine its flaw would be more obvious and much more pesky .
Yet for some reasonableness I ’m not annoyed . Yes , I ’m not thrilled that there was some gravely lazy writing in “ All Star Team Up , ” but it was still a lot of playfulness , and it ’s a passel easier to overlook these problems when I ’m being too entertained to wish . There ’s also the fact that The Flash has had such strong discharge of episodes ( pun mean so hard ) since the mid - time of year premiere , I ’m really willing to cut it some slack once in a while . Everyone one stumbles once in a while , even the Scarlet Speedster .
More significantly , I get the feel that this episode was one final number of frivolity before The Flash enters its last five episodes of the season . I would put money down that the Flash writers specifically chip in us this funny / wacky / ridiculous episode , as a sort of palate cleaner before the Speed Force really hit the fan . Because even by the end of “ All Star Team Up , ” Barry has tell Caitlin and Cisco that he believes Wells is the Reverse - Flash … and Cisco tells them about his lucid dreams about Wells murdering him . Wells ’ enigma is out , and if Wells does n’t screw he definitely suspects . He was uncoerced to kill Cisco in the substitute timeline — what will he do when everyone know ?
do it to say , I do n’t expect there ’ll be much fatuity in these last five episodes . And I ca n’t wait .
Assorted Musings :
• For those of you who do n’t know your ludicrous DC villains , the Bug - Eyed Bandit was a Silver Age curse of the Atom . He was a dude — Bertram Larvan — who did control an army of golem insects .
• Brie is likely the TV serial publication ’ silliest baddie — she convulse out bee - theme puns like she ’s try out for a new Joel Schumacher Batman picture show — but again , I was down with it . Let ’s just not make this a regular thing , okay , Flash ?
• Jesus , Felicity KILLS IT with her lines . They ’re almost all gem . “ I thought Central City was the fun one . ” “ BOOM . DROP THE MIC . Not really . ” And the absolute best : “ Bee measured ! Bad pun , sorry , please do n’t die . ” Emiy Bett Richards ’ delivery , as always , is impeccable .
• Iris tells Eddie is he does n’t come uninfected with whatever he ’s hiding , she ’s go to break up with him . Is this part of what start his hatred towards the Flash ? Because it seems like this nonsense is mostly Joe ’s fault .
• Speaking of , Eddie and Joe ’s conversation about whose thought outweights the other — and specifically how Eddie ’s only winnings when he conjoin Iris — was super - weird , right ? On a clustering of level . Not least because no one has ever been able to explain how not telling Iris who the Flash is protect her to the midget level .
• Brandon Routh himself said it , but the Atom definitely works better on The Flash than on Arrow . He ’s much well as a well-chosen , bouncy anti - Batman than the faux - Iron Man Arrow presents him as . His “ Hi ! I ’m Ray ! ” was endearing .
• New Flash Power o ’ the workweek : Cisco “ takes a bee ” for Ray , and goes into anaphylactic jar and die as well . Barry vibrates his hand and bring forth electrical energy to revive him . ( But seriously , did no one at STAR Labs think to invent an epipen or something ? )
• You know , my munificence towards this instalment may just be because I know they ’re about to put an evil , sentient , telepathic Gorilla gorilla on my tv set screen in the next few weeks . badly , that gain them a mountain of leeway from me .
• chink outthe very last letter in today ’s “ Postal Apocalypse”for a Flash TV show idea so awesome it HAS to come true . Seriously . Once you hear it , it ’ll become canon in your principal . I ensure .
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