Into The Arrowverse: We get the Supernatural crossover we didn’t deserve
By Ariba Bhuvad
Jesse L. Martin as Captain Joe West, Grant Gustin as The Flash and Danielle Nicolet as Cecile Horton — Photo: Sergei Bachlakov/The CW
The Flash Episode 616: “So Long and Goodnight”
Alright, so let’s do this thing.
The Flash was a bit underwhelming this week. I’m confused as to why the show struggles to keep itself exciting and intriguing. It has an amazing cast, a library of stories to pick from, and a whole universe to play in. And yet it’s one of the Arrowverse’s most frustrating shows.
This is mainly due to the fact that Barry Allen is always trying to do everything despite having a team of people to help. He seems to think he’s the only superhero who ever lived. The whole “the weight of the world on my shoulders” thing is overdone on The Flash.
There are a few key moments in “So Long and Goodnight.” The central plot-line revolves around Joe West and the return of Rag Doll. Does anyone else giggle every time they see Rag Doll? I don’t know what it is about this Flash villain, but I just can’t take him seriously.
Anyway, Rag Doll is hired by Joseph Carver to kill Joe West, who is poking around into Black Hole’s business. While I didn’t find this episode to be all that great, I did enjoy Jesse L. Martin’s performance. We rarely get to see a Joe-centric episode, so that was a treat.
Once hired, Rag Doll does his best to kill Joe, at one point squeezing into the engine of Joe’s car and making it so the brakes won’t work. Luckily, Joe jumps out of the car before it goes KABOOM, and I was left scratching my head wondering how how Rag Doll managed to escape.
Captain Singh asks Joe to go into witness protection, but true to form, he refuses to back down even with the likes of Rag Doll trying to assassinate him. He’s continuing his investigation, no matter what.
Once again, I have a question: Over the course of The Flash, our heroes have contended with some gnarly villains. Why is it this one that requires one of the characters to go into Witness Protection? I know that it’s specific to Joe and all, but hasn’t he been in this sort of danger before? Anyone who knows the answer, please explain.
Joe’s life is in danger, and eventually, Barry figures out that Rag Doll is behind this thanks to a strand of hair he leaves behind after very, very creepily folding himself out of a briefcase. Okay, you know how I was making fun of Rag Doll before? I’m also low-key afraid of how creepy he can be.
Despite Barry asking Joe to stay put, Joe refuses and goes straight to the source of the chaos: Joseph Carver. That’s pretty ballsy of Joe — again, I’m loving how much Joe West we got this week. It was definitely the highlight of an otherwise mediocre episode.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Barry’s speed has been slowed down exponentially, and it’s gotten in the way of him being able to put his all into saving folks. It doesn’t help that Joe is choosing now to be stubborn.
Luckily, Joe’s resistance to go into Witness Protection breaks down after Rag Doll inevitably kidnaps Cecile. So basically, Joe kept going after Carver knowing this would likely happen, and then when his wife is nearly killed by Rag Doll, he finally understands the danger. This was a major eye-roll moment, but it gets him into WITSEC, much to fake Iris’ pleasure.
Speaking of fake Iris, we check in with the real Iris, who is still stuck in the mirror world. Somehow, she’s been adapting, and is inching closer to figuring out a way to get out of there. But not if Eva has anything to say about it!
You know how when Barry is already down on his luck something happens in his love life to make it even worse? Well, fake Iris rains hell down on him for not telling her that “her” father was going into WITSEC. I mean, there wasn’t much time, but okay. Plus, he’s safe, so there’s that. I mean I get it, but when she kicked Barry out of the house because of it, it was glaringly obvious that this isn’t the real Iris.
For someone who has been cleverly orchestrating things, Eva didn’t think this one through: it’s going to be hard for fake Iris to maintain the charade now. And if you saw the promo for next week, you know that Barry is catching on.
But hey, not all hope was lost on this week’s episode. We did get some Sue Dearbon and Ralph, which has slowly become my favorite part of the show. I really, really hope the Arrowverse writers don’t screw this storyline up. I need it to work out the way it does in the comics, and based on this week, it just might be going that way! Fingers crossed.