Legends of Tomorrow soars, The Flash flops, and Batwoman drops a major revelation
By Ariba Bhuvad
Pictured (L-R): Danielle Nicolet as Cecile Horton, Candice Patton as Iris West – Allen and Tom Cavanagh as Nash Wells — Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW
The Flash Episode 617: “Liberation”
I’m so desperate for us to get one decent non-crossover episode from The Flash. I have no idea what they’ve been doing this season, but it shows no signs of getting out of this rough patch. In this week’s episode, “Liberation,” we’re primarily dealing with Evil Iris and the real Iris, and learning Eva’s plan for domination, or whatever the heck she’s doing.
It baffles me that up until this point, Barry had no inkling that “Iris” was acting strange and unlike herself. But after she kicks him out of their home, he suddenly has an epiphany. I know some may say that she hasn’t been acting that different, but I beg to differ.
In the mirror dimension, the real Iris finally learns that Eva has been against her this entire time, and is the reason why she was brought there in the first place. It took us an incredibly long time to get some traction on a boring storyline, but we are finally getting there.
Let’s summarize what happens with Eva: Basically, her plan to get out of the mirror dimension is finally reaching its conclusion with the help of her “kids,” aka fake Iris, fake Camilla, and fake Captain Singh.
Together, the three of them use Singh’s credentials to get into the A.R.G.U.S. facility and get access to Ramsay Russo. His blood is the key, apparently, to get Eva out of the mirror dimension. I’m not sure if I missed the “why” of this discovery, but we sort of just stumble across it.
Fake Camilla sacrifices herself in order to get Russo out of his hold, but he’d rather stay captured because whatever is out there is much worse. I guess I get it, but I don’t really. Despite not wanting to be free, he gives them what they need to get Eva out.
And this is where things get really weird and make me wish we could just watch this week’s episode of Batwoman all over again instead. The entire episode, Barry tries to convince Cecile that Iris isn’t really Iris. He even tries to zap the fake Iris with a prism gun in an attempt to out her. He gets this genius idea after stumbling across a picture of fake Iris where she’s just a blob of prism.
Unfortunately for Barry, Eva uses mirrors to swap out the gun and turns the tables on him instead. Instead of fake Iris being revealed, they make it seem that it’s Barry who isn’t Barry. Luckily, Cecile’s powers come in handy and alert her that Barry isn’t a fake.
So after Cecile lets him go free, Barry speeds on home only to discover fake Iris in the middle of a conversation with Eva, and something is about to go down. That something is Eva finally coming over to the real world, but before that can happen, The Flash decides to put us through a painstakingly cheesy sequence of Barry and fake Iris fighting. Well, it’s more Barry getting stabbed repeatedly by shards of mirror as fake Iris uses her arms that are now pointy mirror swords (yah, it got weird) to hurt him.
At some point, this sequence comes to an end after the real Iris realizes that Eva and her “children” are connected. Aka, if she pisses Eva off, it’ll affect her “kids.” Some taunting and jabbing at Eva later, fake Iris succumbs to the little bit of real Iris inside of her and goes free…or something…as Barry holds her in his arms.
And the fun isn’t over just yet. Eva steps out of the mirror dimension, leaving the real Iris behind. She proceeds to poke some more at Barry, who can’t heal as quickly anymore due to his slower speed, before scurrying off.
When he comes to, he’s healed, but defeated. So what does he do next? Snuggle up next to a mirror and hope that the real Iris can hear him on the other side.
And guess what real Iris is doing?
The exact same thing. Oh, the horror.
Perhaps the only semi-exciting thing about this week’s The Flash is watching Cisco and Ralph try to save Caitlin, who has been hurt by a light wound. Even that is a bit of a stretch, but anything to get away from the mirror of it all.
Can next week be better? Please?