Women’s Basketball player and current league MVP Eleana Della Donne recently spoke out about the sexism she faces in her sports career, including a lot of social media trolling and even heavy abuse. All she wants is to be seen as a great athlete full stop, regardless of gender. Yet she gets more people talking about her looks than her freethrow record (which is one of the very best the entire sport, men’s or women’s). Even if things are getting better, it’s still never as easy as it should be for a woman in anything most people would convince as a male role (... and vice versa, if much less common). The Flash makes a statement for gender equality this week (probably) as it delivers the first female speedster on the show to date and one thing is for certain: she’s awesome character, full stop.
Trajectory – As the team takes some down time from pushing Barry’s speed, a fellow speedster blasts into down on a crime wave and people think the Flash is behind it. Iris takes unexpected means to stop her editor running an anti-Flash story and Jessie Quick leans of her the dark lengths her father will go to in protecting her.
Aside from some brief playful moments from Cisco about the notion of a lady speedster (“It only took us 2 years but we finally got one!”), which is more like the script getting such jokes out its system, we do view trajectory as more of a tragic villain character. In fact, she gets the most interesting villain arc since January’s Reverse Flash reprisal as a speed force drug addict. This really expands the potential of the series through the Velocity 9 speed drug as a means for all sorts of characters to show up. Allison Paige really impresses in her split personality scenes as the character of Trajectory becomes a different manifestation of herself under the influence of Velocity 9. The mirror scene in particular conjures images of William Dafoe’s Norman Osborne/Green Goblin talking to himself and the entire lab sequence of the innocent Eliza Harmon being seduced into dosing back up is easily the most captivating part of the entire episode. Eliza’s motivations also give her character a nice shade of tragedy as she created the drug purely to catch up on all her vast work backlog (the same way many of us do with energy drinks). Strictly in the interest of science, we must talk about how she looks or specifically her costume, which shows great representation of Crime Syndicate’s (Earth 3) Johnny Quick. The fate and resolution of her conflict with Barry also raises several points of curiosity. Following last episode’s reveal of Jay Garrick (or at least his face) being behind Zoom’s mask, the popular consensus is that the writers are drawing Zoom’s character heavily from the Golden Age Reverse Flash character of Edward Clarice (so my Wally West/New 52 Daniel West theory was off by the length of a canyon). In the episode’s climax, we see Trajectory taken out in the same way as Edward in the comics. That could well be intentional foreshadowing for Zoom’s fate in the season climax. It even has a built-in comics loop hole for bringing the character back in the future so there’s clear attraction for the show to go there.
Outside the main story, the episode has a lot of good smaller arcs for its supporting characters, generally with the just the right amount of minimal story to not feel rushed or stretched. The best supporting arc across the episode is Jessie Quick as she’s brought into a more socially-active role within the group in her desire to see more of this new world than the walls of Star Labs. Violett Beane plays this well with youthful energy that shouldn’t be cooped up. Her first meeting with Wally West shows some real signs of chemistry (... so I may still be right about those two becoming a couple). Though her best moments come from her parental relationship with Harrison Wells as she learns just his dark side is a Spinal Tap level of black (“It’s like how much more back could this be.... and the answer is none more black?”). Yet just when we think we’ve already the script on Jessie feeling betrayed about being lied to, director Glen Winter gives her a fresh perspective that really speaks to the intelligence or her character. Rather than feeling horrified by what her father is capable of, she actually feels responsible it. In her own, she sees through the problem to make an Eddie Thawne-like sacrifice play and take herself out of the equation for the greater good.
Elsewhere, Iris’s accidental date surprises by revealing a new more likeable side to her editor, Scott Larkins despite being more of a flash hater. In continuation from his debut episode, he makes very valid points that such blind sympathy towards anyone is not how a reporter should conduct themselves. It is the very nature of their job to question the established because if something is wrong, people have a need and a right to know about it. Their conclusion implies some form of relationship between Iris and Scott going forward, which could be a very good thing both on a romantic and a dramatic level as it pulls Scott closer to the Team Flash circle of trust with chances of exposing them.
After 4 weeks of keeping us hanging, Trajectory is a great comeback episode. The end scenes see the team catch up to audience awareness of Zoom via very natural conclusions, Cisco’s dancing is worth the price of admission alone and we even learn that Wells is a Kanye fan (maybe on Earth 2 he’s actually a decent guy). This episode may feature the first female speedster on the show but based on its performance we can be sure it will not be the last.