It happens to most people at some point. You meet a guy or girl, then meet up a few times, and things seem like they're meant to be. Then all too quickly, your lives intervene and you just can’t see enough of each other to make it work in a relationship (okay, extreme geeks, use your imagination). She works days, you work nights. He spends too much too much time with his friends, she has a sick relative to care for everyday. As much as it saddens both of you, there’s a looming expiry date in your future, and the best thing you can do is just move on. Sometimes, this happens with the TV show cast. One season, you find an actor/actress perfect to play a character, but the next they’re just not available anymore, and you’re forced to try and write them out. The Flash has sadly experienced this with Robbie “Stephen’s cousin” Amell, who since being cast as Ronnie Raymond/half of Firestorm, has really seen his career take off (look for him in a main role for the upcoming X-Files series), and much to his own regret, he’s unable to meet the upcoming requirements for his character as a main cast member for Legends of Tomorrow. Fortunately, the nature of the Firestorm Matrix does leave the door open for recasting. So this week, Martin Stein finally gets a new partner in flame, but will they get on like a house on fire or a wet match?
The Fury of Firestorm – With Martin Stein’s Firestorm DNA becoming life-threateningly unstable, the team need to find him a new matrix partner fast. The two candidates are scientist Henry Hewitt and injured football star turned mechanic, Jax. One will become a hero, the other something very different. Meanwhile, Iris meets her mother and Patty investigates strange reports of a land shark.
Just like last week this could have been another forced Legends of Tomorrow setup episode, but instead in turns into an absolute riot. The overriding theme is taking a leap of faith on new beginnings. This has minor implications like Barry starting a relationship with patty even though “she’s not Iris” or Cisco revealing the secret of his Vibe powers to the team. However, the main focus is over the creation of the new Firestorm. In fact, with Barry spending minimal time on screen as The Flash, this is really more of a Firestorm episode. The title refers to the character’s staring comic series of the 80s from which the villain, Tokamak, also originates. Franz Drameh’s (Attack the Block, Edge of Tomorrow) casting as Jefferson “Jax” Jackson is a play on a more familiar Jason Rush incarnation of Firestorm, but since Rush featured as a passing character in season 1, the showrunners made the smart choice adapting someone new rather than re-casting Rush and disrupting their continuity. Drameh immediately comes across as very likeable right from his opening accelerator night flashback where he already shows heroic instincts. He offers a great fresh take on the show’s hero characters as he’s all too keen to pass up the chance to become a superhero, despite the promise of cool powers. Although this may look like hesitation, it actually shows his awareness of the responsibility that comes with the job role but ultimately comes to choose it once he truly understands the need. This becomes his leap of faith into a new beginning. The story of Henry Hewitt forms a great contrast as someone that wants it too badly. The early setup is excellent narrative as Catlin’s rush to select him for the job leads to the unlocking of his dormant Tokamak abilities (a variant on the comics character, very wisely without the mess of self-cloning) and full credit to Demore Barnes (The Unit) for really bringing the sinister once his villain music starts playing. Let’s hope he’ll get on encore.
Elsewhere, there are a lot of great minor stories throughout the episode as while Firestorm burns in the centre many other plotlines sneak a few steps forward while the spotlight is off them. The most prominent is Iris following up on last week’s Francine revelation by meeting her mother for the first time in 20 years. Again, this is great use of Iris having her own story rather than being a prop in someone else’s. Her reactions feel very in keeping as she ultimately refuses Francine but politely and respectfully. Writers Kai Wu and Joe Perracchio nail the clear declarations in her dialogue. The way she always refers to Joe as “my father” rather than “your husband” makes her feelings clear that they will not view each mother as mother and daughter. Then of course, there is her bombshell confirmation that the show will soon be heading in a more West direction. Then, there’s the Earth 2 Harrison Wells. It’s fantastic to see his interaction with the other characters being so gradual. His early shadow emergence at star labs was actually creepier than some horror films manage. This excellent teasing continues as he the reappearing Tina McGee eyeballs him before one hell of a final entrance that still maintains the mystery over his intentions. Finally, as there have been consistently since she arrived, there were a few gem interactions between Barry and Patty, from their speculation on whether a Man-Shark would make a bad or awesome sci-fi movie to Patty’s self confessed terrible lying when trying to keep the secret of Harrison Wells from Barry. If she gets any cuter, our jaws will break from an over sustained “awwww” and Barry’s decision to go for a relationship (“Batty” or “Parry”?) could not be more welcome.
The season’s great form continues as this Firestorm-centric offering is fun, thrilling, and even delivers some awesome looking visual effects (the last minutes even gives Grodd a run for his money). Jay Garrick seems to have disappeared for undisclosed reasons, but that will likely be explained next week. Now the LoT setup checklist has Captain Cold and Firestorm ticked off, it looks like Hawkgirl will be the next Central City resident to feature (and before the episode 8 crossover event). Until the,n we can just cruise our Metahuman Tinder app for a nights of fun and preferably no painful deaths.