Into the Speed Force – With Wally West trapped inside the Speed Force after freeing Savitar, Barry is left no choice but to go inside it to and free him; but will he be able to accept the consequences? After losing Wally, Jessie Quick is a little too eager to take on Savitar but may get her chance thanks to his severed armour shard.
Last year’s venturing into the Speed Force episode (The Runaway Dinosaur, Kevin Smith’s Flarrowverse debut) was a really enjoyable trippy affair. This time around, rather than make a straight up sequel, director Greggory Smith has given us a far more interesting venture around a central theme across the show’s entire existence; consequences. The entire journey becomes a combination of Barry answering to the Speed Force for his actions but more importantly answering to himself. There’s a wonderful Dante’s Inferno feel to it all as Barry quests towards the imprisoned Wally West. Wally described is being in hell and Barry’s various encounters end with en elevator ride down to the next level. Now it’s always fun when well loved characters swing by again by for an episode but this Central City reunion has such purpose to it as Barry reunites with deceased friends but more importantly each chose to die for the greater good. The Andrew’s (Kriesberg & Wilder) excellent script twists the knife of tragedy into us like it was a Lego coated chainsword by elaborating on the lives each fallen hero could have (and maybe should have) had but in death must accept the consequences of their decision. It all reinforces the idea of Wally’s imprisonment being the consequence of his own decision (which he believed was for the greater good). It’s some of the best emotional story work we’ve seen from the show in some time. Even a certain pale suited friend recently seen on Legends of Tomorrow makes an appearance to provide good short bursts of action with impressive visual effects.
Sadly the story in the real world doesn’t fare as well. First up, the entire Barry & Iris romantic arc this episode was awful. Their fall out over the timey whimey reasons for Barry’s proposal felt like repetition from last episode and merely drama for drama’s sake. Iris has already admitted that she understood Barry’s actions so making her mope about it for another half episode feels highly disrespectful to her character. There was some merit in using the events of the episode as a catalyst to ease that tension but that final scene made everything feel completely pointless. Barry spent the whole scene looking like the guy sent to a meeting by his boss that didn’t really understand why he was there; as if Grant Gustin was struggling to make sense out of Barry’s scripted actions. It was a poor way to end what until that point had been an awesome episode. A lesser gripe is the speed with which the Speed Force story was resolved, with Wally returned by the finish. This does make a lot of sense; the season is ticking down so they can’t draw things out too much. Still, giving Wally merely a Lindsey Lohan length imprisonment takes something away from its significance. The nature of the freedom also gets big redemption points for a genuinely good surprise twist.
I’ve said before that I haven’t been happy with how Jessie Quick/Violett Beane has been used since returning to the show. This episode finally gave her a worthy story. In many ways this was an ascension episode for her character; for the cast and audience alike to stop seeing her as a speedster as start seeing her as a Flash. We see Jessie rightfully and genuinely offended after being told to wait until, “the real Flash gets back” having fought her own monsters on Earth 2. The episode used her relationship with HR well to express this and by her making Jessie also a reckless towards seeking a Savitar showdown kept her vulnerable enough to root for. Even if the end resolution sees her depart for now, she’s leaving with purpose and looks set to come back stronger for it.
Into the Speed Force is a terrific concept episode that sadly trips itself up on the finish line and otherwise would have been one of this season’s treasured episodes. It’s a still a huge achievement in storytelling and everything concerning the main story deserves a lightning wrapped thumbs up. Next week it’s the musical Glee-union.... not that I’m making a song and dance about it.