The Most Epic Fantasy and Sci-Fi Website

The Flash "S3E2I Cause and Effect" - Review: Brain Drained


The Flash "S3E2I Cause and Effect" - Review: Brain Drained
7 out of 10

Cause and Effect – After learning that Savitar knows their every move from his connection to Barry, Cisco and Julian perform a procedure to stop Barry creating new memories, taking away Savitar’s advantage.... what could possibly go wrong?

We’re diving straight in after last week’s Savitar reveal as future as evil Barry asks Barry prime to behold his broken brilliance (“I knew you’d come”) which sets the tone of episode; good but not the show’s best. Grant Gustin does an excellent job in delivering is evil alter self but the explanations given over Savitar’s origins are a little disappointing and don’t justify the character transformation. Still, the suit antics... that was cool.

As for the main story itself I have to admit I cringed a little upon seeing the memory loss premise in this episode’s trailer but the execution was far better than I expected. Firstly the memory loss comedy of a brain drained Barry not knowing who he is what he can do (akin to Buffy’s Tabula Rasa) plays well into the show’s naturally light heated tone. The court scene in particular was bloody hilarious and one of the funniest things the show has done all season. This even gives us a terrific comic book Easter Egg as Barry decides he’d rather be called Bart; aka Bart Allen, aka Impulse, the 2nd Kid Flash and the 4th Flash in the mid to late 00s. Then there’s the great move of extending the brain blunder to Savitar as he also loses his memory..... at least it would be if that story actually went anywhere. After pledging us the wonderful concept a mind wiped Savitar we must assume he spends the rest of the episode reading “Being a Super Villain for Dummies” under an oversized blanket. That said, subbing Savitar out for Killer Frost getting her Catlin on within the team made for some interesting viewing. Frost worked great as seething, occasionally mocking presence while Cisco and Julian’s attempts to reach to her inner Catlin found their emotional marks to show the team still feeling her loss. The only downside is this heavily points towards Catlin returning before the end of the season which will be a real shame because Danielle Panabaker is killing it as her metahuman alias.

click to enlarge

I wasn’t crazy about the Tracy/HR romantic subplot either. This was played primarily for laughs in an episode with plenty of much better comedy courtesy of amnesia Barry. It really added nothing to the episode other trying keep both characters busy which could easily have been done so much better. The team could have attempted to bring in Tracey on fixing Barry, she explains that’s not her field of expertise which leads into the need her Catlin/Killer Frost’s help. Wally West also got really short changed this episode. He lost his powers.... that should have been a big deal but he gets nothing more than a “that’s it” reaction rather than emotional insight into how such an ordeal would affect him.

The surprising ending makes some big promises for next week, including an old chum back in the picture, that will hopefully pan out well. Yet overall this is a slip up of an episode that manages to fall with style in a few places before getting overly tangled in its own continuity. You probably won’t need a Cisco zap to forget this episode in a few weeks.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Anime and Reviews page.