The Flash’s 10th episode (“Borrowing Problems From the Future”) was a mesh of hopeless and hopeful. There are sweet, couple-y moments between Barry and Iris (guys, I love their new place, furnishing included. Is it bad that I’m jealous of fictional characters? Because yeah.). And then there’s having to re-watch the future, which means seeing Iris’s possible death. Again. To quote Miracle Max, “why don’t you just give me a nice papercut and pour lemon juice in it?” Okay, maybe not quite that bad. I’m not exactly Team Iris.
But I will say that I love that she’s standing up for herself, not letting Barry get away with hiding things from her. He doesn’t want to talk about his nightmares, but she keeps pushing until he cracks. Of course, I’m not sure she banked on him telling her that he witnessed her death in the future. I did enjoy how mad she got at him, before cracking into a million pieces and asking how long she had to live. It was some exquisite work by Candice Patton.
Moving on, the week’s villain is Plunder. And yes, you guessed it: he’s a plot device. That’s it. He’s a dude with a ray gun that leads to a brainstorm/Team Flash revelation. Totally no fault of Stephen Huszar, but Plunder’s definitely short on character development. But his presence does a lot to help Wally come into his own. His enthusiasm is delightful.
To save Barry, Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) struts his stuff, despite Allen’s initial desire to be more overprotective than Joe. Yes, you read that right. Joe had to tell Barry to dial it back a notch. (Are we sure this isn’t another parallel universe?) I really did enjoy Barry’s apology to Wally (“You’re ready. Far more ready than I was when I started.”), before they went to capture Plunder. That showed genuine character growth, and it was well done by Grant Gustin.
Confession: I think the newspaper headlines being the key to saving Iris is fantastic. And I think it’s even more fantastic that they’re going to do it as a team, no more Lone Wolf/Barry NO. Maybe it had to do with Caitlin’s sharp admission: “No one can do this alone. Trying is the biggest mistake you can make.” Granted, it had to do with her asking Julian for help (they have some bang-up chemistry, no?), then inviting him to join Team Flash…without even mentioning it to anyone else. He comes to the museum opening to accept it. Surprise! Oops. But her heart was in the right place. And it got her a new anti-Killer Frost necklace to boot.
HR schools them all on how to properly change the future (to save Iris and keep Caitlin from Killer Snow-ing it). Yes, there was a reference to his novels, one of which apparently won a Nebula Award. (Do we think the sad puppies are angry in that universe too, or…?) While the museum opening isn’t an initial success (that Cisco hologram! SCIENCE. I laughed.), I am so fond of his chats with Cisco. Well, when Cisco isn’t being a sourpuss. His pep talk to HR (“Greatness takes time.”), who was down on himself, was lovely. And I am a fan of their budding friendship. I think HR is easy to relate to. He’s enthusiastic, hopeful, relentless—and somewhat bumbling. I think we’ve all been like that, at one time or another.
The dinner party at the end was nice—something regular couple do, so we got a bit of normalcy. And it’s a good way to get the gang together without having to fight crime. (Side-note: I love that Barry fought the fire in the beginning with science! Science is a running theme. The world needs more science, if you know what I mean.) And I think it was nice to see that Julian was included, even if he does always seem awkward. Come on, Malfoy! Loosen up. Seriously, though: Tom Felton is such a great addition to the show. I hope they keep him forever.
Lastly, a woman came through a time rift (I think) with a hologram of HR. So, I have a feeling things are going to get reallllly interesting next week. We’ll see if HR can talk his way out of it.
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