"The Man in the Yellow Tie"
I stated on my Facebook page that I wasn’t going to do a Flash episode review this week unless said episode completely "blew my everlasting mind" almost as a semi-snarky jab at the previous episode's lower quality. Well, not only did this episode blew my everlasting mind more than I ever could have imagined, it also ended up being the best episode of the entire season thus far. So, here I am now eating a giant slice of layered irony cake. With shocking character returns and storylines being brought back into the fold, this week’s episode was exactly what the doctor ordered after my previous disappointment with a certain major villain. Thinking now, it's been about 2-3 seasons of major concerns to downright ranting (with tiny sprinkles of optimism) towards the way the writers have handled Eobard Thawne. This week’s episode felt like the writers were making a direct response to my reviews by reading through all of my previous Thawne related discussions and saying “Ah Ha! That's it! We know exactly how to win him back to liking one of our most pivotal characters again!”.
So, did this completely fictional writer from the show succeed in winning me back to the character by finding some untapped element from my old reviews? Or has my feelings remained the same and there’s simply nothing left that the show can do to redeem the recent distaste that I've built for the Reverse Flash? Well, let’s find out. Here is my review for Episode 18 entitled "The Man In The Yellow Tie".
1. Thawne Is Finally Back! The Real Thawne! ...Sort Of
Let’s just get into the big highlight of the episode right away, shall we? So unfortunately, Meena’s mysterious associate being Eobard Thawne was spoiled for me by someone on my Facebook page (an innocent accident), but it was still awesome getting to see Matt Letscher finally return to the show. Anyone that has followed my Flash reviews for over the pass 3 or so years will know that I’ve been begging for the show to bring back the true Reverse Flash (this being Matt Letscher). You can imagine how delighted I was to see him revealed here as a unidentified scientist working on a decades ahead machine to create artificial speed with Meena. Barry’s stunned, then angered reaction to Thawne immediately elevated the episode for me reminding me of the Flash-Reverse Flash confrontation that I’ve been hoping for since Season 3 ended. During this encounter, it felt like the answer to that wish had finally arrive. Although, I was very curious as to how and why this Eobard was here in the present. Thawne claims to be suffering from a level of amnesia which I thought was kinda of an interesting concept calling back to Godspeed’s character in Season 7.
I loved how Barry didn’t buy this excuse for one bit (understandably so) resulting in him aggressively scolding Thawne for simply just being there. This uneasy encounter of longtime foes definitely raised the tension for the episode, but what made me especially excited wasn’t Barry calling him out as the Reverse Flash, but Thawne himself reacting in confusion to being identified as a “murderous speedster”. I just found it interesting that if Eobard was indeed clueless for some reason, he would still have the knowledge of the Reverse Flash being an evil speedster. Is Thawne’s whole character public knowledge in present day Central City? Just curious how that would work with the future if people in the present is aware of who he is. Or maybe I'm thinking too much into it?
We get a “One Year Ago” flashback to Matt Letscher Thawne interviewing for a job at Fast Tracks Lab and obtaining the position by solving Meena’s speedster equation. In this scene, you can see Thawne’s typical ego being displayed where he calls Meena’s previous candidates idiots while he’s the only one smart enough to figure out her agenda and the ideal one to assist her. I just have to pause here for a moment and emphasize that seeing this particular actor in the role was something that I’ve been asking for for far too long now. So, despite my recent rants on the character’s writing in recent seasons, it feels like the writers are slightly balancing out my frustrations by finally fulfilling this longtime wish of mines. What can I say? I really do miss Matt on the show and what this episode does with his character starting from this "One Year Ago" flashback story to the ending of the episode is absolutely intriguing. It's as if part of my brain wants to fully believe his amnesia story while the other half is calling me gullible for buying into the show's ultimate schemer. Love it.
Later on, Barry rushes back to Thawne at the A.R.G.U.S. prison demanding an explanation for his whereabouts which was a fantastic scene. You can feel his deep frustration and panic at the thought of Thawne somehow getting his powers back which honestly impacted me a bit. This is a testament to the many years of the show building up this historic conflict between the two which results in scenes like these having a strong impression. I love how Thawne frustratingly rejects the notion of having any connection to what’s happening since Barry took his speed away. It’s just interesting seeing Eobard look so defeated desiring to be left alone in his wallowing while Barry is pressuring a new conflict between them. We then get an interesting scene following that's honestly the type of scene that I’ve been asking for for a very long time now. The scene revolves around Barry referencing Season 3’s alternate Flashpoint Thawne being released to fix the timeline while also facing the Legends before eventually being taken down by Black Flash.
Back in what I believe was Season 6, I wrote out a long semi-rant article about how the show needed to do a full breakdown of the Reverse Flash’s history making sense of every connection. This ARGUS dialogue exchange scene is the first time that the Arrowverse has ever tackled this to some extent. It’s also nice to see Barry reference Season 2 of Legends of Tomorrow’s Thawne conflict and conclusion finally recognizing the shared TV universe crossover storytelling with this character. There's a fun subtle detail inserted here when Thawne makes a sarcastic remark about Black Flash not finishing the job in killing his alternate version (a jab at the time wraiths who Thawne viewed as obstacles to his schemes). Before Barry leaves Thawne, he shows him a sketch of Meena and alternate Thawne’s biometric machine. Thawne recognizes it as being his own design stating that it used negative Speed Force energy which Barry makes the connection to Meena’s erratic speed. Personally, I like this concept acting as established lore being repurposed to launch a new speedster storyline.
However, the real highlight here for me came with one of the best lines by the Reverse Flash on the show. It's a genuinely chilling line by Thawne here where he asks who Meena was and tells Barry that history doesn’t remember her more than likely due to what this new Thawne does to her. He tells Barry “No matter when we exist, or what our memories are, we only look out for ourselves. Whatever this new guy’s endgame, he’ll sacrifice every pawn on the board to get what he wants.” Now this…this feels like the sinister Thawne that I know and love from Seasons 1-5. Just this one line alone, and yes even Tom Cavanagh's performance despite my previous episode discussion calling it noticeably weak, reminded me of why I loved this character in the beginning.
Later, Barry runs back to Fast Track Labs with the assumption that Thawne would kill Meena with the negative Speed Force confronting him in the act. Only, when Barry shows up to stop him, Thawne seems genuinely confused at Flash’s claims resulting in Meena tapping into the negative Speedforce and transforming into a power hungry speedster. Honestly, I felt the negative black and white lightning FX looked pretty awful during several of her scenes compared to Season 8 speedster visuals. But other than that, I was semi-intrigued by what this character transformation was potentially leading to for a new speedster villain. Is Meena the real villain here or is she being manipulated? How does this tie into Matt Letscher's Thawne showing up here and now and Barry’s labeling of him being Flashpoint/Legends Thawne? So many questions to answer. Let’s see how the writers handle such a multilayered complexed plot.
Meena escapes the lab and starts absorbing electricity from the city’s lines (randomly causes a guy to crash to death). The scene of her absorbing the electricity here is the first time where the negative lightning FX actually kinda worked for me. Barry wakes up and acknowledges how her attack cancelled his speed again which I think is a slight change of pace with speedster threats. Typically speedster villains centered around the the idea of just being faster than Barry until Godspeed introduced the ability to use paralyzing sound waves. Meena here introduces the idea of literally cancelling out Barry's speed with her own conceptually bringing somewhat of a fresh new dynamic to the fight. Matt Letscher’s Thawne then wakes up confused while Barry further continues to scold him. Thawne claims to not know about the negative speed force until just now and reveals that Meena was just protecting him from the Flash due to their romantic bond. This definitely surprised me in of itself but what comes next is where the real intrigue sets in.
Thawne states that after he lost his memories, he somehow felt focused on becoming a speedster leading him to meeting Meena. He describes his experience as having a pull to create the biometric machine in order to use speed powers to save the world. I thought this was absolutely fascinating as it paints Thawne as a hero which perfectly parallels what Thawne became on the last season of Legends. But wait a second. Thawne’s reappearance on Legends' final season was a reveal that he became something of a time master for the Speed force guarding a fixed point. This was his redemption from where he left off after Black Flash caught him and even died trying to help the heroes. So, how exactly does this amnesia suffering Thawne on The Flash connect to Legends if Barry is labeling him as the same one? Is this yet another unacknowledged Reverse Flash questionable plot element on the show? Don't worry, we'll get to that later.
Thawne explains that they eventually fell in love (implying that their scientific ambitions are what connected them) but a conflict came when her established heart condition worsened. This forced Thawne to use the biometric machine to imbue her with bad cgi...I mean...artificial speed. Saving her life also meant losing his dream to be the ultimate hero which is quite honestly the best writing that they’ve done with Thawne yet. Who would’ve thought that we’d get an interesting speedster love story with Thawne? That just baffles me thinking about it. The way he pleads to the Flash to save his love and not letting whatever other monstrous versions of himself shift Barry's perspective of who they both are was dramatically profound. We’re seeing this character in such a different light that it’s jarring, but jarring in a delightfully refreshing way. Barry’s response talking about how much the Reverse Flash has destroyed his life and that such a man would never put someone else’s life before his leading to his acceptance of this new version was deeply moving.
I love the fact that he directly calls this Thawne “someone better” as the ultimate slap to the face of all the other versions of him that came before. You can sort of look at this as the ultimate defeat of the Reverse Flash. It’s not Barry locking him up and taking away his powers. It’s the living breathing proof that there’s a better version out there who’s a genuine hero worth looking up to and not a sinister, sociopathic, and selfless criminal. I feel like I’m getting the Thawne return that I didn’t particularly ask for but absolutely needed in these narratively trying times. Barry gets his speed back and learns that Meena is absorbing energy off the city’s power grid at the Keystone dam as a result of the negative speed force’s grip on her. This is an interesting reminder of two things. The first being that the negative Speed force is a corrupting power as shown briefly with Nora in Season 5 (which by proxy informs Thawne’s character throughout the years). The second being that Barry has a huge recharge station in the form of a city dam whenever he wants. Not sure why I never thought of that.
Barry catches up to Meena as she spouts some generic power hungry speedster villain dialogue and we get our big chase sequence of the episode. One of the cool things about this scene in particular isn’t just the action set piece itself but the fact that we see Matt Letscher’s Thawne working with Chester to help Barry. Again, it’s such a baffling and refreshing thing to see this character come back in this type of fashion. As for the chase itself, there’s a couple of awesome standout shots like the two running on water with their lightning reflecting off the surface as well as Barry leaping into the air to do a lightning blast causing a huge electrical explosion on the water. It’s honestly one of the most visually stunning moves that the Flash has done yet and another reminder of Season 8’s major step up in production values. I love the fact that Barry doesn’t struggle to take down Meena during this chase considering he should be top of the speedster food chain now and the writers never break that here.
Where things get interesting is when Meena, while seemingly unconscious summons power directly from the negative Speed force conjuring a lightning strike on Barry that cancels out his power. It’s a pretty cool moment conceptually speaking (not so much visually since the FX work on the black and white lightning is still pretty shaky). The scene kinda reminds me of the best parts of the Godspeed arc where he summoned lightning from a storm in a massive display of power. Meena gets up and starts taunting Barry calling him a pathetic avatar of the Speed force. She then begins to tell Eobard that the Meena that he knew is gone in the electrostatic pits of the biometric machine. This is the most interesting stuff that we’ve seen done with the negative Speed force on the show as it’s giving the energy source a sense of characterization in some fashion for the first time. Thawne has always been shown as a villain using this power its creator, but we rarely get to see it used by someone else. With Meena, it's being presented as the act of tapping into it resulting in a corrupting possession which is pretty intriguing.
Thawne tries to reach out to Meena saying that he can still feel her, but she disregards him and does the traditional hand phase kill move gesture towards Barry. Just a quick side note: I always wondered why speedsters automatically went to that move as if that somehow comes natural to them. I understand Barry using it after witnessing Thawne do it, but why does Zoom, Godspeed, and now Meena do it? It's such a specific life ending move to think up for someone. Just a thought.
Meena walks over to Barry proclaiming that her purpose is to kill the Flash which was very interesting as it brings to attention a larger battle at hand (the clash of the Speed forces or evil Thawne's sensibilities shining through the negative Speed force host?). Thawne then gets in the way again trying to stop Meena this time reminding her of the person that she is. And not to sound like a broken record here but just the idea that it’s Eobard Thawne trying to talk a villain out of killing the Flash out of sheer love is just profound on so many levels. Now I do have a bit of a nitpick here where the episode decides to show flashbacks that we’ve just seen moments ago alongside some slightly cheesy dramatic music. This has been a small issue that I believe started in Season 7 where the show has adopted a flashback heavy direction. What they should’ve opted to do instead is just let Matt Letscher’s performance carry the scene with only a few new flashbacks attached. That being said, it all leads to a happy conclusion where he manages to rescue Meena through emotional connection.
Later on, Team Flash helps remove the negative Speed force out of Meena and the scientist couple talks about shutting down the machine due to its negative effects. However, Barry interjects with a proposition to keep it going due to their bond being able to sever potential negative drawbacks. Barry calls Thawne "Meena’s lightning rod to guide her" which is one of the most profound things that has ever been uttered on the show considering the characters in question. The story in this moment ends like a classic superhero “power of love” story would with these CW DC Comics shows. Just the fact that it’s coming from Thawne is so fascinating that I have to give major admiration points to the writers this season for making such a bold and rewarding villain shift. I’ve been very honest about my major disappointment on what they revealed previously with Thawne’s terribly petty motivation origin which destroyed the character for me. However what this episode did to redeem him was showed a new fresh take on the character while highlighting the better parts of the old all in one episode.
And then the big question gets answered. How is this Thawne the one from Flashpoint if we saw his redemption and death as a Time Master on Legends? To my utmost shock and satisfaction the writers actually fully acknowledge this by bringing Ray Palmer back to tell Team Flash of that very same story. I cannot tell you how happy I was to not highlight this as a negative on the show sidelining the lore. The way Barry speculates on this is that the time wraiths may have decided to bring Thawne back yet again in order to be a new redeemed hero for the present since his penance was over. That’s actually a pretty cool story concept and does in fact work with what we’ve seen. But what happens if this new Thawne encounters the villainous imprisoned one? Now that’s a casting encounter that we’ve never seen on the show before and one that would be absolutely compelling to witness.
Speaking of the imprisoned Thawne, the episode ends with him laying in his cell thinking back at all the various times that he went after Barry as well as his failure in the end losing everything. I was actually pretty intrigued and surprised to see them give him such an intimate character scene allowing him to have an extensive moment in deep thought about his past battles. And then, out of nowhere, Deon (or the negative Still force?) shows up and offers him an escape to which Thawne simply smirks. I'm not sure what this is leading to but I think The Flash yet again just put me back on the Reverse Flash fan train thanks to this single episode. It’s absolutely insane how drastically I went from loving the character from Seasons 1-5, feeling mixed about him during Seasons 6-7, loving him with Season 8’s Reverse Flashpoint story, flat out hating what they did to his origin at the end of the Armageddon arc, and now falling back in love all over again. I’m starting to think that these writers like to abuse my perspective of this character. Either way, I look forward to seeing what they do with him for the rest of Season 8.
2. Worlds Await! Green Lantern’s Light! Right? ...Right?
After Barry left Thawne in prison to pursue who he thought was a new villainous version of the Reverse Flash, things went from delightful surprises to what the hell is going on pretty quickly. None other than John Diggle shows up at Eobard's cell (one of the last few Arrow legacy characters who have made appearances post-series finale) stating that he’s there for support in opening up “that item”. Alright, I'm just gonna say it. Writers of The Flash, you’ve done it. You’ve absolutely done it. You’ve played with my emotions with Thawne all throughout this season and now you’re just messing with me to see how much I can shift from ranting to yelling in excitement. I’ve been eagerly following Diggle’s behind the scenes character arc through his various Arrowverse guest appearances post-Crisis. For a while now, the big speculation has been that we were clearly seeing some version of a Green Lantern origin story taking place which was exciting to say the least.
Just when I thought the CW sidelined this plot point to save for a future big crossover event reveal, The Flash producers decide to drastically fan the flames more than ever before to the point where we may have just reached a surprising conclusive point. Diggle explains that he’s been searching the planet for help on opening the box but no one has been able to assist above just informing that it contains knowledge beyond current human understanding. I immediately started to get excited at the prospects here and the idea that Diggle’s desperate solution was to obtain Thawne’s future knowledge. I absolutely love this concept of taking a legacy Arrow character and expanding them behind the show’s conclusion setting up a major storyline spanning the entire shared TV franchise. I also love that it’s the current imprisonment of Thawne that acts as our next chapter in this separate character story creating arguably the most unexpected Arrowverse crossover episode yet.
Side note: We see a flashback to what I’m assuming to be Season 3 of Batwoman with Diggle that I wasn’t aware of. This is the first time that I’ve ever had a major incentive to catch up with that season now so…thanks for the encouragement, Flash.
Diggle mentions having family issues with Lyla ever since he obtained the container causing a bit of a rift due to his connection. We can hear the “Worlds Await” voices in the background when he talks about not being able to fully separate from the box which is something that Season 7 of The Flash teased during Diggle’s freak out incident. Thawne’s response being that he’s seen transmitter tech similar to that forged at the Orrery of Worlds (now we’re getting into some deep DC multiversal cosmic territory) with the power to traverse realities resulted in me slowly moving to the edge of my seat. Next to the Crisis crossover, this is the Arrowverse’s most far reaching cosmic scope yet in concept depending on how they approach this lore which is very exciting to theorize about. I love how Thawne agrees to help Diggle on the condition that he gets to see what’s inside. It sort of opens the door for a scheme to be rooted being that Thawne only seconds ago told Barry that every version of himself only looks out for themselves.
And then…we get the type of dialogue that I’ve been chomping at the bits to hear ever since that Crisis crossover tease. I never would have expected it to come from Thawne of all people, but here it is. Thawne literally describes to Diggle the concept of the Green Lantern ring’s cosmic nature of choosing candidates. This whole dialogue exchange had me geeking out more than anything else that the Flash or any other Arrowverse show for that matter has done in ages. The fact that for the first time in the history of this live action DC TV universe that’s been going on for almost 10 years now, we’re finally introducing the concepts of the Green Lantern mythos feels like a cheer worthy milestone. It’s interesting to see that it’s The Flash series that started this (the Crisis crossover teased this story during the Flash’s episode entry) and is the one that has continued to keep it going.
Thawne explains to Diggle that the cosmic tech chose him because he was someone finally in charge of his destiny. This is referenced by Diggle burying Oliver at the end of Crisis and officially moving on with a new venture. I absolutely love how something that, at the time, felt like just a cool fan service cliffhanger surprise actually had a story thread to flesh out later on as shown here. Diggle being chosen wasn’t just random timing but purposed following the death of the Green Arrow giving that scene much more dramatic depth now. The reason it didn’t open up again was because of Diggle’s rejection to whatever it was (the struggle that we saw throughout some of his guest star appearances on the different shows). Again, love how things are now starting to feel like a well thought out and planned narrative all building to this very moment of Diggle possibly accepting this new path.
Thawne, who initially felt like a strange choice to me knowing a lot about the box for a speedster, tells John to tap back into the headspace that he previously as a pathway towards accepting the box's power. What’s so intriguing about this scene in particular is how it's essentially showcasing us the mentor side of Thawne who taught both Barry and Nora into fully embracing the Speed force for the first time.To see Diggle now being the new hero added onto the list of people given the Reverse Flash's teachings is fascinating and honestly chills inducing. That line that he says to Diggle “Think of what your future could be. All the LIGHT you could bring” had me grinning from ear to ear. And then, it happens. The box begins to open with a vibrant green shine, Thawne continues to encourage John speaking about potential cosmic odysseys, leading countless of lives, feeding on the Bleed Mandrakk, and breaking The Source Wall all while stunning cosmic space imagery flashes onscreen. Guys…I had chills…all over.
Namedrops like “Bleed Mandrakk”, “Orrery of Worlds”, and “Source Wall” are all references to the multiverse and what holds it together from the comics. Or at least that’s my understanding from the brief research that I did. Hearing Thawne mention these things really brings into question what he knows about the future of the multiverse and the mythology surrounding various superheroes. Truly this episode did the impossible and made me shift from despising what the writers did to the Reverse Flash recently to now at least loving elements of the character once again. Damn you writers for sending me on a rollercoaster of opinions with this one character over the past few years. Anyway, during this moment, you can also hear (alongside a pretty good score) Diggle’s voice assumably from past episodes with dialogue excerpts that connects to what’s happening here. The beautiful and utterly breathtaking cosmic imagery montage immediately brings to mind what the show also did with Deathstorm’s origin exposition scene and is a nice display of the production team going bigger in scope for this season.
I loved the shot of Diggle holding the glowing cube struggling while Thawne can be seen out of focus behind him holding onto the bars. It’s a great piece of visual storytelling showcasing the shadowy, untrustworthy nature of Thawne’s background presence in Diggle’s current dilemma. And then the unexpected happens. Diggle rejects the pull to the box and tosses it into some unseen void that it folds into. Thawne (and myself if I’m being honest) starts yelling at Diggle's actions to which John responds that he saw the thousands of lives that he could lead but none of them lead him back to his family. This entire segment was both equal parts baffling and yet completely understandable. Diggle has always been established as a family centered person which is why I always figured that a Green Lantern path would come with some pushback. What I wasn’t expecting however was for a full blown rejection after having the transformation right at his finger tips. It's pretty profound.
We get the ultimate tease for one of the biggest DC comics heroes to make their Arrowverse debut only for said hero candidate to decline the offer for the most grounded human reason imaginable. I honestly didn’t know how to soak in this moment except for feeling immense admiration with a dash of disappointment. Thawne shows his true colors revealing frustrations towards Diggle’s decisions as it takes away his chance of seeing the box’s power and using the opportunity to escape. Diggle’s snarky line to Thawne about the box not choosing him for obvious reasons of being a manipulator is met with a great exchange. Thawne coldly tells Diggle that he’s not special and that it's the box that would have granted him that status which is essentially Thawne venting about his current loss of power. Diggle confidently responds “I am someone special. The cube was trying to make me someone else…something else” which is a fun nod to his legacy on Arrow with Oliver Queen’s famous line about becoming something else.
Side Note: I'd like to focus in on that line for a moment. Diggle's description of the cube is that of an entity pressuring him to be something more which I’ve never really connected to the Lanterns. Perhaps someone can enlighten me, but do the Green Lantern rings manipulate potential candidates into desiring the position? Is that a thing? Hmmm.
We then get the big conclusive line that I was kind of half expecting in the back of my mind way back during the Crisis tease. Diggle tells Thawne that no power is greater than his love for his family and that choosing between a cosmic destiny and being a father is no choice at all. It’s honestly a pretty powerful line informing what we’ve known about him since Arrow. We get a couple flashbacks with him and Lyla and the kids before Diggle smiles with a tear visually displaying the literal cosmic weight being lifted off of him. Finally, he leaves Thawne behind and calls Lyla to tell her that he’s coming home. And...there you have it. There it is. All that awesome build up and teasing over the various shows. No lantern ring. No suit. No powers. Just Diggle deciding to be a family man instead of a cosmic hero of immense power fulfilling an ultimately fandom driven wish since Season 1 of Arrow. Again…huge admiration with a dash of disappointment.
Episode Rating: 9/10
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