The Flash, Season 2, Episode 4: The Fury of Firestorm
So, in the comics, the Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein version of Firestorm died. And then he was replaced by a second Firestorm, a black dude, Jason Rusch. In this show, Ronnie "dies", and in this episode is replaced by a black dude... who is not Jason Rusch, despite Jason Rusch already appearing and existing within the show. And honestly appearing for two minutes means no one would care or mind if his actor is replaced. But no, the replacement for Ronnie here is a different black dude, Jax Jackson, who is loosely based on a character with a similar name (but was never Firestorm) from the comics. Um, just because they're both black doesn't mean they're interchangeable, ey?
I'm honestly confused why they can't just use Jason Rusch if they're so desperate to have a Firestorm replacement. Like, writing Ronnie off randomly like that really is crap writing, even if the actor is unavailable there are a lot more elegant ways to write him off or replace him. But with Jax Jackson replacing Ronnie Raymond, and Caitlin seeming absolutely smitten with Jay Garrick despite the whole marriage thing last season finale, it seemed like the show is trying to do its best to write out Ronnie Raymond. Odd.
Jax Jackson also borrows the origin story of Cyborg, who have recently received a fair amount of additional publicity, being featured in basically all of the modern JLA rosters in animated movies, video games and whatnot -- which is cool! I like Cyborg! Not so much when his origin story gets frankensteined for this random replacement fish. It's not really because Ronnie Raymond gets replaced by another person, really, it's the relatively odd decision to make that person someone new when you already hinted about Jason Rusch in season one.
Okay, that aside... this episode kind of is relatively predictable and honestly a bit boring.
Oh, hey, look, Martin Stein needs a replacement for Ronnie to bond in the Firestorm matrix! Why, how convenient that there are people that are actually changed by the particle accelerator in the same way that Stein and Ronnie were! How convenient that one is a douchebag scientist and one is a younger, hipper college dropout, allowing for some morals about judging books by its cover or some shit like that. I mean, of course Jax is going to be the good choice, the good guy, what is the use of that flashback of him saving a crippled dude if not to show us that this is the guy to root for? Sometimes this show really likes to show the obvious and whack us in the face with it. I mean, I guess it's handled well, and it really could've been worse, but I honestly wished they had done it more elegantly. Even if they didn't know that they're going to be writing Ronnie out for season two, maybe drop hints from, oh, episode two that alternatives could be found? I dunno, it just feels like bad writing and it's not just them taking a wide detour from what the comics should be. A good or at least sensible change are things I will support. Sara Lance, Slade Wilson, Grodd, Eobard Thawne, Dr. Light (in the next episode), hell, Barry Allen himself are all things that are not adapted traditionally, yet are still extremely enjoyable. This really feels like them, I dunno, it's just dedicated to showing this new character and going all 'look at how awesome he is!' And I guess it's not bad as far as these things go, but still.
Also, I didn't expect that the jackass scientist dude would show up as the villain of the week, which is a nice surprise, even if it's still on-the-nose in showing just how awesome and cool and good Jax Jackson is. Henry Hewitt has been turned into Tokamak, a rather obscure Firestorm villain, and, well, he gets beaten. For extra cheese value, somehow Tokamak rampages in the same stadium that Jax gets injured in. Tokamak is basically a douche, but at least he has a fair amount more motivation (even if it's fueled by a severe case of entitlement) and which Sand Demon and Atom Smasher both lacked. He's an actual character that I honestly didn't expect to show up after walking out of STAR labs in a huff.
The B-plot, the Iris-centric plotline, is definitely more interesting to me, because it's not as overflowing with obvious "love this new character that is totally likable" ooziness. And while I would cringe from Iris drama a season ago, this one is definitely tastefully handled, with just the right amount of screentime and angsting. Iris takes the sensible route, and gives an awesome comeback to her mother. As you might've guessed from my review of the last episode, I'm not a big fan of Iris's mother and how she left Iris behind for no real reason before coming back just because she feels "she needs her mother now." Iris basically just tells her mother she doesn't fucking care -- she doesn't hate her, but she doesn't want her toxicity in her life. You go, girl.
And then there's the added fuel about Francine telling Joe that she is dying. Iris catches on the fact that this might be just bullshit pretty quickly -- noting how she doesn't bring it up until after Iris refuses to see her. And, of course, Iris digs around, confronts her mother about... the other secret, that Francine had a son that Joe doesn't know about. (Wally West! Yeah, that's definitely the endgame of all this.) But Francine West is definitely a character I dislike, and Iris basically putting her down and telling her to fuck off and stop trying to put a wrench in a family she left is well done.
I also liked how Joe kind of talks to Barry about all this, a nice reversal of how Barry talks to Joe about all his problems in season one. Granted, Joe himself is still repeating the mistake of keeping secrets from his children, this time keeping the fact that Harrison Wells may be alive a secret from Barry, and forcing Patty to keep quiet about it. Of course this means Barry meets Harrison Wells (well, alt-universe Wells) at the end of this episode, without Joe having a chance to find out what's going on. Whoops.
And alternate-universe Harrison Wells shows up... shooting motherfucking KING SHARK with a gun! A freaking muscle-bodied shark man! I honestly thought that the shark-man references is just a cute little nod to him, but no, he actually shows up pretty surprisingly at the end of the episode, which is like the coolest twist ever. Barry's just trying to go all carpe diem and shit and woo Patty Spivot (his narration seems to imply that he's moved on from Iris, which is cool. Comic book canonicity be damned, they're adoptive siblings in this universe and that's creepy) but suddenly here shows up a giant hulking shark-man. Who looks pretty good with the CGI they did for him!
I honestly just want Patty and Barry to have a scene where their chemistry works well. I'm not opposed to her being a major character and a love interest or whatever, it's just that she really, really feels so forced.
We also get a fair bit of Easter Eggs, of course. The title of this episode, the Fury of Firestorm, is taken from one of his comic book titles. Iris's mom suffers from MacGregor's Syndrome, the fictional disease from Batman & Robin that Mr. Freeze's wife is dying from, a disease that has shown up earlier in the CW continuity by lieu of Clock King in season one. Cisco also dubs the treadmill as 'cosmic', and we all know that it's going to be the Cosmic Treadmill in due time. Iris's brother (half-brother?) is, of course, Wally West, even if he's not named here. In the comics, Wally West would be Barry's sidekick as the Kid Flash, and would go on to become the third Flash.
Overall... it's not a bad episode, honestly, if you're not pissed off that they cooked up a random character and ignoring a pre-existing one like me. I dunno. It probably affected my objectivity some, and I'm still a bit grouchy about it. But I still feel that this episode is weaker than the previous offerings in season two.
Other than motherfucking KING SHARK, of course.
Rawr.
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