A show like The Flash as fun and light as it can be needs to be dark at times to add some weight and depth to the superhero series. ‘Power Outage’ delivered on the dark side with villains like Blackout and the Clock King. Some legitimate threats to Central City that helped reveal some interesting facts along the way as Barry suffered an outage of his own.
Farooq (Michael Reventar) is another accelerator-enhanced meta-human who was climbing an electrical tower at the time of the blast. The jolt of electricity left with powers to fire bolt of lightning while also absorbing electricity. His powers were also deadly to his friends who gave him aid after the incident. He’s pissed off, looking for revenge against the man who caused it all; Harrison Wells.
Meanwhile, our other baddie the Clock King (Robert Knepper) used the power outage caused by Blackout to escape his prison transfer. This is a crossover for CK as well as he also appeared on Arrow but here Knepper really gets to chew up some scenery with his demented obsession with time. He takes the police station along with Joe, Iris and Eddie.
This may be too much villainy for most shows but there’s a substantial threat to Wells as Blackout prowls and stalks STAR Labs looking for him. Barry already had a disastrous run-in with Blackout earlier causing him to momentarily lose his super speed. A development that illustrates how likeable Barry is because he cherishes his powers and helping others. Something that Wells had deemed a weakness but learns it’s actually his strength.
With Blackout lurking around Wells decides to buy Caitlyn and Cisco time to get Barry his powers back by unleashing the imprisoned Girder from his cell promising him freedom for killing Blackout in exchange. The fight that ensues is giddy fans’ dream. How rare do you see two villains go at it on a show? It’s like it was ripped from the pages of a comic book or something. Anyway, Blackout proves too powerful for poor Tony Woodard. Barry’s secret identity is taken to Tony’s grave.
Barry takes Wells to task for releasing Tony and calling him out for using people. Barry is not wrong. We’ve seen Wells go to extreme lengths to possibly protect Barry even killing anyone who would stand in his way. He’s also a guardian of the future it seems as the loss of Barry’s power changes the headline in the private AI room. Wells use of journal entries is a clever way to get some exposition as he talks to “Gideon” on the screen. The headline doesn’t have him disappearing while saving everyone from some ‘crisis.’ He’s a master manipulator but in this episode he was also exposed a little.
The easter egg of the night came from wells as he explained to an angry Blackout that he does indeed care about those who died because of the explosion. He begins to name them and they also happen to be characters from the history of DC Comics. Ralph Dibny (Elongated Man), Al Rothstein (Nuklon), Bea DeCosta (Fire), Grant Emerson (Damage), and John Baumeister (Amazing Man). Who knows if we’ll see any of these down the road but it wouldn’t surprise anyone if they did. We already know when he mentioned Ronnie Raymond he’ll be appearing as Firestorm so anything is possible.
The frenetic pace of ‘Power Outage’ kept the suspense and sense of danger moving quickly. Iris with some help from a wounded Eddie brought down the Clock King while Barry got a jump start of sorts as well as a confidence boost just in the nick of time. He somehow had gotten stronger and more powerful. Wells has been trying to pull more power from so he could go faster. Something changed and maybe there’ll be clarification on that and perhaps the utterance of the words - Speed Force. Anyway, Blackout overdoses this time while trying to siphon Barry’s power again. Wells, ever the shady fellow, in secret draws blood from the fallen Blackout to see what made it possible for him to absorb Barry’s power. An excellent episode worthy of a solid B+.
With a recharged Barry he’ll now have to deal with Starling City’s Emerald Archer as the shows crossover next week in The Flash vs Arrow. Check out the trailer below:
Every duo has their differences. Don't miss the epic 2-night The Flash and Arrow crossover event starting Tuesday at 8/7c!
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