The Flash The Flash-Season 1-Episode 20-"The Trap"

[Spider-Aziz]

I don't mind the randomness of the static way.
My brother made fun of how Lois knew Clark is Superman in Lois & Clark, but I don't mind that either.

 

[Loki882]

I have one complaint about this episode. While it's great that Iris FINALLY knows that Barry is the Flash, they did it in the lamest way possible. She didn't figure it out on her own (which would have made her look intelligent for once), and he didn't tell her (which he should have done A LONG time ago). No, it's some vague "static charge." Maybe if they'd built up to it more, then it MIGHT have worked. But here, no it was underwhelming.

 

[pyrobisson]

Am I the only one that notice that Barry's glasses (when they are working on Cisco's googles/dream interface) looks like Captain Cold's from the comics?

 

[Human Torch]

The force field penetration thing isn't as obvious as many people here make it out to be. I've rewatched the scene and this is all that Cisco said:

"I've originally designed the force field to keep a speedster in, but I've reversed it. Now it will keep one out."

Nowhere does it say that it is somehow magically coded to work only on speedsters. Indeed the most logical interpretation of that sentence is that the field is strong enough to withstand even the power that a speedster bumping into it at super speed wood excert against it. This is also the most logical explanation why Barry had to test it. If even he could not "punch" through it then it is strong enough. This does not automatically imply the other people should get through it just fine!

That said a number of sci-fi movies and stories had force fields that would excert a proportional amount of opposing force to the incoming blow and where using low velocity projectiles like arrows or knifes (Dune anyone?) would be the way to defeat them...

However even so it's kinda weird that the bullets got though...

Yeah. Some people here are acting extremely obnoxious. It wasn't exactly this cut and dry explanation. Having only seen the episode once,it's easy to have not completely comprehended it.

 

[Human Torch]

Am I the only one that notice that Barry's glasses (when they are working on Cisco's googles/dream interface) looks like Captain Cold's from the comics?

Yeah.That's the only thing I wish were better on Cold's costume. Give him those glasses!

 

[ThePreface]

Glad that the biggest criticism is pretty much nit picking. Don't understand the hate for Barry and Iris. Iris has had two good episodes in a row.

 

[Legendver2]

A couple things:

I think Wells/Thawne made his in costume reveal early on was to give Barry a goal to go faster. Otherwise Barry would be just content with using his current speed to help people. With the appearance of RF, who is faster than Barry, it made Barry want to achieve a higher speed, which was part of Wells/Thawne's plan.

An interesting thing about that theory is that, if RF needs to siphon speed force energy off Barry's use ot the speed force, how is he able to be faster than Barry in the first place? A good debate for that is that RF has way more experience in utilizing the power than Barry, who at the point is still a newb. This would make sense since RF doesn't appear until after Barry gains his powers, since in the 15 years ago sequence, Gideon says he ran out of speed force power.

Another thing that comes to mind about this episode is how most of you take what Gideon said about obeying Barry's orders at face value. As we find out later on, RF knew of Barry knowing a long while back, and could have just programmed Gideon to answer Barry's questions a certain way. So everything Gideon said in regards to facts about RF could be false. For example, while it has been said by Wells himself several times, killing Nora was not his intention, but Gideon says it was his intention because he was angry that Barry got away, whatever that means. When Gideon said that, that stuck out to me since it didn't fit into Wells narrative earlier about it not being intentional.

And one last thing: I reallly hope they don't flashpoint this plotline at the end of the season, otherwise we'll have a second case of Iris knowing, but time erased her knowledge of Barry as Flash yet again, which tbh is stupid if used again.

 

[Prep Time]

Could they somehow bring back the original Wells ? Or maybe next season. Barrys dad gets out of prison in the finale. He takes over Star Labs ?

 

[Asr]

Great episode, geeked out over "founding member of..." along with Flash's arm-generated "cyclones", even if they weren't technically cyclones.

The explanation of the forcefield still didn't answer one question though: although Cisco said he designed it to block speedsters, what if a speedster just walked into it at normal speed? That part wasn't clear and made it seem like anyone, including speedsters, could waltz into it if they just used normal speed.

 

[Human Torch]

Could they somehow bring back the original Wells ? Or maybe next season. Barrys dad gets out of prison in the finale. He takes over Star Labs ?

That's what I hope happens. JWS sounded pretty content to just be brought in for brief "impact" moments. So I don't know if he's even interested in being a series regular.

 

[Death916]

The force field penetration thing isn't as obvious as many people here make it out to be. I've rewatched the scene and this is all that Cisco said:

(snip)If even he could not "punch" through it then it is strong enough. This does not automatically imply the other people should get through it just fine!

That said a number of sci-fi movies and stories had force fields that would excert a proportional amount of opposing force to the incoming blow and where using low velocity projectiles like arrows or knifes (Dune anyone?) would be the way to defeat them...

However even so it's kinda weird that the bullets got though...

I just think of it like shields in Dune. Anything going past a certain speed cant get in. But go slow and steady enough and you'll slide right in.

As for bullets, they're not even close to as fast as a speedster.

 

[vantheman77]

I declare Gideon as the female Zordon. This also reminds me when Green Lantern had Aya in the animated series.

I hope they don't kill Gideon off in season finale.

 

[Slade W]

Excellent episode. I wonder what Wells plans for Eddie are.

 

[Rowen]

Why does wells needs a wheelchair if he can walk

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Why does wells needs a wheelchair if he can walk

He just wanted something for his act.
A wheelchair is a good disguise.

 

[rojac]

Why does wells needs a wheelchair if he can walk

It helps disguise the fact that the particle accelerator "accident" wasn't so accidental. After all, if the creator was paralyzed in the "accident", he couldn't possibly be responsible for it, could he? Thawne may also feel that it made him to sympathetic to Barry Allen and possibly others.

 

[Headliner]

That's what I hope happens. JWS sounded pretty content to just be brought in for brief "impact" moments. So I don't know if he's even interested in being a series regular.

He's not. I heard an interview a while ago where he said the current role is great cause he didn't wanna be there every week.

Maybe Tina takes over Star Labs, and Henry works as her part time consultant and they get a relationship. It would be a nice tie to the 90-91 Flash show where they kept teasing a relationship between the two but it never happened.

 

[Bren]

Based on my understanding/assumption that Henry Allen is 'just' a medical doctor, and assuming he's not rich, why/how would he take over Star Labs anyway?

Unless he sues the state for millions for wrongful arrest of course

I assume Tina / Mercury Labs would buy Star Labs. Who owns Star Labs anyway? Assuming it belongs to the long-dead RealWells, I wonder how it gets managed if/when everything goes public (as it would have to, for Henry Allen to be legally freed)?

Of course, Barry going back in time and saving his Mom (and maybe Wells) would sort it?

This show is fantastic to me, because there are so many options!

 

[haephestus]

Another great episode.

My major quibble, and it's a long-standing one, is Barry's plan to free his father from prison. Did Barry, Joe and everyone else really think that a filmed confession from "Harrison Wells" would be sufficient to convince whatever court of appeal/judicial system in place in Central City to free Barry's father?

First and foremost, technically "Harrison Wells" did not kill Nora Allen. Eobard Thawne did. On the night of Nora's murder, Harrison Wells would have been a 20 something year old living in another city, probably with plenty of friends and/or co-workers who could attest to him being with them at the time of Nora's murder (or around the time of the murder, depending upon how far away from Central City Harrison Wells was living at that time).

A taped "confession" would hardly be damning evidence if Harrison Wells could call upon any number of witnesses who would say that he was with them in another city at the time of Nora's murder. And even if Barry and Joe didn't plan on capturing Harrison Wells (which realistically, they should have known would be unlikely), then the publicity surrounding the issuance of an arrest warrant for Harrison Wells for Nora's murder probably would have peaked the interest of someone who knew Harrison 15 odd years ago and who would come forward to say that it couldn't have been Harrison Wells.

At this point in time, Barry's continued insistence on freeing his father from prison is nonsensical. Barry is a speedster. Barry could free his father from prison at any time in a few seconds. Barry could then take his father anywhere in the Americas (or possibly even overseas depending upon how much practice Barry has had at running on water) in minutes or an hour or two at most. With the help of Joe, Felicity, etc Barry could easily establish a new identity for his father and visit him as frequently as he wanted (probably more frequently than he currently visits him in jail).

The whole thing just seems a little illogical to me.

Aside from that, everything generally worked. I found Joe's "dream" of having his (adopted/foster) son marry his (biological) daughter to be a little disturbing. But, Joe has always been a little odd in that regard, especially when it comes to respecting his daughter's wishes.

I also thought that everyone accepted that Cisco could "remember" alternate timelines without even questioning it or, more logically, wondering whether Cisco had been affected by the particle accelerator explosion and that he was starting to exhibit some of his metahuman powers. If no-one else considered Cisco as possibly having special abilities, then I would have thought that Cisco, out of all of them, would at least question his ability and the source of it.

As for Everyman/Wells, I just thought that Everyman had an ear-piece (or similar) and Wells was feeding his lines and actions to Everyman. Wells had the room under surveillance, so it seemed logical to me.

Finally, while I'm happy that Iris finally knows that Barry is The Flash, I wish it had been revealed in a better manner. Two "shocks" many, many months apart doesn't really justify Iris finally drawing a connection between Barry and The Flash for me. Sure, she had been investigating the metahumans generally, but it still seemed like a stretch. I think it would have been better for Iris to say something along the lines of having suspected it all along, right from the moment that Barry awoke from his coma and The Flash appeared in the same week, through to The Flash's flirtation with/interest in Iris and Barry's sudden "second job" spending almost all of his free time at STAR labs not to mention all the other compelling circumstantial evidence, but that Iris wanted to give Barry a chance to tell her the truth and she's gravely disappointed that he never did.

Anyway, other than Barry's nonsensical plan to free his father, they're all relatively minor quibbles and don't detract too much from everything that The Flash does right. Not to mention the fact that it remains entertaining and compelling.

 

[The Infernal]

You see? There was a spark between Iris and Barry.

Bad jokes aside that was fairly random and odd, but I think at least it lead to something better. It's a more subtle way of her finding out who he is as opposed to him going all 70's Wonder Woman in front of her to save her from Weather Wizard. Maybe this way they'll play it so she doesn't tell Barry straight away and she snoops around him and his friends gauging who else knows, which I could imagine would lead to some interesting arguments with her father and Eddie etc.

I thought this was a good episode all in all. Was a bit surprised Dr. Wells/RF knew all along exactly what Barry and friends were doing as in previous episodes and this one right before the reveal the tension between him, Barry and the rest of the team seemed fairly convincing. I kept wondering in the last few episodes if Barry was going to accidentally tip his hand, but it turns out he had no hand to tip.

I'm really interested to see how the rest of the season plays out, especially with the cliffhanger with Eddie and now that Wells' real identity is known to everyone. I wonder if season 2 will follow on from this with the RF on the run essentially or if they will decidedly win over him in the end and lock him up?

 

[haephestus]

Is anyone else hoping Barry and Iris DON'T hook up?

At the moment, no I don't want to see Barry and Iris together. I think they both have a lot of independent development to do before they can come together as a romantic couple.

In the *original* timeline, I'm guessing that due to Barry not being in a coma for another four years, he plucked up the courage to ask Iris out or at least made his romantic interest clear a lot earlier. Maybe they dated, maybe Iris wasn't interested at that time. When the particle accelerator exploded in the original timeline, leaving Barry in a coma, that may have provoked Iris into realising her depth of feelings for Barry and when he awoke they probably embarked on an epic love affair with Iris being fully informed about and supportive of Barry's heroics as The Flash.

In this timeline, I can see Iris being majorly peeved at Barry for lying to her. When she finds out that pretty much everyone else knows, including her father, Eddie and Barry's realtively "new" friends Caitlin and Cisco, then I can see Iris (understandably) questioning the amount of trust in and respect for Iris that both Barry and Joe have. I don't see Iris bouncing back after such a betrayal and dating Barry.

Hopefully, it will encourage Iris to establish an identity separate to both Joe and Barry, as a journalist. That doesn't mean I want to see Iris act like a petulant child. If she's covering a story and she has information which she thinks Barry or Joe should know, she will assist them. Iris could even be regularly brought onto the team as a "criminal profiler" of sorts as a result of her (growing) experience as a crime journalist. But, there shouldn't be any romantic entanglement between Barry and Iris.

Even with his super-speed, Barry is apparently failing to perform his job to the best of his abilities. They should have Captain Singh hire another forensic scientist (or whatever Barry is) to help Barry in the lab. That person should be Patty Spivot from the comics and she should be Barry's new love interest for at least a season or two.

Also, Joe really needs to put aside his rather warped ideas about Barry marrying Iris. And he also needs to stop being so ridiculously protective of Iris.

All IMHO of course.

 

[Mike Murdock]

My major quibble, and it's a long-standing one, is Barry's plan to free his father from prison. Did Barry, Joe and everyone else really think that a filmed confession from "Harrison Wells" would be sufficient to convince whatever court of appeal/judicial system in place in Central City to free Barry's father?

Frankly, it bothers me because it vastly overstates the ability of the criminal justice system to overturn a guilty verdict. Don't just talk about Harrison Wells being able to deny the confession, Harrison Wells could testify in court and fully admit guilt and they still could find him "not credible" and refuse to reverse the conviction.

That being said, they are starting to build evidence that will undermine the conviction. DNA from the corpse will help undermine Harrison Wells's conviction. Obviously, the idea of speedsters wasn't known.

Do I think it's enough to overturn a conviction? Probably not. Maybe a pardon, but not a reversal in court.

 

[stillanerd]

...the older Flash ran BACKWARDS in time to stop RF from killing his younger self, and when RF changed the past with the death of Nora - he ceases to exist.

In episode 15 - when Barry changed the past - he crossed himself - and the other timeline and Barry was erased. Same thing.

Yeah, that did occur to me, and would make sense given how Nora's death alone would alter the timeline. And if the Flash doesn't exist then neither does the Speed Force and neither would the Reverse Flash's powers. Hence why he has to "course correct" everything by ironically making Barry The Flash. But, at the same time, if that were to happen, then Eobard shouldn't exist either. So maybe Speedsters, because they can time travel, are unaffected by changes to the space-time continuum?

Could they somehow bring back the original Wells ? Or maybe next season. Barrys dad gets out of prison in the finale. He takes over Star Labs ?

I have a sickening feeling that Barry's dad is going to be killed by the Reverse Flash at the end of this season just to spite Barry even more. After all, Reverse Flash killing Barry's dad just as Barry finally proves his innocence after 15 years would be right up his alley. What's more, he'd rationalize by saying he's made Barry an even "better hero" because of it because this will drive Barry to be even faster.

Excellent episode. I wonder what Wells plans for Eddie are.

I'm guessing he's going to tell Eddie that Iris has really been in love with Barry the whole time. Just picture the following conversation going down:

EDDIE: If you're supposed to be my great, great...whatever, then why did you try to kill Iris?
REVERSE FLASH: I said you and I were family, detective. I never said anything about Iris West-Allen.
EDDIE: (look of shocked expression)
REVERSE FLASH: Oh dear. Did I say that out loud?
EDDIE: What are you talking about. Iris and I are together. I was going to propose to her.
REVERSE FLASH: Iris isn't really in love with you, Eddie. She never was. Oh, she may think she is, but deep down in her heart? It was Barry all along. In fact, the man she's going to marry...will be him. Not you.
EDDIE: No, you're lying. She loves me. She would never betray me like that.
REVERSE FLASH: Gideion?
GIDEON: Yes, Dr. Wells?
REVERSE FLASH: Show Detective Thawne the archival footage of...the wedding of Barry Allen and Iris West.

At the moment, no I don't want to see Barry and Iris together. I think they both have a lot of independent development to do before they can come together as a romantic couple.

In the *original* timeline, I'm guessing that due to Barry not being in a coma for another four years, he plucked up the courage to ask Iris out or at least made his romantic interest clear a lot earlier. Maybe they dated, maybe Iris wasn't interested at that time. When the particle accelerator exploded in the original timeline, leaving Barry in a coma, that may have provoked Iris into realising her depth of feelings for Barry and when he awoke they probably embarked on an epic love affair with Iris being fully informed about and supportive of Barry's heroics as The Flash.

In this timeline, I can see Iris being majorly peeved at Barry for lying to her. When she finds out that pretty much everyone else knows, including her father, Eddie and Barry's realtively "new" friends Caitlin and Cisco, then I can see Iris (understandably) questioning the amount of trust in and respect for Iris that both Barry and Joe have. I don't see Iris bouncing back after such a betrayal and dating Barry.

Hopefully, it will encourage Iris to establish an identity separate to both Joe and Barry, as a journalist. That doesn't mean I want to see Iris act like a petulant child. If she's covering a story and she has information which she thinks Barry or Joe should know, she will assist them. Iris could even be regularly brought onto the team as a "criminal profiler" of sorts as a result of her (growing) experience as a crime journalist. But, there shouldn't be any romantic entanglement between Barry and Iris.

Even with his super-speed, Barry is apparently failing to perform his job to the best of his abilities. They should have Captain Singh hire another forensic scientist (or whatever Barry is) to help Barry in the lab. That person should be Patty Spivot from the comics and she should be Barry's new love interest for at least a season or two.

Also, Joe really needs to put aside his rather warped ideas about Barry marrying Iris. And he also needs to stop being so ridiculously protective of Iris.

All IMHO of course.

To be fair, Joe West, being Iris' dad, does know his own daughter, and he's watched her and Barry grow up together and thus knows they love each other deep down and would be right for each other. And he also did say that, if Iris did marry Eddie, it would be fair to either her or Eddie if she didn't really love him the same way she did Barry and only stayed with him out of obligation. That being said, Joe's biggest flaw is that he still sees Iris as his baby girl who needs constant protection and not as a grown woman capable of making her own decisions. That's been abundantly clear what with his whole trying to keep Iris from knowing Barry is the Flash out of misguided belief it will keep her safe. Which, as we now know, is going to do a fat lot of good since Iris now knows (or suspects) the truth and will most likely be super-pissed that the two people she trusted and loved more than anyone else lied to her for almost a year.

 

[haephestus]

To be fair, Joe West, being Iris' dad, does know his own daughter, and he's watched her and Barry grow up together and thus knows they love each other deep down and would be right for each other.

I appreciate that, but it still seems a little ... gross to me for Joe to "ship" his adopted/foster son and biological daughter. And while the show has "established" Barry's romantic interest in Iris (although, in my opinion, that interest is unsupported by any actual shared interests, visible chemistry, etc), apart from the time travel episode I don't think the show has really established that for Iris, even from Joe's perspective/understanding.

Anyway, it seems from the scenes between Joe and Papa Lance that the writers understand that it is a character flaw of Joe to always believe that he knows what is best for his daughter. So, hopefully with Iris now knowing the truth, there will be a change in dyanamics between the characters in the future and Iris will once and for all establish her independence from both Joe and Barry.

 

[Mikelus]

I just don't want her to hook up with Barry. I like her with Eddie.

Mainly I am annoyed that we had the reveal that they marry so soon. The relationship has always felt a bit forced...even their friendship has been weird to watch, because I don't see them as being that close despite what the show has told us.

If we have to have WestAllen, I was hoping it would unfold naturally. I'm not sure that can happen now without making it seem like an obligation they have to fulfill because they've cornered themselves.

Yes, but you know they're destined to be together because of the comics right? The mistake was making them foster siblings, this is what makes their relationship "weird" to many fans, it was an unnecessary change.

The episode was good but they're dumbing down Eobard. He knew Iris was investigating this whole time but didn't kill her like he did the other journalist, he should've killed Joe too BTW, it just doesn't make sense. When you have a character determined to kill anyone that could become a threat, then go all out, don't dumb him down when is convenient to the plot. Is like when they dumb down Barry so he can't beat the Rogues easily by taking their guns away, but then beats the Weather Wizard in two seconds. They're not consistent with the writing, Arrow has the same problem.

And Tom Cavanagh keeps stealing the show with his performance, he will be missed if he's not a regular next season.