Well, we at least get to see a bit more about why Harry’s on Earth 1 in this weeks episode of The Flash. Zoom roughs him up pretty good at the beginning of the episode. He demands some sort of answer and then disappears.
Most of the actual drama of the episode deals with what Iris found out about Francine. After a night of Christmas shopping with her father, she breaks down to Barry, asking him whether or not to reveal the fact that Joe has a son he never knew about. Barry tells her that as much as it might hurt Joe to know that he had a son he was never there for, he needs to know. Predictably, telling him absolutely destroys him. He spends the majority of the episode trying to come to grips with what he feels is his failure as a parent.
Speaking of failure parenting, Mark Mardon breaks into Iron Heights. He figures that hedging his bets is in order, so he springs a couple of helping hands. Captain Cold I can understand; as he say, he owes him for the whole Rogue Air thing. What I can’t understand is why he springs The Trickster. Don’t get me wrong, I like Mark Hamill as much as the next nerd; it’s just that the choice on Mardon’s part is somewhat baffling. He seems to be banking on the idea that the help of an unpredictable sociopath is going to tip things in his favor. To be fair, it does, but I think anyone could imagine the many ways it could screw him.
More surprising (or not, considering Legends of Tomorrow), is Snart’s unwillingness to go along with the plan. He even clues Barry and Iris in to the plot in general. He also somehow has a cold gun, unexplainably. Does he just know how to build them now, or did Iron Heights make the mistake of storing villain next to thing that makes that villain a supervillain? Goes completely unexplained. Barry takes the opportunity to point out Snart’s sense of honor, while Snart continues to protest that there’s no money in being a hero.
Once they figure out that Mardon is involved, though, Patty goes off the deep end. She blames Mardon for the death of her father. It was pretty much her entire drive to join the metahuman task force. And she’s sharp enough to figure out where Mardon and Jesse are hiding before the room filled with geniuses. So much so that the fastest man alive arrives just after she does. And it’s a good thing, too; The Trickster trapped the warehouse with a bunch of ambulatory dreidels made from C4.
Whe he gets her out, she lays out the real reason she wants Mardon. Back when Mardon shot her father, she decided to spend the afternoon with friends rather than help out at the shop. It should have been her carrying the money to the bank. Everything she’s done since has been to ensure that it’s “legal” when she shoots him. Barry warns her that revenge won’t make her feel better.
Either way, Barry needs Cisco to make the Weather Wand again so that he can fight Mardon. You know, because he time traveled and eliminated the original situation that required its invention in the first place. Neither Harry nor Jay are terribly enthused by Barry’s time travel hijinx, but they overlook it anyway.
The best part here is seeing Mark Hamill as a criminally insane Santa Claus. Where the Santa we know would hand out coal to bad children, his hands out bombs indiscriminately. About 100 of them. This is their contingency against Barry lifting a finger to stop them; he tries to stop Mardon from killing him, the bombs go off. Harry, Jay, and Cisco hatch a plan using a drone to suck all of the bombs up into a rift by shoving one they found and modified through one on a drone and using some crazy magnetism to suck them all into the rift and explode, freeing Barry to stop Mardon. It sounds like bullshittery to me but it works so whatever.
Patty’s finally got Mardon where she wants him. It takes a crazy talk down from Barry to get her to do the right thing. It even moves Jesse to tears!
Joe finally gets a grip on things, having set in motion a meeting between him and his son, who is revealed to be Wally. As a matter of fact, he sort of crashes the Christmas party.
We also get a follow up on Wells’s dealings with Zoom. Zoom wants him to “fatten up” Barry on the Speed Force for him so that he can Renfield all of that sweet speed. A deal which Harry agrees to, since his daughter’s life is on the line.
Final Thoughts:
– No mention of the other Trickster. Strange.
– There’s actually a pretty damn good display of acting chops in this episode.
– We won’t be seeing the Trickster again until at least after the shooting for the next Star Wars movie is done.
– Every Earth has The Godfather, and Mr. Jiggle Wiggle always exists.
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