S09.E04: The Mask of the Red Death, Part 1

[Trini]

The Flash is forced to make an impossible choice. With the power out in the city, Team Flash calls upon the Rogue Squad to help as Iris is visited by an old friend. Joe and Cecile work on finding a balance.

Menhaj Huda directed the episode written by Joshua V. Gilbert & Emily Palizzi.

Airdate: 3/1/2023

 

[scarynikki12]

If we have to open on Chilldude at least he's pissed about his life.

Villain looks good on Javicia.

The grey hairs is a twist. I haven't kept up so is that just her hair in real life? I assume it's plot related but I don't actually know.

"It wasn't supposed to end like this" callback=100% return of Thawne so I maintain he's the one behind all of this. 

Jenna!! You exist! And you're adorable!

Well you got most of the quote correct Ryan. Hope you say the whole thing when you're back to normal.

Red Death wants to enact some bondage fantasy with Barry?

Barry the suit has a Bat sigil on it. How have you not figured this out yet?

So Red Death has robot armor. Nice misdirect.

Glad we cleared this up quickly. Iris using that big brain like she should.

I guess the grey hair is the hint she's from the Bad Timeline.

If she's telling the truth and is from the Bad Timeline then where the hell is our Ryan?

Bad Ryan is from Minority Report?

Missed opportunity there Bad Ryan. "Help me Iris West-Allen, you're my only hope." It was RIGHT THERE.

Barry stop hanging on to the idea that Chilldude is secretly a good guy. Manipulate him into letting you go and then just move on. He'll turn on you every time he doesn't get his way so you don't have to feel guilty.

I like Iris poking holes in Bad Ryan's story.

(Seriously where is our Ryan??)

Eh, Chilldude isn't cool enough to be called Ken Doll. Ken has a friendly smile and excellent fashion sense. 

It just started storming outside and I use an antenna to watch this show. I am going to be so pissed if the signal goes out at the end of this episode.

Blue Streaks was a Mother Earth last week and she's Holier Than Thou about saving Chilldude this week. They should have just let Panabaker go rather than present us with this nonsense.

Chester and Allegra. HEY STORM KILL THE SIGNAL!!! Of course when I want this to happen it's perfectly clear.

Javicia does great crazy eyes. 

[Primal Slayer]

I was enjoying this episode for the most part up until those last 10mins when i was rolling my eyes.

Is Snow just going to waste the final 13 episodes being all "love and happiness, we're all equal!"?

Why do we continue to waste time of Chellgra "will they/won't they"? It's the final season. You have 13 episodes. Does anyone watching the show care about them THAT much? I doubt it. They really have no idea what to do with them outside this bore of a romance.

After like 5 seasons they finally remembered that Joe/Cecile have a kid! Wow. Will she ever meet Iris though? Their whole drama also was stupid.

Joe "we need to move"

Cecile "i don't want to move"

Daughter almost dies

Cecile "its best we move. You're right"

Joe "no you're right. We dont need to move. I finally decided that if she doesn't see her mother telling people they're sad she wont know she can grow up to tell people the obvious"

Cecile "awe, babe! So sweet"

Ryan was the best part of the episode. It was no secret that when she showed up at the apartment that she wasn't our Ryan. That whole exchange was the furthest from friends as someone could get.

Ryan "Iris West-Allen"

Iris "Ryan Wilder" 

Thats how friends talk to one another? Lol.

[KittenPokerCheater]

Not Chilldude!  Are we 100% sure he's dead?

I liked him.  Those abs....  /shallow

[Trini]

Jenna exists! Too bad she and her still unmaried parents are in a silly storyline that apparently is going nowhere. LOL at Cecile wanting to stay for her alleged job that we maybe see once a season. JLM is doing the best with what they give him, but he deserves better.

Yeah, I don't care at all about Chillame when I'm watching a WAY better villain redemption on another CW show.

The scenes with Iris and Red Death were good (not great), but I wish they'd actually show the villain's backstory instead of having them monologue about it. Could have replaced the silly Chester/Allegra plot that no one is here for.

So the Cosmic Treadmill got built and destroyed -not by Barry- in the same episode; kinda lame.

Khione: "Every life is precious" ... except Caitlin's apparently....

I did like Iris having a significant role in the A-plot. But I didn't like that they nerfed the Flash just so everyone one else could have an action scene. Hopefully he gets more to do next episode.

Kinda cool to see  Prism/Roy Bivolo again; are they going to add yet another Rogue to the villain team next time, though?

Edited March 3, 2023 by Trini
gah - dropped words!

[cambridgeguy]

9 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

Glad we cleared this up quickly. Iris using that big brain like she should.

Smart enough to instantly figure it out, not smart enough to keep her distance when the entire point of having a gun is not needing to stand close to someone.  There was no lightning effect when Ryan disarmed her, so it might not have been a super speed thing either. 

[KittenPokerCheater]

11 hours ago, Trini said:

I'm watching a WAY better villain redemption on another CW show.

what show?

[tennisgurl]

Javicia Leslie plays a surprisingly good villain, as a scary voiced mask monster, when she was trying to come off as a rational good guy, and her total crazy eyed break down at the end. She's quite threatening and has a way to be very physically menacing without much fighting, this does feel like a different person than our Ryan. She's also clearly having a blast getting to ham it up delivering all of these classic Batman lines. "You criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot." "I am vengeance. I am the night..." So if this is an alternate universe Ryan, where is our Ryan? If this Ryan was adopted by the Waynes in this universe, shouldn't her name be Ryan Wayne? Or was that part of her lie? 

It was great seeing Iris get to be a bigger part of the main story, I was worried she would spend the whole story on the couch or being held hostage, but her scenes with alt Ryan were really good. Liked seeing her get to show her smarts, figuring out that Ryan is an imposter, trapping her up, and poking holes in her story, but she needs to learn to go ahead and shoot first when a bad guy is lying to her. Go for the kneecap!  

Its Jenna! She's so cute, I wish that we had seen her grow up more, I swear last time we saw her she was an enfant. I would have loved to see her bonding with Barry and Iris, or even have Wally stop by to see his little sister, but the show isn't all that interested in her. Not cool making so many plans without consulting Cecile Joe, but its pretty funny hearing her get up in arms about her missing her job which she never seems to do. So I guess that whole subplot was totally pointless besides getting to see cute little Jenna. Couldn't we have had some West family bonding instead of watching Chester and Allegra have forced romantic tension? 

If the show wants Chester and Allegra to get together, just have them get together already, their relationship is so boring. At least when Barry and Iris were doing this Will They Wont They dance they had real reasons not to be together at first. 

I don't care if this makes me a bad person, I don't care at all that Chilllame is apparently dead, even if he supposedly redeemed himself at the end. Every time he seems to be turning over a new leaf, he turns around and becomes a dick again. I don't even really buy he's dead, as much as I wish he was, he's probably still around and ready to annoy us another day. Barry, I know you love to give people second chances and see the best in people, and I love that about you, but sometimes when its their fifth or sixth chance, its time to cut someone out of your life. How can they ever trust this guy to be a part of Team Flash again? 

[Lantern7]

I’m thinking Javicia leapt into the role of Red Death because Nicole Kang had fun playing Mary-as-Poison Ivy. Only instead of sultry and being swayed by Alice, we have a Ryan that is full-blown nuts and fond of reciting famous Batman quotes. It didn’t make me tingle like Kevin Conroy reading from The Dark Knight Returns, but that’s an absurdly high bar to clear.

I think it’s going to be vital to turn on captioning. Because the flapping of vultures’ wings will drown out the sound, you see.

Yay, Chillsdoof got killed! *sigh* If only I believed ir. There’s enough wiggle room for him to have survived, and just because he turned on Red Death doesn’t make him a worthwhile character.

Just checking . . . Bivolo is the original Rainbow Raider, right? Only he manipulates emotions instead of colors.

So wait, is the real Ryan MIA? I kinda wish the Arrowverse was still a thing, because that would open a can of worms. Would Kate 2.0 return? Would Luke step up as Batman Batwing? And I still dig the idea of Mary and/or Alice as least contemplating suiting up as Batwoman.

Edited March 3, 2023 by Lantern7

[Trini]

3 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Just checking . . . Bivolo is the original Rainbow Raider, right?

Yup. From Season 1.

 

8 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

If the show wants Chester and Allegra to get together, just have them get together already, their relationship is so boring.

I don't get what the show thinks they're doing. Do they want them together or not? Most people aren't that interested in them in the first place, and they're definitely not interested in them being awkward purely for stalling -- when there's no reason to stall.

 

[thuganomics85]

Javicia Leslie has been a delight so far at getting her baddie on.  Loved her hamming it up and them finding ways to have her say iconic Batman lines like "I am vengeance!" and "You wanna get nuts!"  Just needed to find a way for her to do her best Christian Bale "Swear to me!" and it would have been perfect.  Hopefully we will get more scenery flying next episode!

Sadly, I suspect Chilllame won't be dead since we didn't actually see the weapons go into him before Barry got whisked away.  He should be by all accounts, but I'm guessing Red Death/Evil Ryan stopped them for some reason and is a prisoner instead.  Whatever.  Not surprised they made him "see the light", because that's how this show rolls.  You can betray everyone and do so much bad stuff, but as long as you do an about face at the opportune moment, all is forgiven.  I know I should probably consider that a positive trait from Barry and Team Flash, but it's just tiring now.  I was so on Team Good Guy Rogues instead and especially was getting sick of Khione's self-righteousness.

So, Cecile gets upset that Joe is still thinking about moving away from Central City, but then their daughter is put in his harms way, she comes around to thinking maybe Joe is right, only for him to now be all "Actually, no, you are a cool hero now and all, so it's worth the risk!"  Meanwhile, Chester whines about Allegra avoiding him and talking about their feelings, Allegra suddenly decides it's time to talk about it after-all, only for him to be all "On second though, nah, time and place!"  Decisiveness is not a strong trait on Team Flash.

Iris seeing through Evil Ryan's act was pretty cool.

Kind of wish Owen/Boomerang would flip sides, because he/Richard Harmon's snark would match perfectly with Hartley and Goldface.

[bettername2come]

Jenna lives! Good for her. I like the way they handled that this isn't our main universe's Ryan. Although, wasn't she missing? Where's the real one? So apparently in every other universe Iris and Ryan are besties. Well, I like consistency. Interesting that they went with having an adopted character instead adopted by the Waynes. I now feel the need to search for a comic where they adopted Kal-El and see how that went.