Title: The Flash: “Liberation” Review
Release Date: April 28th, 2020
Network: The CW
Genre: Superhero, Drama, Action
I gotta give The Flash credit where it is due. Even though I wasn’t a fan of how the show set it all up last week, this was an excellent pay-off for a long-term storyline.
My main gripes with “So Long and Goodnight” were Barry’s obliviousness to Mirror Iris and that final scene that I initially thought was meant to garner more sympathy for Barry. That was immediately rectified in the episode’s early moments, with Barry finally seeing what was going on. He also said that getting kicked out is what caused him to notice, so I was wrong there as well.
Regardless, having Barry come to this conclusion himself was the right call. Not only should he have been the one to put it all together, but the Charlie Day-esque scene with Cecile was absolute gold — especially when he said there was no way the real Iris could make good pancakes. With every other character that would blindly trust Barry pre-occupied, I could see why the decision was made to keep Cecile around instead of putting her in witness protection with Joe. She’s the only one, other than Barry, who could sort of tell that something was off about Iris this episode.
Speaking of Iris, the real version that is, I thought she came out of this episode looking great too. To put it bluntly, I think The Flash works well when its characters are portrayed with… intelligence. That’s something the show seems to lose track of now and then. I still have nightmares about how badly they handled the Cicada arc with Team Flash, letting him fly away every episode. That being said, most of our characters this week were fairly smart. Barry pieced everything together, Cecile justly released Barry when she had her suspicions, and Iris distracted Eva long enough for Barry to get the upper-hand on Mirror Iris.
Surprisingly, there’s a lot of good moments to unpack from the main storyline this week that I haven’t even mentioned yet. Mirror Iris cut and stabbed an almost power-less Barry about 9 billion times. She also briefly became her own character and got to make her own decision for once. Barry and Iris both had a fantastic scene trying to stop Eva’s plan. Eva continued to toe the line between being your typical supervillain and a compelling yet unhinged person hellbent on revenge. And we got the shocking return of this guy:
We didn’t need Bloodwork in this episode. We really didn’t. The main storyline was good enough on its own. However, this appearance from Bloodwork has cemented the villain, in my eyes, as one of the show’s best solely due to the joyous reaction I had when I saw him. And he didn’t overstay his welcome either. This was just a simple cameo appearance that served three meaningful purposes. First, it further developed Eva’s plan to escape the Mirror World. It then set up a future storyline, which could include Bloodwork escaping his prison. I mean, he would be an ideal character to create a version of the Rogues Gallery. Just throwing it out there. Finally, this worked as a reminder that Sendhil Ramamurthy is still impressive.
One of the most interesting aspects of this Eva storyline is the fact that I’m not totally sure who is going to be the main big bad at the tail-end of the season. Or I guess now that the season is cut short, at the beginning of The Flash season 7. Nonetheless, there’s the argument to be made that Joseph Carver and Black Hole are the true villains of the season. At least so far. Maybe that changes, and we get a more definite clue of everyone’s roles in the last two episodes.
Moving onto the B-story this week, which included Cisco and Ralph trying to save Caitlin. It was… fine. This is seemingly the start of a new storyline, so I don’t necessarily want to bury it and say it sucked. Plus, the main storyline wouldn’t have worked as well if we had these three in commission. I guess we’ll have to see where it goes.
Verdict: As someone who wasn’t a big fan of how things were set up in “So Long and Goodnight,” I came away from “Liberation” pleasantly surprised at how well The Flash paid off the Mirror Iris storyline. It also managed to tease what’s to come with Eva’s plans now that she is freed from the Mirror World and Bloodwork’s smart decision to stay locked up. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely we’ll get to see how Eva’s storyline ends this season. But on the bright side, we should have an exciting start to season 7.
The Flash: “Liberation” Review
The whole Mirror Iris storyline played out very well and I actually cared a bit about the character at the end
Bloodwork’s short return
The scene with Barry and Iris both trying to stop Eva in different ways was great
It’s not in the review but Efrat Dor continues to do a great job with the Eva character
The B-story this week was fine. Again, I don’t want to hate on it too much though since it’s the beginning of a new storyline
For the second straight week, I thought the final scene was a bit too cheesy
