The latest episode of The Flash, “Magenta,†takes a break from purely evil characters, and allows us to delve into one with much-more depth. As it was last season, this season has, thus far, been filled with evil characters being, well, completely evil. But, we get to see a character that is simply vulnerable and thus capitulated into doing “evil†things due to circumstances in “Magenta.â€
Emily Kane (Joey King) is a young girl who has suffered through the foster system and currently lives with her abusive foster father, subsequently a prime target for Alchemy to continue his devilish deeds. He gives Emily the “ability†where her anger completely consumes her, and she is left with super strength, although with the caveat that she doesn’t remember any of it. I love the change of pace because you actually feel for the (most likely) one-off character. She is one of the few “villains†that actually pulls more emotions out of the characters, namely Barry in this episode.
In the final fight scene, Barry has to save the hospital where her foster father currently is by somehow stopping her from dropping a freighter on top of the building. With the help of Jesse Quick, who will be talked about extensively later, Barry uses his emotional side to talk her out of what she is about to do. It’s nice to see Barry use a more humanistic approach to salvage Emily since this was none of her doing and was much more so the position she was placed in by chance.
Barry’s emotional side played a much larger role outside of the fight scenes as well. Iris and Barry are finally trying to give it a go, but she wants them to go on a date with Barry and NOT The Flash. After they struggle through one of the most boring dates ever, Barry realizes that he cannot separate one from the other, a theme which is often presented in various forms of superhero media. It comes as a welcome surprise that Barry admits to her that Barry and The Flash are one in the same. It seldom makes sense to separate the two, especially when that person knows the two personas. This will certainly allow for more breathing room for their relationship, and allow for better interactions between the two moving forward.
As was teased last season, we finally get to see the emergence of Jesse Quick. An addition of another speedster will certainly shake things up, but it’s not exactly her speed that is the most interesting aspect about her. However, it is the catalyst for much conflict moving forward. As you remember, Jesse and Wally were both zapped during the explosion, but Wally doesn’t have any powers, not yet anyway.
Wally has always been the sort of outcast with the Wests and in the entire show in general. Now, with more and more people gaining powers, Wally is definitely the one that stands out amongst the group. I love the fact they made the character go to extreme lengths in hopes of forcing his powers to come to the surface. Of course, Barry has to save him which essentially backfires his whole plan. It will be interesting to see once his powers do eventually surface, if he is destined to be a speedster or will be imbued with some other form of powers.
Jesse Quick also forced Harrison Wells to go through a conundrum himself. Harrison Wells is so dead set on keeping her safe, that he is trying to control everything she does and is really smothering her. He has a unique perspective since he went through very similar things with Barry already, so he knows the potential of what could happen. For his character, it makes sense that he eventually does allow her to be who she is destined to become, even though I am sure there will be some comical overbearing-Wells in the future.
