The latest episode of The Flash, “Crazy For You,†was another solid episode, but you could easily tell that it was more of a setup episode for the rest of the season. The Flash has generally done a great job of having strong characters each episode, while still giving us a taste of what is to come. But, this episode’s villain, while being neat and a pretty good adversary to The Flash, wasn’t as strong as past episodes.
This episode was mainly about relationships. Strong relationships were explored between Barry and his dad, as well as between him and Caitlin. Barry was able to meet up with his dad because he was investigating the disappearance of Clay Parker from prison. Later on in the episode, Barry’s dad is trying to help and is poking around a little bit too much in other people’s business and gets stab. He is ok, but Barry takes this one personally and is exacting his revenge, The Flash style. He runs into the prisoner’s cell, grabs him and takes him just outside the fences. He convinces the prisoner, Julius, to tell him where the next heist is going down, and he will run him back inside. He gets his information and leaves him to get caught, such sweet justice exacted by the books. At the end of the episode, it’s obvious that Barry’s dad has some idea that his son may be The Flash, but he doesn’t outright say it. Instead, he thanks him for his courage and how he’s been helping Central City.
The villain this week is Shawna Baez, Peek-A-Boo, adequately named by Caitlin since Cisco was predisposed at the time. Her ability is being able to essentially teleport to any location that she can see. She is a relatively neat character, but they really didn’t explain why she was hanging out with Clay Parker, the career criminal. She just comes off as more intelligent and one to not stoop to stealing from others, but that’s love for you. Their whole end-game is to pay off a gangster named Marcus Stockheimer. Of course, Barry is able to take her down. Even though she is able to teleport to wherever she can see, Barry takes out all the lights in the tunnel thus blocking her ability. And how do you hold someone like that in the prison under S.T.A.R. Labs? A one way mirror.
The villain was a bit iffy this week, but the eventual bond we got to see with Caitlin and Barry was great. They both realize that they don’t really have lives outside of work, and they decided to go out together; partly to find Clay and Shawna and also to live a little. As we’ve found out in previous episodes, The Flash can’t get drunk, but Caitlin? She definitely can, and it is absolutely hilarious. After a handful of drinks, she hops up to do karaoke and goads Barry into joining. After quite the rendition of Summer Lovin’, Barry actually met another girl, not named Iris. They shared contact info via a touch-contact app, and they might actually have something going on. It’s nice to see, after Barry was hung-up on Iris that he may finally actually have someone. But, their talk was cut short as Caitlin starts to feel sick and needs to be rushed home. Of course she’s too drunk to undress herself, so Barry uses his speed to undress and redress her within seconds. She quips, “you better not have peaked,†with him exclaiming, “wouldn’t be much of a superhero if I did.†I love that he is finally realizing how important to Central City he has become. Their night out really showed how much they are alike as she may never get to see Ronnie again, and Iris is taken.
While they are having a great time, Cisco is feeling all the guilt of Ronnie’s transformation. He was the last one there, and he locked him in during the blast. Ronnie told him to wait two minutes, but he still felt like he should have waited longer. If you remember, the last episode ended with The Pied Piper telling Cisco that he knew what happened to Ronnie and where he could find him. Of course, this being The Pied Piper, he is both telling the truth and trying to escape the prison. I never understand why Cisco, whom seems to be one of the smartest people at the lab, falls for things like this. But, The Pied Piper shows him that Dr. Martin Stein was at the scene of the blast on purpose. And, the footage from the explosion shows that he and Ronnie actually morphed into one person, thus explaining why Ronnie didn’t recognize or react to Caitlin as she thought that he would.
While Barry does have a thing with Linda, he still helps Iris by giving her information on Marcus, but she also snapped a photo of something more newsworthy. By some miracle, she got a picture of The Flash speeding right toward her with a cell phone. Apple and Android need to step up their game. In the next scene, Iris finally gets to empathize with Barry on how he feels when he sees her with Eddie. She asks if he wants to sit down, but he says that he actually has a date. It’s nice to finally see Barry be the 20-something that he is in this episode, instead of putting everyone else before himself. The final scene appears to show that we will be seeing Grodd in the next episode. The teasing is becoming unbearable, so let’s hope that comes to a head.
The Flash seems to be rounding out to the character we’ve come to know. He truly understands what his duty is, and he is more than willing to do so. He is still being guided to a certain endgame by Wells, but it appears he may be smart enough to see that coming. The bonds shown in this episode were great, although I still feel like Cisco is being portrayed a bit too naive. The overall villain was kind of meh in this one. But still, if you’ve stuck around this long, you know that the show will rebound in the next episode.
