If there has been one thing that’s been consistent in this season ofThe Flash, it’s that it’s pretty inconsistent. There have been some very good episodes in the show’s eighth season. There have also been some incredibly bad ones. Unfortunately,The FlashSeason 8, Episode 10, titled “Reckless” leans far more to the side of very bad, than very good. Sadly, the reason the episode checks in as one of the worst of the season is that it has the same kind of problems that several of the other less-than-stellar episodes have. In short, it doesn’t seem to know what exactly it wants to be in the long run. There are some story beats here and there that could have been interesting, but there are too many of them, jammed into an episode that turns into a mish-mash of plots that are hurried through.
To be fair, it appears that afterEpisode 8 ofThe Flashwas a fairly well-done installment that focused on relationships between fathers and sons, it appears the writers wanted to do the same kind of focus on mothers and daughters. The problem is that it just wasn’t done as well. Things were a little too forced and just a little too contrived.
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This episode ofThe Flashstarts off by making it look like thefocus might be on Iris Westonce again and that never seems like a particularly bad thing. However, just like the last time the show appeared to be doing that, it ended up looking like it desperately wanted to be spending time literally anywhere else. It’s hard to tell whether the show just doesn’t believe that Candice Patton can carry a scene anymore, or the actress has asked to have her role diminished, but her role does indeed continue to be diminished.
This time around, the episode opens with her working on this very odd “Time Sickness” that has been a running theme of the season, even if the show never really wants to explain what that really means. It appears that it mostly means that Iris misses time and sort of has blackouts. However, it’s hinted at that things are quite a bit more serious than that. But the show might hint at this or that, but so far, no episode ofThe Flashhas really hammered home just why viewers are supposed to care about her illness. Mostly it seems like a way to keep Iris away from most of Team Flash for large portions of episodes. It’s still very much a question as to why?
Dealing with the illness also sparked one of the weirder scenes in the episode, where Iris fires up the SOS in order to get Barry Allen to her side. So that she can basically tell him that she doesn’t need him there and she can handle things on her own. The scene appeared to be a contrived way to get Barry and Iris on screen together for the 30 seconds that is part of arequirement ofThe Flashand then have them apart for the rest of the episode.
Iris then goes off to try and help a young meta who is searching for her mother. This particularpart ofThe Flashcontinues to feel contrived and pointless. One big reason for that is because the young meta just doesn’t have a great deal of personality beyond “rebel without a reason.” However, this part of the show does allow the first part of the “mothers and daughters” theme and later on, it also allows Iris to demonstrate why the time sickness is an actual problem. Though it appears the audience is going to have to wait until next week until it finds out just how and why things happened the way they did.
Meanwhile,Killer Frost is experiencingher own “mothers and daughters” moment with the woman who never really meant to be her mother. It’s interesting to say the least that Frost is so comfortable hanging out with a woman who only created her as a way to save her real daughter in Caitlin. It feels like there would be quite a bit more resentment there, but apparently, as Frost has made a life for herself, she’s far more … chill than she used to be.
It’s also worth pointing out that the girls’ mother was decidedly colder (no these puns aren’t intentional) to her “daughters” than she is in this particular episode. That she’s actually loving and caring isn’t the only rewrite of the character that seems to come out of nowhere. She’s also now got nascent frost powers. Why? Because it’s important to have them in this episode seems to be the only answer. The script even touches on the fact that inpast episodes ofThe Flash, it was made very clear she had no such abilities.
Rewriting plot points seems to be the name of the game for thisepisode ofThe Flashbecause in the rare moments when the team is actually facing off against a new villain that has been somewhat interesting, the motive for the villain to be attacking has apparently been changed. Previous installments told the audience that for some reason, it goes after people who have been, or are in mourning. This time around, it’s going after Killer Frost - and eventually her mother - because of their cold powers.
Those who found it odd that all of the sudden, a living flame changes why it attacks people didn’t need to worry for long as it changes its M.O. back to going after people who are some level of sad by the end of the episode. It also finally hinted at why this is the M.O. without really explaining why that would still be the case. It’s hard to explain exactly why thewriters ofThe Flashhave decided to go this route. Even with a foreshadowing of why, it seems like a very odd turn for what could have been an interesting evil. Instead, it was just one more odd misstep for a series that continues to limp towards the season’s finish line.
