Flash Facts: “Plastique”
SO MANY REFERENCES!
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! The Flash continues to be my favourite superhero TV show out there as this week we see Barry come face-to-face with Plastique and General Wade Eiling!
Plastique aka Bette Sans Souci is played by Kelly Frye; known for roles in The Mentalist, NCIS: Los Angeles and Rake. I’m not familiar with her work but her performance is pretty solid, playing Plastique as someone who believes she was betrayed by the country she laid her life on the line for and is now on the run. Just like every metahuman, she gained her abilities from the particle accelerator explosion, fusing the dark matter with bomb fragments left in her body because SCIENCE. Solid performance, it’s just unfortunate that she won’t be returning (especially after what the conniving Harrison Wells does!)
Clancy Brown kills it as General Eiling, being a veteran of the DC Universe’s various projects. He’s voiced Lex Luthor in a ton of DC animated series and various other DC characters in animated shows and movies and if there’s one thing he knows how to play, it’s bad guys! Eiling wants to use Plastique as a human weapon, something Wells knows all too well, having worked with him in the past on a project to give subjects telepathy. Brown plays Eiling as the smuggest jackass and it’s a delight to watch because you just love to hate him, another thing Clancy excels at.
Joe West is another highlight of the show, continuing to be the best side character for snark, emotional moments and being the best TV dad I’ve ever seen. Seriously, I want Jesse L. Martin to be my dad… Joe gets the best line in the show for me, expressing his total boredom with the concept of metahuman criminals now. It’s only five episodes in and Joe is DONE with this superpower BS, I love it!
A fair amount of screen time is taken up by Barry and Iris, arguing about her blog and the subtext of Barry’s feelings for her (which Joe knew about. Again, best dad.) and it’s pretty trite. This is the worst kind of Smallville faux-drama and I just wish Barry would get together with Caitlin or Felicity. I know Iris is the canon love interest but, frankly, she is the DUMBEST character on this show. Hop on the SnowBarry train, writers!
Stinger this week reveals the project Eiling and Wells worked on, the telepathy subject; a gorilla named Grodd. YOOOOOOOOO, gimme that monkey magic!
The Flash was brilliant and it gets more and more fun with every episode. Come back next week when the Scarlet Speedster makes a name for himself in The Flash is Born!