After the shockingly dumb twist of last season’s finale, I was going into Season 3 with a ton of trepidation and, for the most part, those fears have been alleviated but let’s talk about the episode proper.

Flashpoint’s source material, a comic book event of the same name, is much derided for several reasons. One; it wasn’t very good and B; it threw away 70 years of canon and lead to the New 52. It was a bad time for everyone but I actually dug the way this episode used the premise. Rather than leading to a war between Atlantis and Themyscira that decimates Europe or retroactively making Thomas Wayne into Batman, this shift in history is much more intimate and personal to Barry.

Yes, he’s got both his parents back but it destroyed the close relationship of the Wests, Wally is (Kid)Flash and there’s a new enemy speedster in the form of The Rival. Hell, even Captain Singh is gone!

Flash Fact: Captain Julio Mendez, played by Alex Désert, is another Flash ‘93 alumni! He was essentially the Cisco of that show.

But the real kicker is that Thawne knows that it can’t last. Barry’s been too short-sighted, too stupid, and that Barry’s fantasy world will soon crush him under the weight of his own decisions. And as the reality of the situation finally hits him, we get a heart-breaking scene of Barry saying goodbye to his parents but the gut punch…

Is that Thawne is enjoying himself. Barry needs Thawne and he takes great pleasure in taunting him; saying he’s the hero this time and that even the reset didn’t fix everything and leaves Barry to find out for himself. As much as I love the Wells/Thawne version, this one is also fantastic in his open antagonism. I can’t wait to see Matt Letscher take on the Legends in their show, he’s such a good bad guy.

There are two final revelations to kick off the plots of this season as Barry’s reunion with the Wests runs afoul as he asks where Iris is and Joe just about smacks him. I can’t imagine what changed after the timeline was reset to cause Joe and Iris to be on bad terms but Wally still be there but this is an interpersonal drama that only Barry can fumble his way through!

Meanwhile, a sleeping Edward Clariss (the Earth-1 counterpart to The Rival) is awoken my a mysterious voice, announcing its presence with the word ‘Alchemy’ scrawled into a mirror. I’m not up on my Dr Alchemy lore (apart from he was an enemy of the second Blue Beetle) so I’ll have to do some digging for his eventual debut…

Overall, Flashpoint is a much stronger start to the season than I was anticipating and opens the door to some new kinds of drama for our favourite Scarlett Speedster.

Welcome back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Exposed, agents! It’s been a long time. Too long, for my tastes. So what’s happened the new status quo for our team?

In short; shit’s fucked. The (yet unseen) new Director seems like a bureaucratic douche-nozzle; separating the team, initiating a colour-coded security hierarchy and wrapping SHIELD in a mountain of red-tape. Not that Daisy is fairing any better as a fugitive but soon the two camps are on a collision course due a new, flame-headed player.

I’m glad to see the gang again but even less so that they’re not working together as a tight-knit unit. Mack and Coulson are field agents while Fitz and May lead their own departments while Simmons has become part of the Director’s inner circle in a sly effort to maintain control.

Fitz has maintained his friendship with inventor Holden Radcliffe, who decides now is the best time to unveil his first Life Model Decoy, AIDA. Mallory Jansen does a pretty good job of making a benign robot be utterly sinister. Or maybe I’m projecting because she’s going to go rogue, right? She has to. It’s like Chekov’s Sexbot or something.

During the course of the episode, a deal between the Aryan Brotherhood and the Korean mob goes south (who’da thunk?) and something is unleashed. Well… Someone. Not named in the episode, this spectral being known as Lucy seems to have the ability to warp people’s perceptions and drive them mad. Is she powered, Inhuman or maybe even a g-g-g-ghost!? Given the supernatural leaning this season, it’s safe to say this is one of the mystic Marvel characters but I have no idea who that could be off the top of my head.

But, of course, this is all an appetiser for the main course. Flame-broiled and spicy hot, the latino Robbie Reyes (played by Gabriel Luna) makes on hell of an impression in his first appearance. I really dug the car-flipping call back to the comics in the cold open and Luna’s performance is… interesting. I know Reyes’ deal but I’m wondering how much of that is being played with here or if his bipolar performance is just bad acting. I hope it’s the former. We also get a peak at another important plot point for Reyes; namely his brother, Gabe.

The skull CGI is much more impressive than I thought it would be and actually looks like a decent mix between Reyes’ silver noggin and the bone skulls of previous Riders. It also emotes! That’s pretty cool.

SHIELD’s return is an explosive, fuel-injected, enjoyable ride and sets up tons of new plot lines for the rest of the season. Next time we’ll be getting even more as we finally get to Meet the New Boss.

This being a regeneration story, it’s amazing how much time we spend with the Paternoster Gang, developing them a little more and more Strax hi-jinks. One of the major insights we get is into the relationship between Madame Vastra and Jenny Flynt. Naturally, as an interspecies lesbian married couple, they’re already pretty interesting to watch in terms of character dynamics but we find out that while they present the veneer of master and maid to the outside world, it kind of bleeds into their home life, something that Jenny takes exception to. There’s also the fact that Vastra has a bit of a wandering eye and can be quite flirtatious with other women. They’re by no means a perfect couple but their affection feels legitimate and I think that makes them feel like better characters, with a fun back and forth that makes them a delight to watch.

Strax is also funny as usual, with Clara acting as his straight man for many scenes. Not much in terms of character development but he’s the comedic potato and that’s good enough for me.

The villain of the week is actually a nice throwback to an older episode. Tell me if this sounds familiar! Clockwork robots, cannibalising humans for spares and repairs? That’s right, these are the same clockwork droids from Season 2’s The Girl in The Fireplace. Well, not the same exact robots, these being from the sistership of the SS Madame de Pompadour, the SS Marie Antoinette. They’re okay antagonists but they’re really there to job out to the new Doctor and not a lot else.

Clara’s role this episode is as audience proxy, naturally. This isn’t our prancing, young handsome Doctor and that’s just not on! Or do we need to accept that this old dude is the new norm and accept that he’s still the Doctor? Of course we do, this may be a radical change for fans who have only seen the revived series but this old hat for older fans.

Peter Capaldi’s first outing is manic, delusional and all together unsettling. His mad ramblings and underlying hostility to everything around him has shades of dementia to it, as he struggles with his new face. Since Capaldi has already appeared in Who (namely Season 4) it’s good that they address it as the Doctor struggles to remember who this face belongs to and where he’s seen it before. Capaldi also has some fun with his new Scottish accent. Being his first outing, I’m still not sure on this Doctor’s personality but his underlying principles are still the same.

And finally, we come to this lady. Half-Face awakens in a seeming paradise and Missy is there to welcome him. She claims to be the Doctor’s girlfriend and instantly establishes herself as untrustworthy and devious. She clearly has an agenda and will be the over-arcing villain for this season.

This episode sets the tone for the upcoming season quite effectively, coming off as so much darker and less whimsical than previous seasons. The villain tries to escape in a hot air balloon MADE OUT OF SKIN! If that’s not an indication of how dark this season’s going, I don’t know what is. A disorienting 76minute affair but a solid story and a nice set up for the stories ahead. Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you guys next week!