The Flash - S1E13 - The Nuclear Man
Previously on The Flash, ‘Crazy For You’
It was bound to happen: The Flash finally delivered an episode I wasn’t crazy about (see: Thoughts & Questions below for details), but even an okay episode of The Flash is better than a great episode of most shows.
Date Night
Barry uses his powers to not only speed dress for his date with Linda, but he slyly breaks away from their date a few times to stop crime and save a man threatened to jump from a rooftop. Linda doesn’t notice a thing and lays a few kisses on Barry at the end of the night.
RonnieStein (rocking a wig worse than his cousin’s on Arrow’s flashbacks) approaches a scientist and insists that they know each other. The man is scared because RonnieStein knows stuff about him that he shouldn’t. Then RonnieStein explodes and kills the man.
Think of Lots of Dead Puppies
Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry head to Jitters for coffee, and Barry’s talking about his upcoming second date with Linda. Cisco teases that due to his powers, Barry might be a premature ejaculator. Iris overhears news of this second date and acts all weird about it because Iris fucked around and waited too long to have feelings for Barry.
Cisco gets a call and dashes off - straight to Barry’s childhood home where he meets Joe. Cisco is going to help Joe look for physical evidence from the night Barry’s mom was killed.
News of the dead scientist (Quayle) has spread and Wells, Barry, and Caitlin discuss bringing RonnieStein in before he can hurt anyone else. When Barry sees a picture of Stein (scientist who merged with Ronnie), he realizes they shared a nerd talk on the train the day of the particle accelerator explosion. We then see how Ronnie and Stein merged.
House Calls
Barry, Wells, and Caitlin go to see Mrs. Stein. Wells gets jealous of the awards Stein won cause Wells is evil. The wife recognizes a picture of Ronnie and tells them about the time RonnieStein came to her house claiming to be her husband. She promptly told him to get the hell out. Caitlin and Wells are going to stakeout the Stein’s house in case RonnieStein returns and Barry rushes off to his date.
Meanwhile, Cisco and Joe are trying to inspect the crime scene where Barry’s mother died, but the house’s new owner (a flirtatious and curvaceous blonde) keeps interrupting to flirt with Joe. Girl, you better go sit down somewhere. Eventually, Joe notices there’s a mirror on the wall and it’s the same as when Barry lived there. Cisco wonders if the mirror can be used to show them what happened that night.
Barry has a great date planned with dinner reservations, mini-golf, a jazz show, and froyo. But it turns out Linda is DTF and you don’t even need to buy her froyo first. They’re getting into it when Barry’s super vibrations occur. Linda thinks it felt amazing. Then Barry has to rush out because RonnieStein has showed up at Stein’s, and Caitlin texted Barry an S.O.S. Linda seems pretty understanding.
When The Flash confronts RonnieStein, RonnieStein flames on and takes them both for a ride in the sky. Barry makes it out alive, and before RonnieStein can blast him with fire, Caitlin yells for him to stop. RonnieStein takes off.
Cisco does some fancy science stuff and is able to indeed use the mirror as a camera. They see a few stills of Mrs. Allen’s murder and discover one of the speedsters bled on a wall. They find the bloodstains under new wallpaper.
Green Is Not a Good Look
Barry arrives at the newspaper to apologize to Linda for rushing out of their date. She’ll give him another chance. After Barry leaves, Linda asks Iris for advice on Barry, and Iris tells her that Barry might not be ready for a relationship since he just had his hopes dashed by another woman. It’s clear that Linda knows that other woman is Iris.
Using a tracker Barry placed on RonnieStein, Team Flash finds him living under an overpass. His wife convinces him to let Team Flash treat him. RonnieStein, well more Stein, thinks that some nuclear fusion may be able to separate them, but Wells warns that splitting the atom is different than splitting two people.
Linda calls to break up with Barry and mentions that he’s still hung up on Iris. He immediately heads to the newspaper to put Iris in her place and ends it with making it clear that he no longer has feelings for her. Oh, Barry, you have every right to be upset, but you are not over Iris.
Joe asks Cisco to test the blood they found against Wells. Cisco is shocked. He insists Wells is a good man and that he didn’t kill Barry’s mother. Joe is all, “You can be wrong. But you better not tell anyone what we’re doing.”
Go Nuclear
RonnieStein is hot… and not just when he’s sitting around with his shirt off. His body is running hot. Wells thinks that there’s a chance RonnieStein will go nuclear and that they should kill the host’s body to save millions.
Caitlin, understandably, wants no part of this bullshit and tells Wells he needs to figure out another way.
To prove himself to Linda, Barry shows up at the newspaper and threatens to eat one of the hottest peppers in the world if she doesn’t go out with him. She calls his bluff, he takes a bite, and immediately wishes he hadn’t. Afterwards, they kiss because Linda knows a good man when she sees one. Iris looks on, butthurt.
Alone with his Reverse Flash suit, which is in his chamber of lies and evil, Wells asks Gideon if the tachyon device he stole in the mid-season finale would be strong enough to help spilt RonnieStein. So, Wells does have a tiny heart! A shrunken, cold heart.
Barry and Caitlin rush off with the device - RobbieStein’s tracker is pinging far outside of town, which means he’s probably about to kill himself or explode… or both. Meanwhile, Cisco calls Joe with the news that the blood sample is from Barry as an adult.
The Flash and Caitlin arrive in the middle of the frozen tundra, which is apparently right outside of Center City. After a kiss from RonnieStein (from Ronnie), Caitlin puts the tachyon device on his chest, but he starts to blow anyway, and The Flash runs off with Caitlin in his arms to avoid the blast.
Thoughts & Questions:
- So, the military dude calls for Firestorm after the explosion. He’s going to be a problem.
- What stopped me from enjoying this episode as much as the others is the fact that I don’t really care about Ronnie and Caitlin.
- Joe and Cisco should team up more often. When the lady of the house kept flirting with Joe, Cisco’s “I won’t judge you,” was hilarious.
- Since Wells was willing to give up that tachyon device, I feel more confident in my Eddie is Reverse Flash theory. We don’t yet know Wells’ full end-game, but I don’t get the impression he’s necessarily interested in harming Barry or killing his mother.
- Oh, Iris. I am rooting for her because I think the show is making it very clear that she’s The One for Barry, and I want him to be happy. But her cockblocking is not cute.
