Wednesday, May 06, 2015

The Iris of it all


Well, there's not much I can say to add to io9's 38 questions about the hilariously ridiculous season finale of Gotham.

But I can tackle the Flash and vent some pent up confusions and questions that other viewers my share....


  1. Who is signing Caitlin and Cisco's paychecks?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? That's driving me NUTS.
  2. "Caitlin good." Indeed.
  3. Ah, Clancy Brown.  Gen. Eiling sounds more like Grodd than Grodd does.
  4. Caitlin is really girly. And that's okay, because she makes it work.
  5. C'mon, Cisco; even I would have thought to put the anti-mind-control tech in a football helmet.  And we KNOW you have them there because you see one in the first episode.
  6. Have they tried just asking Gideon where Eobard is? Because you KNOW she knows.
  7. I have more respect for Iris now that Iris knows that everyone ELSE has no respect for her.
  8. Except Caitlin. Because Caitlin's good.
  9. Am I the only person who expected Joe to call him "Goldface"?
  10. Speaking of gold, what does Grodd want with gold?  Or does Wells want it? Or was it just a convenient lure for the Flash?  No, that makes no sense.
  11. Hey, they remembered the banana joke.
  12. When will Barry realize that he can THROW STUFF at someone other than the Pied Piper? Because I can't help but think Grodd wouldn't do well after being hit with a baseball at 300 mph a thousand times in a row.
  13. Speaking of whom, wouldn't some of Cisco's sonics come in handy against Grodd? Particularly since Barry can both wear earplugs AND run faster than the speed of sound?
  14. You know, you really should make funny of someone just because his name is "Eobard". Particularly when you're an adult who still calls himself "Eddie".
  15. Had to pause the playback when Joe called Iris "brilliant" just to laugh.
  16. Central City's sewer system has...open ground level doors that allow for a five-mile run-in?  Truly a weird place.
  17. Not being famous does not make you a failure, Eobard. Don't be rude.
  18. Who gets Wells' house?
  19. New Flash drinking game!  Drink every time Iris finds out that someone else knew something that she didn't.  You will NOT finish the show.
  20. My god are they actually fixing the hole in STAR Labs roof?!
  21. The Thawnes are my new favorite comedy duo.  "Ed, Eddie, and Eobard" would be a great show.
  22. It's ironic the Gen. Eiling is actually more interesting than Captain Atom
  23. Which is more annoying: Iris when she's wrong or Iris when she's right?.
  24. Does anyone else think that the way the Flash team finally defeats the Reverse-Flash is by giving him exactly what he wants and letting him go home?
  25. For that matter, did Barry ever considering saying, "Hey, Eobard, let's go back in time, un-kill my mother and Harrison Wells and then all work together to get you home, big guy?"
  26. Why the heck send Cisco out to get Grodd when CAITLIN is the one Grodd likes? Sexism much?!?!?




17 comments:

Bryan L said...

"Central City's sewer system has...open ground level doors that allow for a five-mile run-in?"

Of course it does. By your own calculations, Central City is some 1400 square miles. That means that sewer workers have to be able to travel fast. They probably use sports cars or high-performance motorcycles or bullet trains to get from one place to another.

Iris wrong is more annoying. Iris right is FUN. Now that she knows everybody's been lying to her constantly, I want to see lots more full-on bitch. She needs to be busting on Barry NON-STOP. And Joe. And Eddie. And they need to be cowering. Scared of gorillas? Screw that, I want to see them scared of IRIS.

Caitlin good, yes.

Redforce said...

Dang, probably shouldn't have read this because I haven't watched last night's ep yet.
Oh, well. Guess it's payback for the spoiler I dropped from the B&B Superman vs. Batman episode a while back (the they switched costumes one).

John said...

Sense or not, I have to admit that Gotham is entertaining. And Erin Richards plays crazy like a pro!

For Flash, here's the best I can figure.

1- Thawne-as-Wells may well have automated STAR's accounts. They might also be sitting on a heap of patents.
2- Caitlin criminally underused, too. If she wasn't allowed to talk about Ronnie, she'd basically be left spouting technobabble and modeling skirts.
5- Admit it, a helmet wouldn't have looked as good.
6- Counter-question, is Gideon still accessible? Because that seems like a stupid thing to leave in the past for your enemies to use. Or maybe stock market records are how Caitlin and Cisco are paying the rent.
10- I think that was supposed to be "clever misdirection." Distract from Thawne with Grodd. Distract from Grodd with Eiling. Distract from Eiling with a routine robbery.
14- No, I'm with Eddie on this one. Eobard is stupider.
16- How else would you catch the psychic gorillas?
17- He's still hurt over the name thing.
19- I love the show, but learning from Barry talking in his sleep was a much more entertaining revelation. I am, however, surprised that Iris didn't ask what she was being kept safe from, though she at least finally had it out with Joe.
20- With no obvious source of funding, it's obviously time for capital improvements!
23- Wrong Iris is worse. I really like this interpretation of Iris and am tempted to say that the imaginary parallel show about Iris going from flaky grad student to career woman who lost her mentor might have even been more interesting than Barry's story.
24-25- I find myself wondering that about a lot of villains. But yeah, I'm not even sure I understand why Eobard-as-Wells didn't just gather everybody together and say, "OK, I'm stuck here from the future and accidentally--accidentally, I say--killed Nora Allen, and I apologize and could really use some help getting home."

That said, great episode.

RGallegos said...

So many questions, but this show is so much fun I don't mind the plot holes. I only hope they get Wells back as a good guy-mentor cause Tom Cavanagh is so good. LOVE THIS SHOW!

Anonymous said...

About "Gotham":

"Why was Don Falcone attempting to purchase a live chicken?" - because a dead chicken can't give consent, you perverts.

Well, "Gotham" spiraled like it had to, with the city falling into chaos that requires Batman to fix. And Jim officially owes big favors to the new crime boss, who is more ruthless than the ones he's replacing. So congratulations Jim, you're officially in a worse place than when you started.

Let's take a moment to remember the Barbara Kean / Renee Montoya soap opera thread that has been forgotten for months, and is pretty much officially dead now. So now Barbara isn't just a woman with lesbian tendencies, she's also a lunatic and a killer. C'mon guys, you're horning in on the traditional role of transsexuals; get your movie stereotypes right.

I still like Bruce and Alfred, and let's give it this much: if the Batcave was already there, that does answer the question of how it was built without the contractors immediately figuring out Batman's secret identity. By the time Batman shows up, that cave is going to be ancient history, and nobody's going to put two and two together.

Doc said...

That horrifying gadget Eobard used to drain real-Wells and steal his face and memories. He admits he has some of Wells love for others inside him too. What kind of horrifying invention is that? I say it's a modification of the Firestorm Matrix gadget! Which means...
They can reverse the Reverse Flash, so good-Wells is in control. Like they did at first to Ron and Stein, or like Red Skull/Xavior in Marvel Axis.

John said...

Anonymous, I do miss Montoya and Allen, but growling, murderous Barbara is way better than bisexual-because-she's-confused Barbara.

And...you guys don't loiter at the wharfs on Tuesday afternoons? Children and mafia dons eat free, with purchase of a live chicken. Everybody knows that!

Jacob, that's an interesting point, though I don't know that they'd rewrite Flash history by making the Reverse-Flash part of the team.

That all said, here's my really big question: Why is the Reverse-Flash taunting Eddie? Make him too angry, and he can wait until this is all over, get a vasectomy, and poof, he saves everybody. Doesn't Eddie seem like the kind of guy who would do exactly that just to spite the jerk?

And speaking of which, in a world where both Photoshop and divorces exist (and newspapers, less so), exactly how convincing is it to show someone a holographic newspaper "from the future" and use the byline of the front page story as evidence that Eddie "doesn't get the girl"?

Scipio said...

John, Eddie is....not the brightest person in Central City.

He is fairly pretty, though.

Redforce said...

Neither is Iris. Which means they are PERFECT for each other.

Redforce said...

Also, #8- WHAT banana joke? The only thing I can think of is the one from Escape from the Planet of the Apes, where Zira says "Because I LOATHE bananas!"

Redforce said...

Sorry, meant to say #11

Scipio said...

Redforce; Grodd makes that same joke in a JLU episode.

John said...

I prefer to think of Eddie more as...evidence-averse. Like, is that dangerous thing really coming right at me? There's probably no way to tell.

He's a heck of a singer, too, it seems, along with Joe and Cisco. http://www.themarysue.com/the-flash-ballad-of-serenity/

Wasn't Barry on Glee? So, he presumably sings, too. Gasp! Does that mean we can look forward to (or live in fear of, if that's your thing) an Abra Kadabra episode that turns into a musical?

Redforce said...

Agh, how could I have missed that?! I've only seen EVERY EPISODE of JLU. And now I can't go back and see it, because Netflix dropped JLA / JLU (and B&B, for that matter).

Scipio said...

John.

Yes. Grant presumably sings. That's a fair statement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itcpe1wVu4Y

John said...

Well, there you go! A musical episode is now an official moral imperative. Lea Salonga can play Kadabra. Ooh, or the Fiddler...

That (oddly) reminds me, if you haven't seen the "Flash as directed by Ingmar Bergman" parody, it's well worth the couple of minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kno3xDw27bY

Dan P said...

I don't watch the Flash because...

a) That's not Barry Allen. That's laughy-jokey Peter Parker/Spider-man.

b) Way too many minutes of blah-blah-blah.

c) I don't believe movies or TV is any kind of "promotion" of super-hero content. I really don't. I am a COMIC BOOK fan, and superheroes are best done in comic books. Film or novel versions of superheroes are, IMO, *inferior* ways to tell those stories.

So I don't jump like most people do when they hear such-and-such comic is being made into a movie. I just groan and brace myself for a bunch of absurd and unnecessary alterations.

d) The recent success of superheroe movies are RUINING the comics industry. Now, publishers--Marvel and DC especially--are blowing up their established catalogs to convert everything to "tv/movie friendly" concepts. Mostly this results in turning everybody into a mix-bag of minority traits (looking at you, Johnny Storm and Heimdall). And much of the rest is rewriting character history to fit currently "trendy" tastes (Dr Doom as a hacker?!? He's a Cold War dictator!).

Marvel and DC are already reinventing their comics to be "movie pitches." And they have suckered their customers to actually PAY for these "test ideas." (Pretty much every comic now is being produced as a pitch for a tv show or movie. They are NOT comics made to be the best comics out there. They're made to attract producers, and the quality of M/DC is suffereing because of it.)




There's going to be a time when this comic-movie fad ends. And all of us comic-lovers are going to be stuck with a bunch of totally messed up characters and jacked up continuities.