Duck Fox

You Wouldn't Hurt a Guy Whose Faking Being in a Wheelchair, Would You?

Note: This review, like every review for Thanksgiving Week, will be much shorter due to all the turkeyness of the week. You should get the gist of whether the episode is worth watching or not, though.

Aaaaaaand we’re back. After a stellar episode where Barry learns to come to grips with who he is now, and really takes on the qualities of a hero, the show forces him back into being a less capable superhero. Granted, this makes sense to a point. It’s not like taking down your old elementary school nemesis would change you overnight into the best version of yourself. But giving Barry “The Yips” immediately after he figured out how to perform a super sonic punch just feels tacky. Nonetheless, the episode used its premise well, allowing us to see Barry use his wits instead of his speed, and creating the most complex villain we’ve seen since “Going Rogue.”

That villain being Blackout, a guy who siphons electricity from anything he can find just to sate his particle accelerator induced hunger. When he siphons energy from Barry he ends up siphoning his powers for a brief moment, and so Barry is forced to run and hide with the others at the lab. Harrison Welles frees Tony Woodward, using him as a distraction to buy time for Barry’s cells to recharge, and Woodward actually develops a little bit as a result, though he naturally dies fighting Blackout, who can also discharge electricity like nobodies business. This is the first terrible act Harrison Welles has committed openly in front of his proteges at the lab, and it’s great to see him getting called out for it.

Before finding himself at S.T.A.R. Labs, Blackout had fed on the city’s power grid, causing a blackout as the police were transporting William Tockman, AKA “The Clock King,” (Robert Knepper reprising his role as the villain originally seen on Arrow). Tockman manages to escape and force a hostage crisis which is only resolved when Iris scores another takedown. This little side story is thrilling because we get to see Iris be a complete badass again, and also because we get to see The Clock King be stone cold again. Also nice to see that we can get a save without having to rely on The Flash. Speaking of…

Eventually Cisco suggests that Barry has the Yips, and Barry manages to power through and take down Blackout once and for all. We’re not treated to much in the way of a cool takedown as Blackout seems to “overload” when he attempts to drain Barry of more energy. All in all, “Power Outage” was a decent outing which didn’t quite manage to be as tense as it was attempting. At least Iris’s KO count is rising. Hopefully she’ll be even with Barry after next week’s crossover.