THE FLASH Review: “Harry and the Harrisons”

The Flash — “Harry and the Harrisons”– Pictured: Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells — Photo: Shane Harvey/The CW

THE FLASH “HARRY AND THE HARRISONS”

BY JUSTIN CARTER

Despite what the episode’s title may imply, Harry Wells and his brothers from other mothers in other universes don’t cover the full hour. It’s a smart decision ultimately, because I’m not convinced that the Council of Wells Rejects had the energy to sustain itself for a full hour.

With Harry’s intelligence continuing to deteriorate, he and Cisco decide to contact the Council for help in bringing down Devoe, but the German Steve Jobs Wells kicks his doppelganger out upon learning of his condition. Cisco brings together other rejects for help — a French Wells, Hedonist Hippy Wells from earlier in the season, and a Tracksuit Wells who looks and acts like a stereotype of an Italian gangster. Together, they help Harry discover that while his intellect is fading, he can be sufficiently emotionally intelligent to make up for it. Each new iteration of Wells is starting to feel like Tom Cavanaugh is just going through different SNL skits the writers are coming up for him, but he is nothing if not committed to this madness, which makes the proceedings just funny enough.

Instead of the Wells Council taking up the A-plot, that honor goes to Katee Sackhoff’s Amunet Black, and that turns to be the wiser choice, because she keeps things light and breezy. Now that Team Flash knows about Devoe’s Enlightenment, they’ve set out on a way to stop his evil satellites and Amunet’s shards are made up of a metal that are immune to anything Devoe’s assortment of powers. But since destroying satellites is provably a bigger task than holding a joint up, Amunet only agrees to help Team Flash if they help her get the rest of her shades, which her old henchman Norvock stole from her after her botched attempt at selling Barry — forcing her to leave the metahuman trafficking business.

If it all sounds ridiculous, it’s because it is; as Barry and Iris point out, Amunet isn’t exactly a criminal with a noticeable heart of gold like Snart was. Still, for as unorthodox a choice as she seems, she has enough bright eyed enthusiasm to make her interactions with the team fun. She quickly nails down Barry’s identity while he’s suited up and continues to have a twisted mother/daughter dynamic with Caitlin. Even though we didn’t see the two of them interact that much earlier in the season, there is a convincing amount of history between them, as one woman who’s been thoroughly screwed over by the universe tries in her own way to instill toughness in another who she thinks is prime material to be a victim. Amunet frankly shouldn’t be able to give Caitlin a “the power was in you all along!” moment, but she does and it works because Sackhoff and Danielle Panabaker play off each other perfectly. Amunet’s accent game may be goofy as all hell, but Sackhoff is clearly committed to playing her as a demented and murderous Mary Poppins, which ends up being the right kind of mentor that Caitlin (and Killer Frost) would have.

The final storyline of the episode concerns Iris and Barry debating over whether or not to release everything they know about Devoe to her Flash blog so the public has a way to defend themselves. It’s a smart plan as far as these things go, but also one that can immediately backfire even with all the information Iris laid out to the world. What’s to stop a Fake News reprisal, or even Devoe taking advantage of this to manipulate Team Flash into a trap? It wouldn’t be surprising if either of these turned out to be true in the next two weeks.

Still, “Harry and the Harrisons” is a perfectly solid episode of the season before things hit the fan in the final two episodes. I wouldn’t mind if Amunet returned in her spectacularly overblown fashion next year, because she certainly knows how to keep things lively.

Additional Notes

• I appreciate how not even Amunet knows if Norvock is a dude with a snake in his eye, or a snake person looking like a human. And frankly I hope we don’t really get a real answer either way. (She did cut the snake off his eye, which. Gross.)
• That Mary Poppins comparison for her does not come lightly with her exit from the episode via a gust of metal shards. It’s dumb, but so right for her.
• “Someone’s certainly seen Molly’s Game.”
• Tracksuit Wells apparently still lives in a world where VHS is a thing, which makes me feel incredibly old.