The Flash S1x12 “Crazy for You”

WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS!

Crazy for You may not have exactly been the most action-packed episode of The Flash ever, but it did have a lot of good character moments. Whilst this episode could potentially have been a dull, forgettable and cliché-filled  installment not unlike the previous weeks’, Crazy for You boasted a lot of heart with some excellent character moments that really continued to strengthen the bond between the team. We got to see Barry and Caitlin spend a big portion of the episode working as friends, and the chemistry between Grant Gustin and Danielle Panabaker is really clear and evident to see in their portrayal of the characters, which makes me believe that the longer they put off Caitlin’s transformation into Killer Frost, if it does happen, will be for the benefit of the show. Both are excellent and make a great part of the team, and coupled with Cisco and Wells, it feels like a fantastic band of characters.

The dance scenes with a drunken Caitlin were among my favourite of the episode. They could have been one of the weaker moments on a lesser show, and would have potentially felt awkward and out-of-place, but the actors nailed it really well and the script felt real, with the dynamic between both characters benefiting a lot from the attention that it received this week.

In the obligatory villain of the week, we got the teleporting “Peek-a-Boo” character played by Britne Oldford. Whilst the character doesn’t have enough material to become a big villain, she made for a fairly standard metahuman of the week and made an interesting change from the gadget-using characters that we’ve had on previous episodes. The special effects with the teleporting were mostly cool, too, with the storyline concerning her attempt to break out her boyfriend from jail being fun, but for the most part it was forgettable.

The third major plot thread of the episode dealt with the aftermath of the previous week, where we got to see Cisco consider Hathaway’s offer. The resultant scenes concerning Hathaway’s escape did kind of make Cisco not feel as smart as he should be, but it was cool seeing the Hannibal Lecter-esque way that Hathaway manipulated Cisco by telling him what happened to Ronnie, and Cisco then ended up telling Caitlin what happened after keeping it a secret all this time. I liked how Caitlin didn’t hold a grudge against him for that, which was something that the show could have easily done to create friction between the team for the next few episodes, but the avoidance of this really worked. Also, with Hathaway escaping at the end of the episode there’s potential to revisit the Pied Piper and continue exploring him in future episodes should the writers wish. And again sticking with Hathaway, there’s one final point that I should mention, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but did anyone else who watches The Originals think that Hathaway is reminiscent of Kol on that show? Just something I’m throwing out there.

There were some great emotional moments in this episode that gave John Wesley Shipp his best material to date when his character had been wounded from inside the prison.  It’s clear that Barry’s father knows that he’s the Flash, but they never specifically say it, which was a nice touch.

This episode is also notable for the introduction of Barry’s new love interest, Linda Park (Malese Jo). She’s already shown up in a cameo role on Arrow before, but as a TV Reporter and portrayed by a different actress. We only got to see a small amount of what she could do here so we don’t quite know how her dynamic is going to shape up with Barry just yet but it’ll give the show an interesting direction with there being plenty of material for the show to explore with Linda Park.

One final point that I’d like to touch on is the inclusion of Gorilla Grodd in this week’s episode in the final scene in the sewers. This was handled in an awesome way, with a great horror-esque manner and hopefully that will be the tone for the future episodes featuring the villain. I can’t wait to see what they come up with and how the writers handle him, though. Given from what we’ve seen so far, I have high hopes that they can pull the portrayal off.

With everything taken into account then, Crazy for You was a fun, enjoyable episode of The Flash with some great character building moments even if the metahuman of the week storyline wasn’t as satisfying. We also got plenty of exciting teases this time around so there is the potential for plenty more things to come that will hopefully follow in next week’s episode, entitled The Nuclear Man.