Josh recaps Season 1 Episode 7 of The Flash, titled Power Outage, where another meta-human causes Barry to lose his power! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The Flash, Season 1 Episode 7: Power Outage
This episode of The Flash begins back at the time when the particle accelerator is first turned on, and we see a young man knocked off of an electrical tower after the particle accelerator explodes. Friends rush to his side, and we return to the present.
Speaking of the present, Wells visits his secret lair, and makes a verbal “journal entry”, and talks about Barry, and his use of his powers in everyday life, rather than pushing himself to improve his powers. Meanwhile, we see some scenes of Barry delivering coffee to a bunch of patrons, and taking care of a would-be mugger that attacks him. Then Wells views a newspaper from the future, which shows a headline of, “The Flash Missing”…which Wells seems happy about.
Barry returns to Star Labs, and Wells has a talk with him about advancing his powers. Wells wants Barry to achieve higher speeds. Barry cuts the conversation short, having to investigate a homicide.
At the crime scene, there is a charred body, and Barry realizes it must have been done by high electrical currents. Using his “mad skills”, Barry is able to identify the victim with the help of Star Labs. Casey Donague is the victim, someone who works at a power plant. Caitlin discovers the dead man’s ID was just used to access the power grid, and Barry rushes off to save the day.
The man from the past that was blown from the power plant seems to be the culprit, and he seems to be able to control electricity. He also seems to have a compulsion to feed on electricity, and is draining the plant. Upon seeing Barry, the man attacks Barry. Barry loses his speed in the attack, and has to take a cab back to the lab. Meanwhile the man says, “too much” after “feeding” on Barry. It seems to be a little much for this guy to handle.
Back at the lab, the team is confused as to why Barry’s power is gone. No one is sure how permanent this thing is. Wells promises to figure out how to return Barry’s speed.
Barry talks to Joe, and tells him that his ability is gone. Barry now wants to have his speed back, as someone is needed to stop the bad meta-humans. Iris walks in though, and they have to change the subject.
Meanwhile, at the station, a familiar face from Arrow shows up–William Tockman, the man obsessed with time. He is under arrest, and being transferred, but that doesn’t last long.
Wells, meanwhile, visits his secret lair again, and in the future, “Barry Allen” and “The Flash” are no longer a part of the future, which appears to be a big problem for Wells. Meanwhile, Caitlin tries to be reassuring to Barry, but Barry mourns his loss.
Cisco is able to identify this new villain, and coincidentally, Farooq, the villain, is visiting and wants to talk to Dr. Wells. Farooq shorts out the power to the city.
Back at the police station, Tockman takes the distraction as a means to take advantage of the situation and begins a hostage situation. Back at Star Labs, Farooq has made it into Star Labs. Outside, Captain Singh sets up a perimeter around the police station. Barry learns about the situation and that Iris and Joe are stuck inside. Barry wants his powers back so he can help. Wells has a theory to “fix” Barry, which would be to surge a bunch of electricity into Allen to “jumpstart” his body. Barry decides that he wants to try to negotiate with Farooq. Wells doesn’t seem to want Barry to do so for his safety, but Barry insists. They talk, but the conversation sours quickly, and Farooq blames Wells for what happened to him. Barry flees back inside after being zapped, and Cisco shuts the door, locking Farooq out temporarily. Wells tells Cisco to get the surge ready to pump into Barry. Wells heads off in a different direction though, and we see that he decides to free Tony, the villain that can turn his body into a hard metal.
At the police station, Singh negotiates, and Tockman makes his demands for escape. Meanwhile, inside, we see that Eddie is moving about the station unnoticed, and may make a move to take down Tockman. Eddie does take his shot, but Tockman was wearing a bulletproof vest, and Eddie is shot. The helicopter arrives for Tockman, and he takes Iris hostage. Iris says her goodbyes to Eddie, but in that moment, she is able to retrieve a gun from him secretly. On the way to the helicopter, Iris pulls the gun on Tockman. We hear a gun fire, but don’t see the result.
Meanwhile, inside Star Labs, Caitlin and Barry are preparing the treadmill for his surge, but they are forced to hide when Farooq is near. Tony comes by though, and he and Farooq begin duking it out. Unfortunately, although Tony is able to provide a distraction, he eventually loses. Meanwhile, Barry tries the surge on the treadmill, but it doesn’t seem to work. Fleeing, Caitlin and Barry rendezvous with Wells and Cisco. Barry is puzzled as to why Tony is free, and Wells admits to freeing him for a distraction. Barry is upset that Tony was used as a pawn. Wells says it was a necessary move to save their own lives.
Farooq searches for Wells, and Wells decides they should make a run for it. Meanwhile, Caitlin says that Barry’s cells are regenerating, and that Barry’s abilities have become a mental thing, and he needs to work it out in his head.
They head for a van to flee, but Farooq is there waiting. Farooq attacks Barry. Wells makes his presence known, and Farooq turns to him. Farooq zaps him once, but Barry’s powers kick back in, and he snatches Wells from the second zap. Farooq hits Barry with his electricity, but Barry is able to short circuit Farooq, causing him to collapse, dead.
Immediately after, Barry runs to the police station, to find the hostage situation resolved, Iris is alive, and Tockman has been taken into custody. Barry heads back to the lab, and Caitlin thinks that Barry’s powers increased, which overloaded Farooq. Barry apologizes to Wells for his earlier outburst, and they make amends.
Barry pays a visit to the wounded Eddie, who has company from Iris and Joe. Iris takes a walk, and Joe tests Barry’s powers. Eddie sees it too, but Joe plays it off as the pain meds being the problem. Barry as the Flash visits Iris and apologizes for not being there for her. He then tells her, “you’re worth being on time for”. Iris heads back to Eddie’s room, and seems a little “in the clouds” from her visitor.
Wells, meanwhile, goes to his lair again, and seems happy with Barry’s progress. Wells realizes that Barry’s human relationships are important to advancing Barry’s powers, and maintaining the future Wells wants to happen–the headline from the beginning the episode is back: ” The Flash Vanishes.”
We see Wells pay one more visit to Farooq’s dead body, and Wells is really curious to figure out how Farooq was able to steal Barry’s powers–and takes a blood sample to figure it out.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Flash, Season 1 Episode 7: Power Outage
I have one little complaint about The Flash which has began to creep up for me, and that is that most of the villains so far are a product of the particle accelerator explosion that produced Barry. I would like to see other “meta-humans” that are produced other ways. Having said that, I thought this was an interesting episode. We got to see Barry powerless again, and see how he struggles with being “normal” again. I do wish we got to see Tony and Farooq battle a little bit more. We only caught a couple of glimpses of their fight. Did Tony even hand a punch?
But speaking of that whole situation, Barry is seeing a little bit of the darker side of Wells now. So far, Barry seems to have forgiven him for it, but eventually I have a feeling Barry will see more and more what Wells is really all about, and that it is more of an obsession helping Barry rather than Wells actually caring. As I thought, Wells is fixated on having Barry get to a certain point in the future. That point in the future though, appears to be vanishing…I am curious to know what that vanishing means though. Does that mean he went back in time from moving so fast? Or was he killed in some way? Hopefully we get some more insight on that eventually.
I have to say that I am very excited for this week’s episode though, as it is going to finally be the crossover episodes! So far from the previews, it looks like they are working together to start, but something happens and Barry faces off with Oliver. I am curious how they would balance each other’s abilities though, as given the speed of Barry alone would seem to be enough to outmatch Oliver. This reminds me a lot of the Batman versus Superman debating. Hopefully the writers have come up with a good solution to make it believable.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 7 of The Flash: Power Outage
This was actually a pretty intense episode of The Flash. First you have Barry and the others holed up in STAR Labs, trying to figure out a way to defeat Farooq — and things seem pretty hopeless. Then there’s the situation with the Clock King and Iris at the police station, who Barry can’t even help due to his lack of powers and dealing with the Farooq situation. But, it turns out that Iris didn’t need the Flash to help her anyway. She was able to protect herself. Go Iris! That reminds me of a recent episode of Arrow, where Felicity was able to defend herself against her ex-boyfriend who had kidnapped her. I’m glad that the seemingly weaker women of the DC Universe are able to fend for themselves sometimes, rather than be portrayed as helpless females that need a hero all the time.
Speaking of Arrow, it was a nice surprise to see the Clock King, who appeared on Arrow last season. It makes it feel more and more like The Flash and Arrow are in the same universe. I suppose they did that in order to prepare us for the upcoming crossover episodes, which I am really looking forward to!
Oh, I also want to talk about Eddie. I mentioned last episode that I was actually starting to like him. Then when he got shot this episode I was like, oh of course they’re going to make us like him one episode, then kill him off the next. So I was a little surprised that he actually lived. Too bad for Barry, I thought that might be his in with Iris!
As for Dr. Wells, I still don’t think what he did this episode was evil, the way he sacrificed Tony to protect the others. Tony wasn’t a good guy anyway, so it makes sense what Dr. Wells did — it was either them or him. It was kind of weird how Barry suddenly cared what happened to Tony, even though he hated him. But I guess that was the show’s way of displaying Barry’s humanity vs. Dr. Wells’ lack thereof. However, in the end, it seemed like Barry agreed with what Dr. Wells did. So, I’m still (irrationally) defending Dr. Wells and saying that he’s not evil.
Scenes from The Flash, Season 1 Episode 8, Flash vs. Arrow
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Flash, titled Flash vs. Arrow:
