The Flash Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash review S4 E12

Man, talk about getting the thunder completely stolen. Marvel Studios went klepto on Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash by releasing the Ant-Man and The Wasp trailer hours earlier. It significantly dulled the impact of watching Team Flash deal with a meta who could shrink and enlarge objects at will.

Not that Marvel’s trailer was fully to blame for the time-killing feel of the episode. The Flash is in a weird place right now as the writers are trying to actually make Barry’s prison sentence have some weight. While that’s commendable, these goofy, subplots that have occurred in the interim feel like a waste of time.

It didn’t help that once again Barry frustratingly over promised and under delivered. Upon learning that Big Sir didn’t really commit the crime he’d been imprisoned for, Barry went into hero rescue mode. He asked Team Flash to look into the case where Big Sir stumbled upon a security guard who was shot and was promptly arrested. I couldn’t help but think how differently that story would have played if Big Sir was black.

Bill Goldberg really stepped up in his time on the show. He didn’t come off like a wrestler falling into a guest role and showed genuine screen presence and believably played the role of the hopelessly jaded prisoner.

Yeah, the writers tried to explain away the coincidence, but I didn’t like that the same guy who actually committed the crime that got Big Sir imprisoned was the same meta Joe was tracking down. Dwarfstar truly lacked ambition if he gained this power to shrink and enlarge embiggen (sorry Iris, it is a comic book word) anything and still lived in such a crappy apartment.

We get the running joke of this episode and on the nose reference to the source material when Dwarfstar shrunk Team Flash. Granted, there were some funny bits here, but this episode felt way too late in the season and awkwardly timed when the main character is in prison and only Harry cares about stopping the villain. I appreciated Iris trying to reach out to Ray Palmer, who would know a thing or two about shrinking.

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The race to stop Dwarfstar to prevent Cisco and Ralph from exploding lacked suspense. Did anyone really think Team Flash was going to lose two members to such an incompetent villain? With Dwarfstar unwilling to fess up to the crime, Big Sir was stuck in prison so Barry gets the Barry-like idea to just bust him out and send him to the remote location he wanted to visit. Just when it seems like Barry has learned anything he goes and makes another completely unnecessary stupid decision. This is the same guy who didn’t want to fight to stay out of prison over some faulty moral code, who’s now just flaunting the law and taking prisoners out of prison.

It’s these kinds of decisions that constantly make bad situations worse for Barry. It’s like he’s incapable of learning from his mistakes. And every time he does something stupid, he’s got to face major consequences. In this case, it’s the warden who decided to place a camera by Barry’s cell for some unknown reason and learns he’s The Flash. And now he’s tucked Barry away in a secret containment area to sell to Amunet. And really, good enough for Barry. Maybe in extended time out he’ll learn to stop making dumb decisions. But I doubt it.

Cecile suddenly developing pregnant telepathic powers was a ridiculous subplot. I’m all for expanding Cecile’s role and screen time on the show, but at some point there needs to be some cap to the whole particle accelerator gave everyone in Central City powers crutch. The return trip to the therapist was also annoying. And maybe it’s just a case where Cecile having the ability to read minds would be far better served against DeVoe than working through Joe and Cecile’s non-existent premarital issues.

Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash feels like Arrow Season 4 again. An effort to course correct some of the darkness from the previous season resulting in too many silly episodes and waste of a perfectly good villain. This season needs to get find its way soon or else this is going to end up the worst by a mile.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Photo Credit: The CW