The Flash – Rayo de Luz review – S7 E14

June 23, 2021June 30, 2021 Jeffrey Lyles 0 Comments Alexa Barajas, Brandon McKnight, Candice Patton, Carmen Moore, Danielle Nicolet, Danielle Panabaker, Grant Gustin, Jesse L. Martin, Natalie Dreyfuss, The Flash

Rayo de Luz was another spinning wheels episode of The Flash’s seventh season. The crutch of a big bad ultimately ruined a few too many seasons, but the lack of focus on this one has been worse in a lot of ways.

We get another teaser before a flashback to set up the episode. That’s become a semi-regular way to set up an episode while also making little that occurs before this big fight scene matter. This time it’s Ultraviolet fighting Allegra.

Twelve hours earlier, Barry and Iris are going on vacation. Ugh. That means very little Flash on tonight’s episode of The Flash. It was bad enough when we were doubling down on Killer Frost and Caitlin…, well actually that was the worst. Allegra is just another hero for the season that the writers will either get bored with or Kayla Compton will quit the show. The track record for the sidekick heroes on this series is not great.

Allegra’s searching for her cousin, Esperanza/Ultraviolet. Interesting that this episode Allegra has curly hair like Esperanza. Ahh, it’s because Nora is here too and she’d look too much like Allegra unless someone switched up their hairstyle.

Silly question: Why does Sue and Ultraviolet both need to be in skintight black leather? We need some more creativity in the costume department. Quick, somebody call Cisco. Ohhhh, right.

Sue used to work with Ultraviolet and stayed in Central City to deal with her. Ultraviolet is gunning for Dr. Olsen, the doctor who tortured her and gave her powers.

In tonight’s ridiculous Chester moment — he walked around with elf ears from his D&D game. Sigh. I prefer serious Chester. Geek Chester seems like a pale imitation of Cisco that just tries too hard. Also, didn’t we just go through the storyline of Chester feeling inadequate with the rest of the team last week?

I finally finished Cobra Kai this week (yes, I know) and what immediately stood out was how often Sam wasn’t this unstoppable fighting force. She would get beat down, actually lose fights and take punches/kicks. Every woman battling on The Flash — even Sue — is an elite level fighter and can overcome crazy odds. It’s boring when you know there’s no chance they could lose.

Allegra is a character the writers have really tried with, but I don’t trust them to sustain her as a key character any more than they did XS, Kid Flash, Jesse Quick or Elongated Man. It’s way more the writers than Allegra, as Kayla Compton has done a decent job making her a likeable enough character.

And now that she finally defeated Ultraviolet one on one, it’s time for Allegra to come up with her own codename and get a better costume. I did like the special effects as Allegra unleashed her spectrum supernova.

Sue’s gonna stick around, but what about Ralph again? Chester was actually going to turn down a coffee hangout with Allegra to play Dungeons and Dragons?? So yeah, it looks like there’s a little romantic potential with Chester and Allegra. Maybe she can help tone down his quirkiness?

Joe and Cecile break down their case against Kristen Kramer. I still don’t understand how Kramer became the interim captain of the police force if she’s a federal agent. This subplot is at least a bit more interesting simply because it’s giving Joe something to do beyond giving five-minute pep talks.

Kramer’s “brother,” Adam, was the one who betrayed her unit. She wants Joe’s help to track down Adam. Between the ghost towns at CC Jitters and O’ Shaughnessey’s, nobody is going to any bar or restaurant in Central City these days, are they. Does this mean Joe has his captain job back?

And to pay off Killer Frost’s absence this episode, she finally tracks down Chillbaine, who also managed to strike a deal. What exactly is Kramer doing if murderers are getting out of prison after spending two weeks in custody? Did anyone think that was really a good cliffhanger?

Rayo de Luz was a filler episode in a season that’s seemingly been filled with throwaway episodes. This season continues to be a slog as The Flash and its formula is getting lapped by shows like Loki and Superman & Lois.

While I appreciate the effort to do something with Allegra the follow-up is going to be more important than one standalone episode.