The Flash – Funeral for a Friend review S8 E14

The Flash writers can really be their own worst enemy sometimes. With the rest of the Arrowverse now officially wrapped up, The Flash is still holding it down with melodramatic storylines, a glut of supporting characters and a hero that seemingly has no need for his costume.

This week, Team Flash is deep in grief about Frost’s death. In borrowing the Funeral for a Friend tagline from the Death of Superman arc, the episode focuses on various members struggling to cope through the grieving process.

But first they have to tangle with the show’s version of the semi-important villain Blockbuster. Blockbuster was originally a Hulk-like character who was updated to be more in the vein of Kingpin.

Neither look is reflected here as he’s running around in a suit of armor. Ironically that’s more of a costume than some villains although I’m deducting several points for missing the point completely of Blockbuster.

For some reason Cecile is on the battlefield, a position she’s rarely in, and Chester gets so caught up in the action he gives out orders to Frost.

Chester hasn’t ever been portrayed as the tactical strategist and Frost never listened to anyone anyway so this whole segment came off forced. Just before escaping, Blockbuster calls them the worst heroes ever and it’s hard to disagree.

It’s odd that they show Iris walking along the streets rather than at the office of the company she founded instead of Allegra.

This show is soooo going to miss Jesse L. Martin being available on a weekly basis. He’s just so invaluable for any scenes that need an emotional, reasonable core.

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While Frost had been around for a while, it didn’t feel like she had the deep connections with everyone on Team Flash like this episode is trying to convey. Was Iris really ever that close to Frost? Ah, the episode tries to cover that, but it still felt forced. And it was weird how this episode gave Iris more screen time — not to focus on her own storyline, but to sing the praises of Frost.

Also, this Frost lovefest sure doesn’t seem to fall in line with the outlaw hero the show portrayed. Where were all these character witnesses showing all this appreciation for Frost when she was on trial?

Or maybe it’s just because The Flash has had so many grieving episodes for characters that ended up returning in some form or another that it’s hard to play along?

Now it’s on to Allegra and Chester. They’ve gotta deal with Mark getting drunk. Calling him Chillbooze was pretty funny though.

Barry’s off at Mount Everest building a snowman per Frost’s bucket list. This show called The Flash absolutely hates to put The Flash in his costume, doesn’t it? Now he builds an ice sculpture, puts her artwork in an exhibit and wins a hot dog eating contest.

It’s time for the funeral services for Frost, which is weird in itself since these shows are absolutely terrified of offending anyone by mentioning religion. Caitlin goes off on Barry before ultimately deciding to go. This proves to be a good thing since apparently no one else was going to say anything if she hadn’t showed up.

And here’s another issue with this setup. Where’s Cisco, Felicity, Sarah, Wells, Ray, Kara, Alex, Curtis, the Legends, etc? It doesn’t feel like this really matters if Frost’s fellow heroes aren’t there to pay their final respects.

Blockbuster returns, but this time the team is ready for him. He’s such an inconsequential villain that we don’t even see the team fight him. Guess we’ve exhausted the special effects budget seeing Barry zoom around Mount Everest?

Caitlin asks for Mark’s help to bring Frost back. This is exactly my point about this show never learning how to let go of characters they kill off. And this is too reminiscent of Laurel acting absurd to bring Sarah back.

In a lot of ways that felt like the point of no return for Arrow in the writers sacrificing so much credibility just for the sake of starting up Legends of Tomorrow. I’m wondering if this will be the same for Flash.

In the epilogue, Iris blinks out again after a meeting with her ace reporter. Nice to see they remembered Iris has something going on.

Funeral for a Friend felt like a very self-contained farewell to a major character even as the writers predictably start opening up the loophole to bring her back already.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Photo Credit: The CW