The Flash – The Mask of the Red Death, Part One review S9 E4

The Flash feels like it’s at its precipice point of the season a little earlier than usual. The Mask of the Red Death had some good moments, but some serious cracks with the big bad and questionable choices are already raising questions about this season ending the series on a high note.

Barry and Iris out the call out to Luke Fox to get some intel on the stolen Wayne Tech, which occurred right around Ryan Wilder’s disappearance. The reality jumps are confusing. Do Barry and Iris remember Ryan from Armageddon with zero context about her?

Bivlo — remember him? — returns to help Red Death take out and capture Flash. A Rogue upset about being held in captivity without a trial checks out actually.

Chillbaine does Barry a solid and stops Captain Boomerang from unmasking him. So these are the five people who don’t know Flash’s identity? Good to know.

Khione keeps dropping her random knowledge to help these idiots because Chester and Allegra can’t figure anything out on their own so even days old Khione is smarter than the rest of Team Flash. She suggests calling back the Anti-Rogues to counter Red Death’s squad.

I’m not one for characters unmasking all the time but Red Death’s distorted voice is annoyingly hard to hear. This is a long villain monologue that didn’t explain why she hates The Flash.

Two things are clear — her powers are artificial and she needs someone with organic speed to power the treadmill. This would seem like an ideal time to go after Wally since he doesn’t have a circle of super powered allies around him.

Red Death does make it clear she wants Iris — get in line — is that because of her latent time power or just because she’s Iris and Ryan soooo bats (heh) for that team?

Iris is spilling all the information to Ryan while Red Death interrogates The Flash? Oh, she’s controlling the armor remotely. That doesn’t explain how she’s having a FULL conversation with The Flash though while in Iris’ place…

Had the writers thought that through a bit more they could have stretched that out a bit and let the mystery linger another week or so.

Iris did get suspicious when Ryan goes to get cream from the fridge. That’s the work of a super villain to just waltz over into someone’s fridge without asking. Ryan says on her world Iris was her BFF and Flash is the villain.

Ryan wasn’t content with stopping crime. She wanted to eliminate it and started studying her League allies’ power starting with Flash, triggering a war between the two. Ryan’s Iris got caught in the fray and was the first casualty.

Iris isn’t buying Ryan’s shaky story, but Ryan armors up and to remind us she’s Batman on her world by saying “You wanna get nuts? C’mon let’s get nuts!” I’m sure the writers thought that would be a cute line to throw in there but it really came off corny and horribly timed.

While Ryan is with Iris, Flash pleads with Mark to help him saying it’s never too late.

Jon Cor is delivering better acting than this show deserves at this point. He’s really selling the hurt and anguish over losing Frost and feeling like betraying Team Flash was the only way to bring her back.

MORE:

• Ambush review
• McFarlane Toys debuts DC Multiverse Knightfall Batman and Robin figures
• The Book of Boba Fett TV Recap Episodes and Guides
• Marvel Legends action figure reviews

Now that Ryan has Iris, Barry has no choice but to power up the treadmill.

The show has always downplayed Barry’s speed so in circumstances where they’d do the most good i.e. rescuing Iris he’s worthless. How else would the supporting characters help him? Prioritizing the supporting heroes at the expense of Flash has been a legacy issue for the series.

This time Mark had to make the save by overloading the treadmill just as Allegra teleports the Anti-Rogues in. Mark holds Red Death’s crew off — not with his powers but with fight-fu — for a moment.

The Anti-Rogues decide they can’t win this fight. This is despite having the numbers advantage and Red Death and Flash both being incapacitated. Ignoring Flash’s protests that they’ve got to get Mark, they ignore him to teleport back out with Iris and Flash.

Geesh, Mark can’t catch a break with these guys at all. Seriously this poor guy absolutely has been screwed over all season and after his big redemption moment a whole two weeks after his “betrayal,” he gets abandoned and killed. You know who wouldn’t have ditched him? Frost.

Why would Kihone care about Mark’s death? Man, her dialogue and Danielle Pannebaker’s delivery have been so awful with this character.

They seem to miss Mark more than Caitlin, which seems fitting though Allegra thinking this was the time for the big talk with Chester was hilarious. Chester tells Allegra he needs to focus on stopping Red Death instead, which was hilarious.

Hey, someone remembered Joe and Cecile had a kid! It almost felt like the writers poked fun at their amnesia for forgetting her for seasons. Jenna’s had a soap opera growth spurt.

Joe’s found a massive house for $379,000??? Cecile needs to sign off on that ASAP! But no, the writers also remembered Cecile is a lawyer too and she can’t leave her practice.

It’s hard not to see Joe’s side here. He wants to give Jenna what he couldn’t give Iris and Wally — a normal childhood. And Cecile is having a mid-life hero crisis?

Cecile uses her telekinesis to stop the shattered glass from killing Jenna. I’d say Cecile was lawyered in this argument. But backwards superhero series logic dictates that Joe has to back down from common sense so Jenna can see Cecile be a hero.

Javicia Leslie acted just fine in Batwoman, but I’m not sure why The Flash showrunners want her trying to channel Christian Bale by way of Jack Nicholson as its resulting in a hammy performance. In tears over the treadmill’s destruction, Red Death vows to bring the war to Flash’s world. As if she was really gonna just bounce never to return again…

I’m not quite sure what to make of this episode. Between the crappy treatment of poor Mark, The Flash still being made to look like a rookie so others can be the hero and a hammy villain, this was a weird one. The focus on a villain’s agenda in the first half of the season is nice, but Red Death seems like the kind of villain that will quickly burn out long before the season finale. Maybe another villain is in the works for the back end of the season?

Rating: 6 out of 10

Photo Credit: The CW