The Flash: “Girls Night Out” Review

Title: The Flash: “Girls Night Out” Review

Release Date: October 7th, 2017

Network: The CW

Genre: Superhero, Drama, Action

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It’s vital to develop characters outside of your main protagonist so that there is some variation and depth to the content. But “Girls Night Out” focuses far too heavily on the weaker side characters of The Flash, while also emphasizing the problem with The CW’s “socially progressive” views and writing.

So far this season on The Flash, we’ve seen the return to the more happy go lucky, campy vibe (no pun intended) that the show was known for at its outset. “Girls Night Out” is another fun premise, as Barry and Iris each celebrate their marriages with bachelor and bachelorette parties. Like in any TV show or movie, the quiet night with friends that was originally planned goes awry for one reason or another.

On Barry’s end of things, the night takes a turn at the arrival of everyone’s favorite sarcastic stretchy superhero Ralph Dibny (The Elongated Man). Since his introduction last week, Dibny has become a quick personal favorite of mine, and this week was no different. Instead of the night in watching home movies, Ralph takes Barry, Cisco, Joe, and Harry to his favorite establishment. The local strip club.

Over the course of the episode, we get to bear witness to the return of drunk barry, Dibny using his powers to steal money, hand sanitizer harry, and a brawl that lands them in prison. Needless to say, the Boys portion of “Girls Night Out” was a highlight, despite the fact that it didn’t involve anything that affected the plot. Instead, the Girls were tasked with progressing the plot of the episode.

Right off the bat, things get a bit grown worthy, as The CW’s women can do anything men can do mindset becomes the blatant message of the episode. While the boys are out drinking, the women are confronted by a mysterious man with a creepy, snake-like eye, the same one vaguely introduced earlier in the season. Caitlin ends up beating him by turning into Killer Frost.

Soon after, Frost decides she is going after Amunet Black (Katee Sackhoff), to either kill her or make her forget about the debt Caitlin owes her. Even though she doesn’t want their help, Iris, Felicity, and a pregnant Cecil all agree that they are going to go after her and help. Of course, not before they say “Hashtag Feminism,” to really drive the point home that women are badass. Usually, that alone would be enough to make me roll my eyes, but the fact that not only is Caitlin the only one who has powers, not only does Felicity not have her team or tech, not only does Iris have no combat or tactical skill, they bring Cecil along. You know, THE PREGNANT WOMEN.

Despite all this, Iris is somehow able to talk both Black and Frost into not killing each other at the club, even though Black finds her just a few scenes later to try and kill her. And while I will give Sackhoff a lot of credit for eccentric acting as Black, her metahuman powers were really weird.

If I’m honest, I’m really not entirely sure what her powers were per say. If I had a concrete guess it would be magnets, seeing as how she was beaten by a conveniently placed magnetic crane at the warehouse. But if it does have something to do with magnetism than the way her powers were used was laughable. She should be The Flash’s equivalent to Magneto, bending things left and right. Instead, she carries around a bucket of damn magnets and forms them into a gauntlet.

At the very least, at least The Flash ended on a pretty awesome moment. As the Weeper – the Metahuman whose tears Amunet Black used to create a euphoric drug – is seen running away from something, we get the first glimpse of The Thinker in action. He’s got his awesome flying chair and that’s all I really could have asked for when it comes to seeing his character develop even a tiny bit this episode.

Verdict: “Girls Night Out” has some really fun moments, but focuses far too heavily on trying to prove the girls of the show can do just as many badass things as the guys. While Katee Sackhoff puts in an excellent performance, it’s not enough to save the episode from its shortcomings of bad writing, boring fight scenes, and far too much CW commentary (#Feminism). At least we got to see Drunk Barry and Floating Thinker though!

What did you think of the second episode of season four of The Flash? What scene or scenes did you like the most? What are your predictions for the rest the season as the mysteries begin to pile up? Be sure to let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to check back next week for the next episode of the season,”When Harry Met Harry” immediately after it airs on The CW at 8 PM ET next week.

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