The teleporting villain Peekaboo comes to town as Barry and Caitlin attempt to revive their social lives.

The CW

THE HUNT FOR FIRESTORM

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

At first glance, “Crazy for You” looked like one of the weaker earlier season episodes, featuring a one-and-done silver age baddie and not much else. However, by pushing the main conflict to the background, “Crazy for You” actually proved to be one of the better installments of The Flash, as it allowed more time to focus on the characters’ lives away from the superhero action.

Things kicked off with the arrival of Peekaboo, a spunky woman with the power of line-of-sight teleportation (much like Nightcrawler), using her power to break her boyfriend out of prison. Naturally, the police investigation heads to said prison, providing a convenient way to involve Henry Allen (John Wesley Shipp) in the proceedings. This was perhaps the biggest episode to date for Barry’s father, whom has been established as very important to Barry, but until now didn’t have much of a character of his own. Here he does wonders in establishing what Henry Allen is like aside from simply being the main character’s father. At the same time, “Crazy for You” followed up on the search for Firestorm, as Hartley Rathaway led Cisco to the point where Ronnie Raymond died and Firestorm was born. While Firestorm has one of the more “out there” origins in comics (being the mind of Dr. Martin Stein in the body of Robbie Raymond and all), The Flash was able to keep the comic origin intact and at least somewhat believable. The origin was also turned into a nice character moment for Cisco, as he revealed he felt responsible for the accident that “killed” Ronnie.

The CW

Of course, Barry had his own little side adventure here as well. He teamed up with Caitlin to get back out there and tried to move out of their work-obsessed routines, as well as attempt to have social lives. The scenes of Barry and Caitlin hanging out at a bar provided some great moments of character and levity, as both tried to move forward with their lives and meet new people. The Peekaboo storyline actually ended up being the most forgettable part of the episode, with the teleporting party girl not quite making the splash other villains have, and generally served only as a way to keep some action in a very-character focused episode. While she certainly got a better, more believable backstory than the other villains of the week, it was probably best she was only a minor player in this very busy episode.

THE BREAKDOWN

“Crazy for You” proved that a good episode of The Flash doesn’t have to be all about fighting metahumans, as the focus on the main cast this week allowed some plotlines to move forward with confidence and supporting players like Henry Allen to get the spotlight. Peekaboo was a decent villain, but taking a backseat to the other happenings in the world of The Flash allowed for one of the series’ best outings yet.

How was Barry’s attempt at a social life? Was it great seeing Henry Allen again? Use the speed force and let me know on Twitter @MaxMielecki or leave your comments in the area below. Also, be sure to follow us @YouNerded.

88/100 – Great

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