TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 04 Episode 10: The Trial Of The Flash

“The Trial Of The Flash” wasn’t just the name of tonight’s episode, it was the name of a major comic arc for the Scarlet Speedster. Much like this episode, that comic arc featured The Flash being put on trial for murder, but in the comic, it was Professor Zoom. Here, it was for Duvoe. Given what The Flash did with Flashpoint, there was some deep worry that things would go the heroes way really quickly, thankfully, that didn’t happen here.

While not perfect, the episode did go to great lengths to show just how screwed Barry Allen was. Even when the team came together to get a “victory” in the form of a picture of Clarice kissing Clifford’s new body via Dominic, she was able to turn it around in a big way. Big props to the actress for selling that “confession” both before and after the picture was shown to her. That was huge.

Of course, there was a wildcard in all of this, Barry is The Flash, and as such, if he revealed he was the Flash, he could’ve potentially gotten out of it. But Barry knew better, and even when Iris tried to confront the judge about it, he wouldn’t let it happen. Their scene together with time stopped and lightning going all around him was really cool. It was also funny as Barry himself didn’t know why it was happening. But hey, don’t think, just accept.

Speaking of accepting, tonight’s episode featured the greatest Ralph Dinby moment in history. Period. Where Dinby basically admitted to Joe that he did plant evidence, and then revealed to Joe what would happen if Joe did it to “save” Barry. Seeing Ralph bluntly relive his life through “what if’s” was actually really good. And it worked, Joe didn’t plant evidence. And I’m grateful.

Sadly, anything that wasn’t associated with the trial was kind of lame. Fallout was as one-note a villain as you can get. It’s even unclear if he was on the bus that Barry went by, or he was just a latent metahuman from the Particle Accelerator explosion. We don’t know. Heck, we didn’t even hear his name said aloud! The whole point of it seemed to be that Barry could have one last heroic moment before going to jail.

Although, the dual speeches of the judge and the chief paralleling who Barry Allen was, and who he wasn’t, was a really cool sequence. For even while Barry was being condemned, Flash was being praised for his valor.

And props to the actor behind Dominic/Duvoe, he was really good at matching Duvoe’s speech patterns and delivering a chilling statement to Flash. You have to wonder what his plan is though. He claims it’s grand, but how grand is it really? And why did he need Flash and the metahumans on the bus to make it work? I hope that we get some clarity soon.

One last note, Barry being put in the same cell his father was in? That was touching.

In the end, “Trial Of The Flash” did what “Flashpoint” didn’t, it stuck to the new status quo and didn’t end it prematurely. In fact, the comic arc had Barry running, while this one didn’t. That means there’s chances for new growth via it. And I hope it’s an arc worth watching.