Ok, let me get this out of the way…KING FREAKING SHARK!?!?!?! OH MY GOSH!!!!!!! Seriously, anyone who knows this character, understands why I’m freaking out here. And not only was he teased in the episode…HE SHOWED UP GRODD STYLE!!! Completely CGI, and looking GOOD!!!! “Zoom wants you dead!!!!” They better followup with him, they can’t just leave him lying in the street right?!?!?!?
*ahem* Ok, I”m good. Back to the show.
“Fury of Firestorm” was all about “rebuilding” the hero they had lost in the beginning of the season. And though I’m still not happy with the loss of Ronnie for numerous reasons, this episode did a good job of building upon his loss and showing why Firestorm was needed, and why one character was better suited than the other.
In short, Professor Stein was dying because his “connection” with Ronnie via the Firestorm Matrix was literally cutoff, and because of how the accelerator accident affected him, he NEEDED the connection to live. So Firestorm had to come back. And ironically enough, there were two candidates possibly ready to join up.
I liked how they (not unlike how they did in Season 01) flashed back to how Jeffrey “Jax” Jackson got affected by the particle accelerator. Not because it added a nice story to it, but it showed that this is clearly the guy who is destined to be a hero, as he saved numerous lives knowing that his would be in danger. Even though he himself didn’t believe it until later.
What was just as interesting though was Caitlin not wanting to choose Jax, but the other candidate instead because she felt he was “more compatible” with Professor Stein. You could tell she was just trying to do what was best for Stein, as she cares for him like she did for Ronnie in a way, but you could also see her pain from losing Ronnie caused her to forget a key truth in life. Just because two people seem compatible, it doesn’t mean they are. For example…Ronnie and Caitlin, they were anything but alike, yet they fell in love. It was a little sad she forgot that.
Naturally, things spiraled out of control, and “Jax” got to become Firestorm to (not so ironically) take down the candidate Caitlin chose because his latent powered had accidentally been unleashed. That is why you never rush these things. The effects here were top notch from both of the “Firestorm’s”, and it was great hearing Stein’s voice in Jax’s head just like it was with Ronnie’s. That’s one of the fun parts about Firestorm, and I hope it’s shown again real soon.
The other key storyline (aside from King Shark obviously…) was that Iris finally met her mother. This could have gone numerous ways, but I think it was handled with both grace and tact, all the while being succinct. Iris didn’t want to have a relationship with her mother, which given the circumstances was very believable. Then of course the “I’m dying” card got played…but then Iris had a trump card of her own, one that I wonder if we’ll be seeing in some fashion very soon. I’m not sure where this will go exactly, but we’ll no doubt hear more from this development.
With Firestorm reborn, and no doubt heading to “Legends of Tomorrow” (this was confirmed to be their last episode a Flash for a while), things seem to be going well for Flash…oh, did I forget to mention Earth-2 Harrison Wells showed up to save Flash? And then Flash got to see him alive? Oh what fun.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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