TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 03 Episode 11: Dead Or Alive

A very fun episode tonight, one that pushed the skills of Vibe (one of my favorite DC Comics characters), showed further what kind of a man HR is (a mixed bag kind of guy, but one who does try to do right by his friends), as well as give more context into what Barry and team need to do in order to save Iris from Savitar.

I want to get this out of the way. Throughout “Dead Or Alive”, every time they talked about how they needed to try and save Iris, all I could think of was “where was Wally in that vision?” After all, two speedsters might be able to save Iris where just Barry alone couldn’t. After all, we know HR is in that scene in some unknown capacity, so why not Wally?

Moving on, seeing Gypsy make her live-action debut was pretty cool, especially for those who know the history of the character, and her characters history with Vibe…if you couldn’t tell…they’re a couple in comics. Now yes, she’s not an inter-dimensional “Collector” in the comics, but honestly, that’s a small gripe. After all, we’ve seen MUCH bigger changes to character histories in the CW shows. And this one? It was pretty cool.

As was the reasoning behind her pursuit of HR. Surprise! He broke a law in coming to our Earth, and the penalty for his crime was death. Shocking. Oh, and “trial by combat” was the only way to save him…shocking…but in all seriousness, it was cool to see Vibe not only step up, but get the true hero spotlight he deserves…all the while flirting with Gypsy. I couldn’t help but smile during the initial flirting, especially when Caitlin and HR called him out on it…twice.

And yeah, that training sequence was pretty cool, and I loved how they incorporated Julian successfully into the team, and even had it so he came up with the strategem to defeat her. Thus make his inclusion not window dressing as it was before.

The final battle was particularly epic. As we literally spanned dimensions, going to Earth 2, AND Supergirl’s world! How cool was that? Also, did they end up on Apokolips???? Regardless, it was epic.

The same can’t be said for Iris and her “end-life crisis” that she’s going through. Yes, it’s completely understandable that she’s feeling the pressure in regards to her “countdown clock”. And, I can understand the desire to “leave a mark”, but…an arms dealer? Really? She should know better than anyone that there will ALWAYS been another dealer. If she wanted to make a difference with her stories, there are better ways. Much…better ways.

In the end though, “Dead or Alive” was a very fun episode that mixed up the tropes of the show in interesting ways. And with a new plan for the future in place, I look forward to seeing what happens next.