THE FLASH "HONEY, I SHRUNK TEAM FLASH" REVIEW

Season 4 Episode 12:

Hey, everyone, we are back with a brand new episode of the Flash where we see a lot of awesome stuff go down with Cecile and her pregnancy powers, as well as Ralph, and Cisco shrinking, thus the name "Honey I shrunk team Flash", as well as some awesome prison scenes with Barry and Big Sir, which leads to a crazy ending. Spoilers ahead for the episode, let's recap,

Starting the episode is Cecile discovering she has mind-reading powers, as she tests them on Joe. At STAR Labs, Cecile is tested and Caitlin reveals that Cecile and the baby girl is fine. Caitlin then tells Cecile that the powers will most likely go away after Cecile gives birth. The team then has a meeting about how they are going to get Barry out of prison and how to stop DeVoe. Meanwhile, in prison, Barry is playing with some cards with some fellow inmates including the old mayor and Big Sir, we learn that Barry is using his powers to cheat at the games. When Big Sir storms off, Barry follows him and learns that Big Sir is innocent and was framed for a murder which was done by a man who looks similar to him.

In Central City, a new "Kord Industries" building is being unveiled, however, the building is shrunk by a man. At the crime scene, Cisco and Ceile show up and Cecile is reading everyone's mind. Cisco then gets some security footage and finds that the man who did this brought a car out of thin air. At STAR Labs, Joe tells the team that Barry asked him to investigate the person who framed Big Sir. However, the team puts that mission aside to find the man who shrunk the building, nicknamed, Dwarfstar

Joe, Cisco, and Ralph go to find Sylbert Rundin. They see that Sylbert has a large collection of figures. Ralph and Cisco find the car from the security footage in a miniature version. Joe sees a picture on the wall and sees that Sylbert was buff during the day. Joe questions Sylbert on where he was when Big Sir was apprehended, and to that Sylbert jumps out his apartment window with a gun and parachutes the ground. Cisco vibes Ralph and Joe to the ground where they find search for Sylbert, however, he uses his meta powers to shrink down Cisco and Ralph.

Back at STAR Labs, Cisco and Ralph are shrunk down to two inches tall. Ralph tries to grow to full size, however, fails. While Cisco and Ralph chill in the Savitar Lego display, Harry gets to work on reversing their effect using some old Ray Palmer tech. Joe and Cecile to go counseling where they try to come to a conclusion on Cecile using her powers. Meanwhile, in Iron Heights, Barry tells Big Sir that his friends are working on getting him out of prison.  Harry creates a device to get a device to get Cisco and Ralph to regular size, however, it does not work and Cisco and Ralph’s cells start exploding, and they only have 10 hours left before they explode. With the help of Cisco, Harry concludes to get Ralph and Cisco to regular size is for them to be hit by Dwarfstar again. In Iron Heights, Barry asks. Big Sir what he is going to do when he is free, Big Sir says that he wants to go to a small village in China. 

At STAR Labs, Iris finds. A location on Dwarfstar, so Harry, Iris, small Cisco, and small Ralph head out. At a space museum expo, Dwarfstar attempts to shrink a vehicle, however, Cisco and Ralph are flying a drone and start to shoot at Dwarfstar. Harry and Iris get out off the team Flash van and start to shoot at Dwarfstar, who dodges the shots. After throwing some vehicles at Iris, Dwarfstar attempts to shoot Harry, however, he shoots Cisco and Ralph in Harry’s pocket, bringing them back to regular size. Iris s then takes down Dwarfstar and Joe shows up. Harry tries to get Dwarfstar to confess for framing Big Sir, however, he does not.

Back in prison, Barry tells Big Sir that Dwarfstar did not confess. Big Sir tells Barry that is isn’t like the movies, but at least he had a sense of hope. Back home, Cecile promises Joe that she will not use her powers. The episode ends in Iron Heights prison where Barry quickly runs out of the prison and takes Big Sir to the small village in China where he wanted to go. The next day Barry is drugged by  Warden Wolfe who installed a secret camera and found out Barry was the Flash. Warden Wolfe takes Barry to a metahuman cell and calls up Amunet Black and tells her he got a “big fish.”

Overall this episode of the Flash was absolutely hilarious. There were great jokes in the episode using the physical comedy of the size of Ralph and Cisco and it was great. The special effects used on miniaturizing Ralph and Cisco were relatively well done, it looked better than a lot of the other CG used in the show before, so I was pleased with that. The story of the episode did flow mostly well. I liked the tie between the Barry story and the metahuman issue at hand, it was a neat way of compacting the story down in a way that did not feel simple, but also not convoluted at the same time. Cecile getting powers were used in a more comedic way at the start but turned into a more sentimental plotline at the very end. I thought that Cecile would use her powers to somehow get Dwarfstar to confess, but that did not happen. Cecile getting powers is more of a set up for another plot coming this season which involves the mystery girl and a character I will not spoil, you may already have seen the set pictures and whatnot, but I will explain when the trailer for that episode comes out.

The episode title “Honey I shrunk team Flash” is a reference to the classic 1980’s film, “Honey I shrunk the kids”. In the episode Cecie’s baby was confirmed to be a girl, so most they could make a Danielle West Reverse Flash instead of a The Daniel West second Reverse Flash. The episode also had an Easter egg for a pretty big comic book character. In the episode, Kord Industries was name-dropped. The owner of Kord Industries is Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle. I was excited by that Easter egg, as Blue Beetle seems like a character that is not too far-fetched for the DCTV universe to do.

The ending of the episode was insane. So prison Warden Wolfe calls up Amunet Black to seek Barry, who he knows is the Flash. When Barry was taken to the metahuman cell, I thought that Wolfe was going to transfer him to Argus to be in a type of Suicide Squad, but no selling to Amunet Black pays more. With Barry being sold, there is an easy breakout for Barry, with team Flash having to save him and blaming Amunet and Wolfe for killing DeVoe. But I suppose the mystery girl, Dawn Allen could have some play in freeing Barry from Amunet.

The cast of the episode was great in delivery their performances especially in the unusual circumstance that they were placed in. Starring in the episode we had Carlos Valdes (Cisco/ Vibe), Hartley Sawyer (Ralph/ Elongated Man), Danielle Nicolet (Cecile Horton), Jesse L. Martin (Joe West), Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), Tom Cavanagh (Harry Wells), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin/ Killer Frost), Derek Mears (Sylbert Rundin/ Dwarfstar), Richard Brooks (Warden Wolfe), Grant Gustin (Barry/ the Flash), Bill Goldberg (Dave/ Big Sir), and Katee Sackhoff (Amunet Black).

In conclusion, this episode of the Flash was great in tieing in two fabulous stories which were fabulous because of great performances and other film techniques used in the episode, from the cinematography to the jokes. The stories all had satisfying endings which keep me wanting more Flash episodes. This episode was the prefect blend of humor and action, and I loved it. I will give this episode of the Flash an 8.5 out of 10. I would like to hear your thoughts on the episode down in the comments below. You can click on the left for the latest Supergirl review and click on the right for the latest Antman and the Wasp trailer. As always thanks for reading, take care.