The Flash season 8, episode 17 review: Keep It Dark

“Open the doors so no one has to die.” Spoilers for The Flash season 8, episode 17 follow.

A new speedster has shown up in Central City and to get the help he thinks he needs, The Flash goes to see his oldest enemy.

Back in Central City though, Allegra tries to expose her old gang but puts her life, and several others’ lives, in jeopardy in the process.

The Flash season 8 episode 17 review

New speedster

Now that yet another new speedster has seemingly come to Central City, which should be to the surprise of absolutely no one at this point. And, at first glance, this new one isn’t necessarily a heroic speedster, but at the minimum, a thief. So, because of this, Barry’s first thought is to go to see Thawne, of course, because why wouldn’t he do something like that for no reason. Seriously, there’s basically no reason to have Thawne in this episode other than the excuse to have Thawne make a reappearance.

But as stupid as it is for Barry to immediately go to Thawne, it’s always great when any version of Thawne makes an appearance. As much as his continuous reappearances have become a meme at this point, there’s a reason as to why he’s the best villain on the show. The few minutes that he’s in this episode are the best that the show has been in a while, even with some lackluster dialogue.

Tom Cavanaugh chews the scenery so incredibly well and he can make even the worst dialogue sound menacing. It’s too bad that it doesn’t really feel like there’s a complete point to this episode other than if this is a shoddily done prelude to Thawne escaping Lian Yu.

But, as it turns out, this new speedster is another recent character from the comics named Meena Dhawan. Her story is complicated in the comics, so it’ll be interesting to see if the show stays close to her portrayal there or if they will change her pretty significantly like most of the other adaptations on the show. It’s much too early to tell where they will take her character, but in the little bit that she’s in this episode, she already seems to be heading in an interesting direction.

The Arañas

The crux of this though comes from the fact that Allegra’s old gang has begun to make a resurgence in Keystone City and has now targeted Lydia, the friend that Allegra helped by writing an article about her struggles and life. Not only that though, old villains Sunshine and Doctor Light (who this writer is still bitter about the show making the Kimiyo Hoshi version of this character into a villain) are running the gang now. So, when Allegra decides to interview Lydia and expose the gang, they come after her and the entire Central City Citizen staff.

Outside of the basic conflict of this episode, the actual emotional conflict stems from Allegra not being forward about her past life and well, it doesn’t work as the conflict feels very manufactured, as does the tension that arises from it.

For as dumb as this manufactured tension is though, it also leads to some of the best Allegra scenes of the season, so it’s really give or take. Seriously, seeing Allegra actually do stuff in this episode is fantastic. It’s been so long since she’s really had anything of value so, even if the tension in the episode is dumb, seeing her actually have a chance to grow out of it is nice.

Despite the dumb decisions the characters continue to make, this week’s episode of The Flash is solid, which hasn’t been the case recently.