Intergalactic Comics: The Flash: “Girls Night Out” Review

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

The Flash: “Girls Night Out” Review

By: Ashley Binion (@ashleybinion)

With Barry and Iris’ wedding approaching, Team Flash ditched their super suits and went for a night out on the town.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

“Girls Night Out” was a fun episode where The Flash didn’t even dress up as the scarlet speedster. Actually, I believe this is the first time Barry hasn’t suited up as The Flash or used his powers in an episode. Arrow has done this a few times, but this is a new look for the series. It’s always refreshing when a series shows it doesn’t have to rely on the main character to carry the weight of the hour. In this episode, The Flash was a truly ensemble show.

The fact that The Flash had to recruit Felicity and Cecile for Iris’ bachelorette party is indicative of a problem on The Flash and a larger one in the Arrowverse. There are only two series regular female characters on the speedster series. Two. The lack of female characters on this show is troubling. There weren’t enough females on the series to have a legitimate bachelorette party, so they had to recruit one from Arrow and Joe’s baby mama. That’s downright depressing.

So far, every character they have introduced to be a part of Team Flash has been male. The only exception: Jesse Quick. However, I don’t see her around anywhere. She was a great addition. Too bad she was yet another speedster and that the writers banished her to Earth-2.

Also, the fact that the two female characters aren’t friends is another problem. Just as it was said, they are work friends, not friend friends. But, do any of them really have friends outside of Star Labs? Clearly not, as Caitlin is her maid of honor. It makes no sense to me why they aren’t friends. As the only other woman in each other’s orbit, there should be a some kind of friendship there. Thankfully “Girls Night Out” set out to develop their bond.

Katee Sackhoff was delightful as the episode’s villain, Amunet Black. Until this episode, Caitlin’s crime boss has been hinted at but not seen. “Girls Night Out” revealed Sackhoff to be the blackmarket boss. In any other actor’s hands, the character would’ve been forgettable. It’s a testament to Sackhoff’s performance. I have one gripe though: why was the character British? The actor is American and so is the comic character. It’s helpful in terms of being able to diversify her different acting performances but it just kept distracting me from the scenes. Luckily, Amunet is out in the universe creating chaos so hopefully we will see her sometime soon.

Ralph is a good fit for Team Flash. He’s not a good guy like Wally and he isn’t a stick in the mud like Julian. So far, the private detective is an excellent yin to Barry’s yang. I like how diverse the team is now. No two people have the same powers.

For the second episode in a row, the metahuman DeVoe created was not the villain. Having the metas he create be largely benign characters is a good change of pace. Clearly The Weeper has a bigger part to play in DeVoe’s plan. Teasing his plan a little at a time makes the arc much more enjoyable to watch as opposed to last season’s Savitar arc.