TV Review: The Flash – Season 1 Episode 9 “The Man In The Yellow Suit”

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

EPISODE 9: "The Man In The Yellow Suit"

SYNOPSIS: Barry and co. face the most difficult villain yet, a meta-human that seems to know a lot about Barry's past and future. Because this mysterious man has a more powerful version of The Flash's powers, is there any way Barry can stop him? Tonight, many secrets are revealed.

RECAP (Beware of spoilers!):

Wow, with last week’s super entertaining FLASH/ARROW crossover and this week’s kick-ass episode, it’s sad we are going to be without new material for a whole month (return date: January 20)! Hopefully that huge (yet kinda predictable) reveal in the extra two minutes of tonight’s episode will hold us over until then. Producer Greg Berlanti certainly wasn’t kidding when he said tonight’s episode would be the biggest yet.

“The Man In The Yellow Suit” has been my favorite episode of THE FLASH so far! Of course, all of the reveals were fun, but where this episode really excelled for me was in the quieter moments – in the phenomenal acting from the entire cast and the sentimentality in almost every scene. I can’t be the only one that gets choked up when THE FLASH's theme music orchestration starts playing in the background… right? The scene where Grant Gustin and John Wesley Shipp discuss Barry moving on with his life was absolutely incredible. Gustin never ceases to amaze me with his acting range. He can go from goofy Barry to angry Barry to emotional Barry in a flash. With great scripts, phenomenal acting, and realistic CGI, THE FLASH has easily been the new show to watch this year.

Tonight’s episode started off panning through Central City all lit up for Christmas. All of a sudden, two streaks of red and yellow lightning race down the street and mess everything up. Cut to the day before. Barry and Joe are putting up Christmas decorations and drinking eggnog. When Joe has to run off to work, Barry and Iris are left home alone. Time to exchange gifts! Barry gives Iris a sentimental gift, a necklace with a replica of her mom’s wedding ring. Apparently Iris lost the real ring on a 5th grade field trip to the zoo and Barry remembered. How sweet!! Iris doesn’t do so well with her gift, giving Barry a brand new… microscope? Does she not realize that he has tons of those at work? That seems like a present that Barry would receive from someone who barely knows him. Try again next time, Iris. Of course, per usual, Eddie comes in and ruins the moment.

After Barry heads back to S.T.A.R. Labs, a visibly jealous Eddie takes Iris out for coffee and asks if Barry likes her romantically. Obviously he has always been suspicious of Barry and the heartfelt gift didn’t help. Iris blows Eddie off and says they are just best friends, but this question sticks with her. Barry has been acting weird recently, why is that? Eddie then uses this opportunity to one-up Barry and give Iris a key to his apartment, a symbol for her to move in with him. She says yes. Poor Barry.

Meanwhile, on her way out of work, Caitlin sees her fiancé Ronnie, who she thought was deceased, in the parking garage. Right before her eyes, Ronnie lights on fire. After doing some research, Caitlin discovers that Iris blogged about a man who could reportedly light himself on fire. When Caitlin asks Iris about the mysterious “burning man”, however, she doesn’t know much, but promises to send over any additional information she uncovers. Iris also uses this meeting to ask Caitlin if she knows why Barry has been acting differently lately. Of course, Caitlin doesn’t say anything and tells Iris to ask Barry herself.

Unsurprisingly, tonight’s villain is an absolute nightmare for Barry and co. Reverse-Flash, as he will come to be known, isn’t the type of guy that will adhere to the traditional villain-of-the-week formula. This guy has serious staying power, and will prove to be THE villain to beat for the rest of the season (maybe even the rest of the series). We first meet the “man in the yellow suit” when he breaks into Mercury Labs, S.T.A.R. Labs’ biggest rival. RF was attempting to steal the tachyon prototype, which, in the words of Dr. Wells, would basically make a person invincible (and faster than the speed of light) if you could stabilize its power. Although RF kills the guards, he is unable to get through the security system to the device and is forced to leave. An employee saw him, however, and describes RF to Joe when he comes onto the scene.

Based on the description of RF, Barry knows this is the person that killed his mother and framed his father fourteen years ago. Now Joe has to come clean and tell Barry that he already knew this guy was in town. Remember, in the stinger of episode 6, RF threatened to kill Iris if Joe didn’t stop investigating Nora’s case; he apparently also stole the evidence from the case. Joe and Barry head back to S.T.A.R. labs to devise a plan to trap RF. Cisco starts designing a force field/barrier strong enough to trap RF inside, while Barry and Dr. Wells ask Dr. McGee, the head of Mercury Labs, for permission to use the prototype as bait. At first she declines, but thanks to a search warrant, she has to eventually go along with their plan.

Across town, Caitlin tells Cisco about her encounter with Ronnie and asks for his help finding him again. The two quickly track Ronnie down thanks to an instrument Cisco created that tracks ionized particles. However, when Caitlin tries to comfort and help her fiancé, he tells her he is not Ronnie anymore; he is Firestorm. Dramatically, he erupts into flames and storms away, leaving Caitlin devastated.

Back at his lab in the police station, Barry is having another flashback to the night his mother died. Iris snaps him out of the horrific memory, but piles on even more bad news; she is moving in with Eddie. Iris also discloses that Eddie asked whether Barry had romantic feelings for her. Barry, of course, plays it off and Iris leaves, though I did sense some disappointment that he didn’t say Eddie was right to think that.

All of a sudden, across the street, Barry sees RF watching him. He races over to confront the man about his mother’s death, but RF, using the vocal cord vibration trick, says if he wants answers, Barry will have to catch him first. Now we’re back to the scene from the beginning of the episode. Barry is no match for the speedier villain, and in a showdown at a football stadium, Barry gets his ass kicked. However, RF does give Barry some information. RF says he knows who Barry is and in fact, they have been at this for a long time – another clue that this guy is from the future. RF says he is always one step ahead of Barry, and that it was Barry’s destiny to lose to him, as well as it was Nora Allen’s destiny to die. Then, just like that, RF is gone.

As Barry deals with the intense mind-games, he is left wondering what the team will do since he can’t keep up with RF. Dr. Wells thinks the force field is the answer, and places the tachyon prototype in the middle of it as bait. But because Barry is too close to the issue, Dr. Wells and Joe agree that he shouldn’t be around when it’s time to execute the plan. Based on what we learn in the stinger (below), though, Dr. Wells’ motivations were probably more sinister – keep Barry away so he doesn’t notice anything fishy. Barry storms off and goes to visit his father in prison to tell him what is going on. In one of the most emotional scenes of the entire series, Barry apologizes to his father for not being able to catch Nora’s killer. However, Henry tells his son to let all of this go once and for all. All of the decisions Barry made over the last fourteen years, from choosing his profession to hiding his feelings for Iris, have been because of the case and it’s time for Barry to live his life again.

This is all Barry needs to hear. He immediately goes home to Iris and tells her he loves her. He says he has loved her since they were kids, but after he lost his parents, he couldn’t risk losing her too if she didn’t return his affections. Although Barry pours his heart out to Iris, she remains silent and Barry walks away. Womp womp.

Things aren’t going much better at S.T.A.R. Labs. The team, including Eddie’s tactical task force, is able to trap RF inside the force field, but that doesn’t count for much. Joe asks RF why he killed Nora Allen, but RF only talks to Dr. Wells, calling himself Flash’s “reverse”. The barrier starts breaking down, probably because Dr. Wells sabotaged it, and RF brings Dr. Wells inside to somehow beat him up.  He then attacks the other people in the room and just as he has Joe by the neck, Barry zooms in and takes the fight outside. Again, RF beats Barry pretty badly, but just like the T-Rex in JURASSIC PARK, Firestorm shows up and saves the day, hurling a fireball at RF and forcing him to retreat. Firestorm then tells Caitlin never to look for him again and flies away. Random, but I liked it.

Back at the police station, Joe and Eddie are recuperating from their long day. After everything Eddie witnessed, Joe is now forced to give him real answers about the existence of meta-humans. Caitlin and Cisco are also helping Dr. Wells heal from the beat-down he received from RF. Does Dr. Wells have super-healing? If so, how will he disguise it from the team? Wells tells Caitlin that he knows he has made a lot of promises to her, but he assures her that they will get Ronnie back.

Now that RF has disappeared, the group, minus Dr. Wells, gather at Joe’s house to celebrate Christmas. Did anyone else think it was a little mean for Iris to be sitting in Eddie’s lap during the get-together? Barry just poured his heart out to her and she wants to rub her relationship in his face? Barry sucks it up and tells Iris and Eddie he is happy they are moving in together. Meanwhile, Cisco tells Joe about a discovery he made during the fight between RF and Barry. Their flashes together were red and yellow, the same thing Barry saw as a kid. Does this mean Barry was there, from the future, at his mother’s death?

The biggest reveal of the night was in the STINGER. Dr. Wells goes into his futuristic room and uses his Flash-symbol ring to reveal Reverse-Flash’s costume!!! He then attaches the tachyon prototype to the suit, which shows this whole scheme was a way to get the device out of Mercury Labs and into his hands. Is it safe to assume that Dr. Wells is the Reverse-Flash? After all, he did show he has the ability to vibrate his vocal cords like RF (the same trick Barry has also used to disguise his identity). I guess Dr. Wells used his super speed/time travel to somehow beat himself up? Let me know your thoughts/theories about Reverse-Flash in the comments below!

DC UNIVERSE EASTER EGGS: I love that THE FLASH pays homage to its predecessor show from the ‘90s, which starred John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen (Shipp now plays Henry Allen). Tonight that trend continued with Amanda Pays reprising her role as Tina McGee. They even included a picture from Pays’ stint on 90s-era THE FLASH. On that note, we also received word earlier this week that Mark Hamill, fresh off of filming STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, will be reprising his role as The Trickster in a late March or early April episode!

COOL ALTERNATE USE OF "THE FLASH" POWERS: Barry uses his power to quickly decorate the Christmas tree. Don’t we all wish we had that ability around this time of the year? Though, unfortunately, Joe makes him take it all down.

FAVORITE QUOTE: When Reverse-Flash tells Barry, “We’ve been at this a long time.”

FINAL VERDICT: