This week in The Flash, we saw Dr. Alchemy activating another meta-human, Frankie Kane, a teenager with a dissociative personality as Magenta, a meta-human who has magnetic powers.
It was a pretty average episode for the fans who have seen the Flash in its best days – which are way in the past if you ask me. Let us dive right into it, the 3-episode review of season 3.
Flashpoint and the Illogical Storyline
Not everyone may think that way, but I find how the CW and the producers handle Flashpoint extremely absurd. That is because there are just so many illogical parts in the storyline. Let us start with what Barry Allen changed when he played with the timeline.
It seems like Barry Allen’s choice to save his mother, screwing with the timeline and then let both his father and mother get killed to reverse the effects of changing the timeline only affected everything to a very convenient extent. The things that changed are John Diggle having a baby boy instead of a girl, Cisco’s brother getting killed and, as the most important difference up to now, Caitlin Snow has powers as a meta-human. Well, which one of those affect the story in a big way? None. So, what was all this about? The big Flashpoint Paradox everyone was dying to see. Was it to only bring a villain, Dr. Alchemy, to the story? Could not it be done in any other way? Is there really any other option to put a super-villain, a villain that leads all the other villains, into the series other than using a huge event in the comic books? Was that all Flashpoint was about – bringing Alchemy into the mix?
If you are playing with the storyline of a TV show, even the smallest imstake might cost you along the line and, I, for one, am not satisfied with anything I see on the Flash’s season 3 so far. Of course, there are still some intriguing parts, but how can you actually use the suspense behind the question “Who is Dr. Alchemy?” to keep the show exciting? Unfortunately, the Flash is going worse as a TV series like Arrow did in the last two seasons.
Jesse Quick Adds Some Color, But Not Enough
Having another “Flash”, Jesse Quick in the series will surely help the ratings but obviously there is not so much to build a satisfying story arc even at the beginning of the season. “The villain part” is not satisfying while the heroes part is boosted with the introduction of Jesse Quick and possibly Caitlin Snow in the future. What I mean is, fans of The Flash are not excited as they used to be to see the next episode.
Who Is Dr. Alchemy? Is Julian Albert Dr. Alchemy?
There are some theories that might be indicative of Julian Albert being Dr. Alchemy but these do not mention him by name anywhere.
In the comic books, Dr. Alchemy has more than one version and one of them are based on a character named Alexander Petrov, a lab assistant in the Keystone City Police crime lab. Considering, he has similarities with Julian Albert of the TV series, there is a chance that producers adapted Dr. Alchemy as the CSI we see on the show. Moreover, the first identity is Albert Desmond, a chemist with dissociative identity disorder.
If you have watched the first three episodes, you know that Julian Albert is a hard-working, pain in the ass CSI that investigates meta-humans. He is a cold and uptight character who seems like he has something against Barry Allen and meta-humans. Well, this might very well because of the dissociative identity of his. Maybe, the producers carried the name “Albert” and the disorder to the TV character while taking crime lab assistant title from Alexander Petrov.
That being said, there is also a chance that Julian Albert might be introduced as the Atom Smasher/Nuklon AKA Albert Julian Rothstein by the CW.
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