The race to save Ronnie and Martin before they blow up the city is on!

What They Say:
The Nuclear Man – Barry and the team realize they must pursue Ronnie after he attacks a physicist; Barry struggles to balance his new relationship and his responsibilities as the Flash.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Flash had one of those episodes the last time around where while the opponent was decent enough and added a new wrinkle and challenge to things, it was the character moments that really drew me in and made it a fun show. Barry and Caitlin going out for a night on the town to have fun might have people thinking that they’re going to hook up, but we instead see that while she might be inclined, Barry has a bit of luck elsewhere that’s going to really, really complicate his life. We also got some good time with Cisco and Hartley that helped to explore more of the past for STAR Labs and the two men at different phases of this facility, which lead to a whole lot of things happening that changed lives forever. The one that really shook Cisco though is what it apparently did to Ronnie, and now apparently to Professor Stein as well. Though I’ve long been a fan of Firestorm and own many comics with him as the lead, he’s one hell of a hard character for people to wrap their heads around and I’ve gotta give the show props for trying to do that here.

The cold open here goes for some fun rather than heavy material as it has Barry getting ready for his date with Linda Park, which is cute as he tries to find the right outfit, which is full of quick changes and some nice fun. It’s amusing to see how Barry, awkward as he is, also has a kind of dorky confidence about him now that he’s become the Flash and it’s bleeding into his life in general. The two have a pretty good time here as we watch it unfold, though Barry gets pulled in a few different directions with various things going on, from a robbery to a jumper, and Linda definitely makes it a fun experience hreself, though she’s oblivious to his quick trips elsewhere as he’s definitely going as fast as he can to get back to her.

While that sets the tone for the two of them well, we also get to see Ronnie Raymond, or rather Martin Stein, going after a man named Quentin in order to get help for his situation since he’s trapped inside of Ronnie’s body. Getting the explofration of Ronnie’s power, and his level of control, is definitely good to see since it’s the kind of stuff you usually don’t get in shows like this. While Martin seems to want help, it’s not something that goes well and there’s another body fallen to the mystery of the Burning Man that’s out there in the reports. All of this is making it clear to Wells and the rest that they can’t let Ronnie/Martin continue on with what he’s doing, especially since they’ve gone after other metahumans for a lot less than what Martin has done.

While origin stories are part and parcel with this series because of the nature of the particle accelerator, this one is extra useful since we’ve gotten a taste of Ronnie’s origin already and now we see how Barry had met Martin prior to the accelerator going live. That shows some good stuff in seeing how Barry was at that point and Martin coming to STAR Labs with his FIRESTORM project, though the reasoning for it is rather unclear at first as to why. In the present, things are turning interesting there as Barry, Caitlin and Wells end u talking to Martin’s wife and learn that she’s been visited by Ronnie, though she was unaware of who he was and thought he was just some kind of stalker that was causing problems. Since it’s been quite a few months overall since the accelerator accident, the struggle to figure out what’s going on is what’s causing a lot of problems for him since he alternates between protecting Clariss and protecting Caitlin depending on who has the upper hand at the moment.

The investigation is one that goes fairly well and realizing that Martin is checking in on his wife makes it easy to stake the place out, since they know he keeps returning there. Unfortunately, when he does, Barry’s not able to do much against him as Martin definitely has a strong power set to him and basically throws Barry for quite the loop – and takes him flying as well, which is a power set that Barry hasn’t had to deal with all that much. Barry takes it hard on all this, but at the same time it’s a useful distraction considering that his date with Linda that he was on turned to some serious sexy times where his body started to vibrate based on how excited he was. Which, cutely enough, Linda rather liked since she didn’t know what it was that was actually going on. Superheroes and dating are things that have been fun to watch in comics and shows before, but they’re taking it a little bit further here in just as fun a way.

Thankfully, it’s not all about repeated encounters with physical attacks to get through to Martin as they instead use the emotional approach by bringing Clarissa to him later so she can make the plea to have him work with Caitlin and the others to help him. It’s a good approach and one that’s good to see work out, at least to start rather than seeing more back and forth fighting. Since Martin has a lot of knowledge and years of real advances, there is a reason to believe that he might be able to separate the two of them with what he knows. With him now brought in, but given a few anti-depressants, Martin has cleaned up a whole lot and that makes things disconcerting for Caitlin to say the least, and fun to see Martin trying to play both aspects of himself.

Unfortunately, it looks like there’s not going to be a lot of time to figure this out as Martins’ body temperature is rising and the chance of his body simply exploding in full is rising rather quickly. The threat that they represent is laid out clearly to each other, and there’s some real issues to be had with it considering the relationships involved. But rather than focus solely on eliminating Ronnie, the push is on trying to figure out how to save Ronnie and Martin instead. Martin, being a decent guy, has decided to just sacrifice himself rather than the city by heading out to the Badlands. Which is where Barry and Caitlin have to go in order to give the device that Wells came up with to try and help separate them. What we end up getting is something better though as Martin goes nuclear, with Barry having to outrun it, and the first stages of what Firestorm can become is revealed. And that’s providked for the quick tease of General Eiling as well, which is great to finally see.

Joe and Cisco have their own little adventure this time around as Joe has brought him to Barry’s old home in order to do some investigation into what happened all those years ago. While there’s some great humor in the woman who lives there now, we get some useful if exaggerated science elements that provide for some 3D renderings of what happened. It’s not full by any means, but it showcases some teases that really are enticing, especially as they discover that the fight between the two speedsters has resulted in there being some blood left behind that’s survived all these years, just hidden away. While Cisco is definitely excited by it all, it gets complicated when Joe asks him to compare the samples against Wells asn Joe has continued his investigation into him in a slow but steady way. It plays out as you’d expect, considering Cisco’s history with Wells, but Joe has definitely seeded things in his mind, especially since they have two separate sets of blood to work with. That’ll have its own issues going forward as they discover that Barry’s blood as an adult is there, and that has its own host of questions.

In Summary:
With the show not wrapping everything up in one episode again, that’s definitely a plus as it’s the kind of story that needs to be spread out a bit rather than compressed. The Ronnie nad Martin story is obviously working off a number of twists and changes from the source material for obvious reasons, but it’s advancing things well on its own terms and hitting key aspects that I like, from the mind-share relationship to the first stages of his outfit. And we get a good bit of special effects material for him, which is great to see. The Cisco and Joe storyline is certainly intriguing as it’s finally growing some of the seeds planted in the pilot and I really, really love the Barry and Linda storyline as it grows here since it looks to be a lot of fun without the drama of what Barry and Iris are. Another very solid episode for a show that’s firing on all cylinders.

Grade: B+