A new criminal impersonates and imitates the crimes of old Central City villain, The Trickster. Barry and Joe try to figure out how to stop this dangerous copycat, and they start by consulting the original Trickster, James Jesse, from prison. Spoilers ahead!
Another one of the Flash’s iconic foes appears in The Trickster. However, we have both versions of the comics with the older James Jesse and the younger imitator, Axel Walker. Mark Hamill returns to reprise the role of Jesse, decades after playing the role in 1990’s series. Hamill does a terrific job at bringing the madman back to life, managing to be both hilarious and terrifying. The nods to the old series were definitely welcome, as well as Hamill reunited with the former Flash, John Wesley Shipp.
Besides the Trickster main plot, we also flash to the past to the night Barry’s mother was murdered, this time from the perspective of Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne. This subplot provides some much needed development for Thawne, and also answers a few questions about the Tess Morgan incident from Wells’s past. The real Thawne proves to be unsettling as he stalks the real Wells and steals his identitiy, to parallel Walker using Jesse’s identity of the Trickster.
Barry’s growing uneasiness and disgust with Wells was great to see. While many other shows would revert to status quo for a while before addressing the plot in a later episode, The Flash explores the consequences of the previous ones right away, and Barry’s suspicions are put to the test throughout the episode. The use of Jesse and Walker’s relationship with Barry and Henry was also clever, and the Star Wars reference provided the greatest laugh of the episode.
The only frustrating aspect of the episode was Joe, Barry, and now Eddie, hiding the truth about Mason’s death from Iris. The lie was rather flimsy and an ineffective way to keep her from danger. She is a grown woman that can make her own decisions, and it’s disappointing that Barry did not learn from the alternate timeline in revealing his identity to her.
“Tricksters” is an entertaining episode that managed to introduce a couple of threats without relying on metahumans or the Rogues. It would be great to see the Tricksters return in the future. Eobard Thawne’s story is coming to a head and Barry is now determined to expose “Wells” as both a fraud and the Reverse Flash.
What was your take on this episode? Was trusting Eddie with Barry’s secret a good idea?
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