REVIEW: ‘The Flash,’ Season 7, Episode 10 – “Family Matters Part 1”

The Flash Season 7 continues with its 10th episode, “Family Matters Part 1.” In the previous episode, Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) deal with the Speed Force’s (Michelle Harrison) betrayal. Wanting to put an end to the Forces through time travel, Barry asks for Timeless Wells’s (Tom Cavanagh) help. Iris and Team Citizen decide to take a different approach, which leads them to a dangerous situation. Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Kamala (Victoria Park) talk about their future. In “Family Matters, Part 1,” Psych (Ennis Esmer) goes on a rampage and hunts down those that have wronged him in the past. Barry tries to train Alexa (Sara Garcia) to use her powers as Fuerza in order to take down the Speed Force. Deon (Christian Magby) teams up with the Speed Force to take down the other Forces. Meanwhile, Joe (Jesse L. Martin) makes a big decision upon discovering Kristen Kramer’s (Carmen Moore) plans for metahumans.

With The Flash having been on for 7 seasons and being renewed for an 8th, it would make sense that the show would’ve found a rhythm to how Barry handles saving the city. However, and this has been more prominent in the past few episodes, it seems as if the show has forgotten who its main character is. Team Flash is packed with too many members, even though two of the show’s original cast members are leaving. Barry seems to be getting less and less screen time with every episode because the show has to cover other characters’ storylines. There’s also the fact that The Flash hasn’t had Barry be in any major battles for some time now. In the earlier seasons, most of the episodes would have a big climactic fight that showed just how strong Barry was. “Family Matters Part 1” and the episodes before it have been lacking major fight scenes with its central character. There’s still a handful of episodes left this season, so there’s hope that a few big fights could take place soon. However, the fact that fans would have to be hopeful for big fights in the first place says a lot about the show has been lacking in.

On a more positive note, “Family Matters Part 1” did include more scenes between Joe and Kramer that made their earlier storyline much more interesting. Previous complaints were made about Kramer’s role this season since it was rather lackluster. The scenes she had in this week’s episode made her a much bigger presence in the show because of her hatred towards metahumans and her professional relationship with Joe. Their interactions made Joe once again question what justice really meant in relation to him being a member of the Central City Police Department. This push is something unique for Joe’s character since he’s always been portrayed as the dutiful cop. Seeing the wrong Kramer is trying to accomplish because of hatred is such a great choice for him to question what justice is. This has the potential to have such great character development for Joe, especially since he hasn’t really had a big arc in quite some time. He’s one member of Team Flash that deserves more than he is given.

Much like with Team Flash having too many members, one of the consistent drags of this season has been how easily the team comes up with ways to deal with villains. Part of “Family Matters Part 1” sees Team Flash attempting to stop Psych before he can get his ultimate revenge. Rather than having a big fight, or even multiple fights, the members of Team Flash that go up against Psych rely heavily on getting through to him with words. While that could create the possibility for emotional scenes, the encounters with Psych were very disappointing. Most of the scenes focused on targeting Psych’s humanity and the relationship that the Forces shared. Had more character development been given to Psych, it would’ve provided the proper motivation to care about any of these scenes. If this sort of approach downgraded Mirror Monarch and the Mirroverse arc, it’s puzzling as to why this approach would be included again in future arcs.

Ultimately, “Family Matters Part 1” was a disappointing episode whose only highlight was a storyline that had nothing to do with the main arc of the show. The scenes with Joe and Kramer were an important element for Joe’s character development, and they also gave Joe a bigger spotlight on the show. Having too many members on Team Flash and the action-less encounters with villains continues to drag the show down. With a show that’s been given 7 seasons and with another one in the future, it’s disappointing to see this happening. There are a few episodes left in the season, which may give fans hope of things improving, but the fact that they may have to hope in the first place is a major issue that should not be happening.

The Flash Season 7 airs new episodes every Tuesday on the CW Network.