The Flash, S1 Ep12 – Crazy For You

One of last week’s more interesting revelations was the fact that Hartley Rathaway, a.k.a. Pied Piper, had information regarding Ronnie Raymond’s whereabouts, and was willing to give Cisco this information in exchange for his freedom. “Crazy For You” picks up right where “The Sound and the Fury” left off, leading Cisco into further investigating F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. with the help of Rathaway. Additionally, a new meta-human is introduced named Lashawn Baez (Britne Oldford), whose blind love for her criminal boyfriend leads her to becoming Central City’s latest villain-of-the-week. Also, Barry and Caitlin share some very humorous and entertaining downtime.

The Flash vs. Peek-A-Boo

Lashawn Baez, who Caitlin comically nicknames Peek-A-Boo (as is her name in the comics), has the ability to teleport anywhere as long as she can see where she’s going. Her power is comparable to Nightcrawler from the X-Men, and The Flash even utilizes a similar effect seen in Bryan Singer’s second X-Men film. This makes her a formidable opponent for The Flash initially, as every time he gets close to her she teleports away. The episode opens up with Baez breaking her boyfriend out of prison, but after her boyfriend realizes the power she possesses he quickly uses her to steal money in order to pay off his debts in Central City. The criminal acts Baez commits are all out of love for her boyfriend in the hopes of them leaving Central City together. This makes her a more sympathetic villain-of-the-week than most of the prior meta-humans seen in previous episodes. Unfortunately, the climax between The Flash and Peek-A-Boo isn’t the most satisfying, as The Flash only has to black out a tunnel in order to blind Peek-A-Boo from seeing where she can teleport to next.

What I appreciated out of Baez’s story was how Barry’s father, Henry Allen, came into play. While investigating the former prison cell of Baez’s boyfriend, Barry gets to see his father in prison, this time without a pane of glass separating the two of them. This allowed for a very touching moment between the characters. After doing his own investigating within the prison for Barry and Detective West, Henry gets attacked by a fellow inmate. Fortunately Henry is okay, but that doesn’t stop Barry from removing the inmate from his prison cell and making it appear as if he were trying to escape, leading to another 5 years being added to his sentence. I was happy and surprised to see that by the end of the episode Henry Allen figured out that Barry is The Flash and is immensely proud of his son’s heroics.