5 Point Discussions – The Flash 4.3: “Luck Be A Lady”

The Flash meets his biggest threat ever: a person with good luck? And Harrison Wells returns from Earth 2, but what brings him back? If you enjoy this 5 Point Discussion, please share it on Facebook and Twitter, and if you have any questions or comments, give me a shout @SageShinigami on Twitter.
1. In a 180 from last week’s episode, Flash has gone from facing the least relatable villain (neckbeard complaining he’s not a billionaire) to the MOST relatable. Rebecca Sharpe (“Hazard”) is a woman who’s constantly suffered bad luck in her life. Just in the opening montage leading to her gaining her powers she gets diarrhea, walks in on her boyfriend cheating on her, gets sexually harassed, THEN loses her job, and breaks the heel on her shoes. AND she’s still using MySpace in 2017. How sad is that?!
So when she finally gains the power to affect her own quantum field in order to affect good luck, it’s hard not to root for her even as minor accidents start to happen to the people around her. It’s only when she starts to literally push her luck too far, causing catastrophic accidents across Central City that she finally registers as a threat that needs to be stopped by Barry, even though Hazard’s powers seem to work even better than the Fastest Man Alive.
2. For whatever reason, the purpose of Wally’s existence this season has been being the ultimate joke. In the first episode, he inexplicably got laid out by the Samuroid despite the robot showing no proof it could move nearly as fast as Wally. In the second, he gets dusted by a repulsor blast from Barry’s malfunctioning suit. This episode? He’s dumped by Jesse, his girlfriend from Earth-2. She can’t even bother to do it in person either, instead sending her father with a pre-recorded video, which might be the tackiest way to dump a person I’ve ever seen considering universe-hopping is easier than taking a roadtrip. It’s no wonder that he decides to leave and try to find his own way–at this rate he was going to get taken out by Paste Pot Pete, and that guy’s not even from the DC Universe. (I do appreciate the Blue Valley reference though, as that’s where the original Wally grew up in the comics.)
3. Barry spends the episode trying to convince Team Flash that they haven’t been influenced by Hazard to have bad luck, and I kind of wish he was right. By the end, Hazard’s bad luck aura expands to cover nearly all of Central City, and it’s quite likely it had been affecting them all from the beginning, as she continued to push her own good luck and generate more bad. Having said that, if they were being honest, they would’ve realized they’ve ALWAYS had bad luck. They couldn’t beat Reverse Flash without his ancestor and Iris’ fiancee killing himself. They couldn’t beat Savitar without HR having to sacrifice his own life. And that’s not to mention Flashpoint and all the other minor, still horrible things they’ve had happen to them. Main characters have just enough luck to survive their adventures and usually that’s about it–I kind of wish they’d played with that.
4. As of this episode, Harrison Wells has returned. It’s not surprising; actor Tom Cavanaugh is likely still on contract, and for what it’s worth he contributes to the show every time he’s on. Having said that, after three seasons of some version of Wells being the de-facto “leader” of Team Flash, are they going to be able to use him without demoting Iris to fiancee status again? One of the best things about this season of The Flash is how Iris has settled in to being a big contributor to the team, and I’d hate for that to go away.
5. The episode ends with the absolute bombshell that Joe’s girlfriend Cecile is pregnant. I wanted to talk about how lucky it was that Wells figured out someone was playing a game with them, or how lucky it is that Team Flash kept the head of the Samuroid without ever opening it, or how the Flash writers should really stop depending so much on luck, but honestly that end scene was too important. They kept teasing the idea of Joe and Cecile having had kids but they’re all grown up now, how it’s all just memories and how he wishes his house wasn’t just an empty nest, and then suddenly BAM–Joe’s about to be a dad to yet another kid. This plays into my theory that Barry was actually de-synced from time for awhile, and the conversations he was having were things that had either already happened or were going to happen in the future. Too bad they all wrote it off as gibberish, I bet some of it could’ve helped them down the line…
The Flash airs Tuesday on The CW.