The Flash: Easter Eggs and Other Things You Might Have Missed In "Magenta"
Tonight's episode of The Flash was, relatively speaking, a return to normal. Harrison Wells and [...]
Tonight's episode of The Flash was, relatively speaking, a return to normal.
Harrison Wells and Jesse Quick returned -- and even if she's got powers now, it was a kind of comfort to have them back on Earth-1. And the fallout from Flashpoint remains a big part of the show, but it wasn't the primary focus, as the story shifted to a villain of the week and dealing with some longer-term storylines like Caitlin dealing with her powers and Team Flash training the latest new speedster (Jesse).
That also means that, relatively speaking, the Easter eggs, in-jokes and references died down a little bit, too. Not like Supergirl, where they've been deep into the double digits each of its first two weeks, there's just a handful in tonight's episode of The Flash.
...And, as ever, we're here to walk you guys through the ones we noticed.
So...what did we see? What did we miss?
Read on, and comment below.
IMAGINE BEING A SPEEDSTER
That whole "seconds seem like..." thing feels a little like one of the great character sketches of Barry Allen, "The Ballad of Barry Allen," a song by Jim's Big Ego, which deals with how difficult it is for Barry to cope with time unfolding at the super-slow rate that it seems to for people with super speed.
The song, which you can check out above, was co-written by Jim Infantino, the whose uncle was Barry Allen co-creator Carmine Infantino.
Yeah, we know, wrong Barry Allen above. But the image fit.
prevnextJESSE QUICK
Tonight's episode of The Flash featured Violett Beane as the daughter of Harrison Wells, who has finally (after about a year of speculation) revealed to be the superhero Jesse Quick.
The speedster, who has ties to the Justice Society of America, was one of a number of legacy heroes trained by the World War II-era heroes of Earth-2, including Jay Garrick. She played a significant role during Waly West's time as The Flash.
In the comics, her father is Johnny Quick, one of the earliest speedsters and really named Jonathan Chambers.
Discovering a super complex mathematical formula of supposedly higher dimension, Chambers was able to gain super-speed. Inspired by Jay Garrick and fashioning himself a masked costume and code name, Chambers began his heroic career as Johnny Quick.
His daughter Jesse, born to fellow Justice Society member Liberty Belle, took on his heroic legacy (and his speed formula), most often working with either the JSA or other speedsters like Wally West, Bart Allen and Max Mercury. During the course of her career, she also worked with the Titans and the JLA.
prevnext"NOT"
Punctuating a statement you disagree with, with an exaggerated "not!" was a cultural meme for a while in the '90s, popularized by the Saturday Night Live sketch-turned-blockbuster franchise Wayne's World.
And, yeah, still using it pretty much cements Harry as being pretty behind the times -- even for the kind of steampunky, neo-gothic Earth-2.
prevnextMAGENTA
Joey King, best known for her roles in Fargo and Independence Day: Resurgence, will guests starred on The Flash tonight as Magenta.
A teen with a troubled past, Frances "Frankie" Kane is a meta-human with the ability to control metal... but her powers come with a dangerous side-effect, causing her villainous alter ego known as Magenta to emerge.
Created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, Magenta first appeared in a 1982 issue of The New Teen Titans. Given her name and power set, she inevitably draws comparisons to the famed X-Men villain Magneto.
At one point, Magenta was one of a number of characters who formed a new team of Rogues -- which could be notable, given that The Flash's third season introduces both Mirror Master and Dr. Alchemy, both members of the Rogues at various points in their careers.
Given that King is a bit of a name with a feature film career, it seems likely that they're either grooming her for a larger story, or that she's a one-off character (as opposed to being a recurring villain like many of the Rogues).
prevnextBIG BELLY BURGER
Big Belly Burger, one of the most commonly-seen DC Comics Easter eggs on The Flash and Arrow, is the name of a fast food restaurant chain in the DC Comics universe.
We've already seen (and noted) it once this season, but when Wally and Jesse walk past a flier for the burger joint on the street tonight, it's probably the first time we've had confirmation in the post-Flashpoint universe that we've seen evidence of its existence.
(But, really, come on -- were they going to use Flashpoint to get rid of something that important?)
prevnext"FAST ENOUGH"/"RUN, JESSE, RUN"
A pair of phrases with some history for The Flash there.
"Fast Enough" was the name of the season 1 finale, which dealt with the idea of The Flash being fast enough to stop the Reverse-Flash. The fact that Wells says "I know you're fast enough; Run, Jesse, run!" puts a fine point on the fact that they're evoking that phrase and not just coincidentally using it.
Why?
Becuase "Run, Barry, run" was the refrain for Barry's various inspirations, mentors, and father figures for the first two seasons of the show, whenever he had a key moment where he needed to make a decision. In the season 3 premiere, we noted that it was a surprising decision for Iris not to use that phrase when she told him that she knew he could beat The Rival "because you're The Flash."
prev