The Flash – Season 8, Episode 6 “Impulsive Excessive Disorder”

“Impulsive Excessive Disorder” is a compelling episode of The Flash that finds Barry West lapsing into a state of split personality syndrome. He has to keep himself from running too far ahead and becoming the killer he used to be, while also being able to contain his powers in order for him not to get killed by them as well.

The “Avery Ho Actress” is the main character in the episode. The episode is about her trying to find a way to control her impulses and stop being so impulsive.

Season 8, Episode 6 “Impulsive Excessive Disorder”: The Flash

The Flash has been off the air for four months, and to make up for it, the show sent us an episode about Barry’s goofy kids to remind us of what we’ve been missing. Not that a Nora/Bart episode like “Impulsive Excessive Disorder” would have been good at any time in the series’ life, but as a mid-season(ish) debut, it’s enough to make you wish the show had simply finished with the “Armageddon” arc.

When Nora and Bart Allen return to the future, they learn they’ve unwittingly changed the past and must go back in time to make things right. They’re morons, thus things go wrong at every step, which is unfortunate for the timeline’s stability.

“Impulsive Excessive Disorder” is a charming, poorly-punned way to employ Bart and Nora’s heroic alter identities, and it offers you a glimpse of what’s to come from the title. This episode is filled with a lot of ridiculous “humor” presented by two performers who could have taught Dustin Diamond how to mug for the camera. In case we don’t realize how bizarre their tight position is becoming, one of them makes a ridiculous response face in every shot. Their line delivery isn’t much better; everything is overblown for humorous effect to the point of becoming unreal. They’re animated cartoons plucked from a children’s program and shown on prime time for an audience that outgrown them as they progressed through the grades. It’s hard enough to put up with them in supporting parts, but an hour with them at the helm is terrible.

*SPOILERS*

Their journeys are very much what you’d expect from two characters who even the finest authors would have trouble writing in starring roles. Barry urges them to “keep the future secure” before they return to their time. When they return, they discover that the situation has altered; Jay Garrick is still alive and married to a lady other than Joan. Now it’s up to Nora and Bart to put things right, but will they be able to live up to their father’s great example? (The right response is “Of course not,” but the program will inform us that they have.) So off they go, back to shortly after Barry was hit by lightning during the particle accelerator explosion but before he recovers from his coma, returning us to the early days of the story but without the Flash to show up his illiterate offspring. Returning characters, current regulars who haven’t evolved yet, and covert work worse than Rick Deckard’s dorky voice are all on the way.

Almost soon, plot issues occur. Why did the inciting event happen years before Bart and Nora arrived in the past, if they were the ones who changed the timeline? I’m prepared to believe the butterfly effect theory for something as little as Joe’s injury causing major changes in the future, but it doesn’t make sense that it occurred so long ago, and “Impulsive Excessive Disorder” makes no effort to explain it. And why is it so important for Bart and Nora to erase Jay’s new marriage, but it’s perfectly OK to keep him alive when he’s meant to die? We’ve already heard how Barry can’t rescue any of the people he cares about, yet these two get to keep Unky Jay? Why is it now acceptable? Even if they choose to keep Jay alive, there should have been some debate on the ethical or temporal implications.

When the Allens arrive in 2013, things aren’t going to get any better. To move about the police station, they claim to be CSI interns, which works since no one ever asks for identification. They’re late arriving to the heist scene because Bart is busy flirting with a girl he’ll never be with, and Bart’s response to the shooting leads to the establishment of the Royal Flush Gang early on. (Credit where credit is due: the Flash Kids didn’t get any excellent antagonists.) In order to correct the past, they disclose to Bart’s new crush that they are future superheroes, which isn’t yet another major change that would disrupt the history. Bart begins rescuing hostages from a casino that the Royal Flush Gang is looting, but he starts with the bad guys’ closest associates, who sense something is wrong immediately away and compel him to unmask himself. The chronology is never clarified how any of this repairs it – to the degree that it fixes it – but Jay tells Nora and Bart that their father would be pleased, so I suppose that’s it.

To be honest, “Impulsive Excessive Disorder” has some redeeming qualities. Even though he seems to be older than he would have been at the time, it’s good to see Eddie Thawne again. Eddie was a fantastic character who might have easily been the usual jerky love competitor for Barry on a worse (at the time) program. But he’s so pleasant and honest, and Rick Cosnett still does an excellent job of portraying him, with just enough real goodness to make him charming without making him a mockery of himself (like, you know, our fill-in heroes). It’s a pity Eddie is the one who makes the mistake of believing Nora and Bart when they claim they’re interns since it makes him appear foolish; on the other hand, he does draw a line when they attempt to flee with evidence from the murder scene. When Jay Garrick appears, I get excited, because John Wesley Shipp is still the ideal superhero elder statesman. Some of the design of future Central City appealed to me as well, notably the Blade Runner-esque holographic advertising for Big Belly Burger; it’s a basic effect, but it works. And the stinger is intriguing; seeing Barry and the others is a greater reminder of what we’ve been waiting for than the rest of the show, but the mysterious disappearance of the brush raises exactly the appropriate concerns. Is this the forerunner of something else, or did Bart and Nora cause it (making their tale essential rather than simply the oddest filler I’ve ever seen)? That’s exactly what I’m hoping to see.

Plot – 3

6 points for acting

5 – Progression

8 – Production Design

4 different themes

5.2

Bad

“Impulsive Excessive Disorder” has a few redeeming qualities, but it ultimately falls apart under the weight of a ridiculous narrative and the persistent corniness of Bart and Nora in the key parts. This was not the best approach to reintroduce The Flash.

The “the flash new season” is the latest installment of the hit CW show. The episode, entitled “Impulsive Excessive Disorder,” features a character with an addiction to speed and a villain who uses it against him.

Related Tags

• the flash season 1
• when did the flash come out
• the flash episode guide