The Flash 6x11 : Love Is a Battlefield review

Be warned there will be *SPOILERS* involved in this review. With that being said let's get into it. 

This week's episode of The Flash begins with Iris again in the secret lab of McCulloch Technologies. She stands up and looks back at the mirror which last week we saw her get dragged into. The next morning Barry is awoken to a giant breakfast spread by Iris including Pancakes that actually taste nice and freshly squeezed orange juice. The two discuss Valentines Day which is days away. Barry mentions how him and Iris have dinner reservations for Valentines and puts a reminder in for them. This leads to the both of them attending a fancy Italian restaurant where Iris surprisingly speaks Italian almost fluently which kind of shocks Barry. He asks her how she knows Italian but Iris just mentions she learned some phrases while on a case a few years back. It's right from this moment that both Barry and the audience know something is up with Iris. And it's not just her being able to speak pretty good Italian it's the fact that she made breakfast for Barry with perfect pancakes and as we know from previous episodes her pancakes are pretty awful. Could the mirror world have affected her?? is this even the real Iris?? more on this at the end of the review. 

While having dinner a loud crash can be heard in the restaurant which startles everyone inside. It's a returning Amunet Black who wants a case from someone inside which houses some device that she gladly takes but not before sending some of her shards flying into the air. Barry and Iris step in and Barry attempts to arrest Amunet right there and then stating that even though he's only a CSI he can still arrest her. Amunet threatens to expose him if he comes near her both as a CSI and as The Flash complete in his onesie which is an on going joke throughout the episode. With her blackmail put right in Barry and Iris's face Amunet seems to have won right?? well not exactly. And that's thanks to Iris's reporting skills as she uses her talents to find Amunet's next location which turns out to be Ivo Labs where upon arrival both Iris and Barry find Amunet looking for another device. They're all interrupted by a returning Goldface whom we learn is actually an ex-lover of Amunet. Goldface is the villain from season 4 where both Barry and Ralph went undercover and Barry told tales him himself being 'The Chemist' he can control anything that has gold inside of or around someone as well as bleed gold which we saw in season 4. The two ex lovers are fighting over the tech which is as of yet unexplained. An argument erupts between the two which leaves an opening for Iris to steal part of the tech and take it for herself as later on she uses it as a way to further get inside the mind of Amunet. 

The episode ends with some more Iris reporting and a confrontation with Amunet that for a second really made me believe that Iris was going to turn to the bad side. It's a tremendous scene and one that again shows how good of a character Iris has become post crisis. Iris later even tells Barry that she is no longer the damsel in distress and that he needs to lay off and let her down her own thing which is to be a top quality reporter. Barry continues to be worried throughout as he even goes to Joe to talk about Iris who explains to Barry that marriage is a lot harder than anyone who isn't married will ever know. So what exactly is Amunet after?? well she's after an Orchid that's pollen grants whoever inhales it the ability to read minds. Pretty cool huh? I thought so. Just as she Iris and more of her goons are about to collect the Orchid Goldface and his crew show up to disrupt the whole ordeal. The Flash eventually shows up complete in onesie and is told off by Amunet who threatens to reveal his secret right in front of everyone. The Flash is having none of it and instead uses the power of the Orchid to make Amunet and Goldface fall in love all over again which stops their plans right there and then. Barry says happy Valentines Day to Iris as the scene ends and honestly while this scene was fine I'm still much like season 4 just not a fan of the Amunet character. She's fine as a one off villain of the week (which is what this was hopefully) but in season 4 we saw her multiple times and it grew tiring. Some people may like her and that's fine but she doesn't do anything for me. What does do a lot of things for me however is the ending as Barry and Iris embrace we see Iris looking into a mirror in their apartment. As the camera zooms in further we see Iris the actual real Iris pounding on the glass as she screams at the other Iris telling her to get off Barry. And that's how it ends with the outside version of Iris as Barry himself sort of knew was a fake all along. I expected that ending truth be told especially after last week's ending but it still was a bit of shock but in the a good way. There was more going on in this episode like Frost attempting to fix Alegra's love life and more hints at Nash Wells even being Alegra's father to Nash even seeing Harry Wells from Earth-2 in Jitters before disappearing. The Flash has a lot of plot threads dangling right now and it's slowly but surely putting them all together in what hopefully will result in a nice bow by season's ends. As a whole this episode was mighty fine. It wasn't perfect but what episode really is? it flowed well and continued the story of last week's ending on greatly and again like last week ended on something that makes you want to watch next week. As for now The Flash is running at neck brake speed once again and long may it continue.

★★★★