The Flash – Duet

By: Stacy Miller

As the episode opens, we see a young Barry Allen watching Singing in the Rain with his mother. Nora (Michelle Harrison) tells him that speaking is just words but when you sing it’s like opening up a part of your soul.  This explains adult Barry’s (Grant Gustin) love for musicals as he tells Cisco (Carlos Valdes) that everything is better with song. It seems that all Barry has been doing since his breakup with Iris (Candice Patton) is sitting around watching old musicals. Their conversation is interrupted when they both receive a text. At STAR Labs, a breach opens and out comes Hank (David Harewood) and Mon-El, (Chris Woods) who is carrying an unconscious Supergirl (Melissa Benoist). “Kara. What happened to her?” Barry asks. “We don’t know but whoever did it is still on this world,” Hank answers. Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker)announces that Kara’s vitals on low. Hank and Mon-El give Barry, Cisco and Caitlin a brief recap of the last few minutes of the previous night’s “Supergirl” episode in which an alien prisoner did something to Kara and then told them that he was on his way to find the fastest man alive (Barry).  When the alien prisoner appears in Central City, The Flash and Kid Flash are there to fight him.  But the alien prisoner, named Music Meister (Darren Criss) comments that Kid Flash looks scared and The Flash isn’t fast enough. Music Meister is there to teach them all a lesson. And with that, Music Meister looks into Barry’s eyes and puts him to sleep like he did Kara.

In this dream world, Barry finds himself in a 1930s/40s nightclub where Kara is singing “Moon River.”  After her set, Kara happily greets Barry and questions him about how he is in her dream.  He tells her how Mon-El  brought her to STAR Labs after she was whammied by the alien prisoner who then put the whammy on him too. And by the way, Kara has a beautiful voice. “My sister says I put the Kara in karaoke,” Kara says. The owner of the nightclub Cutter Moran (John Barrowman) who looks like Malcolm Merlyn reminds that he pays them to sing, not talk.  And he wants to hear something original. Cutter tells Grady (Jeremy Jordan) to get them ready for their song.  Kara first thinks that Grady is Winn and feels like she’s in some strange Wizard of Oz world where the people she knows are someone else. Pablo, who looks like Cisco Ramon, tells Barry and Kara that he’ll be a star on that stage one day. Kara and Barry realize that they are in a musical. Music Meister shows up and tells them that due to their love of musicals, he’s trapped them in a real life musical and the only way to get out is to follow the script.  The only problem is that if they die in the musical world, they die in the real world. But that’s so depressing, Music Meister rather they have a song in their heart and with that he, Pablo and Cutter break out in a version of “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.”  After the song concludes, Kara and Barry are taken hostage by gangster who looks like Martin Stein (Victor Garber). While they contemplate on how they will get out of this, Kara and Barry share stories of their relationship drama.  Not Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) but a man name Digsby Foss who owns the town tells Kara and Barry that he needs their help to find the only thing good and decent in his life, his daughter Millie, who of course is Iris’ doppelganger.  Millie was last seen going into Cutter Moran’s place. Kara and Barry are told that they will go back to Moran’s and find his daughter. They are let go to look for Millie. Pablo brings them to Apartment B and tells them it’s where they can find Millie. Kara and Barry kick the door in and to their surprise discover Millie kissing Mon-El look alike, Tommy Moran. She tells them that they are in love. “Gross” Kara says disgusted.

Back in the real world, Caitlin tells Team Flash that while Kara and Barry are unconscious their powers are being drained. We see Music Meister using Kara’s x-ray vision to try to break into a bank. Feeling responsible for Barry getting the whammy, Wally wants to capture Music Meister. But he’ll need help, so Hank changes into Martian Manhunter.  Along with Vibe (Cisco), they are able to fight and capture Music Meister.

In the Singing in the Rain meets The Wizard of Oz dream world, Kara and Barry convince Millie and Tommy to tell their fathers how they feel. Millie tells her dads Foss and the Martin Stein lookalike that she’s in love with Tommy Moran. Meanwhile, Tommy is telling his dad Cutter about his feelings for Millie.  Cutter is furious, his son can’t be in love with the Foss girl. He says that “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” certain that Millie is just like her father.  Cutter doesn’t want to hear anything more about how much Tommy loves Millie. Barry wants Millie’s parents to accept her love for Tommy and Kara tells Cutter that Tommy had his reasons for not telling him about his love for Millie. Both Kara and Barry realize that in Millie and Tommy’s love story, they are seeing their own relationship complications: Fighting against all odds for the one you love and accepting that the one you love may not be able to tell you the truth right away. Although both Foss and Moran seem to accept that their kids in love, nothing could be further from the truth and the two enemies are going to war.

In STAR Labs, Music Meister tells Iris and Mon-El that they have the power to save Kara and Barry; they have the power of love. Back in the musical, Kara and Barry, accompanied by Grady on the piano, sing and tap dance to the song “Super Friend.”  Meanwhile in front of Moran’s nightclub, Cutter and Foss have a shootout and Kara and Barry end up get hit by stray bullets.  At STAR Labs, Kara and Barry’s bodies begin jerking violently. Iris tells Mon-El that they have to go wherever Kara and Barry are and bring them back through the power of love. Iris asks Cisco to vibe them there.  Although not certain it will work, Cisco agrees.  And it does work.  Iris and Mon-El find Kara and Barry lying on the ground with gunshot wounds. They tell the ones that they love how much they love them and magically kiss them back into their bodies and out of the dream world. Music Meister escaped from the pipeline cell and tells Kara and Barry that he’s been watching everything they have been doing and wanted to help them see that no problem is insurmountable if you have love. He’s off to teach others a lesson and tells H.R. (Tom Cavanaugh) that he would never believe what world he’s from. After Music Meister leaves, Joe laughs how he would have paid good money to see Barry singing. Kara and Mon-El makeup after she realizes why he didn’t tell her the truth but warns that if he ever lies to her again, she will drop a mountain on him. And not figuratively but geographically. And Mon-El, you know she can. Then, Kara and Mon-El go back to their Earth.

As the episode concludes, Barry and Iris return to their loft. Barry sings the song “Runnin Home to You” to illustrate that regardless of what is happening in their lives, he’ll always come home to her.  And with that, Barry produces her engagement ring and proposes to Iris again. It seems the love and song in Allen’s heart has reunited the couple. So Barry did learn a lesson from his musical ordeal.