The Flash gets tricked, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. face an enemy from within and Mad Men prepare their final bow

We had a pretty fun episode of The Flash this week, as Mark Hamill gleefully chomped the scenery as The Trickster.

Part of the fun was that he played this character in the earlier version of the Flash show back in the nineties(and yes, he and John Wesley Shipp shared a little screen time) and when it comes to villains, Hamill is just a whole lot of bad guy goodness to be had.

 The main plot line had Hamill's Trickster being consulted by the police as a younger knock-off started his own reign of terror. I really hope that this isn't a one shot deal because having Hamill on deck every now and then promises to be the perfect note of comedic evil here:

Meanwhile, we learned more about the connection between Ebord Thawne,aka The Reverse Flash, and Harrison Wells.  When Thawne failed in his attempt to kill Barry as a kid, he also lost his connection to the Speed Force(the space time path way that allows The Flash and others like him to time travel).

Being stuck in such a distant past, Thawne decided to jump start a way back to his future life by causing the car wreck that killed Harrison Wells' wife Tess and using a device brought with him from that time to transfer Harrison's outer appearance onto himself. Quite the lethal method for identity theft, I must say!

Barry is still somewhat suspicious of Wells, despite his help with battling the Trickster, which is perhaps why he revealed his secret identity to Eddie( plus his imprisoned dad and now most of the inner circle knows, with just about everyone determined to leave Iris out of the loop, which is a little condescending to say the least). I don't know how many more episodes there are left of this first season but I do think that the true showdown between Barry and Wells/Thawne will be the highlight of the finale yet to come:

On Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Coulson and his crew had to confront Bobbi and Mack, who are part of a splinter group that calls itself "the real Shield", and figure out what their end game is all about.

Part of the plan involved stealing the cube of info that Fury left to Coulson's care, which has the potential to bring S.H.I.E.L.D. back into full operational mode. The only trouble is having such data fall into the wrong hands, even if they appear to have good intentions:

This secondary group formed after the downfall of S.H.I.E.L.D, when Bobbi and Mack went on a rescue mission to save Commander Gonzalez and sink his battle ship to keep the cargo out of Hydra's clutches.

By not following Fury's instructions to the letter, those survivors did do what Nick would've wanted, in a way. Being able to change tactics based on the current situation is a vital part of such an organization.

They really should be working with Coulson, not against him.  However, this power struggle is not as simple as some of the players believe it to be and I just hope all of them make the right choices before their ultimate enemy destroys them all:

This upcoming Sunday, Mad Men will take up where they left off as the show heads towards it's final days. Where Don Draper and his contemporaries will end up in both the advertising game and in life is still unknown but should be worth finding out.

I have to say that I wasn't on board with this series from the first; it was a show that I happened to click onto one night and was intrigued to know and see more. At this point, I am caught up enough to be firmly invested in the fate of Don, Peggy and even the slimey Pete and really don't want some vague wrap-up to be handed to these characters.

In other words, I don't want a Sopranos ending. Give us the real deal, folks, I think we have more than earned it. Then again, perhaps I shouldn't worry. Story telling is an essential element in advertising and since that profession is at the heart of the series, every good tale teller knows that the conclusion is just as important as the introduction:

RANDOM NOTES:

GOTHAM: The series will begin to air it's final four episodes of the first season on April 13, making this quite the long wait to wrap this fledgling saga up. Don't get me wrong, I will be tuning in, especially to see what happens to my main man Oswald, but so many shows are just dragging out their runs this year that it gets to be a bit much: