I'm also cautiously optimistic. It's the best episode of the series in a long time. Definitely since the Barry/Nora time-travel escapades episode last year. Probably since the Flashtime episode. I don't want to judge anything yet since it's far too early for that, but although there's still plenty of rough edges and random plot contrivances, it does feel like lessons have been learned.I...mostly liked that episode? Ramsey's actor is actually pretty decent compared to Chris Klein, though having him go evil pretty much immediately was odd.
Having an established villain from the first episode is probably because they don't have as much time to faff about with Ramsey's character.
Maybe, but messing around with video files seems a bit below the Anti-Monitor.Also, I'm like 90% sure that the Monitor we saw was this universe's Anti-Monitor. We already know LaMonica is playing both characters and every glimpse of regular Monitor we've seen so far has been passive, not outright malicious like this.
Maybe the Monitor needs Barry to believe that he is going to die (so that he 100% commits to doing what he needs to do during the Crisis, without being held back by hope), but really Barry's going to survive? To make sure Barry never knows that, the Monitor needs to destroy Barry's convenient plot device.