Note: This will contain spoilers for the episode.
In case you missed out on last week's episode (shame on you), Barry, Cisco, and Harrison headed to Earth-2 to save Harrison's daughter, Jesse, from Zoom. After all was said and done, Zoom captured Barry. This week, Zoom is on the hunt for Harrison Wells, while Barry and Jesse try to escape Zoom's glass prison.
Who is this man in the iron mask? He looks a bit frightening, but it's pretty obvious, from the get-go, that he wants to help out, even if he's knocking in some form of code. What's cool about the scene with this person is that Jesse and Barry come up with a way to communicate to him with knocks. The whole scene builds itself up really well. This is the point where I started to say to myself "it's Jay Garrick." Also who the heck is this Jay Garrick on Earth-1 then? Is he Zoom? By the end of the episode, I'm not asking that question, unless he can be in two places at once. Regardless, that's what I love about this story and season is that we're asking these questions because the first season betrayed the viewer's trust with the reveal of Harrison Wells as Reverse Flash. It's nice to have kind of a fun and a sometimes silly superhero show that not only keeps the viewer's on their toes but keeps them playing a guessing game as well.
Regardless, that's what I love about this story and season is that we're asking these questions because the first season betrayed the viewer's trust with the reveal of Harrison Wells as Reverse Flash. It's nice to have kind of a fun and a sometimes silly superhero show that not only keeps the viewer's on their toes but keeps them playing a guessing game as well.
Right off the bat, Zoom became one of the least threatening villains, after handing out fliers with Harrison's face on it, asking the people of Central City to bring Wells to him. I think he got the word out pretty well by lighting buildings on fire. He doesn't really need the fliers unless he wants people to come see him perform at a local open mic. Why didn't Zoom go to STAR Labs in the first place? Wouldn't that be the place to start? Weird moment aside, Zoom reestablishes himself as an unstoppable force which leads to a pretty intense final scene. While we normally get a bit in depth on the episodes here, we're not spoiling that ending. We will say this, you can see it coming a mile away. It's horribly predictable, but good nonetheless.
Earth-2 Barry is pretty helpless when it comes to any danger. That's fine. What doesn't work is that he insists on going on a mission with Harrison, Earth-2 Iris, and Cisco to find Killer Frost and learn where Zoom is holding everyone. He bumbles and hides and just doesn't work for these scenes. The only reason he works at all is to give Flash Barry a pep talk towards the end of the episode. However, Cisco is what works for these scenes. He holds the team together. He's the heart and logic of this group. He's the reason everyone finds where Barry and Jesse are being held.
There's still a threat on Earth-1, as Geomancer shows up again. This guy has some serious powers, easily taking down a building. Who is going to save the people inside the building though? That's where Jay Garrick comes in. He starts taking the new Velocity 9 to give him some speed. The stakes really get raised when Geomancer shows up at STAR Labs. It's great to see Jay as the hero, complete with his powers, and he can obviously hold down the fort with everyone else on a parallel world.
It's really hard to top last week's episode, which had a great story and was filled with Easter eggs for fans of the show and comic book series. However, this episode wraps up the overall story extremely well. While the fan service that made many of us jump for joy wasn't here, this whole episode really built on the mystery of the Zoom story and who the heck that guy in the glass box was. Is it Jay Garrick or the representation of Jay's speed maybe?
The shining light of this whole episode was Cisco. His speech to Killer Frost and the way that character pushed the episode forward is really what gives this episode a soul. There's a lot of dynamic characters and they're all balanced extremely well. The second season of The Flash continues to get better and better.