Warning: This recap will contain spoilers for the January 19 episode of The Flash.
On this week's episode of The Flash, Barry Allen meets Patty Spivot for a dinner date, but while trying to get there using his super-speed, he sets the roses for Patty on fire. The speedster villain Zoom shows up and kidnaps Patty, bringing her to the top of a building in the city. He drops her off the edge, but Barry wakes up, next to Patty. It was all a nightmare.
Joe West shows his son, Wally West, around the police station. Joe and his daughter Iris just found out Wally existed. Iris says she's always wanted a baby brother and Wally makes a remark about Barry. A man in the police station, who has been arrested, recognizes Wally and asks where his cuffs are. Wally denies knowing him. Patty shows up. She and Iris head out to coffee, where Patty thinks there's something holding Barry back. Iris reassures her that he's got a lot on his plate and everything will be fine.
Over at STAR Labs, Harrison Wells is trying to solve some problems on a chalkboard and becomes frustrated. Cisco comes in and tells him that he can't throw people's stuff around when they're pissed off. Cisco tells Harrison that while they've been trying to make Barry faster to beat Zoom, maybe they should try to make Zoom slower. Cisco says there may be a way to steal Zoom's speed. Cisco calls it "The Turtle." Cisco found a metahuman in the city that has the ability to slow time. This metahuman uses his power to steal valuables.
During an event at the police station, a man discusses the return of his priceless ring and the Flash is there on a stakeout. The Turtle shows up and slows down time. He steals the ring and the Flash runs in to stop him, but gets stuck in The Turtle's area where he slowed down time. The Flash is helpless and just watches Turtle walk away.
Caitlin tells Barry back at STAR Labs that whatever happened to the Flash was temporary. Jay Garrick, the Flash from Earth-Two, explains that he could still move a little bit and see Turtle because of his powers. Caitlin finds out Turtle's real name as he is already in the criminal database. Caitlin talks to Jay, who is feeling a bit bummed out that he doesn't have his speed powers anymore and he's not much help.
Joe West looks Turtle up at the police station and discusses the case with Barry. Joe says he's nervous about the dinner that evening with his estranged son. Barry assures Joe that he'll be at the dinner. Patty approaches Barry and says she doesn't want him to feel burdened. Barry tells her that it's a tough time of year for him because it's around when his mother died. Barry wants to go out with Patty for dinner and drinks.
At the West household, Iris, Joe, and Barry wait for Wally to show up, but he's a no-show. Joe calls it a night and goes to bed while Iris cleans up. Iris tells Barry that Patty cares for him and is concerned. Barry says he's been having nightmares about Zoom killing her. Iris says that Barry needs to tell Patty that he's the Flash, especially if he's serious about her. Barry decides it's time to tell her.
At STAR Labs, Cisco says he found something that could lead them to the Turtle. There's an event with an expensive painting on display that evening. Barry realizes that he has a date with Patty. Instead, Barry makes a plan for the two of them to go to the Central City Museum to see the painting. Barry tells Cisco and everyone else that he has a plan to tell Patty he's the Flash. Everyone seems cool with it, except for Harrison. He tells Barry to keep her as far away as possible because it could result in Zoom killing her.
Outside of the event, Harrison and Cisco keep watch and Harrison tells Cisco about the time Zoom set a trap on Earth-Two, where Zoom killed 14 police officers to show them how strong he is. Zoom has Harrison's daughter hostage and Cisco says he'll use his "vibe" powers to see if she's ok. Harrison declines.
Barry and Patty enjoy the event and dance and talk about their relationship and how Barry needs to open up more. Barry begins to tell Patty about the day he was struck by lightning but Turtle shows up and steals a painting. Turtle attempts to shoot down a chandelier, one that Patty is right under. Flash runs towards her but Turtle uses his power to slow time around him. Flash barely makes it.
Back at Patty's house, Barry shows up. She's upset because she thinks Barry ditched her. Barry keeps ditching her, in order to do things as the Flash. In the streets of Central City, Wally West is racing cars illegally. After winning a race, Joe finds him. Joe just wants to know why Wally didn't show up to dinner the night prior. Wally is mad because Joe has been out of his life for so long. Wally races cars and sells them to take care of his dying mother, Joe's ex-wife.
There's a knock on Patty's door. She opens it and there's Turtle. He kidnaps her because she's "the most precious to the Flash." Barry shows up later at Patty's place and sees bullets from Patty's gun on the floor. He rushes off the STAR Labs. At the Turtle's secret lair, Patty wants to know what the Turtle wants. He says he won't kill her, but he wants to hurt the person who values her, the Flash. Turtle says saving people is a waste of time. He opens up about his ex-wife, Rosalyn. He says he couldn't let her leave, so he stopped her in time and has her in a glass case. He plans on doing the same thing to Patty. He already has a case prepared for her.
Over at STAR Labs, the group realizes that because Turtle is a thief, he'll need a lot of space. His ex-wife, Rosalyn, was an archivist, so the group now has a hunch on where to go, her work because there's a lot of extra space there. Flash rushes to the Turtle's hideout. Inside, Turtle is preparing Patty and Flash runs in. Turtle slows down time and punches the Flash a few times. Flash runs away and gets a good running start to charge Turtle again. This time, Flash is successful and knocks Turtle out. Flash releases Patty and holds her but doesn't reveal his identity. Turtle gets locked up at STAR Labs. Jay reveals to Caitlin that he's sick after Caitlin confronts him. Jay says he didn't expect to develop a relationship with Caitlin and the only way to save him is to get his speed back, which means stopping Zoom. Thoughts
Wally shows up at Joe's and says he needs his hoodie. Wally says he's heading back to Keystone City. Joe says he needs to apologize to Wally for not being around when he was growing up and Joe has been pushing himself as a father-figure on Wally way too hard. Wally decides to stay for dinner. Barry heads into the police station to talk to Patty. Barry says Patty has been right. Barry says he hasn't been honest and Patty says she is leaving Central City. She got into a CSI program at a university and wants to pursue that. She hugs Barry and kisses him on the cheek and walks away.
Harrison Wells is at STAR Labs and leaves a journal entry, promising to save his daughter. He says he'd do unspeakable things to save his daughter. During this, Harrison goes into Turtle's containment unit and kills him by taking a brain sample, through his nose.
In the closing sequence, Reverse Flash shows up and it's Eobard Thawne. The real one, not the Harrison Wells clone from season one. Thawne has no idea where he is.
Thoughts
Out of all the episodes in this season, this is the one with the most emotional scenes of two people standing around talking about their feelings. It's very heavy handed and we get a lot of repeated discussions about characters drifting apart while trying to come together at the same time, whether it's Barry and Patty or Joe and Wally or Jay and Caitlin. It's all fine storytelling and well-written dialogue, but all-in-all, this is overkill when it comes to these overlapping scenes.
Aaron Douglas shows up as the villain of the week, Turtle. It was pretty interesting, and maybe we're reaching, that Turtle's wife was named Rosalyn and Douglas appeared on Battlestar Galactica, where the President's name was Roslin. Ok, maybe we are reaching; regardless, Douglas does a great job portraying a character that has a pretty dopey counterpart in the comics. Turtle was creepy and there's a lot they could have done with the character. It had legs. Sadly, he was killed off at the end of the episode. However, Douglas did a fine job with what was given to him.
Barry and Flash being at the same place at the same time to juggle work and love is the most cliched trope in all of television. It's extremely tired and overdone to the point where it becomes frustrating to see on the screen. Luckily this didn't play out like a comical Mrs. Doubtfire scenario. It's quick and straight to the point, which is a giant sigh of relief.
Everything here is building towards Jay Garrick getting his powers back and everyone taking on Zoom. There's not a whole lot that's delivered to push this over-arcing story forward, but what the audience got was some solid storytelling that really does a fine job of moving towards the finale of this season. This all builds tension and suspense and the audience can see what these characters want to accomplish, even though they know there's going to be a few wrenches thrown into the mix.
How about that final reveal that Eobode Thawne AKA the Reverse Flash is back in the mix? There's one of two different things going on. First, Thawne could have survived death at the end of season one by escaping and just got dropped into the future, after his distant relative killed himself. Second, and far more likely, this is the first time Thawne has come back to the past, even before killing Barry's mother. What's going to happen when Barry and the rest of the Flash team finds out about this? This was easily the most exciting part of the episode.
All-in-all, this was a pretty down the middle-of-the-road episode and not a very strong return after the winter break. "Potential Energy" gets caught up in way too much in dealing with inter-personal relationships while delivering a pretty weak Flash villain story. However, this was a great episode to get to see more of how Wally West fits into this world and maybe we'll actually get to see him as Kid Flash at the end of the season. Aside from all of that, the episode does do a fine job at moving towards the final goal of Flash taking on Zoom, possibly with Jay's help, so in the grand scheme of things, it does move well in that respect.