Okay folks, if you aren’t excited at the prospect of THIS episode, I don’t know what else to say….okay, I have a LOT more to say, after the jump. The Flash of Earth-2 finally takes the spotlight after his brief appearance in the season premiere, and it looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship…after a few bumps along the way, that is.
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
This was a monumental episode of THE FLASH, with two (and more) key character introductions and the formal introduction of the concept of the Multiverse. Much of what we will see for the rest of this season will likely be spun directly from this week’s show, so we won’t go scene-by-scene in this review – don’t want to spoil too much here as you REALLY need to grab some popcorn and sit down with this one. But, we WILL have a few reveals here so be warned…
This episode has a thread running through it about trust. Can Barry trust anyone after his former mentor Harrison Wells turned out to be the Reverse Flash? Can Joe trust that an officer barely out of the academy could be an effective member of his metahuman task force? Can Cisco trust his strange visions? If that trust can’t be found, all could well be lost.
Jay Garrick was the Flash on his world for two years, having gained his powers due to a Heavy Water experiment (thank you to the Flash writers for keeping this bit of history in the story). About that same time, a mysterious speedster named Zoom showed up, killing untold numbers of people in his wake. He was obsessed with Jay’s version of the Flash, and was just about to kill him when a breach opened up, pulling Jay to this Earth. Whether it was Zoom or not doing the deed, something took away Jay’s speed, and he has spent the intervening six months following Barry Allen and the S.T.A.R. Labs team. He offers his help to the team, but they aren’t ready to trust anything he says yet. They run a number of tests without being able to prove Jay’s story, and Barry is the least willing of all to trust him…in part because of the trust that was broken by Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne. Iris finally convinces Barry to trust Jay, but not before something happens to…
Patty Spivot, who is introduced as a young cop seemingly fresh out of the academy, and who wants to join Joe West’s metahuman task force. Joe isn’t ready to take on a young cop, especially with what’s happened to his last two partners. Shantal VanSanten portrays Patty, and while she spends a lot of her scenes simply establishing her character in the Flash universe, she is at her best when paired with Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen. There is a sort of geeky charm to their chemistry, and I’m looking forward to how this progresses over the course of Season 2. At one point in the show, she is captured by the big bad of the week, Sand Demon, and used as bait to draw in Barry Allen. Eddie Slick/Sand Demon is another villain from Earth-2 taken here by Zoom to kill Barry Allen, and of course he has a doppelganger on Earth-1 (which creates some confusion but also helps to prove the theory of multiple Earths).
Jay has a way to stop Sand Demon, and he teaches Barry a new use for his powers – throwing the lightning he creates as he runs? After all, lightning plus sand equals…glass.
Meanwhile, we have a running thread in which Stein and Cisco are working to prove the existence of the Multiverse. During that search Cisco has more visions – they reveal critical information but also alarm him because of their potential connection to Harrison Wells/Reverse Flash. Cisco describes that he “gets a Vibe” (great reference) then sees a vision of what’s happening somewhere else. While this was a BIG help in stopping Sand Demon, he is so frightened of his own abilities that he makes Stein promise not to tell anyone about it.
In the end, Jay puts on his old uniform (the helmet having preceded him to S.T.A.R. Labs as seen last season) and he acts as a distraction to help Barry in trying to save Patty and to stop the Sand Demon. This is followed by a great nod to the original “Flash of Two Worlds” cover, which was a favorite moment for this old Flash fan.
Stein and Cisco tell the team about not one, not two, but 52 (yep, that number again) breaches in Central City, with the biggest one being at S.T.A.R. Labs itself! And, while a medical emergency seems to impact one of the team, we cut to a couple more reveals as the episode comes to a close…
One is an additional member of the West family (no, not Wally yet, but still this should be very good for the show), and the other…is a person of great interest at a parallel Earth’s S.T.A.R. Labs, one who should be extremely familiar to any fan of the show.
NOTES: Teddy Sears is fantastic as Jay Garrick, taking on the mentor role and seeming to fit in perfectly with the rest of the cast. We are also getting a “Vibe” (sorry for the pun) on the future of Cisco’s character, and I like how it is being handled, with Cisco so worried as to what these visions mean and what he may become. Patty Spivot’s character shone best in the scenes with Grant Gustin, while her other appearances in the episode were credible in explaining who she is and why she wants to be a part of the task force. There were additional surprises, particularly with that West family member and the intro/re-introduction of a familiar face…but we will have to wait for more episodes to see how that plays out. The script had a huge number of highlights, and if you wanted to name any of them as a favorite it would be hard to argue against. This episode effectively established a number of concepts in the Flash mythos that have only been lightly touched upon before, and it did so without losing any steam as far as pushing the Season 2 storylines further.
This episode has so much packed into it that we could easily fill up dozens of pages as to what it may mean, where we may go from here for the rest of the season, and what Easter Eggs we may come back to as the season progresses. The short version? Great episode – can’t wait to see what’s coming up next!
What do YOU think? Please leave your comments below!
I cheered when Jay put on the helmet and the two Flash’s saved Patty. It was perfect. Just what a fan of the original comics wanted to see. They have done marvelous with keeping stuff from both the original comics and New 52 comics in this show. The Flash and Arrow are the best superhero entertainment on TV.
Yes!, finally someone agrees with me, most people at my college (High school in America) fell that both shows suck, can you believe that!
The Flash is honestly one of the best Superhero shows thats been made, btw who do you think zoom is?, most people think it’s earth 2 eddie, however i think it might be a character that we haven’t met yet, either way i can’t wait to find out.
This! This was my episode!!!
With Jay Garrick, the easter eggs, Cisco being Cisco, the start of a beautiful friendship between Barry and Patty, acknowledging the multiverse with Stien, and sooo much more, I wish that this could have been episode 1 of season 2!
Yeah, I know we needed to fill in the gap of what happened with the wormhole, but come on, I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Can’t wait to get my Helmet done now. 😀
Great episode.;)
I’m worried Zoom is actually Barry Allen of Earth 2.
Hey, the only person who could beat barry is another barry right? haha
I agree that would be terrible. Like makes me cringe terrible. It would explain why Zoom doesn’t just go after Barry himself.
I did enjoy the episode, however I am still not 100 percent sold on Grant as Barry Allen. Personally I prefer Agents of Shield to Arrow, but Flash is better then Arrow in ny opinion
For me Professor Zoom should be Thawne and Zoom Hunter Zolomon, but since those are just titles and not the characters….eh, I really don’t care all that much who Earth II Zoom is.
Jay. Jay. Oh, gosh I love Jay. The only thing that would make this better is (well, besides the lack of a prominent lightning bolt on his jacket) if Jay had a touch of gray at the temples. But that’s mostly because I didn’t really get into Jay until I saw him in the Wally West stories. Jay is so far….Jay! Hair a touch lighter than the books, but still…..Jay! 😀
Man, imho it is so gonna suck when he’s gone and whatshisface shows up. 🙁
It was great finally seeing Jay Garrick on screen, and while I’m a bit annoyed that he’s powerless for the moment, I can understand why they wouldn’t want two speedsters running around just yet.
The moment he put on his helmet was perfect, and I totally geeked out over the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to the classic cover. When they released that image as a poster I never thought it would actually be *in the episode*.
I wasn’t sure about Patty going into the episode, but warmed to this version of her quickly. (I’d have preferred they avoided using the damsel in distress trope for a police officer the first time out the gate, but she remained professional and defiant the whole time, which was good to see.)
Speaking of introductions, I’m a little disturbed that Barry so casually killed off the season’s first two villains. Yeah, they’re actually trying to kill him rather than just rob banks, but it seems a little… cold? It’s good to hear that Iron Heights can hold metahumans now, because that solves the whole due process problem they faced in season one.
I absolutely loved the glimpse of Earth 2 at the end, showing a world that’s modern but went in slightly different directions aesthetically, with styles every-so-slightly evoking our world’s 1940s.
Yeah….the lack of speed was….not good. At least we got that little scene so…something. Yeah. He just better get it back pronto though. I’m going to be miffed if whenever he’s in Earth 1 he doesn’t have speed because of some ‘reason’ like Wally could not have speed in the Marvel universe (books).
Killing of villains. -sigh- It’s things like that which make me miss the Comics Code. Barry (imho) should not be killing or if so it should be a total accident and unavoidable.
Minor technical note, the comics had Jay experimenting with hard water, not heavy (but heavy does make more sense). But yes, this was a great episode.
Later comics retconned it to being heavy water.
I stand corrected. Thanks.
Almost forgot–the little rocket exhibited at STAR labs in the end bit, did that look like baby Kal-El’s rocket to anyone but me?
Yes, this was a terrific episode, full of wonderful moments. I got goosebumps when Jay suited up, it was that cool. Same with the awesome cover homage shot. Then you have Stein explaining about Earth-1 and Earth-2 on primetime TV, are you kidding me?!
I liked Patty, she had instant chemistry with Grant’s Barry (though their Monty Python Holy Grail bit was a tad too much). So, I’m interested to see how they develop their relationship and how this may (or may not) influence his friendship/love for Iris.
As for Barry’s ‘killing’ of two criminals, it does seem out-of-character unless this is some other consequence of his fallout over the betrayal of Wells. Also, let’s not overlook the fact that Jay suggested this method of attack and no one on Team Flash (not even Stein) had any objections to it. So it’s not just Barry at fault here, his team is supporting these actions as well.
Zoom looks intimidating but I too hope he’s not Barry of Earth-2. Interesting that his lightning is blue, not red or yellow.
Cobalt Blue, anyone?
Fyi, I used to be obsessed with Savitar. I wanted the character to return sooooo badly, for sooo long. Instead, we got more of what I didn’t want so much. I am happy to see more Flash goodness out there.
Black Flash, anyone?