In this episode, we start with Barry literally sweating out his most difficult situation…telling Iris “I can’t save us this time.” What’s happening here, and why? And, how does Flashtime fit into all of this? It’s a most unusual episode of THE FLASH, one that takes some interesting artistic choices while featuring not one, but THREE great speedsters (at least…). Want to know more? Follow us after the jump!
SPOILERS AHEAD!
During the “Previously On The Flash” segment, we catch a glimpse of the Quark Sphere. This is the sphere containing Barry’s genetic marker, sent into the Speed Force to fool it into thinking Barry was still trapped there (this was part of the resolution of last season’s cliffhanger, something that allowed Barry to return at the beginning of this season. Don’t worry, we’ll come back to that. For now, let’s go back in time 8 minutes and 47 seconds…
Barry has been working out with Cisco, practicing the timing to eventually jump into one of DeVoe’s breaches and to follow him to that mysterious pocket dimension where he hides out. The workout isn’t, uh, working out. Cisco is keeping each breach open for only 3 picoseconds, which is the window of time they have to get into DeVoe’s breaches. And, Barry hasn’t been able to get the speed to handle the operation, at least not yet. Where they do make some headway is in tracking the locations of all the breaches, and they learn something shocking…
DeVoe has been breaching into and out of Central City for three years! THREE years!
Jesse arrives to talk to her dad…and she and Harry are still REALLY awkward. She wants Harry to deal with his wife’s death, and he simply can’t talk about it. We’ll come back to that late in the episode. But…
…just then, we cut to a terrorist attack at Waid Field. Joe West and other members of the CCPD have been escorting ARGUS and a special payload there, and the terror group manages to open up that container. It contains a fission engine, one that could be made to blow up and take the entire city with it. Team Flash arrives and takes out almost everyone…but the leader of the group hits the remote detonator before Barry can stop her.
It is at that moment that Barry enters Flashtime!
Barry finds that he and Jesse are the only ones moving, with everyone else frozen in the moment. They immediately begin trying to figure out ways to either stop or get rid of the bomb. No ideas yet, other than getting more help. Barry sends Jesse to Earth 3 to retrieve Jay Garrick, in hopes that three speedsters can make the difference
This starts a series of moves where Barry brings the various members of Team Flash into Flashtime…one at a time…in a lineup of failed attempts to stop the bomb. The problem is that the powers of folks like Vibe and Killer Frost don’t have the opportunity to work well in Flashtime, as their powers literally require some amount of time to work. Add to that, non-speedsters can only handle the rigors of moving in Flashtime for brief periods, limiting their ability to help.
Harry suggests opening a portal to the Speed Force itself and taking the bomb there…but Jay Garrick fears that would risk cutting off the Speed Force from every speedster across all of space and time…and possibly have other far-reaching effects that could affect the entire multiverse. What then to do?
Over the next few minutes, Jay and then Jesse both tire and fall back, first sweating from the effort to keep their speed up and then freezing in the moment. That leaves Barry alone…and brings us back to that moment where he essentially says goodbye to Iris.
Of course, that isn’t goodbye, or else we wouldn’t have an episode next week.
Iris sends Barry into the Speed Force, grabbing the Quark Sphere and bringing it back to his world. Throwing it into the fission engine attracts the lightning bolts of the famous Speed Storm we saw at the end of last season, counteracting the potential explosion and saving everyone. (Question – did the Speed Storm then reclaim the Quark Sphere? If not, does that mean the Speed Force now recognizes that Barry isn’t there? If so, what happens next….or not…dunno on that one).
Afterward, we find that an eco-terrorist named Veronica Dale, representing a group called Eden Corp, had planned to use the devastation of Central City to make some sort of point about the dangers of nuclear power. Crisis averted for now, with Barry resting up from all the effort of being in Flashtime for so long.
We find resolution along several fronts here:
- Harry finally finds a way to share his feelings with Jesse about her mother, using a revised version of the dampener he prepared for Cecile to instead let Jesse read his thoughts.
- Jay Garrick decides that it’s time to retire, but not without training his replacement…mentioning that he will train a female speedster…but not by name. Whether he plans to train Jesse, or the mysterious young woman we’ve been seeing most of the season, or some other speedster is up for grabs here. Your theories are most welcome here…
- Caitlin realizes that, for the first time, Killer Frost actually expressed concern for her Caitlin persona
- And Barry realizes he may actually have the speed to make that dash into one of DeVoe’s breaches work!
One last note – the mysterious young woman we all suspect is Barry and Iris’ daughter shows up again at Jitters, as awkward as ever. But, her nervousness this time was due to finally getting to meet more of Team Flash, in this case Harry and Caitlin. More to come on that…but for now, let’s go to the…
SUMMARY: This episode took a lot of chances. It’s not just the concept of Flashtime, but in the way they pulled it off. Having most of the cast frozen in time for the majority of the episode meant placing a much bigger burden on each one-on-one conversation between Barry and the members of Team Flash. In effect, we were getting character studies throughout the show, and for this episode it worked very well. It was great seeing Jay Garrick again (actually, any time seeing Jay is great), but the real emotional highlights came from two performances – Violett Beane as Jesse Quick, dealing with her relationship with her father, and especially lead actor Grant Gustin as Barry. Great job all around – I’ll give this one a 9/10…but that’s my opinion. What do YOU think? Leave your comments below!
I thought this episode was fantastic! I love Flashtime! I’m liking the idea that the quark sphere was just “Re-absorbed” into the speed force. Maybe that mysterious girl is Barry and Iris’ furute daughter, who knows? She could be a female Impulse, seeing how she’s jittery and well…impulsive. Jay could still just be training someone completely different cause I feel like he’d know if that person is chilling on Earth-1 meeting Team Flash. 9/10 for this episode, definitely!
Veronica Dale and Eden Corps come from the Green Arrow 1988-98 comic run.
In issue #97 Ollie is recruited by The New Force of July to infiltrate Eden Corps an ecological terrorist group.
Of course this is at a time when Ollie’s relationship with Dinah is on the rocks so of course he gets into it with Veronica Dale. In the Comics the Eden Corps plan to use a special genetic Bomb on Metropolis. Ollie gets stuck in the plane with his hand on a deadman switch and he only has two options. let Superman Heat-vision his arm off so that it remains locked in the clenched position keeping the bmb from destroying Metropolis or detonating the bomb far enough away that it doesn’t cause any harm (guess which Ollie chooses)
i liked this episode of flash. so good! I loved how good grant did this episode but i want to know what role this mystery girl will have on team flash´s future
I believe it’s Waid Field. 🙂
(Smiley face)
You are right – I have no idea how I messed that one up. Fix’d – and thanks!
This episode was fun but I had a hard time getting into it. Between being both a Comics and a TV show you have allow a lot of artistic freedom but you also have to stick to come basic rules that the show itself defines. The fastest Flash moves is when he goes back in time and/or enters the speed force. In fact it’s not by choice, he hits a certain max speed he will go back in time or enter the speed force like when he’s done it by accident. Which very roughly makes some sense against the laws of quantum physics when you are moving faster then the speed of light. In this episode he was moving much faster then this, all the speedsters were. The whole time there were in “Flash time” that nuclear bomb was in mid destination. The actual blast, the reaction or “shake” time of a nuclear explosion is about a microsecond. So they stretched half a microsecond into what seemed many of hours of Flash Time. That’s moving way faster then his speed that would send him back in time. I know they pull this same nonsense at times in the comics, like when he told Superman he can perceive events less then an altosecond (come on). But it still drives me a bit mad.
I’m thinking the speedster Jay is training will be either Avery from the Justice League of China, Meena from the Flash comic Speed Force Storm, or a gender swapped Max Mercury.
did anyone notice the formula 3X2(9YZ)4A on the board? That is from Johnny Quick