But where this episode really gets its strength is from its emotional moments. The entire cast was deeply affected by Thawne’s betrayal; especially Barry and Cisco, who were closest to him. Seeing him again allows for some closure and even healing to take place; it also neatly gave the writers the chance to tie up some lingering questions the audience might have had about Thawne’s motivations.
The audience has known from day one about Barry’s personal vendetta about the Reverse-Flash, but this episode flips the script and looks at where Thawne’s hatred of Barry came from. There are a lot of callbacks to last season, but the fact that Thawne is being played by Matt Letscher this time around gives things a slightly different flavor. His Thawne is angrier and slightly petty, not quite the evil mastermind we know he’ll eventually become. Barry letting him go in order to restore the dying timestream is a very bittersweet moment; yes, Barry will defeat him eventually, but Thawne is going to ruin a lot of people’s lives first, and there isn’t really anything Barry can do to stop it.
As if Barry’s personal life wasn’t already chaotic enough with all this going on, he also has to deal with the aftermath of a bad break-up. After deciding to attend school in Midway City during the midseason premiere, Patty decides to spend her final hours in Central City having the same conversation over and over again with Barry. Patty’s mad that Barry’s upset about her leaving. Barry tells her he’s not upset. She tells him she’d stay if he asked. He says he’s not going to. Lather, rinse, repeat. Even if their relationship had any emotional weight whatsoever, this would be a little too much to take. Thankfully their screentime is nowhere near as lengthy as it has been the past few episodes, so it ends up being just a minor distraction. You almost forget Patty hasn’t already left by the time her actual goodbye at the end of the episode takes place.
The West family drama also continues to be on fine form, as Iris’s tearful farewell to her mother and moving plea for Wally to visit her before it’s too late proves once again that Candice Patton is a force to be reckoned with when she’s actually given something to do. Iris has too often been underwritten or sidelined this season — this episode is the first time we’ve seen her reaction to her fiancé’s death, which happened nearly twelve episodes ago. Patton does an admirable job with the material she’s given, but if the show would only give her more scenes like this, she has the potential to become a true star. Hopefully the tenuous steps she and Wally are taking towards forming a sibling bond means we’ll being seeing more of her going forward.
Meanwhile Caitlin is attempting to solve Jay’s health crisis by locating his Earth-1 doppleganger so she can use his healthy cells to replace Jay’s dying ones. It’s an interesting idea, even if its execution is a little drawn out at times (why exactly couldn’t Jay have told what he knew Caitlin the first time she asked?). As it turns out, Jay’s Earth-1 counterpart is, of all people, Hunter Zolomon. Fans of the comics will of course recognize Zolomon as Zoom’s alter ego. While it’s doubtful things will quite that straightforward in the show—how would someone from Earth-1 have travelled to Earth-2 that long ago anyways?—it’s pretty safe to say he’ll have some connection to Zoom. If nothing else, the fact that this season has introduced so many speedster characters all at seems to be a sign the show is building towards some big game- changing moment.
Written by Kaitlin Roberts, THE FLASH Beat Writer
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