The episode simply exudes joy, from Barry and Cisco’s goofy selfies to the many not-so-sneaky continuity winks. Much of it comes just from seeing characters we know and love as totally different versions of themselves, but another part comes from the show simply not holding anything back. It wastes no time trying to ease viewers into the new world, the show simply jumps right into the think of the weirdness and never looks back.
Seeing Barry and Iris take center stage together after a half of a season that’s been pretty light on them was a true delight. Grant Gustin and Candice Patton’s chemistry has always been infectious, and the fact Barry’s posing as her husband in this universe only makes their interactions more fun to watch. But even with all the cute hijinks and humorous misunderstandings that ensued, there was an underlying tragedy to the whole situation that gave it a real emotional weight.
One of the major themes of Season One was Barry learning to let go of the life of he could have had, which ultimately culminated in his decision not to rewrite history. In Season 2, despite making that choice, Barry still finds himself unsure how to move forward. Now he’s thrust into a living, breathing version of what his life could have been. Not only is he married to the love of his life with a successful career under his belt, but his mother is alive and his father has never been to prison. All the “what ifs” he’s tried so hard to put behind him are not only back but right in front of his face in a way they never have been before. Given all this, it’s easy to see why Barry gets so caught up in his doppelganger’s life, despite Harry’s stern warnings not to get involved.
This advice, predictably, only becomes more difficult for Barry to listen to once Killer Frost and Deathstorm enter the picture. While Danielle Panabaker and Robbie Amell clearly enjoy chewing the scenery, the baddie that really stole the show was their surprise boss Reverb, the Earth-2 version of Cisco.
The show has kept Cisco’s powers pretty low-key so far, mostly just using them for brief glimpses into the past or the present. Readers of the comics, however, know that Vibe’s powers extend far, far beyond that, and it was neat to see hints of what Cisco’s truly capable of without suddenly turning his character into an instant expert. It’ll be a shame if his death at the end of the episode is actually for keeps; he definitely feels like a character who has a lot more to offer.
As exciting as the episode was overall, it did drag briefly during the “back at the ranch” moments on Earth-1 where Jay tried to fill in for Barry. Although it was nice as it was to see Jay actually doing something and not just standing around, the whole subplot just felt completely tangential to what was going on in the rest of episode. Jay’s confession that it was Velocity 6, and not Zoom, that sapped his speed is actually a fairly big revelation, but it came across as insignificant because barely two minutes were spent on the subject. Hopefully, the implications of what exactly this twist means for Jay and for Barry will be explored later on.
But for the moment getting captured by Zoom has pretty forcibly returned Barry’s focus for the time being back to the mission at hand; it’s a bit harder to ignore the girl you’re supposed to be rescuing when she’s in the cell next to you! While the next episode will undoubtedly feature Barry and Jesse attempting some sort of breakout attempt, my main hope is that we’ll get some more solid motivation from Zoom. He’s been little more than a menacing shadow so far, and at this point we really need more to his character to keep us engaged.
As for the man in the mask next to Barry’s cell, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say he’s Earth-2 Wally. The show has brought in a lot of speedster characters this season, and Wally is almost the only one with no pre-established connection to Zoom. Having his Earth-2 counterpart be a prisoner of Zoom would accomplish that and also give Barry a chance to interact with Wally, something that we haven’t really seen yet but is inevitable considering their future partnership.
Written by Kaitlin Roberts, THE FLASH Beat Writer -- Click here to read Kaitlin's posts.
Related Posts:
THE FLASH Season 2 Episode 12: 'Fast Lane' ReviewedTHE FLASH Season 2 Episode 11: Return of Reverse-Flash