This week, Barry and the team take the fight to Zoom as they get Earth 1 Linda to masquerade as Dr. Light and trap the evil Zoom.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The episode opens with The Flash and Dr. Light squaring off. Light gets the upper hand and seemingly puts the Flash down. I mean, pretty poor attempt at a misdirect, but good on them for still trying!
We then move to 72 hours earlier, where Light and Flash are talking about Zoom. She wants to disappear, but Barry has different ideas. Since she needs something that she can only get if the Flash were dead, so Barry decides to use this opportunity to trap Zoom. The team is obviously hesitant to trust other Linda but Wells has an ace up his sleeve. He had developed a serum to slow Zoom down, so if Cisco could manufacture a weapon to deliver it, they might just have the start to a plan. Cisco, Caitlyn and Joe trust this Wells as far as they can throw him, so they hatch their own side alliance to try to expose Wells own nefarious doings.
This flashes us back to Earth 2 as Wells has a scene with his daughter, Jesse, where she discovers that this Wells is also responsible for this Earth’s meta humans as well. They fight and an obvious rift forms as Jesse Quick sees her father for who he truly is. Meanwhile, Patty and Joe clash over the Dr. Light case as Joe deems it closed and Patty questions whether or not it’s due to her and Barry’s budding new relationship. Which is a really, really obvious lead but hey, they have to set up conflict with that match made in heaven somehow, right? Again, I can’t help but feel a little sad at how charming Shantel VanSanten is and how she’ll eventually be pushed to the sidelines…
But now we turn to Iris as the writers desperately struggle to keep her character relevant. Linda is understandably upset by the fact that their boss got killed by her meta human doppelganger and she’s desperate to help the Flash in any way. They’re really not trying to be subtle in this episode, not even a bit. Back at STAR Labs, Light uses her invisibility to trick Cisco into opening her cell door and makes her escape.
Joe and Barry are at odds with each other over the plan while Cisco tries to get a ‘vibe’ (GROAN) from Earth 2 Wells with no success. We flashback to Earth 2 as Jesse’s college is attacked and we discover the context of Zoom’s abduction of Well’s daughter. Patty talks to Joe about his standoffish nature which… gets expectedly awkward, though it does little to alleviate the tension Patty feels about Dr. Light.
So, as you can expect, the team decides that getting Linda to stand in for her Earth 2 counterpart is the smartest way to trick Zoom and they begin to train Linda to be convincing as Dr. Light. Which cues up an ’80’s style training montage full of progress bit by bit and some attempts at jokes until she finally gets the hang of it.
In order for Barry to overcome his conscience in getting Linda to risk her life, Barry reveals his identity to her. Because we can’t very well have someone in Central City NOT know his identity. Cisco finally gets his ‘vibe’ off of Wells and it shows Zoom questioning/torturing Jesse Quick. Patty begins to suspect Joe and Barry are keeping her in the dark on something, which she obviously should.
Linda and Barry ridiculously act out the first scene, as expected, and Linda takes the Flash emblem and throws it through the breach. The trap is never sprung though, as Zoom fails to appear. Barry confesses to Joe that he can’t stop thinking about how Earth 1 Wells told him he would never be happy even if he did get his father out of prison. Joe, being ever the good father, tells him he should go after what truly makes him happy which leads Barry to run straight into Patty’s waiting arms. And then Zoom came for Linda.
Zoom brings his hostage to the roof of STAR Labs where Flash and Zoom have their first face-off. Barry hurls a bolt of lightning! Zoom catches it and throws it back! It’s obvious Barry can’t do this alone, but luckily, he isn’t. Wells brings his serum to shoot Zoom with and Barry has the same idea. The two speedsters race around STAR Labs until Zoom gets the upper hand. Barry is horribly beaten and Zoom injects him with the double dose of Wells’ serum. Then Zoom brings Flash before the news office and then the police station, parading the defeated Flash before the very people who’ve come to see him as a hero.
Zoom brings him back to STAR Labs and lands the killing blow on Barry in front of the team but Cisco manages to hit him with a round of the serum. Zoom escapes and the team manages to stabilize Barry. Cisco confronts Wells about Jesse and Wells’ real reasons for being on Earth 1 come to light. And just when things look their darkest, the episodes stinger reveals the true extent of the damage of Zoom’s attack – Barry has lost the feeling in his legs.
I really should have seen that ending coming. The whole episode was so obvious, so light hearted and so safe that I absolutely should have seen it coming. But I didn’t. The entire last ten minutes of the show were gripping, exciting and just plain awesome. Zoom is a serious bad ass and the stakes of the season just went through the roof. The Flash is no longer the untouchable hero and Zoom is the face of the cities nightmares. It’s really a defining episode for the season.
P.S. What’s the over/under on how long it is before he reveals his identity to Patty?