This week on The Flash, Barry tries to team up and work with a reluctant Wells who is also plotting to steal Barry’s speed while our hero and the team must battle a new meta-human, Tar Pit.
SPOILERS AHEAD
We open up with an intro that we haven’t seen in quite a while. Way back when, a group of thugs drop one of their own into a vat of tar right before the particle accelerator explodes. Two years later, as the factory looks to reopen, they uncover a patch of tar, unknowingly freeing the trapped meta-human within.
In more familiar territory, Joe and Iris have dinner with Wally. Having just lost Francine, Joe is making sure Wally feels welcome. Iris, on the other hand, seems to only want to alienate Wally as she gets in his face about his drag racing. After Wally leaves, Iris then turns her sights on Joe for not doing a better job of parenting Wally.
In STAR Labs, Wells begrudgingly works on a device to siphon Barry’s speed. Even as he bemoans the fate of the speedster, Barry shows up and begins to help him work on a way to close the breaches, despite Wells’ attempts to dissuade him. Iris decides to show up to Wally’s race and get all investigative journalist on the scene and scopes out the guy in charge of organizing the races. We then cut across the city where Tar Pit first shows up, seeking his revenge on the three men responsible for his transformation. After a detailed talk about death by tar, Tar Pit shows his former friend exactly how painful it is.
Barry and Joe investigate the crime scene where Barry takes samples to bring back to STAR Labs and he and Joe discuss each other’s storylines for the week, so all the characters are on the same page. The main thing to take away at this point is that Joe’s fathering skills are being called into question this week. Wells proceeds to finish his device and plants it on Flash’s suit. Iris keeps drilling Joe for no good reason, making a big deal about her writing a story about deadly drag racing accidents. Joe tries to appeal to her with an emotional speech about wanting Wally in their lives, but come on. I think we all know Iris better than that by now.
Wells and Barry continue working on closing the breaches where Barry let’s this Wells in on the secret that his Wells was very much a father figure to him and that he’s feeling the same bond with him. Wells, of course, freaks a bit and tells Barry that if it comes down to him or his daughter, his daughter wins every time. Barry, however, misses out on the subtle clues being left for him.
As the team figures out what their dealing with in Tar Pit, he happens to show up right then, attacking the next person on his list. Barry engages the villain but Wells also engages his device. Flash manages to incapacitate Tar Pit, who manages to escape and Barry takes the man who was being targeted in to the police. Wells, meanwhile, has successfully siphoned off some of Barry’s Speed Force. The team gets to the bottom of who they’re hunting and why he’s targeting his victims and Cisco tells Barry he was running just a tiny bit slower than usual, which is casually brushed aside.
Iris goes to the guy running the races and threatens him with exposure when she runs her story. This, obviously, results in a death threat and Wally confronts Iris about her reckless behaviour. Meanwhile, Wells continues to drop hints for Barry who keeps missing them but Barry has also dug up an old plan by Earth One Wells and they apply it to closing the breaches. Wells goes out right away and gives Zoom the little bit of speed he has stolen and Zoom threatens to torture Jesse until Wells gives him the rest, sealing Wells’ deal with him.
The team manages to track down the final person on Tar Pits hit list who just so happens to be the violent man who threatened Iris just a couple of scenes ago. Joe and Iris go to see him while Barry and Wells take their toy to go test it on a breach. Their bomb works perfectly and the breach is sealed, but before they can celebrate too much, Barry gets a call from Iris, letting him know that Tar Pit has shown up to the race. Barry gets there in time to save Wally and the man on Tar Pits hit list, but shrapnel from the car injuries Iris because Barry isn’t fast enough to grab it all.
Iris is in good spirits cause she’s fine but Wally shows up to give his apologies. He tries to run away but Joe convinces him to stay with his sister with a good ‘I’m you father’ speech while he goes to answer a call from Barry. Wells and Cisco have built a grenade to stop Tar Pit but Barry is worried about his speed and they talk about what could be happening. The guilt is too much and Wells admits to them that he was stealing Barry’s speed. As the team reels from the shock of the revelation, Joe shows up just in time to punch Wells out and they throw him in one of their cells.
Flash and Joe use the criminal in their custody to lure Tar Pit out and Flash hits him with one of those fancy new grenades which incapacitates Tar Pit long enough for Joe to punch him out. Barry confronts Wells and Wells reminds Barry that he said he would pick his daughter over Barry. In the hospital, Wally opens up to Iris about losing his mother. The team plans to follow Wells’ advice and send him back through the breaches before sealing them shut, trapping Zoom on Earth Two. But Barry isn’t having any of that. He understands how important family is and that they would all make the same decisions that Wells did. He also can’t doom a world to Zoom, so, they all discuss and agree. They go get Wells and announce their plans for stopping Zoom – they’re going to Earth Two.
This week was used mostly as a set up episode for the next few weeks as the team goes through the breaches to the other Earth. Tar Pit was a fine villain, even if he suffers from DC’s notorious recycling of their evil doers as Pit is a clone of Clayface. But this week wasn’t about the meta on the loose as much as it was a stepping stone for the season arc. With Wells outed and Zoom’s plans in the open, the inevitable travel between worlds is finally happening. So, it’s hard to judge this episode on its own merits since the episode was intended to be much more than a bridge.
On another note, I don’t know why these shows insist on having that one just terrible character. Arrow has Laurel while Flash has Iris. Two completely unlikable people who are constantly judging the other characters and talking down to them while simultaneously making an effort to be the single worst person on the show. Who that person is on Legends of Tomorrow hasn’t made itself clear yet, but I’m sure they’ll remedy that soon.
Also, Joe sure got to punch a lot of people this week!
So, next week is on to the steampunk inspired Earth Two where we get to see doppelgangers, an alternate timeline and Zoom on his home turf. Is Barry going to be able to handle his greatest nemesis yet? With 11 more episodes to go in the season, I’m pretty sure we still have a bit of a ways to wait until we find out.
Doug will recap each week’s episode of Arrow – so stay tuned right here for more. Be sure to also check out our recent recaps of The X-Files, Legends of Tomorrow, and Arrow!