This week on The Flash, as you can summarize from the title, Barry and crew go through the breach to Earth-2 as they buckle down to save Wells’ daughter, Jesse. Quick side note – am I the only one who read that title as Will Smith from Independence Day?
SPOILERS AHEAD
We open up with Flash closing all of the portals to Earth-2 as Barry, Wells and Cisco going through the portal to take on Zoom head on. Barry has a farewell dinner with Joe and Iris as Iris has to put a weird perspective on things as Barry has to explain to her that he loves her life. Jay, Joe and Caitlin send them through the portal but the excess build of up energy from the other portals being closed causes the Speed Cannon to collapse, meaning that unless Jay and Caitlin can fix it, the others are stuck on Earth-2 indefinitely.
They get to Earth-2 and we cue the wonder of alternate world and the ‘hijinx’ of seeing doppelgangers of their villains. Zooms attacks have been escalating and Cisco can’t use his powers due to the frequencies between Earths being different. Luckily, Barry is still a CSI on this world so Barry kidnaps himself and impersonates him, which cues up Barry about to go through down the rabbit hole of alternate realities. We trot out a bunch of secondary characters in opposite roles, the biggest one being Deadshot as a cowardly cop with terrible aim. Then we meet Iris West, this Barry’s wife. But those aren’t the only doppelgangers we get to meet as we discover the two villains who have been terrorizing Central City on Zoom’s behalf. Earth-2 Ronnie and Caitlin have gone the evil route, taken on the fan favourite mantles of Killer Frost and Deathstorm.
Back in his home that’s identical to Joe’s on Earth-1, Barry is getting pulled further and further in. He has to return a call to his still living mother and the emotional strain of Earth-2 is quickly catching up to the Speedster. He and Iris are off on a date to go see someone while Cisco and Wells are in the lab trying to track down Zoom. Wells is obviously on edge with his daughters life on the line. Barry and Iris show up to Jitterbugs which is a jazz bar now and Joe is the lounge singer but Barry and Joe hate each other on this Earth. So, then Frost and Deathstorm show up to hunt down the breacher, which puts Iris and Joe in the line of fire which forces Barry to expose himself. He battles the two villains and manages to hurt them, forcing them to retreat, but Joe is severely hurt in the battle.
Barry has a meltdown about being responsible for Joe being hurt and Wells tries to remind him that this is a different Earth. But with Barry being Barry, he can’t turn his back on people who need him, especially people who are his family, even if it is a different world. Back on Earth-1, Wally shows up to the precinct to see Joe for no reason whatsoever when Geo-Mancer shows up to wreak havoc. Just as he finishes monologuing about the Flash not showing up, Jay shows up in full gear. He has his speed back… kind of, as he and Caitlin’s Velocitor 7 gives him back his powers. There’s some kinks to work out, but Joe helps bail out Jay and he and Caitlin are ready to try out Velocitor 8. Which they’re going to need since they didn’t stop Geo-Mancer.
On Earth-2, this Joe gives Barry and Iris a touching talk that mends their fences before passing away from his wounds. Barry brings his Cisco to help Iris track down Frost and Deathstorm and Lawton demands to come along with his partner. They track the two metahumans down and Cisco finally meets his other half – Reverb! Reverb is the brains behind Frost and Deathstorm and he tries to convince Cisco to join him so they can take down Zoom. A huge fight breaks out when Cisco calls Flash in and the metas all throw down. Three on one isn’t very fair odds and Flash is incapacitated, even though Frost is hurt. Reverb and Deathstorm decide they’re going to kill Flash, despite Frost warning them about Zoom wanting speedsters brought to him. As the pair of them go to finish Flash off, Zoom appears and kills Deathstorm without a second guess. He then also disposes to Reverb, leaving Frost alive because she didn’t go against his word. He snags the Flash and leaves while Frost mourns Deathstorm before leaving herself.
Jay and Caitlin discuss the Speed Cannon as she tells him she’ll get the Velocitor to stabilize if he can get the breach stabilized in the one day they have left to get their friends back. In the stinger scene, Barry is held hostage in Zooms lair with Jesse and Zoom ominously tells Barry that he’ll never escape.
So, Flash came roaring back after a mediocre episode last week. The trip to Earth-2 has been building all year, so I’m happy to see if finally come to fruition. It had everything an alternate reality episode should have crammed in it. The major characters all playing opposites of each other, silly costumes, the characters we know reacting oddly to the things they shouldn’t. It had all the earmarkers of a classic crossover episode but it didn’t hold the episode back! It gave Grant Gustin a lot to work with and it gave Jesse Martin a death scene that doesn’t have long term repercussions on the show. So, everyone wins!
The Killer Frost and Deathstorm were particularly good, especially since they haven’t given Caitlin much to do the past few weeks. Reverb, as one would expect, was pretty terrible since the lack of acting ability of Carlos Valdez was put front and centre for us all to see. I also really dug the steampunk vibe of Earth-2, even if a lot of that was achieved with a sepia lens.[/caption]
Quite frankly, putting the Earth-2 arc in two parts was a stroke of genius. The tension is way up as there’s a literal clock ticking down and a sense of impending doom right behind us the whole time as we wait for zoom to appear. Yeah, they made some pretty obvious connections to the next episode with Reverb dropping his glasses for Cisco to grab and Frost being alive to use her freezing powers to help them fight Zoom, but none of those things detracted away from one of the stronger episodes of the season.
Next week, we conclude with ‘Escape from Earth-2’, as they have to try to beat the clock and make it back to their own Earth in time! Check back in and see what happens.
Also, am I the only one who reads that title like it’s a title for an old Planet of the Apes movie?
Doug will review each week’s episode of The Flash – so stay tuned right here for more. Be sure to also check out our recent reviews of The Deadpool Movie, Legends of Tomorrow, The X-Files and Arrow!