Flashes, Flashes, Everywhere: The Flash Season 2, Episode 2 Review
Count 'em: we'll have 4 Flashes this season!
Barry Allen/The present Flash, Jay Garrick/The past Flash, Dr. Harrison Wells/Reverse Flash, and Zoom. Call me crazy (and I'm no comic book expert), but doesn't he sound a lot like the character Black Flash?
After a somewhat uninspiring premiere episode, this is The Flash season 2 that we were looking forward to. Fascinating multiverse story lines. Funny, sunny personalities. Potentially super. Barry, you're the fastest man alive. We know you can hurry up the super part.
Let Jay Garrick help you already. He's not enough older than you to justify calling you "kid," but he has useful knowledge. You don't have to like him.
And you won't, as long as your teammates keep pointing out that your clothes are 3 sizes too small for him.
It was hilarious that after poking, prodding, interrogating - Caitlin has a DIY lie detector test? - and accusing Jay of not being that other-worldly Flash, turns out the misunderstanding could've been avoided if he'd just said he'd lost his winged hat!
We're starting to see that the fallout from the singularity is far from over. It created a portal - a breach - between Jay "Crimson Comet" Garrick's world and Barry "Scarlet Speedster" Allen's world, where Jay ended up because Zoom was trying to kill him.
It took Jay 6 months to find Star Labs, but you know how men are about asking for directions.
Zoom seems to be telling anyone and everyone, "If you want to go home (to your own world), kill The Flash." If that sounds like a free ticket, it's not.
Dr. Stein as "Explainer-in-Chief" with his magic marker ensured that even fans with limited knowledge of the mythology didn't get lost in the exotic matter and trans-dimensional energy leaks.
Lightening + sand = glass (to vanquish the Sand Demon) is a can't-miss physics equation.
Barry's reluctance to trust Jay is compelling, and justified. Many people in Central City are dead because the rest of the Star Labs team - not just Barry - trusted Dr. Wells. Iris doesn't shy away from that truth, even though Eddie was one of the casualties.
She gives Barry the best-friend-to-superhero pep talk: "You defeated Harrison Wells because you trusted people. Because you believed in them." Belief is not the one-way street that Barry always assumed when he became The Flash.
What is it with superheroes, thinking they're responsible for every bad thing that happens not only on their earth, but also on other earths?
Cisco's reaction to his "vibes" comes from the same fear: of never being able to do enough to help people with what he sees, or worse yet, harming them. Cisco, who's endlessly fascinated by other people's powers and how to harness them, swears Dr. Stein to secrecy.
Episode 2 was just as much about the non-powered team members, and their puzzling reactions.
Caitlin, I mean you.
You, who just last week were mourning the love of your life, suddenly do a 180 when Jay Garrick comes to town? Now, I get that about Teddy Sears. If he suddenly showed up at my workplace and offered to take off his shirt, I'd drop everything, too.
But "I have to find a new way to live" sounds like an evolution, not a split-second decision.
Iris is still grieving Eddie's death and isn't ready to move on to another relationship. It's not wrong for Caitlin to deal with Ronnie's loss differently, but it's jarringly out of place that Dr. Stein misses Ronnie more than Caitlin does.
Newbie CCPD Detective Patty Spivot: another brainy blonde with a tragic back story who won't take no for an answer. If she lives long enough, she and Felicity Smoak will get along just fine in the episode 8 Flash/Arrow crossover.
Meanwhile, she's Joe West's one-woman Anti-Metahuman Task Force, and Barry Allen's fangirl, although he's relieved it's not for the reason he initially thinks.
That's one original pick-up line, which would be ridiculous on any show except The Flash: "I've read all your scientific papers."
Joe has a lot more to worry about than the upwardly mobile Detective Spivot.
Dr. Harrison Wells/Reverse Flash is back, although the Costume Department seems to be telling us it's in another timeline.
Then a woman we've never seen before shows up unannounced at the precinct. We're not sure what to call her yet: Joe's wife? ex-wife? Iris' mother? woman who calls him and he never calls back?
Woman who calls him Joseph?
