Powerless, desperate for his speed back and not a clue on how to proceed further, Barry Allen is a changed man now as The Flash continues on with season two. Things get a little muddy, as a speedster gains new power, another disappears and two are potentially born.
Picking up a little bit following the sapping of Barry’s speed and his sudden change back to a normal human, Cisco and Barry, through the help of Iris, have created a new way to thwart the less-intense enemies that are running around Central City.
Opening up with a thrilling chase scene through lower Central City, we see two criminals speeding through the streets, being chased by something. At first, you are one to presume that it’s not the Flash, given the events from a week prior, but the cat in the cat-and-mouse game turned out to be a speedster. But who? Obviously, with multiple Earths and other speedsters that have to be running amok, it could be any number of people.
Flashing over to S.T.A.R. Labs, we see a familiar scene, Cisco is at the computer, relaying information over to Barry as the chase ensues. Iris is running back and forth with some sort of urgency, but a smile dots her face.
Is it Barry? Did he already get his speed back?
Iris continues into the testing room, with Barry running on the treadmill, strapped to a couple devices.
Then, it becomes clear, through the use of a hologram, the team has adapted themselves to taking down the less threatening enemies. Adapting on the fly, Barry decides to use the hologram’s light to block out their vision. He proves it to be successful, as the thugs stop and police apprehend them, and a flickering hologram appears.
A pretty cool thought, in my opinion, having the allusion that the Flash is still around, regardless of Barry not having his speed. While it will prove nothing when matching up to Zoom and overly powered metahumans, it’s a good trick to have in the meantime.
All in all, this was one of the most dramatic episodes to date. Barry travels to his fathers country homestead, by car, and reveals to him that he no longer has his speed, setting the stage for his father to all of a sudden want to come back to Central City. While bearing all and telling him of the events of months past, we get a huge reveal.
Explaining that Jay is in fact Zoom and what has been going on. Barry even goes as far as saying his last name. Upon hearing the name “Garrick” mentioned, Henry reveals that his mother’s maiden name is Garrick. So the Garrick’s and the Allen’s are related, huh? This is setting things up for a huge explanation at some point down the road.
I mean, I guess since his son is no longer a major player in this widespread game of tag, it makes sense that he suddenly feels safe enough to return just in time to throw a wrench in Harrison Wells’ plan to give Barry his speed back.
Recreating the events of the particle accelerator explosion is enough to draw ire from some of the team, Barry included. Worries of opening the breaches again and creating even more metahumans are enough to be hesitant to even attempt something this drastic, let alone even mention it. In the two years following this accident, this city and this team have never been the same. Upon arrival to the Labs, Wells and Henry immediately butt heads over the proposition, for fear of his son’s well being.
It’s this worry that brings about one of the sweeter moments of the episode. In a normal one-on-one conversation between Barry and Iris, I was even shocked when Iris finally opened up to Barry about how she really feels. Finally coming to terms with the reality that Eddie is no longer around, and that the future and parallel universes all
The saga of Joe and Wally continues, when Wally, still kind of star-struck over being saved by the Flash, clearly knocking on the walls of his eventual becoming of a speedster. With mentions of jobs that require speed and saving people, all is hinting towards him becoming a speedster. But our conversation is cut short when Zoom and Caitlin emerge in CCPD, taking control of the building and forcing the police out and chaining Caitlin to the desk.
Things became a little more complex when Cisco vibed about a specific person who he was not commonly thinking of. In said vibe, Cisco witnessed his brother Dante in distress, causing him to reach out to his estranged brother. Things could not have been more awkward when they finally met at a small bar.
It’s obvious, things are not going to be close to good between the two anytime soon, they barely spoke the whole time they were together, and Cisco’s vibe left him wanting more, but getting nowhere. But the plot thickened when they were leaving, when a red-clad person with an iron scythe attacked the two. Facing the foe, the man introduces himself as ‘Rupture’. Confused as to what his attack has to do with Cisco and Dante, the man makes his reasons known. According to him, Cisco is the reason for his brothers death. Pulling back the mask, he reveals himself as Dante’s Earth-2 doppelgänger. But, then that means that Zoom must have told Rupture that Cisco, not Zoom, killed Reverb. With the scene getting more complicated, this puts Cisco in the position to reveal his powers to Dante, reluctantly letting him in on his secret.
Things seem to have gotten better for the time being, with a potential patching of things between the Ramon brothers. With that out of the way, we refocus back to the main problems, Barry’s speed, Zoom and Rupture.
First, with Rupture roaming the place, Zoom plays his pawn. After taking to CC Jitters as 
a acting command post, CCPD were on Zoom’s radar, and he sent Rupture to take them out. Unsuspecting to the impending attack, a resourceful Caitlin Snow managed to scavenge a cell phone out of an evidence box and alert the team at S.T.A.R. Labs of Zoom’s plan. With the team ready to go, two people were locked in the secret room that the original Wells had designed. In fear that Zoom would attempt to take them once again, Joe locked Jesse and Wally in the room, safe and out of sight.
With the heads up, the team and CCPD were able to set a trap for Rupture before he even managed to attack. Utilizing the hologram once more, Rupture was shocked when the Flash appeared before him. In an “oscar-worthy” performance, Barry was able to act being knocked down, allowing for an officer to shoot Rupture and knock him out.
Watching from afar, Zoom quickly realized that Caitlin alerted them of the attack and began to take matters into his own hands. Confronting CCPD on his own, his takedown was, as always, simple. But he took it a step further, taking Rupture’s life and then revealing to all of Central City that the Flash is gone.
In a weird development, Zoom issues a threat to Barry about how his affection for Caitlin is the only reason he is still alive, but that if he tries to do anything again, that affection won’t save him. After his threat, Zoom races off, likely back to CCPD still establishing his control over the city.
It was, at this moment, that it was obvious (as if the preview wasn’t revealing enough) that Barry was going to do whatever it takes to get his speed back, even if it means potentially killing himself.
Despite the urging from his dad and Joe, Barry makes the big decision to create the environment that gave him his speed, particle accelerator explosion and all. With a harness built, measures were taken to try and get the best total outcome when it came to the conditions they were trying to meet.
Clamping Barry into the harness and recreating the ideal conditions was a lofty goal from the start, and knowing the consequences, we still saw a heroic step to do whatever it takes to stop this supposedly unstoppable threat. As Harry, Joe, Iris and Henry watched with Cisco channeling lightning to the harness, things looked like they might actually work out. But as nothing is definite, things quickly went awry. Under those conditions, Barry’s body did not fare as well as the last lightning strike. His body quickly began to break down and you could tell that this was not going to be a happy ending. Eventually, he deteriorated, but in a funky way. Instead of just disappearing, he seemed to just break down and a bolt of lightning escaped the room.
At the same time that all of this was going down, Jesse and Wally, still locked in the secret room, managed to bypass the locks and open up the door. Trying to head to the basement to witness the test, they were both blindsided by a burst of electricity, knocking them clear across the room and knocking them unconscious.
Basically, under the conditions that Wells was trying to create to turn Barry back into the Flash, he may have done something else. He may have created Jesse Quick and Wally West as the Flash.
While it just looked like they might have been knocked out, it’s thrilling to think that more speedsters are joining the mix. Who knows whether they remain in a coma for a few months like Barry did, whether they come out of it with the speed force or if they come out of it just as normal.
Another week, another amazing episode down as we are racing towards a thrilling season finale. With only three episodes remaining in season two, where will see this show take us?
