Here it is, kids! The episode we’ve all been waiting for! The Reverse-Flash battles the Flash for the first time! EVER! Sound confusing? It isn’t really. In fact, this episode is brilliant in the way it brings back one of the best of the Scarlet Speedster’s enemies and insures he will be back again and again to bedevil our hero.
The episode begins as the Flash is in the middle of playing guardian angel to Central City, mainly to avoid dealing with Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten), who will be leaving town soon. The Flash gets a major distraction in the form of a runaway chemical transport truck that has been rigged so it can’t be stopped or steered off course from a dead end street. The Flash saves the day by taking off all the truck’s tires at super speed and forcing it to a halt. The Flash speeds away from the scene, unaware that the near disaster was all thanks to Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher), who is delighted that he now knows what time period the Flash is from.
At S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin and Jay (Teddy Sears) find the Turtle (Aaron Douglas) dead in his cell from what appears to be an acute brain aneurysm. Jay is suspicious of Harry, but he can’t convince Team Flash that Harry could be working against them, especially when he seems to be so helpful. For example, Harry has figured out how to trigger Cisco’s Vibe power. He theorizes it is caused by a rush of adrenaline, dopamines flooding the brain, and the quickest way to do this is by scaring Cisco. Harry does just by lunging after him in the time room while wearing the Reverse-Flash’s costume. When Harry does this, Cisco vibes and sees the Reverse-Flash is back and he is targeting Dr. Tina McGee (Amanda Pays). Cisco is able to alert Barry and the Flash races to Mercury Labs. Once there, he confronts Thawne, calling him out by name, taking the villain by surprise. Barry is unable to stop Thawne from taking Dr. McGee and leaving the Flash to wonder how the heck the man who murdered his mother, the man Eddie Thawne’s death prevented from ever existing, is alive now.
Harry speculates that when Eddie killed himself and erased the version of Thawne that had been masquerading as the Earth-One Harrison Wells, the version that is in the here and now could have been in the Speed Force, and this protected him and kept his timeline intact. Harry determines that this is the first time Thawne has come to the past and that was why he didn’t know the Flash is really Barry Allen. Meanwhile, Reverse-Flash wants Dr. McGee to isolate and accelerate the energetic properties of tachyons so he can get home. Taking Cisco’s Vibe goggles, Harry upgrades them, adding a wave length trigger that will stimulate the fear receptors in Cisco’s brain. He believes this will allow Cisco to vibe for as long as he likes. When Cisco tries them, he sees the Reverse-Flash, three hours in the future, and watches as he kills Dr. McGee after she has succeed in arranging for his means home.
While Team Flash works out a way to save Dr. McGee, Patty confronts Joe and tells him that she knows why Barry isn’t being honest with her. She has looked over cases Barry has written up involving the Flash and they all have details Barry could have never known unless he was the Scarlet Speedster. When she talks to Joe about her hunch, she knows he is covering for Barry and lying about who he really is.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry and the others devise that once Thawne activates the tachyons that will send him home, they can track them and in the seconds after activation, Barry can save Dr. McGee. Sure enough, Cisco and Harry find the tachyons powering up and the Flash races off. The Flash arrives in time to rescue Dr. McGee and stop the Reverse-Flash from leaving the 21st century. After an intense race through Central City, Barry brings the Reverse-Flash in and puts him in a holding cell at S.T.A.R. Labs.
Once he is imprisoned, Harry stops Barry from confronting Thawne. He warns Barry of the ramifications of altering the timeline, pointing out that Thawne doesn’t know Barry is the Flash and he hasn’t killed his mother yet. The more they tamper with time, the worst things could unfold. Barry leaves to talk things out with Patty one last time. When he does, Cisco goes and faces Thawne, telling him how he helped stop the Reverse-Flash with powers that he gave him and now he’ll get to rot in a cell that he helped Cisco create. It’s a nice moment for Cisco, but too much information for Thawne to have as everyone will learn all too soon.
When Barry and Patty finally talk, she wants Barry to tell her the truth, that he is the Flash. If he will, she will stay. Barry lies and tells her he isn’t who she thinks he is and Patty, now in tears, leaves. Knowing that he has made the decision to let Patty go based on how much her life would be endangered by threats like the Reverse-Flash, Barry goes to confront Thawne. He wants to know why this man hates him so much. “I didn’t always [hate you],” Thawne tells Barry. “I was obsessed with you. For so long, I wanted to be the Flash. I spent years figuring out how you came to be, duplicated the reaction and it worked. I became like you. This ability to travel though time revealed the truth. My fate was to become your greatest enemy. I was never going become the Flash, so I became the reverse of everything that you were. The more people you saved, the more you were loved, the more I had to take from you.” Barry asks if that was why he killed his mother and ruined his life, all because Thawne couldn’t be him. The Reverse-Flash tells him, “I became better than you! I am the one thing you cannot stop Flash!” Barry tells him that his threat is over and their race is done, but alas Barry speaks too soon.
Cisco is undergoing a series of seizures and starting to phase in and out of reality. Harry believes it is due to the capture of the Reverse-Flash. Holding him captive is disrupting the timelines and changes to the past are impacting the present. There is only one thing that can be done: cut Thawne loose and send him back to the future.
Harry reasons that by combining Barry’s speed with Thawne’s, the Flash can send his foe back to his time period. Harry goes to retrieve Thawne, and he peeks the speedster’s interest. Before the Flash sends him home, Harry tells Barry that this is where it all begins. This is where Thawne learns about the Earth-One Harrison Wells, S.T.A.R. Labs and Team Flash. “This is his origin story, and it’s going to happen no matter what you do.” But Harry assures Barry that right now. Letting Thawne go, will save Cisco.
Before the race to send Thawne home begins, the Reverse-Flash taunts his enemy, vowing he will be back. The Flash says he knows that, and he’ll be ready for him every time. Barry and Thawne begin their run and the Flash successfully sends the Reverse-Flash home and in the process saves Cisco.
Cisco begins to recover and Barry knows he made the right call. Keeping Thawne prisoner would have meant the Reverse-Flash taking one more person from Barry, and he won’t stand for that. Barry and Joe have a quiet moment where Barry talks about how he had to let Patty go and Joe tells him, “Part of being the Flash is you have the ability to do amazing things that nobody else can do, and we see now that a hundred years from now, you’ll still be doing them. But the other part is you’re going to be loaded with sacrifices and you’re going to have hard choices to make and there’s going to be a lot of things, eventually, you’ll have to let them go. You’ll have to be ready for that.”
The episode ends with Barry getting a call from Patty. She tells him she is on the train to Midway City and there is a man with a gun. Barry races off and gets to the train in record time only to find it was a false alarm. The Flash tells Patty he just wants to make sure everything is okay before he goes. Patty assures him everything is good. As the Flash races back to Central City, Patty watches him speed away and tells Barry goodbye for good.
All in all, this is a killer episode and one of the best of the second season so far. The Reverse-Flash was just too good a bad guy to stay dead and I am delighted he is back, especially now that we get to see Matt Letscher’s take on him some more. As Harry indicates, this is his secret origin episode and I can’t wait to see what they do with the character next. Also, we get to see Dr. Tina McGee again in this episode. Any chance to feature Amanda Pays is fine by me, but they really gave her a great part in this episode.
As the Man in the Yellow Suit and Tina make their returns though, we bid a fond farewell to Patty Spivot in this episode. As a Flash fan, I know that Barry and Iris are destined to be together, but I know the CW wants to hold-off on that union for a while yet. That being the case, I liked Barry and Patty together and I’m sorry to see her character go. Heck, she was smart enough to figure out who Barry was and the way she confirmed it at the end of the episode…outstanding. My hope that we’ll see her return somewhere down the road.
As the Flash and his team face off with the Reverse-Flash, Iris and Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) bond over the death of their mother, Francine (Vanessa Williams). I like that it is taking time for Iris and Joe to connect with Wally and the relationships aren’t instantons. It makes this storyline all the more realistic.
This episode’s WTH!? moment comes after Caitlin figures out how to save Jay by finding his Earth -One doppelganger and getting a donation of healthy cells from him. Problem is, there is no Jay Garrick on Earth-One. When Caitlin talks to Jay about this, he shows her his doppelganger, who was adopted after his mother died in childbirth. Jay tells her that he also thought of using healthy cells from the Earth-One Jay Garrick as well, but his body was altered by his powers, so now his cells are way too different for this to work. The big shock comes when Caitlin, and the viewers, discover Jay’s doppelganger on Earth-One is Hunter Zolomon, the man who became Zoom in the comic books.
We know time travel is a staple in the Flash’s world. Is it possible that Jay’s Earth-One counterpart will eventually become Zoom? Or is there still someone else under that mask? We’ll have to keep coming back to find out and that is no problem with me, especially if The Flash keeps producing great episodes like this. Like I said, this was one of the best of the season and I am giving it a solid 5 stars!