Let me just say that Tuesday night’s The Flash episode titled “Welcome to Earth-2” was awesome! And there is more to come next week. In order to save Harrison Well’s daughter from Zoom, Barry, Cisco and Wells travel to Earth-2. Warning, spoilers ahead…
Going into a parallel universe always leaves a wealth of possibilities. As Barry and company travel through the portal, we got to see some wonderful Easter Eggs that not only included a glimpse of the 90’s Flash but given the recent announcement of a network crossover between CBS and the CW, seeing Supergirl sent chills down my spine. And this all happened within the episodes first 10 minutes or so. Once they arrive on Earth-2 things don’t quite go as planned.
It doesn’t take too long for Barry to kidnap his Earth-2 counterpart in order to get close to the Police Department and learn about Zoom. Earth-2 Central City is quite different from Earth-1. Here there is still a Detective West but instead of Joe (who as we’ll soon learn has traded in his gun for a microphone and becoming a lounge singer), it’s Iris and to make things more interesting, she’s Barry’s wife. To complicate things even further, Joe hates Barry in this universe. He blames him for Iris becoming a cop.
But the biggest surprise came in the form of Caitlyn who on this Earth, is known as the villain Killer Frost and appears to be working for Zoom. Former Earth-1 Firestorm Ronnie known here as Deathstorm and also appears to be working for the black clad speedster. Their job is to bring Barry and Cisco to him alive and unharmed. In the process of doing so, Joe gets fatally wounded by Deathstorm which puts the team’s mission in jeopardy much to the dismay of Wells.
Besides a very different Caitlyn and Ronnie, we also get a look at Cisco’s doppelganger, Reverb the man they truly work for. This suave and confident version of Cisco is fascinated by his counterpart. So much so that he tries to make him an offer Cisco can’t refuse ala The Godfather by offering to train him so that Cisco could fully tap into his powers. Cisco however rejects Reverb. Barry arrives as The Flash to save his friends but is taken down by Reverb and Deathstorm. Zoom arrives and kills Deathstorm for hurting Barry. Zoom then takes Barry to the prison where he keeps Wells daughter, Jesse is being held as well as some masked man. Zoom tells Barry that this is where he’ll spend the rest of his final days. This may truly be one of The Flash’s best episodes in a while.
On a side note to all that went wrong with our heroes on Earth-2, back on Earth-1 with no Flash to save Central City from a new metahuman named Geomancer, Caitlyn and Joe try to convince Jay Garrick to take the Velocity-6 serum and become The Flash. At first he refuses but then decides to do so. Jay faces off against Geomancer and was able to hold his own but soon the serum wears off and Geomancer gets away. There is an interesting revelation when Jay confesses to Caitlyn that it wasn’t Zoom who stole his speed. It was Jay himself experimenting with the serum that did it. This confession is interesting because there is wide speculation that this Jay Garrick is actually Zoom. We’ll have to wait and see to know whether this is true or not.
This was a very intense episode in so many ways with lots of plot twist and turns. As we have come accustomed to when watching The Flash, humor is always present. It’s part of who they are and why we’re so invested in these characters. With the humor, there also comes with it, some dramatic consequences. Warner Brothers and DC has always stated that they have a plan for their own DC Universe that would rival Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Perhaps we got a glimpse of that Tuesday night. Perhaps they’re embracing the multiverse. It would be interesting if the TV properties spill into the Cinematic ones. Or vice-versa. I have my doubts but if there’s money to be made, rest assure the possibility will always remain.
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
