Eager for action and hot for the game.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Next week’s episode of The Flash sounds promising indeed, with Barry and friends making their first journey to Earth-2 and meeting the evil versions of some familiar faces. Unfortunately, that’s next week’s episode. This week’s installment was more focused on setting the stage for that storyline. Only the always dependable Dr. Wells saved this episode from being a relatively mediocre addition to Season 2.
A lot of the blame can be foisted on Tar Pit (Marco Grazzini), who proved to be one of the least memorable villains in the show’s history. With Tar Pit, there was the sense that we’ve seen it all done before, and done better. He had the textbook origin story – a small-time criminal who was changed by the particle accelerator explosion and now seeks revenge on the people who wronged him – and served as little more than a plot device throughout the conflict. When he actually appeared at all.
Lack of depth aside, there was potential in Tar Pit as a purely physical threat. We saw a bit of that when he attacked the drag racers and Barry was forced to make a high-speed rescue. Unfortunately, that was about as exciting as the conflict ever got. The final showdown between Barry and Tar Pit was about as brief and anticlimactic as humanly possible. When your main villain can be defeated by one gadget and a swift punch in the face from Joe, there’s something wrong.
The West family drama was at least somewhat more compelling than the Tar Pit conflict. This episode shed more light on Wally’s background and his real motivation for risking his neck every night on the drag strip. Keiynan Lonsdale is proving to be a solid addition to the cast so far. He plays Wally as a young man who has a chip on his shoulder but is still a fundamentally kind, decent and fairly likable person. Wally’s monologue about going on long drives with his mother and savoring that sensation of speed offered very touching insight into his character. It helps build anticipation for that inevitable moment when Wally is induced into the Speed Force crew and learns what it’s like to truly move fast.
Flash, meet future Flash.
It was also nice to see Iris in the spotlight more this week. It’s been a bit of a challenge this season to keep Iris as an active player now that Eddie is gone and chasing after the Flash isn’t her life’s ambition. We even got to see Iris play the intrepid reporter role and court a little danger of her own. I was just disappointed that her arc didn’t have a stronger resolution. Instead of sticking to her guns and risking bringing Central City’s criminal element down on her family, she was injured by Tar Pit and was taken out of the game.
Again, this was very much Wells’ week to shine, and that he did. Wells has evolved into the most complex and tormented character on the show this season. The audience has every reason to hate him as he schemes behind everyone’s backs and plots to betray Barry to Zoom. But it’s impossible to hate Wells. He’s just a desperate father who’s willing to do whatever it takes to rescue his daughter. And thanks to Tom Cavanagh’s haunted performance, it’s easy to see the torment this predicament is causing Wells. He doesn’t want to betray these people. Despite his best efforts to remain cold and aloof, he’s become fond of Barry and Cisco. Even before Wells finally came clean about his actions, he was telegraphing his actions and flat-out warning Barry that he couldn’t be trusted.
The Wells/Barry relationship was really fascinating to watch this week. Following last week’s encounter with the Reverse-Flash, Barry seems to have put his relationship with Earth-1’s Wells into perspective. He can appreciate the profound impact that Wells had on his growth as a man and a hero, and he wants to rekindle that relationship with Harry. Their interaction had plenty of drama and also a fair amount of humor. It was fun to see Barry put his speed-reading powers to the test, especially when it became apparent that super-speed doesn’t necessarily lead to super-retention.
All of this paid off nicely in the climax as Wells encountered Zoom again and finally realized he couldn’t keep up his facade any longer. That led to a satisfying moment where Joe gave him a well-deserved beating and threw him in a cell. But the real payoff came when Barry refused to abandon Wells to confront Zoom on his own. He accepted Wells as a true member of their team despite his misdeeds and pledged his support to save Jessie. There’s really no better sign of the noble hero Barry has become – the hero the other Wells helped him become – than that act of compassion. Now on to Earth-2.
This week’s Flash suffered from one of the most bland and forgettable villains in the show’s history. The conflict with Tar Pit felt like little more than a means to an end and a way to set up next week’s big Earth-2 adventure. But at least there was plenty of good Dr. Wells material to offset that flaw. And with the West family adding their own character drama to the mix, there was still more bad than good to be had this week.
