The Flash: “Potential Energy” Review

Time for Barry to figure out what he wants.

The Flash’s mid-season finale was pretty swell, right up until the point where it stumbled in trying to shed light on Zoom’s motivations. If Season 2 is going to stand to-to-toe with the first, it needs a villain who’s motivated by more than a desire to drain speed from his enemies like a vampire. The show lost some momentum thanks to that reveal, and at first it didn’t seems as though “Potential Energy” was going to do much to rebuild that momentum. But what started out as a simple, pleasant look at Barry relationships and personal struggles eventually morphed into a surprisingly dramatic and eventful start to 2016.

Mind you, there’s a lot to be said for good, old-fashioned character drama and humor. This episode had plenty of both to spare. For a while it was enough simply to reconnect with Team Flash after a month-long absence and watch that easy banter flow among Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, Joe and the rest. The writers introduced “villain of the week” The Turtle in a fun way, with Barry apparently being the only person in Central City who hadn’t heard of this mysterious thief who can freeze time. The early minutes of this episode were a nice reminder of how lighthearted the show can be even in its darker periods.

It wasn’t long before this episode veered into more dramatic territory, however. It built on the big reveal of Wally West from the mod-season finale. Needless to say, we got a lot more of Keiynan Lonsdale this week. And he didn’t disappoint. Lonsdale was great at portraying his character as a young man simultaneously drawn to and pulling away from the father he never knew. Part of him craves that missing father figure in his life, while another, possibly bigger part of him resents Joe for not being there and not helping with Francine’s increasingly serious medical problems. Wally criticizing his father for not being a good enough detective to realize he had a son was harsh, but not necessarily unfair.

Jesse L. Martin predictably rose to the challenge as he dealt with Joe’s despair. Martin wasn’t quite as prominent in this episode as I would have liked, but the same could be said for a lot of episodes. He still delivered some memorably funny and tear-jerking moments. This conflict also ended on the right emotional note. Rather than trying to force an instant bond between Joe and Wally, the script acknowledged that the two men have a long, awkward road ahead of them.

Barry certainly had plenty on his plate as well. This week he finally reached the point where he had to choose between telling Patty his secret or letting this new relationship fall by the wayside. Not an easy decision, considering he’s still haunted by nightmares of his previous battle with Zoom. The Barry/Patty relationship has become just one more endearing character dynamic in a show full of them. This episode delivered more of that sweet, slightly awkward banter Grant Gustin and Shantel VanSanten do so well. But is also allowed VanSanten to venture into more serious territory as she struggled to keep the relationship whole and contemplated pursuing a life away from Central City and Barry. There was the great ball room scene between the two that, intentionally or not, dredged up memories of a similar scene from Batman Returns. All of this lent an extra sense of gravitas to Barry’s battle with the Turtle (Battlestar Galactica’s Aaron Douglas). There was the sense that, even if he beat the bad guy and rescued Patty, he might already be too late.

“Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it.”

The Turtle turned out to be a surprisingly intimidating villain despite his goofy name and appearance. He was presented as a sociopath bent on taking everything he covets and storing it for eternity. By the time the final battle rolled around, it wasn’t entirely clear whether Patty would emerge from her ordeal unscathed. Or alive. Ultimately, the Turtle offered an interesting new challenge for Barry, one that he couldn’t overcome simply by running fast or relying on one of Cisco’s gadgets.

In some ways the Turtle was a return to the old model of Flash villains. He was changed by his exposure to the particle accelerator rather than being an Earth-2 refugee. And the episode wrapped up with him being thrown into one of the Star Labs cells, once again calling into question how these metahuman prisoners are able to eat, wash or got to the bathroom. But the formula diverged in an intriguing direction by the end, and it was all thanks to the X-factor that is Dr. Wells. Wells struggled with his Faustian pact with Zoom from the previous episode. Is he truly willing to betray his new allies to save his daughter? Probably, but this episode also made it clear that Wells isn’t going to simply sit back and let Zoom maintain the upper hand.

Wells’ actions in the final moments have the potential to shake up the series in a big way. He seems intent on using the Turtle’s powers as a way of counteracting Zoom’s impossible speed. The final scene was key here, as now it seems Reverse-Flash is back in the picture. The implication seems to be that Wells will use this stolen power to in turn steal Reverse-Flash’s body and become a speedster himself. That would be a terrifically clever inversion of the previous encounter between Wells and Eobard Thawne last season. At that point, does Wells become an enemy to Team Flash? Could it be that Reverse-Flash is the true villain of Season 2 rather than Zoom? Given the lackluster treatment of Zoom in the previous episode, that doesn’t sound like such a bad prospect. I wouldn’t even put it past the writers to reveal that Zoom is nothing more than an older version of Wells, and that he’s doomed to become the very thing he despises so much.

Whatever happens, the events of this episode have gone a long way towards recapturing the momentum that was lost last month. Not a bad way to kick off the new year.