After a week without speed, Barry is barely the Flash anymore. When Zoom sets his sights on conquering Earth-One, Barry and Team Flash must find a way to get his speed back at any cost. Can Barry survive a second particle accelerator explosion? Find out in my review of “Rupture,” after the jump.
The Holo-Flash
As we open, Barry and Cisco are using a treadmill powered hologram of the Flash to scare criminals. It does actually seem to work with the non-powered crooks. Nice Leeroy Jenkins reference from Cisco who’s having a ball running a motion capture Barry like a videogame. Despite the grim situation, this is fun.
Not just fun, but it is keeping crime at bay. The question is however will it fool metahumans or monsters like Zoom? It’s about to be put to the test as Zoom turns his conquering and murdering eyes toward Earth-One, and brings Rupture with him. A real speedster may be needed.
My Three Dads
John Wesley Shipp returns to the show as Henry Allen. Apparently he’s been Grizzly Adams-ing it up out in the woods like a hermit or a doomsday prepper. He comes back to Central City with Barry to join in the tri-daddy braintrust trying to decide what’s best for Barry. He wants his speed back and needs all his dads to advise him. And wait, what, Garrick is Henry’s mom’s maiden name??
Harry is confident he can reproduce the particle accelerator explosion in the lab and regenerate Barry’s powers. Henry is against it, as it could harm or kill Barry, and he believes he doesn’t need his speed to be the man he is today. Joe knows he can’t change Barry’s mind once it’s made up. And we comics fans who read Flashpoint, or saw the animated feature, know what happens when you recreate the Flash origin accident… you get burned alive…
Rupture
Those familiar with Vibe, AKA breakdancing gangbanger Paco Ramone, as he originally appeared in the comics know that Cisco Ramon is a long way from that version. The showrunners have created a wonderful new character from the skeleton of Vibe. But some aspects have seeped into the show, like his brothers.
One brother, Reverb, showed up as his own Earth-Two doppelgänger, now we get Rupture as his brother Dante’s Earth-Two doppelgänger. Here on the show when Cisco vibes on Dante, he goes to see him, make sure he’s okay. Their relationship is as rocky as ever, but gets worse when Rupture attacks.
Like all the other breachers, he’s in the employ of Zoom, and as we learn later… Earth-Two has many, many more metahumans for Zoom to recruit. Like in the comics, the New 52 continuity to be specific, Rupture is a armored badass with an energy blasting scythe, and notably a Vibe foe, as opposed to the Flash. Unfortunately, especially for a villain with an episode named after him, he doesn’t get to do much.
Police and Coffee
In a bit of foreshadowing before Zoom makes the scene, Wally tells Joe that he’s been affected by his encounter with the Flash. He wants to help people. Joe suggests that maybe his need for speed and the urge to help people might be merged in some way. Wow, if he only knew. I’m glad the foreplay is over, but more on that later.
Zoom shows up, and announces he’s taking over. Is it déjà vu, or have we seen this particular bit before, maybe with the Reverse-Flash, and Zoom as well? Zoom also has Caitlin along for the ride, almost as if she’s a pet. It’s more than a little disturbing. She manages to get him to spare the police, but when the police assemble against his orders later at Jitters (what the heck?) Zoom kills them all, including Rupture, but spares Joe, Barry, and Captain Singh conveniently. Regarding poor Rupture, it’s a good thing there’s so many more potential metahuman henchpersons of Earth-Two…
Love in the Age of Zoom
After hanging around S.T.A.R. Labs so much lately, turning dates with her editor, and basically having little else to do on the show, Candice Patton’s Iris West finally talks to Barry. She tells him how she feels about the whole future thing, and the Earth-Two marriage thing. She might finally be down with the destiny of a romance that transcends time, space, life, and death, like in the comics. About time. I guess that’s why she’s been hanging out at S.T.A.R. so much and wearing those sexy leather pants.
On the other side of the coin, it appears there may be love in the air for sociopaths as well. Zoom, Jay, may be sweet on Caitlin, but in a dark and twisted way. He keeps hinting that she should embrace her dark side. Somewhere deep inside of her is the same darkness that was Killer Frost on his Earth. Will our Caitlin succumb and become Killer Frost at last? Or will she just kick Zoom in the cabbage patch as soon as she gets off his leash? I’m hoping for the latter.
Flashpoint
After the incident at the police station, um, I mean, Jitters, Barry decides that Harry is right, he needs his speed, and must try to become the Flash again through a replicated particle accelerator accident. Assured that the experiment will be contained and not affect others, Barry will do it. Once he’s in the chair and wired up for the big event, I know that every comics fan who read Flashpoint was biting their nails…
In the meantime, it needs to be mentioned that both Wally and Jesse have been locked away in the Braille Room to protect them from Zoom’s rampage. I really had to wonder why Iris, Dante, Joe, etc. weren’t also in the room, right? You know what happens next. Jesse figures a way to get her and Wally out of the Room just as the experiment happens…
Boom
In a split second the inevitable happens, and nothing is left of Barry but a burnt costume, but Wally and Jesse… they are hit by the energy wave from the explosion. We know, unfortunately from the scenes from the next episode that Barry isn’t really gone for good. But have we now created two new speedsters? How long before we see Jesse Quick and Kid Flash facing off against Zoom? I hope not long…
If a bit scattered, this was actually a pretty good episode. I’m not sure I like the addition of Henry and Dante to the cast however. More characters mean more fodder for villains to target and kill. I was almost afraid we were going to lose Singh to Zoom that way. On the other hand I loved Cisco’s Harry Potter and “Fringe” references, and especially when Henry asks why a speedster would need a car. I ask the same thing walking through the toy aisle when I see vehicles for the Flash.
Next: What happened to Barry? What happened to Jesse and Wally? And Girder returns in a Kevin Smith directed episode called “The Runaway Dinosaur!”
