Episode Title: Flash of Two Worlds
Original Airdate: 10-12-15
The Flash is back once again and partly as I suspected, Jay Garrick is starting to assume the role of substitute Harrison Wells complete with Barry’s lack of trust from being burned once before. This episode is really all about learning to trust again, all of the characters have suffered through some sort of betrayal in one form or another and this time around things are different, but there are enough doubts that instead of embracing the trust from the start, that trust now has to be earned in more ways than one.
In my predictions for season two, I said that “Cavanagh may return as a parallel version of Jay Garrick who could help mentor Barry in the ways of the speed force.” and wouldn’t you know it, I was pretty damn close. Only it’s not Cavanagh in the role, but Teddy Sears and he has some big shoes to fill in more ways than one. So far, he’s doing a good job. He’s much more of a boy scout version of Wells and he’s a lot more up front with what he is. He used to be a speedster, but he no longer has access to the Speed Force since he came through the portal between the two Earths. But through most of the episode, Barry had to come to terms with his distrust of Jay since he had just gone through such a massive betrayal that was Harrison Wells. And Iris West finally seems to have a better sense of her purpose in the show as she helps show Barry the way and help see what’s really going on with him. In a way, it’s a very similar role as Joe but there’s less of a fatherly advice to it and appropriately more of a lifelong friend.
The other issue of trust comes with yet another newcomer to the show Shantel VanSanten who plays Detective Spivot who is desperate to get onto the essentially dissolved Metahuman task force but is continuously denied by Joe. It’s not until she finally comes clean with the real reason why she wants to join this task force that Joe finally relents. As with many characters in this show, especially at this point I have my doubts as to her true purpose. With so much distrust going on with Garrick, it’s interesting that Barry puts so much trust into Spivot mainly because she’s not really asking anything of him at the moment, but instead is trying to work with Joe. But the fact that she knows so much about Barry to have an instant rapport with him and her dedication to get onto the strike force immediately casts doubts on her as a character. It would be great if she were to essentially become the replacement for Eddie Thawne, but it’s just as likely that she is working with Zoom, or even a slight possibility that she actually is Zoom herself. Now that would be a nice twist, thought I think I’m stretching it quite a bit on that end.
The final issue of trust comes with Cisco. Now his trust issues don’t specifically revolve around any newcomer, as Victor Garber’s Dr. Stein has been around long enough that his trust has already been earned, and he’s a welcome addition to these first few episodes. Garber already fits in so well with the cast that it’s a shame he’ll be going off soon so he can be a part of the spin off show Legends of Tomorrow, though it does make me look forward to that show even more. But what Cisco really has to come to trust are his own abilities. It’s still a little unclear as to what the full extent of his abilities will be. As of right now, he’s able to see things that have happened, or possibly even are happening at the moment, but only when it relates to something involving one of the parallel worlds. It first happened with the time travel which essentially created a new parallel universe where he could still see into the old one. And now he’s able to hone in on the metahumans that have crossed over from Earth 2 as they are calling it. But since his power has this connection to Harrison Wells, then he’s distrustful of himself for fear that his power will end up being used for evil purposes.
To wrap things up here, I’ll mention the villain of the week just a little bit. It wasn’t anything special, but like many of the Flash episodes, the villain is really such a small part of each episode that it mainly serves to get a couple action beats in while the rest of the story is fleshed out around it. Sand Demon looked alright, but it wasn’t anything special. I did like his newly learned ability of throwing lighting from his Speed Force. The Flash is infinitely more interesting the more tricks he has up his sleeve so he’s not just running really fast each and every episode. And as for the teaser ending, I really don’t know what’s happened to Dr. Stein, and I also can’t quite figure out where or when that alternate Dr. Wells is supposed to be. It feels like it could be the future, but it could also be Earth 2, we’ll just have to wait until next week to find that out. I’m just glad to see Tom Cavanagh back, Garrick is great but he’s no Wells.
Channel: Superhero 