Episode Title: Enter Zoom
Original Airdate: 11-10-15
Wow, this show goes from 0-60 pretty damn quick. Ever since the beginning of season one, this show has hit all the high marks in many different ways, especially with the ways that it rarely relies on the villains of the week. There’s usually another purpose to them, something that relates to the larger story at hand, or they will come back to play a role in another episode sooner or later. This episode is the Flash firing on all cylinders, it has some of the most hilarious scenes, it has some great heart-to-heart between Barry and Joe, and it has some balls out action between Flash and our first look at Zoom, and boy is it a doozy.
Often these episodes can be boiled down to a specific theme that ties all of the characters together in one way or another, and I think the best one to put into this episode is the matter of trust. While it’s not an all-encompassing theme, there are several characters that are dealing with different levels of trust in one way or another. First off, there’s the trust that Barry gives his ex-girlfriend and Iris’s current co-worker and friend Linda Park. She’s the latest person to join the circle of trust to know that Barry Allen is the secret identity of the Flash. She also ends up being the source of the most humor as she both escapes as naked & invisible Dr. Light and in return has to pose as Dr. Light in order to draw Zoom out of Earth 2. The mini-montage where she has to learn how to use the light shooting gloves is so much fun, as is the mock scene where she and Barry are pretending to fight each other.
But where Barry puts his trust directly into his former girlfriend, that trust is missing between him and his current girlfriend Patty Spivot. But not only that, but the whole trust issue is coming to a head between Patty and Joe, because Patty realizes that Joe is hiding something from her, she just doesn’t know exactly what that is just yet. That road hasn’t quite been traveled between her and Barry just yet as Barry hasn’t had to directly try to cover up anything aside from his Zoom trap with Joe, but Joe is giving her the silent treatment about the Dr. Light case and she isn’t willing to take no for an answer. In return, all Joe is able to give her is “a few more days”. I’ve said it before, but I still think that something is going to go down with detective Spivot, and not in a good way. I’ll just have to wait to see if I’m proven right or proven wrong.
And to cap things off, there’s the lingering issue of trust between the entire team and Earth 2 Dr. Wells. He hasn’t been entirely honest ever since coming to Earth 1 and he finally gets called out on it, but not until the end of the episode. It was another great moment of humor seeing Cisco’s plans to try and touch Harry in order to get a vibe off of him, and Harry immediately knew what he was onto and wanted nothing to do with it. I did find it rather odd that when Cisco finally did find out about Wells’ daughter Jesse and Zoom, he didn’t take it to anyone else in the team right away and instead just held onto it. Even though he didn’t know Jesse’s relationship with Harry at the time, it did show that Harry was hiding something from the team and quite possibly couldn’t fully be trusted. But in the end, it seems like Harry really is on the right side of things, at least if his words can be trusted and he’s not just playing the long game.
And before I wrap things up I have to talk a little bit about Zoom. Holy crap is he something else. He looks absolutely amazing, and it’s made even better to hear Cisco describe him and his “demon claws”. The blue lightning looks great and he certainly knows how to make an entrance. There is a question of who his Earth 2 secret identity really is, since they seem to be going out of their way to keep it a secret for now which means that it is going to be a face that we recognize as viewers, so much so that the actor isn’t even credited so as not to give it away in that respect. But the question is who will it be? Let me take a moment to explore a few of those options. I think the most comic book option would be for Zoom to be Earth 2’s Barry Allen, a true mirror match, evil doppleganger, and all that rot. It would give Grant Gustin a chance to play the bad guy and it’s very much in the spirit of what the show is all about so far. The next option which is pretty close to option one would be that he is Henry Allen. Zoom definitely appears to be a bit more built than Grant Gustin and could quite possibly be John Wesley Shipp. It would add a similar level of being torn where he would feel in some way that it’s still his father even though logically it’s absolutely not his father in any way, similarly it could also be Joe West under the mask. I’d love to hear your theory on who is under Zoom’s mask, leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Channel: Superhero 