Last week’s episode didn’t feature a dynamic villain or any real set up for this season’s big bad (Zoom). Tonight’s episode manages to make up for the lapses in episode one in leaps and bounds. When Jay Garrick first presents himself to the group there is obvious trepidation from everyone. Just because you say you are here to help doesn’t mean you are. That is a lesson that Barry Allen learned all too well in season one. Garrick explains who he is and why he is here to the team. The short version is Zoom wants to kill Barry and Garrick can’t let that happen. In an interesting turn of events, Garrick cannot access the speed force.
The parallels between Harrison Wells and Garrick are not lost on us, or Barry for that matter. Garrick can’t access the speed force and is also making an attempt to mentor Barry. They have essentially traded in one pseudo-father figure for another. It's tough to determine if setting up this dynamic once again will be a hindrance to this season or if the differences in Garrick’s personality will make using this previously used plot device interesting and new.
Tonight’s villain, Sand Demon, is still not exactly character depth personified, but he had way more to do this week than Atom Smasher did last week. This time around we actually get to see Zoom pulling Sand Demon through the dimensional rift and charging him with the task of killing Barry. Zoom looks like nothing we have seen before… ok, that was a bit of a reach. He looks just like Reverse-Flash, but a hell of a lot more demonic. If the producers wanted to highlight how dangerous Zoom is via his visual presentation, then mission accomplished.
Like last week, Iris West acted as the voice of reason when Barry wanted to work alone. This week she explains to him that he needs to learn how to trust again. Normally, “person giving sage advice” trope is annoying, but if Candice Patton is the one delivering it, it somehow becomes less annoying. All (non) jokes aside Iris needs to be given a more to do. Iris and Barry are meant to be, but it seems their path to love has seemingly been curved. If that’s the case, Iris needs to move on to another love interest and Barry needs to do the same.
Funny thing about that last point is the Officer Patty Spivot has seemingly captured Barry’s eye (and the hearts of almost everyone on social media). Spivot seems overly eager to join Joe’s anti-metahuman task force. Joe will have none of it. When Spivot meets Barry for the first time she goes into total fan girl mode. She is a big fan of Barry’s work… as a forensic specialist. As earnest as Spivot seems there is an air that there is more to her than she is letting on. Since there is a natural chemistry between Barry and Spivot, of course, she ends up getting kidnapped by Sand Demon.
Cisco’s journey continues as he has figured out how to trigger his vibration powers to find Sand Demon’s location. Cisco is reluctant to tell the team about his power, but he does end up telling Professor Stein about it.
In the ain’t it cool section of the review, Garrick teaches Barry how to run so fast he can throw lightning in the hopes of heating Sand Demon to the point that he turns to glass and shatters. Before you ask, yes, it was a cool as it sounds when Barry actually does it.
After the fight, Professor Stein is explaining that with Cisco’s help they have managed to track all of the breaches. There are 52 of them… get it? 52… *rolls eyes*. For some reason, Professor Stein passes out as he speaking. After the episode, we are taken to what seems to be one of the alternate realities. We are taken into a much shinier S.T.A.R. Labs. A tour guide refers to the savior of Central City, Harrison Wells. That was a heck of a turn. Its great to see Tom Cavanagh back on the show and hopefully, this translates to him somehow returning to Earth-1. Seeing Barry deal with both Garrick and Wells at the same time could be very, very interesting.
Episode Rating: 8.5 out of 10
This episode seemed like more of a season premiere than last week’s episode. They managed to keep the A and B story running without losing track of either. They have actually established Zoom a threat, while also establishing Garrick as essentially the other side of the coin; the yin to Zoom’s yang if you will. Garrick wants to save the speedsters while Zoom wants to destroy every single one. Barry’s emotional roller-coaster continued this week, and though it was somewhat annoying, it adds much-needed depth to his somewhat two-dimensional character. Three dimensions is not a bad place to start from.