FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 2×14 – “Escape From Earth-Two”

The Flash
(2×14 ) – “Escape From Earth-2”

Written by: David Kob

Directed by: JJ Makaro

After a
stumble for part one we’re back for more of Earth-2, and it seems Zoom is a
little pissed off that Wells returned to Earth-2 and didn’t Check-in on
Facebook when he came back. Judging by
the big super-villain display of burning messages into buildings.

Wells has
locked down and evacuated STAR Labs when Cisco arrives and gives him a recap of
last week and Wells offers up the only plan you can make at a time like this:
Run. Two problems, Cisco won’t run and
Earth-2 Barry Allen is away and making a stink.

Actually
it’s three problems because Zoom has arrived in the lobby. So Wells’ plan has won the moment and he takes
the other two down to his version Time Vault and successfully hides them from
Zoom. After Zoom bails Barry demands
answers.

Speaking of
Barry demanding answers, our Barry Allen is getting his bearings in Zoom’s
tribute to the Saw Franchise. Jesse is
understandably down and Taps on Glass can only… Tap on glass. Still, there’s a reason that Geoff Johns gave
another version of Barry a Blue Lantern ring and he rallies the troops.

However, Zoom
arrives to rain of Barry’s parade and make the standard threats before leave to
check in on Earth One. Caitlin is watching
the aftermath of a Geomancer attack and Jay arrives to tell her he has the
Speed Cannon up and running again. He’s
also a little depressed, after all he made a fool of himself in front of
Geomancer and almost got himself killed.

Caitlin has
even more bad news as the Velocity-8 is doing as much damage to his cells as
the V-6 and V-7 and until she has a new formula she can’t give him the drug in
good conscience. Jay tells her they may
not have a choice while Geomancer is still out there.

This is
rough, let’s check in with Iris. Hey!
She’s got a new Editor at the paper, his name is Scott Evans. He’s pretty GQ looking and this is a CW show
so I think we all know where this is heading.
Especially when he shows his credentials from the “J Jonah Jameson
School of Journalism.” He tells her
that her stories about the Flash…

and if she can’t
get him pictures of Spider-man she better get him more honest stories about the
Flash or he’ll post the headline, “Flash Menaces Central City.”

Excuse me, I
need a drink.

Back on Earth-2,
E2-Barry finds Iris and takes her up to his lab where he, Wells and Cisco
explain their situation and that they need to find Zoom and rescue E1-Barry. Iris tells them the only way to find Zoom is
to track down his henchmen but they’re not going to talk.

Cisco
believes that Caitlin might after Zoom killed Ronnie. Still, finding them will take some serious CSI-on-TV-magic,
fortunately they have E2-Barry.

Based on the
case files from P-… Patty Spivot…

Oh God!

Based on
Patty’s work they’re able to find where they think Caitlin’s been hiding. In the forest, Caitlin’s hiding out in the
forest. Never mind that, Cisco and Wells are going to go find Frost. Well if they’re going Iris is going, they’ll
need backup and she’s going to stop Zoom to avenge her father’s dead.

And if Iris
is going then Barry is going because reasons.

Back over to
E1-Barry and friend, Taps on Glass is still tapping on glass and Barry’s sure
there’s some meaning behind it but it’s not Morse code. Jesse just wants him to stop so she can
wallow in peace but remember, Barry’s got a big old bag of hope in his back
pocket and it comes out in the form of a pep talk. He tells her that her father has more faith
in her than he has in himself. Jesse
points out that he never knocks more than five times and Barry realizes that
while it’s not Morse it is a Vietnam-era POW tap code.

Back on Earth-One,
Caitlin believes she’s perfected Velocity-9 and Iris arrives to tell that she’s
a big old case of the “crappy boss” so she needs Jay’s help. Cue Geomancer, if he can’t get his hands on
Earth-One Flash, then Jay will do just fine so he knocks down a hospital to
call him out. Jay’s not going to put up
with that so he says to hell with possible side effects and drugs up.

Jay then
clears out the hospital just in time before returning to STAR Labs. He’s got good news, the V-9 worked bad news
is he’s a little shy on stamina so he’s going to go catch a nap.

Back on
Earth-2, Barry has given Jesse a crash course in Tap code and they start to decipher
what TOG has been trying to tell that and they have their first word;
“Jay.” Barry asks if he means
“Jay Garrick” and TOG nods but when Barry tries to explain that Jay’s
alive and well TOG gets a pretty upset but before he can tell them more Zoom
shows up, warns TOG to stay quiet then beats Barry black and blue. But after Zoom leaves, Barry smirks. Zoom’s shown him how to get out.

Out in the
woods, Team Wells finds Caitlin out in the woods and they ask for her
help. Caitlin isn’t a team player and
she decides to kill them all. She
corners Iris but Cisco puts his anti-Killer Frost gun to her head and we have
ourselves a stand-off.

Back at
E1-STAR Labs, Iris is with Caitlin while she’s looking over her test data and
calls Jay up to the hub but Geomancer shows up instead to kill them. Caitlin leads Iris into the Cisco’s toy room
looking for something. Geomancer finds
them and brings one of the shelves down on top of Caitlin and corners Iris.

Just as he’s
about to kill Iris we learns that Caitlin was down but not out, and more
importantly, she found what she was looking; Cisco’s boot gun last seen when
Patty used it in “Running to Stand Still” and she uses it to subdue
Geomancer. After Joe takes him away, Jay
arrives and Caitlin shows him that the V-9 is working better than they’ve
hoped. It’s causing Jay’s abilities to
regenerate his damaged cells.
Unfortunately, they’ve got a bigger problem, Geomancer has damaged the Speed
Cannon and destabilized the breach.

Back over to
Earth-2 and it looks like Barry’s been trying to phase through his cell to no success. He and Jesse can know if it’s because of a lack
of speed or his body not vibrating at the right frequency and Barry’s starting
to get a little frustrated.

Fortunately,
Cisco manages to talk Caitlin into help them up the cliffs into Zoom’s lair and
the group arrives to save the day. After
a tearful father/daughter reunion they bust Jesse out with a little help from
Caitlin. Unfortunately, she can’t freeze
Barry out of his cage as easily.

Barry tells
them to leave him behind and get back to Earth-One. Now remember what I said about other Barry’s
being a beacon of Hope. This applies to
Barry Allen of Earth-2 and we get a big old Barry-on-Barry pep talk and
somewhere Barry finds the willpower to try again. This time he phases through and gets out.

That’s when
Zoom arrives and takes everybody down and while it may seem that Caitlin sold
them out to Zoom we quickly learn otherwise when she goes after Zoom herself
buying them time to escape but not before Barry vows to return for TOG.

On
Earth-One, Jay and Caitlin are running out of time and much like the
transporter on Star Trek Jay is going to have to science the hell out of it to
get it going again. So while he uses his
speed to contain the breach Joe has to reboot the machine and the pair of them
only barely manage to get it done.

There’s not
a lot of time on Earth-2 for long goodbyes but Barry still has a chance to wish
his and Iris’ doubles well while Wells and Jesse prepare to escape to Earth-One
with them. Zoom storms the labs just as
they start to make their way through.

Barry brings
Cisco and Jesse through first but when he returns to bring Wells he finds Zoom
has him. Barry distracts Zoom just long
enough for Wells to use one of his anti-speed darts on Zoom and Barry takes
Wells through. Jay closes the breach
behind them but not before Zoom rams his hand through Jay’s chest and pulls him
back through.

Well, a lot
more happens this week than last week.
Which is always good, fan service and Easter Eggs are fun but I am
always happier when there’s things for all our characters to do and there was
stuff for everyone this week.

We got
send-offs for our Earth-2 characters, and we get to meet Jesse who will become
a larger part of the show in the final run of this season. Caitlin and Jay’s characters took new steps
both separately and as a pairing and giving them Geomancer to go against helped
them out.

Sure he was
a little “Challenge of the Super-Friends” and he looked a lot like
James Marsden’s Cyclops in X-Men 3 but he didn’t have to carry the whole
episode. He had enough to at least warrant
a return in another Villain-team-up episode down the line.

We also have
a new foil for Iris and because this is the CW I am 99% certain that Scott
Evans (played by Tone Bell) will be a romantic interest for her down the
line. It will be interesting to see if
he can actually build a rivalry with Barry as the Flash in the mold of
Spider-Man and Jameson as I’ve always enjoyed that part of Spider-Man’s mythos.

All that
aside, the meat of this episode revolved around three people; Barry, Zoom and
TOG. As usual, whether he’s in the scene
or not, Zoom looms larger over every moment.
Not just because he could show up at any moment but because even now we
only know him as a devastating threat but they’ve teased that there’s something
about him that Barry (and unlike season one with Wells/Thawne, us as well) doesn’t
know that is even worse.

TOG is the
key. The way I see it, there are four
possibilities that come out of this:

1)
Jay Garrick is
Zoom. That’s right, like Thawne posing
as Wells last year Jay Garrick was Zoom and was posing as the Flash on Earth-2
and now Earth-One. This one is unlikely,
especially now that the two have been seen together in the same place at the
same time. In this case, TOG knows the
secret and that was what he was trying to tell Barry when Zoom cut him off.

2)
Jay Garrick is Working with Zoom. Similar
to option one only more plausible. Jay
Garrick and Zoom came to some sort of understanding on Earth-2 (whether by
agreement or threat of a loved one) and Jay is a mole to get Barry to
Zoom. Like in case one, TOG knows and is
trying to warn Barry.

3)
“Jay Garrick” is Hunter Zolomon of
Earth-2. In this case, Hunter Zolomon of
Earth-2 was a minion of Zoom’s and was sent to Earth One to get close to Barry
by posing as someone who knew about Zoom.
In this case TOG is Jay Garrick who has been captured and put in a mask
to hide the secret from Jesse and Barry.

4)
My personal favorite: Zoom was Jay Garrick. In this
option, everything that Jay has told us was true from a certain point of
view. Jay Garrick was given speed by the
STAR Labs explosion but in his quest for more he developed Velocity-6 and the
side effects were that his personality was split in two Ala Jekyll and
Hyde. The Zoom part of him retained his hunger
for more speed and was consumed with that hunger while the Jay Garrick half fought
him unaware. In this case, the two were
split, perhaps by the breaches and a delirious and injured Jay fell through the
breach thinking his speed was stolen by Zoom.

The only drawback to number four is that I can’t think of a
place where TOG fits in other than he knows Zoom’s secret.

It’s very
likely some version of two or three is what they’re working for but I’ll be
watching the show with these scenarios in mind.

This was the strong wrap-up I was hoping for when I finished last week’s
episode and I look forward to a little bit lighter episode with King Shark next
time.