Our favourite speedster in red isn’t a speedster any more, but we still love him anyway.
While Barry tries to adjust to normal life, an agitated Harry leaves STAR Labs to find Jesse, all while blaming Barry for everything that has happened. We all know Barry constantly has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and I’m sure even he blames himself for Caitlin being kidnapped, but I think Harry could take it a little easy, especially since Jesse ran away because of him, and not Barry. Just being honest.
After a failed attempt at bringing his daughter back home, Harry is kidnapped by metahuman Griffin Grey (who’s known as The Griffin in the comics) who is understandably angry at Harrison Wells for making him into what he is – a meta with superhuman strength, but with the downside of ageing quite rapidly. Grey blames Wells for the fact that he lost the love of his life while only being 18, but looking like a middle aged man. Harry, trying to talk some sense into Grey, is forced into finding a cure for this condition, otherwise he faces death. You can see it in Harry’s eyes, that while he’s frustrated at being mistaken for the previous Harrison Wells, he kind of takes this burden upon himself as well, since he is the one to blame for all the meta-humans back on Earth-2. Although the Wells from Earth-1 was a little more psychotic and frankly did not care about anyone else, Harry (Earth-2) does shows more compassion and proves to be a better person. I guess that’s what having a daughter does to you.
Meanwhile on Earth-2, Caitlin is kept hostage back in Zoom’s lair. Hunter tries to show his humanity by giving her food and eventually taking the handcuffs off, as he claims he truly does care for her and that he’d never hurt her. And it’s here that we learn that the name “Hunter” is actually a trigger for him. Every time someone calls him by the name, he has flashbacks of the night his mother was killed in front of him. Trying to win Caitlin’s affection back, Hunter tells her that he loves her, but she refuses to give in. When Caitlin is free to explore her new home for the foreseeable future, she finally gets to meet the man in the iron mask, as well as her doppelganger, Killer Frost. Frost convinces Caitlin to help her escape her glass prison and in exchange, Frost will help Caitlin get back home. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Caitlin should know better than to trust her evil doppelganger. But this is Caitlin Snow – the woman who sees the good in every one and believes that anyone can change.
But, Killer Frost being the villain that she is, deceives Caitlin and attempts to kill her, but not before Zoom can intervene and well… kill Frost. Again, there’s nothing better than showing your love for someone, than to hurt others.
Back on Earth-1, Barry finds Jesse and gets her back to STAR Labs so that she can help the team get Harry back. The team realize Grey’s ageing dilemma and try to come up with a plan of action, while Cisco and Jesse work together. Eventually, Barry figures out where Grey is hiding out and takes Joe and Cisco with him in a rescue attempt. But without his speed, Barry proves to be too slow to avoid an attack from Grey and ends up getting hurt. Poor guy can never catch a break. Grey refuses to let Harry go, and keeps him prisoner in an amusement park, which frankly reminded me a lot of The Joker in The Killing Joke. But unfortunately, Grey isn’t menacing enough to actually pull off the whole “I’m a great villain who’s actually scary”. The Flash has had it’s share of great villains, and they’ve had a handful of unimpressive ones, and Griffin Grey falls in the unimpressionable list for me.
“How do you sleep at night? Knowing you’ve destroyed so many people’s lives”, Grey asks Harry, while watching him concoct an antidote for his problem. Harry promptly replies with “I don’t”, and goes back to diluting a solution, since he really does not know how to cure Grey.
Barry realizes that each time Grey uses his super strength, his ageing process accelerates and decide to get Grey into using more of his powers, until he ages into a weak old man. And while the team try to locate Grey, Jesse realizes they can use Harry’s meta-human tracker to find him and insists on joining them them on their rescue mission. Barry’s suit has been equipped with dwarf star alloy to absorb Grey’s super-punches, but it’s only enough to withstand only one punch, but Barry takes on the challenge anyway.
Revealing that he actually did pay attention in Chemistry class, Grey calls Harry out on his fake cure and decides to try to kill him. His plan is foiled when Team Flash arrive, with Barry succeeding in speeding up Grey’s ageing process, killing which reverts him back to his 18 year old self.
In the midst of all superhero saving, Wally tells Joe that he’d like to speak to The Flash so that he could thank him for saving his life. When Joe finally agrees to letting the two meet, I really thought Wally was going to come right out and say “Thanks for saving my life, Barry”. I mean, it’s kind of really obvious that The Flash is Barry, so I really don’t see how Wally hasn’t figured it out yet. But all in due time, I suppose.
The episode ends with Harry deciding that he needs to have another particle accelerator explosion, in hopes of lightning striking twice and giving Barry superspeed again. But since we’ve been introduced to two characters who are speedsters in the comics (Wally and Jesse), could one of them become a speedster instead?
It is possible that either of the two could take on the superhero speedster mantle and eventually take down Zoom, but will the writers actually make that happen? I can’t say that it’d be completely pointless to have a new speedster just for a couple of episodes to take Zoom down, but I’m not 100% against the idea. I would really like to see Barry get his speed back, but seeing Jesse Quick and/or Kid Flash make their speedy appearance, would be rather refreshing!
