The Flash Zoom-In: Welcome to Earth-2 (2×13)

Feb 10, 2016

Oh man! All across The Multiverse, there are versions of me squealing the exact same way in reaction to this week’s episode of The Flash titled “Welcome to Earth-2”. Well… there’s that one version of me who’s still crying in a corner about #PattyBarry ending, but forget about that me… that’s definitely not just normal me. The Multiverse is finally expanding as we got to see not only glimpses of Supergirl, but we got a full episode where our favorite Earth-1 heroes were in Earth-2. The action in this episode was high, and the quality of the acting was even higher. Sit back, take some Velocity-7… let’s Zoom-in!

Warning: SPOILERS will follow!

1. Easter eggs! So many Easter eggs! The comic book nerd in me is peeing himself with excitement over the call-to’s this episode. As I mentioned already, now that the Supergirl-The Flash crossover is confirmed, Melissa Benoist flew into our view as our Earth-1 heroes sped through the breach towards Earth-2. This seems to signify that Supergirl is actually in a whole other world, which we had already guessed due to Superman being a thing in her world. Another image we got to see was of a darker skinned or possibly African-American Green Arrow. Whether or not this is an alternate Earth where Diggle became Green Arrow, or simply just a universe where Oliver has a different skin color, this was a pretty interesting image. This could also be a flash of things to come as well, as we also get a glimpse of Jonah Hex; who we know will be featured in an upcoming DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Other images shown here were John Wesley Shipp as the original The Flash, a glimpse of a red-eyed Grodd looking very angry, and most exciting of all… A LEGION OF SUPER HEROES RING! Are you freaking kidding me you guys?! I seriously hope we’re getting Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy again like we did in Smallville. Last season we were astonished they did Grodd as a villain. Next season? Possibly a superhero team from the 31st century. Bravo The Flash team.

2. Wait… what? More Easter eggs?! Yes! Because this was an episode that took not only our heroes, but us viewers into the mysteriously backwards Earth-2, and we got to see a lot of familiar faces playing some not so familiar roles. First thing through the door we see Dr. Henry Hewitt a.k.a. Earth-1’s Tokamak (2×04), as Harrison Wells’ assistant. We see that ‘Mayor Snart’ extends curfew on the bottom of a news broadcast. While everyone is assuming this means Leonard Snart a.k.a. Captain Cold, this could also be either Lisa Snart or his father, so don’t be so quick to think you know Earth-2 politics okay? Floyd Lawson a.k.a. Deadshot shows up as a not-so-dead-shot bumbling cop in Earth-2’s CCPD. In the lobby of the CCPD, there’s a call to the Justice Society, and we saw who we know as Captain Singh getting arrested; probably for his beard being too awesome. We get more Justice League references at the West-Allen residence, where we see not only Eddie Thawne’s button on the home phone (signalling he’s still alive), but also Bruce, Hal and Diana’s. This obviously is Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan and Diana Prince. Lastly, we get another mention from Earth-2 Nora Allen of Atlantis’ existence, which is always awesome. *panting* Okay, I think I’m done.

3. On to the actual show’s happenings. We’ll refer to Barry, Cisco and Harry as Team E-2, and Jay, Caitlyn and Joe as Team E-1. Team E-2 makes its way into Earth-2 and even without all of the amazing Easter eggs, we get some exciting scenes as the team, and us viewers, get to discover what Earth-2 is like. We quickly get curve balls as Earth-2 Barry Allen appears on the news. It was funny how quickly Barry decided to run and snatch away his Earth-2 doppleganger and meet him face to face. I loved the parallels in how Earth-2 Barry swooned over Harry like our Barry swooned over Harrison Wells in the first season. Another fun twist, that I totally saw coming, was that Iris is a Detective at the CCPD. I thought Candice Patton delivered one of her absolute best performances as Detective West. It really gave her the attitude and personality that I want from our Iris back on Earth-1. While the main mission was for Cisco to “vibe” Jesse’s location, due to his glasses not working on Earth-2, Barry ended up getting super involved in the West family drama. Joe not liking Barry was a super fun role to see Jesse L. Martin play. Sadly though, he straight up dies as Deathstorm (Robbie Amell) shoots him in the chest with a bolt of his radioactive flames. Danielle Panabaker delivers her best episode of the show as Killer Frost. I hate to say it… but I was wrong. I wasn’t sure Panabaker would be able to pull off Killer Frost to my liking, but I thought she did a great job being deliciously evil. The episode came to a climax as evil Cisco a.k.a. Reverb reveals himself as an associate of Zoom. Carlos Valdes did a great job in both of his roles, and managed to really separate his character into two different characters. I loved that Reverb wanted Cisco to join him and take over the world; or as Cisco put it “Are you Cloud City Vader-ing me right now?”

4. Team E-1 wasn’t left out in the cold this episode. Surprisingly this half of the episode was just as equally action packed as the Earth-2 half. With the Speed Cannon overloading and breaking apart, Earth-1 is officially Flash-less… well… unless you count Jay Garrick. We learn a lot more about Jay’s condition this episode as he reveals why he’s actually sick. The creation of Velocity-7 is exciting mostly due to how Velocity-9 is a highly addictive speed drug in the comics, and by the end of this episode Caitlyn begins working on Velocity-8. My main thought is, if Jay lost his powers due to taking too much Velocity-6, can’t they just inject Zoom with it and make him lose his powers too? Maybe that’s what they’ll do, but I feel like there is more to this minor season long story thread than meets the eye. While Barry’s gone, Geomancer shows up to wreak havoc on Earth-1’s Central City. While he was a minor villain, I really loved that not only were we getting amazing Killer Frost and Deathstorm villainy in Earth-2, but the action didn’t slow in Earth-1 as this third villain came into play. This allowed my favorite scene from the whole episode to happen. It may have been cheesy to some people, but a Velocity-7 using Jay Garrick speeding in to fight Geomancer and using his helmet to shoot some sort of wave beam at his enemy was kick ass. I thought Adam Stafford did a fine job in his small part as Geomancer, and I’m looking forward to Jay and him fighting again in the next episode.

I have to give it up once again for the villains this episode. Killer Frost and Deathstorm were really damn good. Reverb and Geomancer were also really fun for me as well, but no one comes close to the level of evil villainy as Zoom. As Reverb is trying to turn Cisco to the dark side, Zoom apparently has been keeping close tabs on the situation. He zooms in and immediately kills both Deathstorm and Reverb. Because Killer Frost showed concern at the thought of defying Zoom, she was spared to hopefully stick around for more episodes to come. Zoom trapping Barry in one of his jail cells was interesting as well. I feel like Barry could vibrate out of that cell pretty easily, which is what I hope he does next episode. One curious thing we see during this shot is a man in a metal mask possibly tapping Morse code on his glass cell. I wonder who he is? At first he reminded me of Diggle in his Spartan mask, but this mask reminded me a bit more of The Persuader’s mask on closer inspection. It’s hard to see but his hands may appear a bit darker, which could mean maybe it’s Earth-2 Wally West? Not sure why Zoom would have him though. It’s most likely someone who Zoom is playing “man in the iron mask” with. Possibly his Earth-1 doppleganger? I feel like whoever he is might hold a massive clue as to who Zoom really is. It’s pretty obvious that Cisco will then take his now dead doppleganger’s glasses that will allow him to find Barry and Jesse next episode. Hopefully he’ll be able to free them. Jay will also be testing Velocity-8 as a means to stop Geomancer who escaped this episode. Either way, this really just felt like part one of a two part-er. I really can’t wait to see how next episode plays out.

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Check out the promo for next week’s episode titled: “Escape from Earth-2!”

In this week’s competition between Arrow and The Flash, I gave the point to The Flash. While Arrow had some decent ninja on ninja action, visiting Earth-2 on The Flash was soooo cool! The only way Arrow would have beaten The Flash this week, was if Arrow had gone to Earth-2 as well. Check out my Arrow Re-Nocked: Sins of the Father (4×13) thoughts here.