Synopsis of 2×13: Barry, Harry, and Cisco make the jump to Earth-2 and encounter more fan service than they can handle.
Rating: ★★★★☆
There are few prospects more tantalizing to a genre writer than the alternate Earth.
It is a place beaming with potential energy. Every wacky idea, bizarre piece of character development, or moment of unthinkable insanity that has never been considered twice is suddenly on the table. The show doesn’t have to live with the consequences. Everyone is killable and nothing gold needs to stay.
Every single Alternate Earth cliché is on display and all of them are emboldened by The Flash’s characteristic charisma and charm. It’s a frankly incredible amount of fun made even better by staging a compelling story at its center. Barry (and, by extension, we) do exactly what Jay warns against: we become invested. These people look like the people we love. Doppelgangers or no, we want Joe alive, Iris safe, and Caitlin to be a good little lab tech.
The first doppelganger they encounter really sets up the kind of reversals we can expect on Earth-2. In S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry and Cisco come face-to-face with Henry Hewitt, a fire-spewing villain on Earth-1, who is a kindly scientist. It’s a funny moment (Grant Gustin and Carlos Valdes’ reactions are wonderful) that introduces people unfamiliar with these kinds of stories to the bizarro world they’re charging into.
Doing exactly what every Almost Famous-type mentor figure will tell you not to do, Barry becomes embroiled in the trials and tribulations of these alternate folks. When he discovers that Joe hates his guts, Barry feels compelled to rectify this, which he just about does before Joe dies in his hospital bed. From wounds by fireball. That happened because Barry was in Jitterbugs that night. If Barry manages to escape Earth-2 with his life, he’s going to have some real survivor’s guilt.
Valdes takes a less Poison Ivy route with the Reverb iteration of Cisco. He removes Cisco’s inherent dorkiness and personality, making him sound like one of those long-necked cloners from Attack of the Clones. Reverb has an incredible amount of power. It’s enough to keep Killer Frost and Deathstorm in check. But even he answers to Zoom.
On the Earth where Leonard Snart isn’t the mayor, a new metahuman that calls himself the Geomancer is wreaking havoc on Central City. With no Flash to protect them, Caitlin decides it’s time to turn the Science up to eleven and get Jay his speed back. At least for a while. Seeing Jay kick into action for only the second time since he appeared is wonderful. That hat-punching technique is really effective. Maybe Jay can help against Zoom. Maybe Caitlin will finally get the credit she deserves.
Find out in Part Two…