The Flash, Season 2, Episode 11: The Reverse-Flash Returns
This was an episode which I wasn't sure would be handled well. I guessed correctly that the Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash that showed up at the post-credits scene last episode was Eobard Thawne when he first time-jumped into the past to do battle with the Flash, one of the first times in his career as a time-travelling supervillain instead of his final gambit in season one. It's beautifully complicated, but it definitely makes sense. The Eobard Thawne here has not experienced everything that we have in season one, and it's kind of a temporal echo where everything that Thawne did (from Thawne's point of view) needs to have happened for him to go back to the past (in Thawne's future, stick with me here), kill Barry's mother and masquerade as Harrison Wells, thus leading to the whole events of Flash season one and his eventual death. But what about Eddie Thawne's death and Eobard Thawne being erased from the timeline and shit? Well, Harry Wells made up something about temporal echoes and alternate splinter timelines, so that's what we're going with.
In any case, this episode gave us a wonderful origin story to the Reverse-Flash, allowing a villain of credible threat to return as a recurring villain in the future. It's a great way to reuse the Reverse-Flash, and the fact that this is a very faithful adaptation of a more 'classic' Eobard Thawne compared to the far more engaging Harrison Wells Evil Mentor Life Destroyer we got in the first season is a nice touch. Eobard Thawne here relates his extremely comic-book backstory, that he idolized the Flash, only to learn that he's destined to be a villain, so he said 'fuck it' and became a villain. It's like it's taken from a DC character book or something! Eobard Thawne really can't hold a candle to the sheer charisma of his season 1 counterpart, but few villains can. And Thawne's role as the villain of the week was particularly great. It's a bit disappointing, perhaps, in that it ends up being a pretty self-contained episode and not a big game-changer like it was hyped up to be (Zoom, again, is a no-show) but hey.
Barry's interactions with Thawne was great, even if he might have inadvertently caused Thawne to learn so much more regarding the fastest man alive. Cisco and Harry Wells also get some really great lines and interactions with the rather confused but still standard evil Thawne, showing that even when this Thawne is utterly inexperienced and was beaten by Barry in less than a scuffle, he still carries enough gravitas and caused-slash-will-cause enough psychological damage to totally fuck up our heroes.
Also Dr. Tina McGee shows up to do stuff! She's cool. I like her.
Barry also has to struggle with the fact that he has to send Thawne back to the future because Thawne is involved in this insane time loop system (which may or may not hold up to the time travel rules in Legends of Tomorrow, we'll see) and Thawne being locked up in their basement instead of travelling back to the future changes the timeline significantly enough to nearly cause Cisco to disappear. Barry did end up throwing Thawne back to the future, but he did save McGee from dying. We'll see if this ends up having ramifications, or if it's just something inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
Speaking of Cisco, he got a bit of a superpower upgrade thanks to Harry Wells figuring out that adrenaline is the thing that causes his Vibe powers to be activated, and created these cool sunglasses (based on his comic counterpart's sunglasses) that will cause him to better Vibe things. I don't think we got any easter eggs in the montage of stuff that Cisco vibed in this episode, though.
Iris and Wally get a rather decent, inoffensive side-plot. Iris is so much better utilized when she's not bogged down with nonsensical, borderline-incestuous love triangles, isn't she? The bit with Iris and Wally eventually reconciling with their dying mother and forgiving her is something that you could see from a mile away, but it was done well, without much fanfare but without glossing over it.
Oh, and Patty, despite going away last episode, is still around. To go away again. Her storyline is getting exhaustive, and Barry ends up just looking like a gigantic tool. He's all like "aw, I didn't get a chance to tell her" at the end of last episode, and when Patty shows up with dialogue that's almost literally "tell me, I'm giving you a chance now before I leave" Barry... decides to pussy out again. And then Patty calls Barry out on some fake threat and ends up figuring out the identity anyway. It's boring, and honestly a bit of distraction from far more interesting stuff, but hopefully it's over and done with. Bye, Patty. Don't come back.
Even moreso than Patty, I don't care much about the Jay/Caitlin nonsense romance, but we did get a gigantic bombshell dropped upon us that Jay's Earth-1 counterpart... has changed his name. And he is... HUNTER ZOLOMON! Who will sound like a stupid name for anyone who isn't familiar with the comics, but Hunter Zolomon is the alter-ego of Zoom from the comics, who is radically different than the Zoom here. Time will tell where this big plot twist will go, but it's definitely a moment that made me go "whaaaaaaaaaat?!" as it's a clever little plot twist that doesn't seem to be pulled out of the writers' ass.
Overall, a pretty great episode, despite my whinings. I just wish we get a bit more Zoom, because comparing the positions of the first and second seasons, Zoom still is nowhere the credible threat like Reverse-Flash was. Hopefully he gets better.
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