The Flash S02E19 Review: Fillerific Filler

The Flash, Season 2, Episode 19: Back to Normal

Did we not already have a 'how would the Flash fight crime if he is powerless' episode? We had it when his speed is shorting out and he's semi-crippled after his first fight with Zoom and had to fight Grodd. We had it with Jay Garrick (as much as he's apparently faking it) fighting the Geomancer. And this episode, well... really felt like a filler episode. From the slow, melancholic opening comparing Barry's superspeed morning to his now-normal morning, 'slow' is what describes this episode. Which, perhaps, might be thematically appropriate with a now powerless Barry Allen, but it's definitely not conducive to an episode in the final stretch.

And it's a filler episode too! Last season, the final four or five episodes are all either filled with Reverse-Flash or time travel related plot, or a gauntlet of powerful recurring enemies like Grodd or the Rogues. This episode just introduces a very boring villain and some 'how will Barry defeat this without his speed', a convoluted side-plot involving Caitlin Snow and Killer Frost which ends up ultimately revealing nor developing anything, a boring side-plot with Wally wanting to meet the Flash, and the whole Jesse-goes-away thing ends up being resolved almost immediately.

At least Barry isn't wallowing in self-pity like the last time he lost his powers. Some self-deprecation jokes are in order, but he's still mostly functioning as a hero without a power. Which is decent. But it's just kind of bad pacing after the event-filled (if badly written) last episode to transition to this really uninspired and boring filler episode.

We get some great moments from Earth-2 Harrison Wells, where he is kidnapped by this metahuman, Griffin Grey, who is blessed with superstrength except he ages every time he uses it. Sucks to be him, but he confronts Wells for making his life hell. And, well, he's a pretty sympathetic villain who only wants to return to his normal life, and his aggression really is expected from someone with his affliction. I'm not sure if he died in the end and then reverted to his original young form, or if he somehow randomly recovered and reverted to his younger self for no real reason.

Wrong Wells or not, though, both Griffin Grey's accusations and Jesse condemning him for murdering a man ends up causing Wells to, well, kinda develop more into a less overprotective father and to atone for his sins of manipulating everyone around him and being an overtly ambitious man with the particle accelerator on his home universe.

Though honestly a lot of the 'you went too far in protecting me' bit still kinda feels moot considering Jesse doesn't know that Wells killed the Turtle while he was imprisoned. For all she knew, Wells is fighting for his life trying his hardest to save Jesse from Zoom -- and honestly from Wells' point of view it could be taken as such -- and it's highly stupidly naive for Jesse to think that her rescue from Zoom was done without blood.

And the whole 'I need to be more responsible with science' bit that Wells learned about building a particle accelerator that inadvertently harmed random civilians ends up... kinda feeling hypocritical when his lesson at the end of the episode ended up being... 'I'm going to rebuild the particle accelerator!' To give Barry his powers back, and presumably he's not going to detonate it in the city. But hey.

Also, Jesse stood in for Caitlin this week as the resident science girl, showing how utterly replaceable Caitlin Snow has became in season two. Jesse doesn't get a lot to do this episode, honestly. She is angry with her daddy at the beginning, then reconciles with her daddy at the end. It's honestly too quick (no pun intended), and felt like, once more, a rehash of Iris and Joe's fight and reconciling after the father got kidnapped by a villain (Grodd instead of Griffin in this case) from last episode.

Caitlin finally gets a proper subplot this episode, I think having more dedicated screentime in this episode alone than the previous eighteen episodes combined. She has to deal with being Zoom's prisoner, and then she finds out that her Earth-2 doppelganger, Killer Frost, wasn't actually dead but was imprisoned. The two Caitlins took the entire episode to work to spring Killer Frost from her prison, and then Killer Frost tries to kill Caitlin and then Zoom kills Killer Frost. And Caitlin is still Zoom's prisoner.

So the character we all thought was dead was revealed to be alive, and then gets herself killed off for real. For no reason at all -- she didn't even facilitate Caitlin's escape, or wound Zoom, or anything. From a literary standpoint, I do believe this is called 'filler'.

We did get some hints of something interesting with Caitlin, far overdue considering we spent the entirety of season two with her fawning over Jay and nothing else. Something about an overbearing mother and... a missing brother? Also, apparently Zoom kept Killer Frost around because she looks like Caitlin. Which... raises... some disturbing implications. The show doesn't go anywhere with it, thankfully.

Zoom-Jay-Hunter is just crazy. He's just this crazy psycho who wants to conquer everything and wants to have Caitlin fall in love with him just because. And what, really, is he doing running off leaving his base? What does Zoom do in his spare time when he's not lurking around his base? Is he off terrorizing Earth-2's population? Are there other superheroes for him to fight? I honestly want some explanation on this front, but I highly doubt we'll get them because Zoom is more plot device than character.

Oh and we have this random plotline of Wally wanting to meet Flash. Even though he knows that Flash is speedless at that point. I thought that particular bit was pointless, heartwarming as it ended up being.

It's just, well, a filler episode. There isn't anything wrong with this episode, but there really isn't anything necessary in here that it needed to be put in the end stretch of the season. We could've had something cool and have Jesse Quick, Vibe or Wally-Flash embrace their comic book counterpart and be the superhero of the day while Barry is out, but that would require good pacing and writing, of which the last few episodes are sorely lacking. I just hope the season doesn't flop the finale too much.