I was really frustrated by the dumb, sloppy plotting in last week’s episode of ‘The Flash’. Fortunately, the two-parter story arc ends a lot stronger than it opened.

Last week was ‘Welcome to Earth-2’ and this week is ‘Escape from Earth-2′, yet on-screen text identifies the parallel universe as “Earth Two.” Inconsistencies like that trouble me. However you want to spell it, Barry is still trapped there with Cisco and Dr. Wells. He’s been captured by Zoom, who’s causing havoc through Central City hunting for Wells.

Fresh from his encounter with his own (now dead) doppelganger, Cisco returns to Wells to tell him about Barry. Suddenly, they both remember about the alternate-Barry handcuffed to a pipe in the S.T.A.R. Labs basement. This version of Barry is a real whiny bitch. When they release him, all he can do is complain about his treatment and demand to know what’s going on. They don’t have time to explain to him. Alarms go off, indicating that Zoom has infiltrated S.T.A.R. Labs. (You’d think he might have checked there first if he’s looking for Wells.) Cisco, Barry-2 and Wells all hide in the Time Vault room. (Yes, Wells also has one on Earth-2.) Zoom finds the room, but they trick him with a hologram of a fake wall, which gives them enough time to escape.

Zoom returns to his evil lair, where he’s holding the original Barry, Wells’ daughter Jesse, and a third prisoner in separate cells. The last guy is mute and wears a metal mask over his face. He tries to communicate with the others by tapping on the glass walls, but neither Barry nor Jesse recognizes any pattern to his signals.

Back on Earth-1

Jay Garrick stabilizes the last dimensional breach. However, the meta-human villain Geomancer is still terrorizing the town, demanding a rematch with the second Flash. Unfortunately, Caitlin’s Velocity-8 formula isn’t ready yet, and her tests show that the Velocity-7 only made Jay sicker. She worries that the V-8 may kill him, but Jay thinks it’s their only hope to save the city.

Iris has a new editor at Picture News who’s a major dick and wants her to write harsher articles critical of The Flash. She doesn’t want to do that, but offers instead to do an exclusive interview with the second Flash.

Earth-2 Again

Cisco and Wells allow Barry-2 to reunite with his wife Iris-2. He has a hard time explaining all this parallel universe and doppelganger business to her. Cisco and Wells believe that their best chance of finding Zoom’s lair is to turn Killer Frost (the evil Earth-2 version of Caitlin) to their side. She should be pretty upset with Zoom for killing her boyfriend. Barry-2 uses computer magic to locate her in a forest outside town. (Why she would be in a forest is never explained.) Iris-2 offers to go with Wells and Cisco, and Barry-2 insists on sticking by his wife’s side.

In their cells, original Barry finally determines that the masked guy is using a 5×5 tap code to try to communicate. He spells out the name “Jay.” Barry of course assumes that he’s talking about Jay Garrick, but before mask-man can elaborate, Zoom shuts him up by threatening to hurt him if he taps anything else.

Are we supposed to take from this that the masked guy is Jay Garrick? If so, who’s back on Earth-1 macking on Caitlin?

Barry acts tough in front of Zoom, to which Zoom phases through the wall of his cell and beats the hell out of him. After he leaves, Barry announces to the others that he knows how to get out of the cell now.

Earth-1

In her search for a new speed formula, Caitlin skips right over Velocity-8 in favor of the all new Velocity-9, which she believes will have no adverse health effects for Jay. She still isn’t sure how long it will last, though. When Geomancer sets off another earthquake that causes a building to crumble, Jay takes the drug, races over there, and saves all of three people before the building collapses. He’s very proud of himself about this, but is left feeling wiped out afterwards.

After Jay goes to take a nap, Geomancer invades S.T.A.R. Labs and fights with Caitlin and Iris. Caitlin appears to get knocked out, but she’s just faking it. While Iris distracts Geomancer, Caitlin blasts him with a big gun. Jay sleeps through the whole thing.

Earth-2

Wells, Cisco, Iris-2 and Barry-2 find Killer Frost in the forest. She does not seem very open to their suggestion that she switch teams and join the good guys. She attacks them with her icy powers, but Cisco manages to catch her.

Cisco appeals to whatever amount of the Caitlin he knows may be in Killer Frost, and eventually gets through to her. She tells them that Zoom’s lair is at a place called Ascension Cliffs and agrees to show them the way. When they get there, the entrance is in the middle of the cliff face, only accessible to a Speedster. Caitlin makes some ice steps for them to walk up.

Barry tries to phase through the glass in his cell but can’t do it. He’s resonating at the wrong frequency and isn’t fast enough to pass this molecules through the solid matter like Zoom did.

Cisco and the others find Barry. Wells frees his daughter from her cage. Killer Frost tries to get Barry out but his cell’s glass is impenetrable. Barry feels helpless and tells everyone else to leave him behind before Zoom comes back. Wimpy Barry-2 is able to give him a pep talk and encourage him to try phasing again. This time it works. Barry moves fast enough to get through the glass.

Zoom arrives and thanks Caitlin for luring Dr. Wells to him. Looks like she double-crossed them. Cisco chastises her that, “The other you would be very disappointed in you right now.” When Zoom attacks Barry, Frost has a change of heart for real and freezes him with her powers to give the others enough time to get away. Sadly, they’re not able to get the masked man out of his cell. Barry promises to come back for him. He and his friends escape while Frost holds Zoom off. Presumably, this means that she’s sacrificing herself for them. I doubt Zoom would let her live after this.

Our heroes regroup at S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry-2 and Iris-2 say their goodbyes, but Wells tells his daughter that she’ll have to give up her old life and come with him to Earth-1. If they stay on Earth-2, Zoom will inevitably find them and kill them.

Earth-1

Joe arrives and puts Geomancer in a shock collar contraption that neutralizes his powers, then tells him he’s going to Iron Heights prison (not the Pipeline?). Jay wakes up from his nap and is feeling much better. In fact, his illness seems to be reversing itself.

The Speed Cannon was damaged in Geomancer’s attack on the lab. Jay struggles to fix it quickly and needs Joe’s help to get it working again. Just as they do, Wells, Jesse, Barry and Cisco all come through the portal. Barry tells Jay to toss the implosion reactor in and close the breach before Zoom can follow them. He does, and cockily stands in front of the breach congratulating himself when suddenly Zoom’s hand reaches through, grabs him, and pulls him back to Earth-2 as the breach closes. Caitlin screams in horror.

Episode Verdict

As I mentioned in the intro to this post, this episode is a huge improvement over last week’s. The plotting makes better sense and, aside from Jay at the very end, the characters behave a lot smarter and less obnoxiously. Well, at least our Earth-1 characters do. Barry-2 is a continual annoyance for most of the episode. Grant Gustin overplays his comedic bumbling.

On the other hand, Iris-2 is a significant improvement over the original. I’m kind of sad that we probably won’t see her again for awhile. Personally, I’d like to see Iris-1 get killed off and Iris-2 replace her. Would the show have the balls to do that?