The Flash - S2E18 - Versus Zoom

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Previously on The Flash, “Flash Back”

This was a fantastic episode of The Flash if you like getting answers, WestAllen, West family moments, lots of action, and an appearance by Zoom. And I love all of that.

This was not a good episode if you actually think about the answers you were given.

Thanks to Thawnes-Wells’ tachyon device, Barry is four times faster than he ever was, and that’s faster than Zoom. Once he’s done with his never mentioned trip to Supergirl (which was only a matter of seconds to his friends in Central City, and signified by a flash of blue light and a snippet of the Supergirl theme music), Barry is now ready to take on Zoom - just as soon as he figures out a way to reopen a breach.

He turns to Cisco, who he figures will be able to reopen one if he can tap into the power his doppelganger mastered so easily. Cisco pushes through his fears that he’ll turn into Reverb, and with an assist from Wells tweaking Reverb’s glasses, Cisco is able to do it.

Zoom’s been waiting and he comes through almost immediately, chasing Barry through Central City and right into a trap. Barry uses someone from Zoom’s past to get him to momentarily stop trying to kill him. No, he didn’t reveal that his mother’s name is also Nora.

Prior to reopening the breach, Caitlin finally told everyone about Jay’s Earth-1 doppelganger, Hunter Zoloman. Upon hearing the name, Wells tells them about Hunter on his world: a serial killer who watched his father kill his mother many years ago (Why not just tell us how many years ago it was unless that matters to a yet-to-be-revealed twist?) when he was a little boy. He was receiving electro shock therapy in an insane asylum the night of the particle accelerator explosion and turned into a speedster - just like Barry. They quickly realize that Hunter Zoloman from Earth-1 is Zoom. Then who the hell is Jay? We’ll get to that, too.

Once Zoom sees life-sized cardboard cut-outs of his parents (I don’t even wanna know how), he stops chasing Barry long enough to be hit with the dampening boot Cisco made back at the beginning of the season. He allows himself to be contained for as long as it takes Barry to gloat and explain how they stopped him. Then Zoom vibrates out of the boot, rendering it not worth a hot damn, snatches up Wally, and heads back to Earth-2.

Womp. Womp.

It’s a no-brainer for Barry: He sends Zoom a vibe-message that he’ll give up his speed for Wally’s safe return.

Now we reach the part of the review I’m going to call My Zoom Theory Was So Much Better Than This:

While Wells calibrates some stuff and thangs (most definitely using science circles), Zoom tells Team Flash how he did it. Velocity was killing him so when he saw The Flash through the breach, he devised his plan to infiltrate them by presenting himself as Jay Garrick, the Earth-2 speedster he was pretending to be just to be an asshole. How did he “Jay” in front of them? That’s Hunter Zoloman from an earlier point in his timeline. He convinced himself from the past to be murdered so that Team Flash would work extra hard to increase Barry’s speed. Caitlin’s Velocity cure was only a temporary measure; he still needed Barry’s speed to stay alive.

I mean… I guess?

Once Hunter became a meta-human, he created Jay Garrick for shits and giggles? Then, once he needed “Jay” to die, he went back in time and convinced a younger Hunter to die in the future on another Earth? (Did we know Speedsters can bring people through time?)

I mean… I guess?

Or was younger Hunter playing along the entire time and they were taking turns being “Jay” on Earth-1? Someone had to pass the blood test in episode two, which showed no signs of the Speed Force, yet meta-human markers. I guess if that’s the case, that HAD to be Hunter from the beginning because Hunter from the past, posing as “Jay” wouldn’t have meta-human markers at all.

Either way, Barry does the hero thing and runs on the cosmic treadmill, allowing Wells’ device to siphon his powers into an injection gun for Zoom. Once he’s all juiced up, Zoom prepares to kill Barry because you can’t trust evil motherfuckers at all, but he stops when Caitlin talks him down. Then he runs off, back to Earth-2, taking Caitlin with him.

Who’s the man in the iron mask?

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” said Zoom.

Inexplicably, no one said, “Try me.”

So, if I stick to how much I loved it when Wally and Joe shared a great moment when Joe asked him to move in and Wally said yes, and how much I loved it when Iris finally admitted to Caitlin that she’s been thinking about Barry romantically, and how much I loved it whenever Jesse L.. Martin and Tom Cavanagh had scenes together, and how much I love Tony Todd’s voice as Zoom, and how much I (oddly) found Hunter Zoloman/Zoom to be ridiculously hot, and how much I loved Iris having a gun, and how much I loved watching Zoom chase Barry, then this episode was amazing.

But if I think about how it doesn’t make sense that Hunter’s whole plan hinged on a whole lotta What-Ifs like: What if they didn’t find his helmet I’m assuming he threw in to later validate “Jay”? How come Wells knew Hunter’s entire life story because serial killers on Earth-2 are so rare, yet he didn’t recognize Jay Garrick, the man who’d been running around his city for two years pretending to be a hero, was Hunter? Why did Hunter’s plan rely on Cisco maybe figuring out he had the power all along and knowing Cisco would have picked up Vibe’s glasses to be able to do what he needed him to do?

So.many.questions. If I don’t think about them, this episode was perfect. However, even if I do think about them, I was so thoroughly entertained I’m not sure I care if they make sense.

What did you think of last night’s episode? Who do you think is in the mask? Leave your thoughts below and we’ll read them on tonight’s podcast.