The Flash: Season 2, Episode 2 “Flash of Two Worlds” Review
The Flash Season 2, Episode 2 – Quick Impressions (Spoilers)
Hello The Flash fans! Let’s start with this episode’s final scene. One of the more enjoyable aspects over the course of last season were the intriguing pre-credit scenes with Harrison Wells. The way Harrison is reintroduced back onto the show is a nice nod to last season and a great way to start building up the mystery on who exactly is this alternate version of Wells.
As a character, Wells works best when there is a shroud of mystique around him so this longer, thoughtful approach to bringing him back into the fold is much better than if he simply was there on Earth 1 from the time the wormhole singularity first opened.
It’s also fitting to end on a Harrison Wells scene because his lasting influence could be felt on Team Flash throughout the episode. Functionally, Professor Stein played the part normally reserved for Harrison Wells when he explained all the scientific stuff on the multiverse. Stein is also a surprising source of funny dialogue, delivered brilliantly by actor Victor Garber, “I suggest we put our heads together and come up with a solution. Not literally of course, those days are over.”
Harrison Wells’ impact is affecting Cisco in a way that plays against our expectations but is actually very believable. We know that Cisco is completely fascinated with meta humans and their super powers, so we would presume he’d be ecstatic about his new abilities. Yet the notion that nothing but evil can come from Wells is an interesting insight into Cisco’s state of mind and what he fears he could possibly become.
The multi-verse also opens the door for the writers to explore the darker side to some characters like Caitlyn Snow/Killer Frost in their alternate version without having to radically alter our Earth 1 version in a way that could disrupt the team chemistry, one of the strongest elements of the show.
The most noticeable effect from Wells is clearly Barry’s initial distrust of Jay Garrick which thankfully didn’t last too long. Sure, the show already has quite a number of characters to service but on top of Garrick being the bridge to the Earth 2 story line at this point, his proper introduction fills a couple of voids that isn’t currently occupied by another character on the show.
With Wells out of the picture, Garrick is a Speedster mentor who’ll come up with new and exciting ways for Barry to use his powers and give the breakdown on the villain of the week. Garrick is also a big brother figure when it comes to being a superhero, something that Joe and Iris, who are good with emotional advice, can’t readily provide.
The villain of the week, Sand Demon, was really more about having someone the two Speedsters could work together to take down. Jay Garrick will eventually get his powers back, in the meantime it gives Barry the chance to develop his powers. It might take away from the mentor dynamic if Garrick had the power to stop these villains on his own and there would have to be some incredibly powerful villains each week if they had to fight two Flashes at once. The CGI effects of the sand powers looked pretty good, or at least better than the rubbery look of last week’s Atom Smasher.
Two things that hopefully won’t become commonplace is mistaking the Earth 2 villain for their non-meta Earth 1 counterpart. Let’s also hope that new character Patty Spivot won’t be in need of rescuing on a reoccurring basis. As for the final fight, it looked pretty cool but would have worked better if it didn’t end so quickly or easily. One question that will eventually be explained is if Zoom is so powerful, why doesn’t he kill The Flash himself instead of sending these lackeys through the wormhole?
With the “Flash of Two Worlds”, season 2 is progressing very well. The proper introduction of Jay Garrick is given time to develop and the dynamic between him and Barry should have lots of potential. We also got a clear confirmation on the existence of Earth 2 and the multi-verse. A couple of new reoccurring characters are introduced: Iris’ mom (yawn) and the new member to the anti meta-human task force. There’s also a number of questions we are left with: what happened when Stein collapsed, who is Harrison Wells (old question, new answer?) and who is Zoom (new question, old answer?). Overall, there’s already quite a lot of momentum and excitement only two episodes into the new season.
What did you like or dislike about this episode? It may be too soon to guess the identity of Zoom, but do you have guesses on who he isn’t?
Posted on October 13, 2015, in Comics, Television, The Flash, TV Reviews and tagged Flash of Two Worlds Review, The Flash Season 2 Episode 2 Review. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Sidekick Reviews 
I don’t have a clue who Zoom could be. My obvious guess would be Zoom has something to do with Wells, but that seems too obvious. Agree about Iris’ mom. Who cares about her? Joe is an interesting and strong enough character on his own and Iris has finally become less annoying that bringing the mom in seems dumb.
Will be interesting to see how Cisco’s story progresses. I like the idea of Earth 2 and bringing in characters from that world will be exciting. Wonder if they’ll have another Arrow cross-over episode this season? Two episodes in and no sign of sophomore slump yet. Let’s hope it continues.
I also think it would be too obvious if Wells is Zoom but perhaps they could be connected somehow. I totally agree about Iris’ mom and they didn’t mention her before, as far as I can recall, so there’s not much interest there. I just hope it won’t be forced drama for the West family. So far I’m liking how Cisco’s storyline is handled and his abilities ties in well with the multiverse. I haven’t been following Arrow/Flash news but I’m pretty sure there will be a cross-over event episode, plus smaller cameos like when Barry had a brief scene in the Arrow premiere. This season is keeping up the quality so far and I like it! 🙂
I was mulling the Zoom thing over and thought could it be Ronnie? He “died/disappeared” during the singularity, so maybe he was sucked into the multiverse and is a bad version of Ronnie? Ugh – West family drama is completely unnecessary. Hope it doesn’t go that way.
That would be a very cool twist, many people probably wouldn’t see that coming. And if we are going to see Zoom mainly in his costume until a reveal later in the season, this could allow Robbie Amell to pursue other roles in the meanwhile. I think he won’t be back as the other half of Firestorm, he wasn’t announced as a cast member of Legends of Tomorrow. But we’ll see him in the X-Files revival.
Hey man, I’ve finally gotten around to reading your review and thankfully it was a great read as you’ve covered a few things I didn’t think of. As for Harrison Wells I knew he’d make it back on to the show at some point, he just seemed like too important of a character to lose even though his main arc had been done last season. Now with this alternate universe I’ll be curious to see if he’s a good guy or bad guy or somewhere in between. I also liked the use of Professor Stein, he’s really fitting in well as a main contributor of Team Flash. I also want to know what’s going on with Cisco’s powers, how do they work and where do they extend to? I liked his visions to past events with Flash and Sand Demon but clearly some of the other stuff looked like it took place in the future I think. And like you said its interesting how he’s also not interested in being a metahuman himself because of the evil effects that have come with it.
I never considered the concept of the multi-verse as a means to introduce alternate version of current characters as well, with Caitlyn I know of her Killer Frost origin in the comics and was wondering how they’d be able to make that change in teh show, but with the other universes it opens the possiblity to see them without making changes to the prime characters.
Hello there! Apologies for the late reply. I wanted to wait until I had the time to properly comment back on all the great points you made. You’re right, Harrison Wells is too important to the show to lose and the actor is excellent. The producers would be silly to let him slip through their fingers. What’s really interesting is that the Harrison Wells from the first season wasn’t even the original Harrison Wells. This alternative version could go many different directions. I think the writers will play with the viewers expectations and swerve into an unexpected direction.
Professor Stein is great and he’s another ace actor that this show picked up. He’s a good choice to bring to the spin off show. He’s also fitting in really well with Team Flash. Cisco powers are going to be a lot of fun and a way to further develop a great character. I think he might have or will able to see to the other side of the wormhole. He can also sense changes in the timeline. In last season’s finale, there were a glimpse of Caitlyn as Killer Frost, but I kind of hope they save that story line for later. But she should hopefully still get development in other ways in the meanwhile. Appreciate your comments man! Cheers!