The Flash: Escape From Earth-2 Review

This The Flash review contains spoilers.

The Flash season 2 episode 14

I’ve gotta hand it to this show. “Welcome to Earth-2” and “Escape From Earth-2” packed enough (alternate) world-building into two episodes to launch an entirely new series. And it packed enough of an emotional punch to satisfy most season finale requirements.

I suppose I could try and get annoyed about all of the little pieces of misdirection they’re throwing our way. Why is “the man in the iron mask” tapping out J-A-Y? We know the Jay Garrick of Earth-2 can’t possibly be Zoom. The ending certainly made short work of any of that, since no matter how fast he is, he sure can’t be in two places at once.

Then again, Jay seems to be having trouble being in one place at once. Do you think maybe they could have taken a minute to explain why he slept through Geomancer’s attack on STAR Labs? I’m sure it was a side effect of the Velocity 9, but c’mon, you’ve gotta give us something there. It felt like the script was missing a page, didn’t it?

Anyway, maybe the mysterious masked man was tapping out J-A-Y because Zoom just looks exactly like Jay Garrick. Remember Hunter Zolomon, the mysterious Jay Garrick of Earth One? Well, in the comics, that is indeed Zoom’s identity (although he isn’t a version of Jay). I wrote more (oh god, so much more) about all of that nonsense right here.

I have to keep talking about Jay here, because this is one of my favorite comic book characters, and there have been few episodes all year where he’s really been properly spotlighted. Here we are on what appears to be the Jay Garrick redemption train, and what does the show do? They apparently kill him at the end of the episode. Snatching him back to Earth-2 is one thing. Snatching him back by driving a hand through Jay’s chest is something else. I’m not sure he can recover from that…unless there’s still enough Velocity 9 in his system to let his cells mend.

I’m not sure how well “Escape From Earth-2” really works on its own, but it’s definitely a perfect complement to “Welcome to Earth-2” (which I may have been a little cooler to than I needed to be last week). I could have spent another episode just exploring Earth-2, or even with Barry trapped in that cage and trying to decode whatever it is his fellow prisoner is trying to say.

“Escape From Earth-2” gets bonus points for giving us the most screen time we’ve gotten with Zoom all year. With a visual (and voice) that strong, he tends to elevate the proceedings a little bit. I’m still not sure anything will top the cat-and-mouse game we played with Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne during season one, but the sheer intensity of Zoom is enough for me at the moment. Other than Zoom, season 2 has failed to really deliver us any other memorable new villains other than Zoom, so it’s about time they start being a little more generous with his screen time.

What’s weird is that next week at least appears to be a business as usual villain of the week installment. I’d complain, but that villain is frakkin’ King Shark! And that trailer is wonderful. He had better sing the song. You know the one I mean.

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Flash Facts!

– Cisco says “this is heavy,” which seems like a Back to the Future reference. With the mid-century aesthetics of Earth-2, it seems appropriate.

– There were a few villain posters on the wall in Earth-2 Barry’s lab, but it was mostly the usual suspects (Doctor Light, Killer Frost, etc). One of them appeared to depict Len Snart’s father as Captain Cold. Can anyone confirm that?

– As I’ve covered before, Velocity 9 is a speed steroid from the comics. We’ve watched it evolve from “Velocity 6” on here. The thing is, Velocity 9 has some rather unpleasant side effects, and is known for turning people into roided out bad guys. Waitasecond…

– Jay really gave us some Star Trek quality technobabble this week, didn’t he?

– I have to love how people on Earth-2 refer to Atlantis as casually as if it’s Florida or something.