The Flash Review: Flash of Two Worlds
Review by Nolan P. Smith
(Victor Valley)—The second episode of the second season for the Scarlett Speedster has been built up as being a massive episode, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. At the end of the last episode, we saw a mysterious man make his way into S.T.A.R. Labs and face to face with the Flash himself, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin). But wait, the mystery man is Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears), who calls himself the Flash as well. Confused? Don’t be.
Spoilers ahead, steer clear if you haven’t seen the episode yet.
Garrick, known as the original Flash from comic book lore, is a staple in the world of superheroes and a tent pole for the premiere super team, the Justice Society of America. But this version of Garrick is missing one key element- his speed. To have such a character in the live action television DC Comics universe is pretty amazing for this longtime comic book fan, and Sears does a terrific job of bringing the pan head Flash to life. Garrick is here due to the singularity caused from last season’s finale- which ripped a rift between worlds- which brought us last week’s villain, Atom Smasher, and this week’s villain as well, Sand Demon.
We see Garrick play the role of a mentor to Barry, teaching him techniques to help beat the Sand Demon of Earth 2 (Garrick’s Earth). But first, Garrick has to find a way to earn the trust of Barry and the gang. We also see a new character try to enter the ranks of Detective West’s (Jesse L. Martin) Metahuman Task Force: Officer Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten), who has her own reasons for wanting to help bring down out of control metahumans.
Everything clicks in this episode- we see Barry learn to not let the past dictate the future, and learn how to throw lightning from Jay Garrick and defeat Sand Demon in a very entertaining battle. We also see Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) start to take a liking to this new, more mature Flash. Plus, we see Cisco (Carlos Valdes) start to have more of his visions of the future, as well as an amazing ending that left everyone’s jaw on the ground.
I love the way this season has started off, and with the addition of Garrick, it fills the void left from the departing Dr. Wells. We also got a glimpse at Zoom, which appears to be the Black Flash, or at least with similar attire. This is a great episode that leads up to next week’s battle with the Snart family.
Rating: 4 out of 5. A great episode with a villain that has mainly lived in obscurity in comic books- Flash is on a roll.