I don’t know where to start. I’m so dumbfounded that something as aggressively comic book-y as “Welcome to Earth-2” even exists. This is a Silver Age comic brought to life by some kind of miracle. It’s by no means the best episode The Flash, but it may be one of my favorite things ever in terms of purely existing.
There’s so many Earth-2 shenanigans to geek out about. All the stuff in the portal (someone please give me a rundown in the comments. I saw the original Flash TV show, Supergirl, a Green Arrow of some sort, Grodd, and a ring?), the people on speed dial in Barry’s Earth-2 house phone, and the Justice Society nod in the Central City Police Station. Not to mention Killer Frost and Deathstorm who looked awesome. I was actually bummed that Deathstorm died as it was fun to see Robbie Amell again. And evil Cisco (Reverb)! Everyone who got to play a baddie had a ball with it, and I’m going to miss them a whole bunch.
Maybe my favorite thing in this episode is Joe West as a lounge singer. Heck, just the whole art deco inspired Earth-2 was a joy to look at. I hope season two doesn’t completely cut us off from Earth-2 because there’s such a treasure trove to be mined from that concept.
Meanwhile, Earth-1 has another disposable meta to deal with. I know that season one was just as flippant with their villains of the week, but maybe that’s becoming more apparent since season two’s main arc hasn’t been as strong. It was nice to see Jay get back to Flash-ing for the briefest of moments (that bit where he used his helmet as a vibration cannon was so dumb it circled around to being awesome), but he’s still feeling like a weak link. Here’s hoping Wally joins the speedster gang sooner rather than later.
And finally, there’s Zoom. It’s such a bummer that Zoom has been backgrounded for most of this season, because when he does show up it’s viscerally cool. Tony Todd’s voice doesn’t hurt. His dispatching of Deathstorm and Reverb was chilling in the most badass of ways, and now that he’s got Barry I’m finally invested in what Zoom is doing. If next week doesn’t reveal his identity, I’ll be furious. This is the perfect time to make his true self known, especially if it’s going to be an Earth-2 doppelganger that will pull the rug out from under Barry.
“Welcome to Earth-2” was a killer first act to this piece of the main story arc. If next week’s episode can stick the landing, I think the second season of The Flash will finally have found its stride.
Favorite moment: So many things to choose, but I’m obligated to go with the Jaws reference. So happy to know that Earth-2 was not deprived of the greatest movie ever made.
Unfavorite moment: I was going to go with how dumb Barry and Cisco act in this episode when it comes to all the Earth-2 doppelgangers and such, but that was all swept away with one line from Killer Frost: “God, this is making me so hot.” Ugggggh.
Next Episode: Escape from Earth-2
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