“Let’s up the stakes and get nuts, The Flash.”
That’s the last thing I said in the main body of my recap last week. Someone in the Berlanti-verse heard my prayer and delivered one of the best episodes of the entire series. “Rupture” does so many things right that it makes my malaise about season two completely evaporate. I’ve never been more excited to see where The Flash goes after this.
Even though I loved this episode, it did illuminate at least one thing the season has been missing: Zoom. If you’ve read these recaps then you know that’s not a new complaint of mine, but “Rupture” made me realize that all we needed were more scenes of Zoom conversing with the metas under his command. He didn’t need to be a big focus of all those episodes, but it would have maintained a strength to his presence that was absent for chunks of this season. Zoom was on point this week and I pray this last run of episodes keeps him and Caitlin in the spotlight.
This episode also looks to have fixed one of the founding problems with season two: Henry Allen. His departure always felt odd and unnatural from the outset, and it is heartwarming to hear him say he plans to stay for good. His scene with Barry’s other dads — Joe and Wells — makes me hopeful for more interactions between these three. They make for a great triumvirate of Barry’s moral makeup.
And such a great, great TV version of a villain this week with Rupture. The show soars when it really embraces the visual silliness of its source material. I understand that they can’t always put the budget into costuming, but I hope they figure out more ways to do less expensive looking villains like Rupture. The Berlanti-verse shows are the most cartoony looking in the superhero TV world, and I love when they play to that strength.
But now we move on to the Jon Snow-ing of Barry. I didn’t mind the soap opera aspects of Barry deciding what he was going to do since it gave us lots of great scenes between Barry and everyone. Plus, the Frankenstein setup we got at the end was so worth it. Then, the CW whipped out some CGI and they disintegrated Barry in a sequence that was equally horrific and gorgeous. Of course we know Barry will be back — hopefully for the length of only one episode — but that doesn’t make this moment any less well-executed. And now we are assured that Wally and Jesse are going to be speedsters before the season is out. The Flash Family is growing and I’m stoked to see it happen. If that means not having Barry for a bit, then so be it.
I feel bad for next week’s Kevin Smith directed episode. “Rupture” is going to be a hard act to follow in terms of maintaining this kind of fantastic momentum. It looks like Barry will be around in a metaphysical way (from the official synopsis: “Barry fights to return to his old life.”) so it’ll be interesting to see how the show uses him.
Thanks for upping the stakes and getting nuts, The Flash. I knew I could trust in you.
Favorite moment: Barry’s face slowly burning away and then seeing his entire body explode into some kind of Speed Spirit (can a Flash fan tell me if this a thing?).
Unfavorite moment: Cisco went reference crazy this week. I actually don’t mind this but I have to put something in this section, so I might as well point that out. He went a little overboard but that is the most minor of complaints, especially when his cry of, “Expecto patronum!” gave me such a big smile.
Next Episode: The Runaway Dinosaur
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