Review: The Flash 2×19 – Back To Normal

Ah, the ‘superhero has lost their powers’ plot, what would comic book adaptations do without you! 

 

The Flash already played with this to a small degree last season but now that Zoom has stolen Barry’s speedforce he properly is back to being an ordinary (adopted son of) Joe.

As such, this episode was a bit of a downer, as Barry struggled with feeling powerless, though it was the nice to see the remaining STAR Labs team come together to take on the metahuman-of-the-week. Likewise, it is always good when the villain has a little bit of grey to them and Griffin Grey did in more ways then one – as he suffered from accelerated aging thanks to the particle accelerator explosion.

This plot line made the most of Earth-2 Wells too, as he had to face the terrible things he has done – particularly killing Turtle in the name of protecting his daughter. Tom Cavanagh is always great on this show, and even the up-to-now underused Jesse got some stuff to do, basically filling in Caitlin’s role.

Speaking of which, the Jay/Caitlin stuff was once again the episode’s weakest element. Zoom worked brilliantly when he was a faceless monster, yet now that he’s unmasked he just isn’t as compelling as Wells was as a villain last year. Likewise, having the two Caitlins meet was fun but poor Caitlin is still mostly being portrayed as a victim.

On the other hand, Wally made a sizeable improvement this week, as having his life saved by the Flash has given him a more positive outlook on life. Hopefully this new attitude will stick around for when he eventually becomes Kid Flash. Something that might not be too far away…

Yes, the episode’s end promised big things to come – Wells is going to make another particle accelerator explosion! Surely this is where Wally (and perhaps Jesse) will get their speed powers? And perhaps even Caitlin will get some ice abilities now that Killer Frost is dead?

As the show heads towards its finale, it has some work to do to live up to season one. Still, in this case, it is possible that lightning might strike twice.

 

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