Zoom Delivers: The Flash Season 2, Episode 6 Review
I love Greatest Hits and The Flash finally nailed that set list, after worrying the fans when the first singles were not up to last season's standards.
After last night, we're believers. We'll take a few million full-price tickets to the rest of the tour.
A petrifying no-mouth metahuman with a James Earl Jones-like voice, supersonic kickboxing skills, and multiple axes to grind. Heroic civilian vs. said metahuman, with Cisco's priceless one-liners on comms. (We're supposed to "see the bright side" of Dr. Light?) Not one but two Joe/Barry father-son Star Labs hallway talks (oh, and the one in the elevator makes three).
And just the right amount of romantic traction between Barry and Patty. CW had to audition Shantel VanSanten 3 times because they were on the fence about whether she'd be a believable love interest for Barry.
True fact.
Plus, Patty, who still doesn't know about The Flash - How long is that pretense going to last? If we're realistic, many fewer episodes than it worked on Iris. - called it like a Star Labs pro: Dr. Light would use her superpower of invisibility. And what do you know, Cisco goes into the pipeline only to find Dr. Light's costume but no Dr. Light.
We've seen a lot of resurrections on The Flash, but this was a new one. The classic one, actually.
Zoom, who is so memorable among metahumans that he needs only one name, like Cher or Madonna, is determined to get The Flash via Dr. Light. Dr. Light just wants Linda Park's life is all.
Linda Park, after one too many close calls, is determined to give Zoom what he wants.
Seeing your colleague and friend killed right in front of your eyes because of something somebody who looks exactly like you has done: we've seen variations on this general theme on The Flash already, but Malese Jow brings her own spin to it, and her rookie mistakes and superhero wannabe dialog while trying to act like a metahuman is the comic relief the Star Labs veterans, with way too much history with villains like this, could not pull off.
(Let's talk about that fantastic soundtrack, too, especially the dance mix during the "Linda Does Light" fight rehearsal. The only thing missing was the disco ball.)
Poor Linda. She never signed up for this and appears to have little natural aptitude for meta-humanism. Might want to re-think those killer high-fives.
But ultimately Linda was a better strategist than the Star Labs team gave her credit for, and she earned Barry's trust. Finding out she'd made out with The Flash was an awesome bonus.
Like all good predators, Zoom senses fear and hits where it hurts. Friends, family, old failures, new insecurities. Thanks to Cisco's vibes from a hostile Harry, the team now knows that Jesse Quick, Wells' daughter, is being held prisoner by Zoom on Earth-2. Barry is in the hospital with temporary paralysis. The Star Labs war room has so far failed to come up with a workable Neutralize Zoom plan.
(Calling Dr. Stein. You're needed back home, as a matter of emergency.)
But as frightening as his skills are, Zoom is a show-off and that's a weakness Star Labs can exploit. He's proven he could've killed Earth-1 Flash a few times over during their first encounter.
Instead, he merely disabled him and did a show-and-tell all over Central City, in all the places meaningful to The Flash - the news room, the police precinct, Star Labs - and ridiculed him in front of TV cameras.
Add to that the element of surprise (thanks, Harry), Star Labs' well-oiled machine, and reinforcements on Arrow arriving from Star City for the crossover a couple of episodes from now.
I'm calling Flash Foreshadowing: it's going to be Zoom's human weaknesses, not his superhuman strengths, that ultimately bring him down.
There's one part of the Earth-2 storyline I reject: The Hood is Robert Queen, who has come back to save his city after spending 5 years in hell because he and his son Oliver, deceased, were shipwrecked?
Unacceptable.
Many valuable Arrow episodes were devoted to spinning off The Flash, and this is what we get in return on Earth-2: no Green Arrow, no Star City mayor-elect, no CEO by day/superhero by night Felicity Smoak? (Don't even bother arguing with me about the last one, or I will let the dogs out on Twitter.)
Unfortunately, this is a superhero show. On the CW. Anything could happen.
Fortunately, we have journalistic Earth-1 proof that Oliver will live a long and memorable life. In case we need a Plan B, who says there isn't an Earth-3?
Coming up next, episode 7 "Gorilla Warfare"
