Flash "Welcome to Earth 2" (REVIEW)
written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)
The Flash goes through the looking glass when Barry, Cisco, and Harry Wells make their way from Earth Prime to Harry and Jay’s home of Earth 2. The episode’s main premise is as follows, Barry and co decide to take the fight to Zoom on his own home turf. After taking a walk through the looking glass, Barry and Cisco go full on tourist mode as they realize just how different Earth 2 is to their own personal stomping grounds. This wide-eyed trip is interrupted when their reconnaissance mission is interrupted by Caitlin Snow and Ronnie Raymond’s evil doubles, on this world the fire and ice duo are the villains Killer Frost and Deathstorm.
A few others play very different roles on Earth 2 than they do on Earth Prime; Joe West is a lounge singer, Iris is Earth 2’s Detective West, Leonard Snart is the Mayor, even the Suicide Squad member Floyd “Deadshot” Lawton works as a Detective for CCPD. Visually, Earth 2 looks like what people in the 1950s thought the future would look like. Very different from the distinctly modern aesthetic of Earth Prime; everything on Earth Prime looks like it’s washed in a sepia tone, lending to the “olde timey” theme.
Back on Earth Prime, a new metahuman begins rocking Central City leaving Jay Garrick to assume the role of Earth Prime’s Flash. This renews their research into the Velocity compound, Caitlin attempts to unlock the secrets behind Velocity 6 and develops a theoretically more stable Velocity 7. This gets us closer to the comic book Velocity 9, which I can assume will be the key element to giving Jay Garrick back his speed and eventually turning Wally West into the Kid Flash… this is purely conjecture but it seems like it’s the road they are taking.
Facing down Caitlin and Ronnie’s evil doppelgängers take up the majority of Barry and Cisco’s time on Earth Two, even pitting Cisco face to face against his own doppelgänger who shows Cisco what his powers truly can become.
This episode opens up so much potential for the remainder of the season, the possibility of Jay getting his powers back and perhaps introducing some of Earth 2’s superhero community. This first romp on Earth 2 is actually a two-parter with the next episode continuing where this one left off. This first part was more so light on the action, rather spent much of the time introducing Earth 2 with a few actions scenes that… while fun to watch… did not feel as notable as I expected them to be. Caitlin stuns as the villain this past week and here’s hoping this won’t be the last time we see her don the blue makeup.
