The Flash Season 2 Episode 11 I couldn’t have been more wrong, of course. The Flash season 2 has been extraordinarily consistent. There haven’t been too many real lows, and it has delivered at least the same number of exceptional episodes that season one did around this time in its run last year. I’ll chalk up “The Reverse-Flash Returns” in the “exceptional” column. If anything, my only major problem with the season has been its occasional over-reliance on Earth-2 as a villain/metahuman engine, which isn’t really what the concept is best used for, and tends to make too much of a distinction between season one and season two, when most other elements of the show are still firmly developing (and improving upon) the stuff we got last year. Wrong again! Not only did we get Eobard Thawne back this week, we got the most unapologetically comic book faithful version of his character they’ve yet attempted, right down to acknowledging the utter ridiculousness of his core motivation. It means that Matt Letscher can return as the Reverse-Flash as an occasional villain, for one thing, but more importantly, I am utterly convinced that if the showrunners decided to make him the big bad of a future season, Letscher as Thawne could carry it just as certainly as Tom Cavanagh did as Wells. I actually just mapped out the perfect thing for The Flash season 3 to build up to, for example, which would lead to a story they hinted at already as the logical season 4, but please don’t let me get too far ahead of myself. For an episode about two speedsters, “The Reverse-Flash Returns” is remarkably well paced. Considering how much got done (Thawne’s return, Barry’s inner turmoil, Cisco’s fine-tuned powers and near death, Patty’s actual departure, life and death with the West family, etc) things didn’t ever feel rushed. If anything, and it pains me to say this because of my love of the character and how much I’m enjoying Teddy Sears in the role, they’re gonna have to work a lot harder to make the Jay/Caitlin crisis/romance thing work, because as it stands, it’s not quite there. I also have an issue with Patty’s “false alarm” at the end, there. She knows. Barry knows she knows. She knows he knows she knows. So what the hell was the point of that little exercise? Also, I refuse to believe that everyone on that train was completely cool with the Flash showing up to say “what’s up” to one lady and then sprinting off. Was this to give us a “happy ending” moment with these two? I’ve been pretty well invested in their sudden break-up already, and this seemed unnecessary. I think Mr. Gustin and Ms. VanSanten have done terrific work with this whole angle. I thought the bit on the train undermined their otherwise powerful goodbye earlier in the episode. By the way, I had to appreciate Joe’s “oh fuck” look when she calls him out about knowing what’s up. Quality. See also: Barry’s silent scream when Joe tells him that they’re busted. If and when they decide to go back to the well with the Reverse-Flash as a major focus of the show, then we’ll all look back at this episode as one of the most important in the show’s history, along with “Out of Time” and “Fast Enough.” As an individual episode, I’m not quite sure “The Reverse-Flash Returns” quite approaches the velocities of those two bits of perfection, but it’s still awfully good. For real, though, I can’t stress enough how much this is the Reverse-Flash from the classic Flash comics. His whole dopey MO, the obsession angle, the way he’ll now just drop in from the future like an annoying relative at unexpected times to screw Barry’s life up, it’s perfect. It’s even more perfect now because of the curveballs they threw us in season one. – Jay’s nebulous cellular degeneration thing is faintly reminiscent of something that happened to Wally West for a period in the comics. He didn’t lose his speed, but his speed was killing him, which forced his retirement as Kid Flash. When he returned (cured) to take up the mantle of the Flash, his speed had been greatly reduced. Anyway, like Eobard Thawne, explaining Hunter Zolomon will just shorten my lifespan, so of course I wrote an entire article about that, too. – Cisco’s new “Vibe” goggles sure do look like a piece of his comic book costume. I can’t wait to see how far they take this. As the song goes, “I’m out of time.” Hit me up in the comments or on Twitter with thoughts, corrections, and other DC easter eggs you think I missed!
