Zoom shake, shake, shake the room! That’s right folks, the evil speed demon known only as Zoom has made his official entrance in to the series and what an entrance it was. After teases of his power and intent all season he races in to the Flash’s life and turns it upside in a matter of minutes. The episode begins with the defeat of the Flash at the hands of Dr. Light, but we soon learn it is all a ruse to flush Zoom out in to the open. After Earth 1 Linda escapes from her imprisonment at Star Labs the team decide that by dressing up Earth 2 Linda as Dr. Light they can trick their most fearsome in to revealing himself. Training her up to pass for a villain was great fun as we saw her blasting her way through a maze of Cisco selfies in full training montage mode. Is it a compliment or an insult that Olivia Cheng is a better actor when playing the evil nuanced version of Linda Park than the ditzy girlfriend version. She was really good in this episode playing both, but clearly better as one rather than the other, especially in her “overacting” play fight with Barry.
The episode as a whole was very light hearted which made for a great juxtaposition of the darkness to come. Though it is pretty stupid that Linda can’t see that the only person that’s not amongst Barry’s friends and family when training is Barry himself; yet there’s the Flash looking identical to her ex-boyfriend in size stature and voice. He does eventually decide to let his identity slip to her but by this stage in the series it doesn’t really seem to matter any more. Cisco constantly trying to find a reason to rub up against Wells and vibe off him really just managed to rub him the wrong way and in flashback we see why. On Earth 2 other than his work his daughter Jesse was his life and the close bond he had with his daughter was torn away when Zoom kidnapped her. This explains why he is so angry at Jay Garrick for not already defeating Zoom, why he is so distant and unwilling to make friends with the Star Labs team and why he is so determined to find a way take Zoom down himself, everything else is just a distraction.
Culminating in the battle that opened the episode the cheesy banter between fake Light and Flash was hilarious but also it turned out to be for nothing as Zoom doesn’t fall for it. With the episode seemingly winding up things takes an unexpected turn, when they think the night is over Zoom finally does reveal himself, kidnapping Linda and tossing her off the top of the Star Labs building. Barry manages to catch her safely and finally the showdown we’ve all been waiting for commences. Barry races around the building surging up a lighting bolt and wielding it right at Zoom but what does he do? Catches it and tosses it back with ease clearly this is going to be a one sided fight. The two battle up the sides of buildings and free fall through the sky throwing punches at one another mid-drop. It’s a confrontation of season finale proportions in just the sixth episode of the season.
But the Flash is no match and Zoom brutally manages to Barry several times. Bloody and beaten he drags Barry throughout Central City taunting the police and Star Labs humiliating him as a fallen hero. It was shocking seeing Barry dangled lifeless like a rag doll swinging in an unnatural blood curdling way. Taking one last moment to impale Barry on his talon like claws Cisco manages to heroically land a tranquillizer dart in Zoom’s back before he races away back in to the shadows.
Awaking bruised and batters everyone is just grateful Barry is still alive until he comes to a shocking revelation, he can no longer feel his legs! What repercussions this will this have on the future of the show? Will Barry become the fastest man in a wheel chair alive? Only time will tell.
Review by Dylan Boaden.
