With the previous episode setting us up for a big ending to the two-parter, “Escape From Earth-2†did a decent enough job of providing some forms of closure. But, the ridiculous amount of questions it has proposed causes a decent bit of anxiety.
The first half of their venture to Earth-2 did a spectacular job of showcasing the various differences and really got us to take a peek into their interactions with their doppelgangers. While that is still present in this episode, the killing off of Deathstorm and Reverb so quickly last episode killed the potential for further development of those relationships with the team. Even though Cisco’s doppelganger was killed, the interactions he has with Caitlin are impressive.
Since they arrived at Earth-2, Cisco always called Killer Frost “Caitlin†when they interacted, and this made her furious. He continues to do it during this episode, which I feel ultimately convinces her to help the gang find Zoom’s Lair. There’s a pivotal scene when it appears that Killer Frost actually double-crossed the group, but at that last moment when Zoom is about to kill Jessie in front of Wells, she has a change of heart and freezes Zoom to slow him down. I felt the change of heart was a bit fast, but it did make sense since Cisco continued to play on her emotions when he compared “his†Caitlin and the emotions she felt when she lost her Ronnie.
The two Barrys meeting again was also a great moment between doppelgangers. Initially, Barry-2 appears quite useless, but he is actually a key to helping them find Barry in Zoom’s Lair. It’s hard not to laugh at Earth-2 Barry with his funny quirks. When he acts all tough like he’s going to defend Iris, it’s clear that she wears the pants in that relationship. But, with all his perceived weaknesses, he pep talks Barry-1 when he thinks he’s unable to get through the Carbine glass of Zoom’s cage. Barry-2 gives him some words of encouragement, and he shifts through the glass, just like that.
It’s interesting how different and alike these characters are from their Earth-1 counterparts. Yes, some are immensely evil, but the same motives seem to drive each of them across the various universes.
In the episode, Jay does get some speed back as Caitlin is able to come up with Velocity 9 just in time for Jay to save a bunch of people from a toppling building. But of course, when Geomancer waltzes into STAR Labs, Jay’s taking a nap… .somewhere. Luckily, Caitlin is able to subdue the pretty lackluster villain. It’s a shame that he was even included in this episode because I would have much rather seen more of what was going down on Earth-2 than seeing a villain being captured with the use of a glorified stun gun.
As for their stay on Earth-2, we met quite the peculiar character across the cell from Barry. There’s a man in an iron mask, (hm… easter egg much?) and he can’t talk but does some tapping language. Barry and Jessie discover that the language was used by prisoners of war. As he is spelling out Jay, Barry says that Jay is fine and that he didn’t come over to Earth-2 with them. To that explanation, the man in the mask gets angry, but then, of course, Zoom comes in and beats the pulp out of The Flash. However, as mentioned earlier, Barry allowed this to happen, so he could see how Zoom was able to get in.
As for them finally getting back to Earth-1, Joe and Jay work together. Jay creates a vortex to contain the breach as Joe flips the switches. Hooray, they all make it back safely, but for some reason Jay stands right at the mouth of the vortex. You guessed it; Zoom pulls him back through to Earth-2. This is the clearest setup I have ever seen. It’s hard to fathom that Jay isn’t working with Zoom at this point. There’s really no other reason to stand near the breach at that time. So, not only do we still not know who Zoom actually is, we also don’t know who the man in the iron mask is nor do we know if Jay Garrick is actually Jay Garrick at this point.
