‘Welcome to Earth-2’ Plot:
Barry, Wells and Cisco travel to Earth-2 to rescue Jesse from Zoom. They find Killer Frost and Deathstorm whom are Caitlin and Ronnie on Earth-1. Meanwhile Jay takes Barry’s responsibility on defending Central City from a meta human called Geomancer.
In a previous recap, I theorized that a quality Flash episode is equal parts Fun, Fan Service, and Forward. Since Welcome to Earth-2 was a high quality Flash episode, let’s look at it through that lens. Fair warning: there is going to be a ton of all of them.
The Fun
Many of the recent episodes of Flash have been fun. “Welcome to Earth-2” feels like the first time in a while that the fun was something that was unique to Flash. Cisco making a dorky line is fine but Flash has been lacking a lot of the situational comedy that made the first season of Flash so good. Where are the innuendo filled internal arguments between Ronnie and Stein that only Flash can do? What happened to Barry messing with small time criminals who had no idea what they were in for?
“Welcome to Earth-2” had the right kind of humor in spades. It was a true return to form for a show that fell into the trap of being darker in an attempt to raise that stakes while forgetting about some of the things that made us love Flash. Running into Henry Hewitt (Tokamak from earlier this season) is a perfect example of what we need more of. What would it be like if our team ran into a former villain on a different Earth? How would they handle it? Like dorks. That’s fun.
The Fan Service
So yeah. This episode was the Ted Williams of fan service Flash episodes. There will never be another one that attempted so much and succeed. Obviously, the big moment was Flash and the gang passing through the cameo cannon that featured a look at Future Green Arrow, 1990’s Flash, The Legion of Superheroes ring, Jonah Hex, Gorilla Grodd, and most surprisingly Supergirl. This might have come as a little more of a shock if we hadn’t found out just days before that Supergirl and Flash were going to crossover this season but it’s still a big moment.
Also we got a look at a phone with some names that DC fans should recornize including Bruce, Diana, and Hal, which is a little confusing because isn’t Alan Scott the Earth-2 Green Lantern? I could be wrong. Also, why isn’t Jay on the phone?
On top of that, this episode had a ton of fun with doppelganger cameos. Hewitt was a good start. Deadshot being a bad shot was pretty funny. Caitlin going Killer Frost was a big step forward although fans may be worried that because of this interaction, her Earth-1 counterpart may never reach her villainous destiny. The whole Vibe/Reverb relationship was perhaps the most interesting and did genuinely surprise me even though Cisco would not shut up about his doppelganger.
But if we are only able to send one moment from Flash into a rocket a la the Golden Record to be preserved for eternity, it has to be Joe West the lounge singer. Now there is no way Earth-2 Joe can make it to croon with the rest of our Earth-1 heroes (seeing as he is dead (unless he is Zoom somehow)) but hopefully this tease is going to lead to bigger and better things for Earth-1 Joe especially considering how talented the rest of the cast is musically, a fact I refuse to stop mentioning. #MusicMeister4Flash
The Forward
So on top of everything I just mentioned, we also got a lot of teases about the future. In Zoom’s prison we got a look at a man in an iron mask and his identity probably holds a lot of clues at to Zoom’s identity. It is hard to speculate with so little information but one theory points to Earth-1 Ronnie being the man behind the metal. If alive, he would be the original breacher since he fell through the first portal to Earth-2. He also has such a random and seemingly endless power set that he could be useful for pretty much any plan, especially as a power source for keeping breaches open. Also the man in the mask was knocking on the glass in an attempt to send a message possibly through Morse Code, which Ronnie has been previously proven to know.
This episode also helped a great deal to further the Zoom theory proposed earlier in the season that Jay Garrick is secretly Zoom. Here is the evidence so far.
- The two characters are never in the same place at the same time, except in stories Jay tells.
- Jay’s Earth-1 doppelganger is Hunter Zolomon, one of the traditional alter-egos of Zoom.
- Zoom and Jay have similar body types which are not shared by many characters.
But with a bit of new information, my theory may have to change slightly. I don’t think Jay is Zoom by himself. I think he is working with Hunter Zolomon and they are both Zoom.
The Vibe/Reverb relationship really gave it away this week. Up until this point in the series, no Earth-2 character has attempted to work with their doppelganger and it should be their first move. If you both have powers that are pretty good alone, together you would be borderline unstoppable. Earlier in the season, when a breacher came to Earth-1, they would immediately kill their counterpart which seemed to be a directive given to them by Zoom. Maybe that is an attempt to trick Barry into thinking Zoom would do the same thing, when in reality…some would say it’s the reverse.
Let’s assume Hunter (Earth-1 Jay) is Zoom. The fact that Zoom’s costume mirrors Earth-1’s Flash means he probably originated on Earth-1. If Zolomon is pulling the strings, we know his playbook includes sneaking moles into the S.T.A.R. team to attempt to capture Barry. Why wouldn’t Zoom hedge his bets and send two moles? Couple that with the fact that we know Jay has some kind of speed dependency and Zolomon now has a way to control Jay and force him to do his bidding. Plus the first time we saw Zolomon he was holding a book. That means he is smart. Think about it.
Also we got a key piece of new big of evidence in this episode concerning Jay and the speed cannons. He mentioned that Barry needed to maintain speed to use the speed cannon properly. With that information, people have raised the question “If Harry isn’t a speedster, how could he use it?” The answer is probably that Zoom shuttled him through the cannon since we knew he was a mole all along but the bigger question is “How did Jay use it?” In this episode Jay revealed to Caitlin that he lost his speed before his fight with Zoom so he shouldn’t be able to get to Earth-1 at all. Maybe he used Velocity 5 but I think the more likely answer is that Zoom shuttled him too.
Finally, in an interview IGN conducted with Aaron and Todd Helbing, there was a question raised about Hunter Zolomon and whether he will make another appearance. This was what they had to say: “We do things on purpose in the show, but as you know sometimes we follow the way things are in the comics and sometimes we don’t. That’s pretty much all I’m going to say about that,” Todd said. Aaron added, “I’d be pretty confident that you’ll see Hunter Zolomon again.” This seems like the clearest indication that there could be two Zooms. Hunter is the following the comics part of the answer and Jay is the sometimes we don’t.
Obviously there are some holes in the theory. The big one being that it really seems like Henry is Zoom. During the speed cannon cameo, Henry’s costume was reversed and his logo faced the same way Zoom’s does. Also the eyes look very similar in behind the scenes photos. Also Henry Allen is suspiciously absent from Earth-1. Maybe he’s the man in the iron mask and Zoom needs to keep him alive for some reason. If it turns out that Jay isn’t Zoom, I will immediately switch positions to this one. Actually I like it a lot now. Still, I’m sticking with this Jay theory until I am proven wrong.
Rating: 9/10
Matthew Nando Kelly is an incredibly cool and handsome staff writer for Pop-Break who was allowed to write his own bio. Besides weekly Flash recaps, he focuses on film, television, music, and video games. Matthew also has a podcast called Mad Bracket Status where he discusses pop culture related brackets with fellow Pop-Break writer DJ Chapman. He has an unshakable love for U2, cats, and the New Orleans Saints. His twitter handle is @NationofNando. Did we mention how handsome he was?
