‘The Flash’ Episode 2.5 “The Darkness and the Light” (8 out of 10) Starring Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Jesse L. Martin, and Tom Cavanagh. Guest starring Shantel VanSanten, Teddy Sears, Ciara Renee, Malese Jow. First broadcast November 3, 2015
There are spoilers here. Because this episode came out already. You should watch it.
With last week’s departure of Dr. Stein and Firestorm, S.T.A.R. Labs could have started to feel empty, so at the beginning of this week’s episode the first thing that happens is that Earth-2’s Dr. Harrison Wells comes “home.” He immediately comes into conflict with Jay Garrick, who warns Barry et al that Wells can’t be trusted. Team Flash all has their reasons for hating their Dr. Wells/Eobard Thawne. Can they let go of that and trust the new guy? And should they? If Jay’s right, a lot of the suffering that’s happening on Earth-2, including Zoom himself, came as a result of Wells’ work there. Chances are very good that he’s going to be offering up Barry as a sacrifice, for reasons that we don’t understand until the end of the episode. Their changing relationship with this Wells take up a big part of the episode, but in a way that makes sense for each of the characters. Even within this first appearance, he betrays Cisco in a way, by revealing his “vibes” metahuman ability to his friends, something he was trying to keep under wraps. Is this hurting Cisco, or moving him forward? Wells (from whatever Earth) seems to be a master at doing both.
The (other?) villain in this episode is Earth-2’s Dr. Light. There have been several characters by that name in DC Comics lore, and in fact an “Arthur Light” had a light gun that Cisco and Caitlin used against Deathstroke the very first time we met them, all the way back in season two of “Arrow.” This Dr. Light is female, and is a thief on Earth-2, but a relatively minor villain. She, like the other Earth-2 villains we’ve met, is being enlisted by Zoom to kill the Flash. Jay can’t believe she would, because she’s not a killer–until she inadvertently does kill Iris and Linda’s boss at the newspaper. After capturing Dr. Light, we see that she’s the doppelganger of Linda Park. I actually gasped. I love the surprises that this season is throwing at us. Not out of left field, but in ways that are possible, and given this series, plausible. I like Linda, I’m glad that this may bring her more into the Flash Family.
Other developments include Barry and Patty’s first date, which ends up being a “blind date,” in a way that’s dorky and funny and sweet. One of the things I like about Barry Allen is that he is a nerd. He’s not badass all the time like Oliver Queen. He’s not who you’d expect to save the day. He’s really geeky and sometimes clumsy and awkward. How Clark Kent pretends to be? That’s how Barry is. Every scene with Patty brings that out. He’s not incompetent, he’s just…derpy. But in a sweet way. We also meet Kendra Saunders, working the counter at Jitters. She shoots Cisco down for a date at the beginning of the episode, but by the end of the episode, she gives him her number. She’s an unknown quantity for me right now; knowing that she’ll be Hawkgirl in “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” is having me overanalyze everything about her. We’ll see. By the end of the episode, Cisco’s got his superhero name “Vibe,” and we see that Zoom has Earth-2 Wells’ daughter captive. With next week’s episode titled “Enter Zoom,” I’m guessing things are going to get ugly fast.