Aaaaand we're back! After a break of just over a month, The Flash returned to our screens this week with its mid-season premiere, Potential Energy. It was a solid return, but far from a blistering start to Season 2B. The Flash is a superhero show first, and within that you have the romantic subplots that you would typically expect to find on less comic-booky shows on The CW, but have inevitably found their way into Greg Berlanti's various series. It's not a bad thing, in fact generally they add a lot to the shows and the characters, but this week really felt like the superhero stuff was the subplot. The drama belonged to the relationship between Barry and Patty, and Joe's attempts to assemble West Family 2.0. Neither of which are going particularly well. In terms of the actual costumed stuff, there was a new villain to contend with as Season 2 got back underway, with the introduction of the Turtle. One of the highlights of the episode was the running gag that everyone - even Iris - has known about him for a couple of years, while it's been kept a total secret from Barry ("Oh, don't you think you were a little busy with Captain Cold, the Weather Wizard, Gorilla Grodd, should I keep going?"). He was a pretty good villain, especially given he was only given this episode to make his mark, and his powers - essentially a reversal of Barry's - were rather cool. Elsewhere, the writers realised that they actually had to do something with Jay Garrick, and gave him a slightly depressing arc, while there was more duplicity from Dr Wells, and a rather surprising return right at the very end. Just another week of having lots of questions after watching the show then. It's like it's never been away.
11. Where Was Zoom?
Zoom made quite the entrance in this episode, as he captured Patty and then sent her falling to her doom. There wasn't really much shock value to this, because of course it was a dream, but it at least setup the trouble he's causing Barry. After that, though, he was conspicuously absent from the episode, not actually showing up at all. Zoom has already demonstrated just how capable a bad guy he is, in the fantastic Enter Zoom, but rather than capitalising on that the plot has now lost quite a bit of momentum. The reveal that he was sending metahumans after Barry in order to 'fatten him up' before stealing his speed felt a bit predictable and dull, and with him being kept hidden largely hidden from this episode, there's little to really be excited about at the moment with this story, which is a shame because it seemed so promising a few episodes ago.
NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far.
A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.
