TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 02 Episode 19: Back To Normal

I want to start by applauding The Flash for not giving Barry his powers back by episodes end. Which is basically what happened in “Blackout” last season. What this made for was powerful character drama, as well as trying out new troupes in the “lost powers” department that Flash hasn’t done before.

What I really liked about “Back To Normal” was that though Barry had lost his powers, the team hadn’t given up trying to save both the city, and Caitlin, though admittedly they had no idea how to do either. It would’ve been easy to revert to his “paralyzed” state we saw earlier this season, but instead we got the return of CSI Barry! Yes ladies and gentlemen, he still is a scientist! lol.

Seeing Barry continue to be Barry was really good, yes, he faltered at times, and you could tell that what Zoom did to him was affecting him, but he didn’t lose his courage, as the real Barry wouldn’t.

The Griffin Grey storyline was familiar and yet unique enough to change up the typical metahuman formula the show has. It was good to see another metahuman whose powers were negatively affecting him. Though the science of why was lacking, as was the reasoning of which he not only “knew” Wells was alive but also found him. It didn’t detract too much from it.

What made it all the more interesting obviously was that he kidnapped Well-E2, and hearing him shout the insults and threats at him thinking it was Wells-E1, and yet they hit all the more, was very poetic.

If there is a word to describe Flash Season 02, it’s inconsistent. The only exception is Tom Cavanaugh, who once again put on a top-notch performance as Wells-E2. From his initial talk with Jesse, to his chats with Barry, and Grey, and Jesse again, this guy can act! And he’s one of the best parts of Flash Season 02, full stop.

There were other interesting beats here, including Wally taking a slightly Roy-ish path in wanting to meet Flash because he saved his life. Iris being there for Barry when she needed him. And then there’s Zoom and Caitlin…

I noted last week how I didn’t like that Zoom/Jay/Hunter took Caitlin because she “knew he cared about her at least once”. And while I still don’t like it, they did make the most of her captiveness. From Hunter admitting that he “loved” her, to her fan-requested meeting with Killer Frost, to a very twisted ending that shows where the final confrontation will be and what it’ll be about. It was very interesting. The highlight obviously being the Snow/Frost conversation about how different they were. But…

…did she really have to try and kill her? I mean, seriously? Yes, it kind of made sense that she thought Zoom would kill her now that Caitlin was there…but she had presumably been there a while (at least hours, if not a day), so if he wanted her dead…she’d be dead. And even if she DID kill Caitlin, what made her think Zoom wouldn’t scour the earth looking for her in revenge? Exactly.

Sadly, it was these logic jumps that again brought it down from being a much better episode. That being said, “Back To Normal” did made much better strives this week. Four episodes left. Where do we go from here?