I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Flash is certainly bringing the momentum with their sophomore season, pun intended. In a time where it’s easy to get lost in the slew of comic book and superhero adaptations out there, Flash excels in keeping it’s true core: a strong willed protagonist with a heart of gold that doesn’t do it because he wants to be a hero, but because he recognizes it’s what he needs to do. This rings especially true in this episode, which brought one of the biggest surprise twists this season so far.
This episode focused a lot on team dynamics, whether they were on the West family, the S.T.A.R. Labs team, or simply the Wells and Barry relationship. It focused a lot on the heart of the show and episodes like “Fast Lane” are proving why this season is excelling in ways most people are still surprised by.
With the West family, they’re actually getting along after weeks of hesitation. However, Iris is still not happy with Wally’s racing habits and even less pleased with Joe’s seeming lack of care on his son’s less than legal activities. When she feels that her dad is a potential dead end, Iris goes to Wally’s race to appear supportive but secretly starts photographing the men there.
Meanwhile, the S.T.A.R. Labs team is having a dilemma of their own with a new metahuman on the loose. The first victim appeared to have been burned alive by lava but a later examination by Cisco and Caitlin shows that he was suffocated. Their autopsy of sorts is interrupted by Cisco’s “Metahuman Alert App” signaling that Tar Pit is active again. Though they manage to save his next victim, their metahuman still manages to escape. After a quick interrogation with few answers, it turns out that Tar Pit is actually a man his two victims “killed” by dropping him in a boiling tar pit the night of the particle accelerator accident. After two years buried under the cement, reconstruction on the building released him and he’s looking for revenge.
With three out of the four people identified, it turns out Iris is the key to finding the fourth player in the game. While the four boys were in juvie, turns out the leader of the “gang” is the one in charge of all the street racing that Wally has been doing and just so happens to be the same guy Iris just finished threatening with exposure if he didn’t shut down the racing. While Joe and Iris head out to scope out their new lead, Barry and Wells go to work on a project of their own.
One of the strongest plot lines in this week’s episode was the parallel to Barry and Wells’ relationship in early season one when they had no idea he was the Reverse Flash. Barry even mentions to Wells that he’s having the same feeling where he was his mentor and how much he helped him but Wells doesn’t want to hear it; he’s already been working on a device to start slowly stealing some of Barry’s power and is clearly feeling guilty about it. However, the two of them have also been working on a device to permanently close the portals between their Earth and Earth 2, a theory worked on by Wells 1 and Barry that clearly tugs at something inside Wells 2.
Their theory is proven successful as they manage to fire the device and permanently close one of the 52 portals. Their good moods are short lived, however, as Iris calls Barry in a panic: Tar Pit has appeared at the race to try and exact revenge on the head honcho and Wally is in danger.
Though Barry is quick enough to pull Wally out of the car and Tar Pit’s victim out of harm’s way, he’s not fast enough to stop the large shard of glass that ends up stabbing Iris in the shoulder. Angry at what’s happened to Iris, Joe and Barry manage to catch Tar Pit as he’s trying to attack his second victim one more time and Joe manages to use Cisco’s newest invention to stop him.
The anger doesn’t stop there, though. As the team is brainstorming ideas for why Barry’s speed force has gone from 100% to 98%, Wells finally admits that he snuck a device on the suit and stole some of his speed force to give to Zoom, thinking it would help him get his daughter back. Joe promptly gets a punch in and the team dumps him in The Vault. When Barry and Wells try to get answers from him, Wells is straightforward and reminds Barry of what he admitted earlier in the episode: that he would betray him, that he would choose his daughter over any of them no matter the cost. He’s got one thing Wells 1 didn’t possess however, as his guilt builds and he asks them to send him back over and shut all the portals down so he could take down Zoom himself, potentially sacrificing his daughter in the process. The team leaves him to think about it.
At the hospital, Wally has finally listened to Joe and is waiting by Iris’ bedside when she wakes again. Though the two joke around for a quick minute, Wally decides to explain his reasoning behind racing beyond for the purpose of paying for their late mother’s medical bills. It turns out that he never had much as a kid, other than his mom; when he was younger, they would take long rides and he would love the scenery speeding by. Racing brought those memories back for him and he was afraid that if he stopped racing, he would lose them. (It’s cool, I paused for a tissue for this scene too.) This family continues to amaze me.
The episode continues to deliver in it’s final scene. As the gang is trying to decide what to do with Wells, Barry defends him, saying that if they were in his place, they would’ve done exactly the same thing. They go to Wells and release him; Wells is clearly prepared for them to feed him to the wolves but Barry surprises him by revealing that they’re going with him to Earth 2 to try and stop Zoom.
Y’all. I cannot begin to explain how great this episode was. Though there was the typical villain of the week storyline, I liked how this episode focused less on that and more on the team’s dynamic. Wells has been acting sketchy, which is nothing new for his character, but watching him genuinely grow fond of these kids is something that I’m very much enjoying seeing. Though he rejects the idea of being Barry’s “mentor” at first, you can tell he’s clearly touched that these kids are willing to do whatever it takes to help him rescue his daughter and stop Zoom. The season needed an episode like this; though I’ve enjoyed the crossovers and the set up for Legends of Tomorrow, I’ve needed an episode solidly focused on the relationship these characters have as it’s the foundation for this show.
Plus, they teased Killer Frost next week and I am here. for. it.
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.