Less than 5 – Skip it, 6 – OK, 7 – Good, 8 – Great, 9 – Phenomenal, 10 – You owe it to yourself to watch this episode!
This season has been a little up and down in terms of quality. One episode will deliver huge on action and character while the next will fool around with superfluous subplots. Most of Enter Zoom felt like the latter… Until Zoom finally showed up. Holy crap is he a badass and did he ever save tonight’s episode.
For this week’s review let’s save the best stuff for last (I write as every fiber of my nerd being wants to talk about that epic ending).
A great deal of information is shared about this Earth 2 Wells and his reasons for coming over to Earth Prime. As shown last week, zoom has his daughter. We were left to assume he travelled dimensions to gather aid in his quest to vanquish the evil that kidnapped his daughter or that he was being blackmailed by Zoom in order to get closer to Barry. It turns out that it was a little bit of both. I like the idea of this Wells struggling to walk the line between good and bad. It keeps us on our toes as to what this guy will do and how he will factor in to things down the line. Tom Cavanagh continues to impress with his ability to showcase all the different sides of Harrison at any given moment (go Canada!).
Tom Cavanagh as the Harrison Wells from Earth-2 (doing his darnedest to play with the meta-humans)
Cisco seems to be over his power anxiety from previous weeks and is trying to go all in on his “vibing” to help out the team. It just sucks that he has no idea how to use his powers yet. It’s funny watching him touch random things hoping for the best and getting bummed when it doesn’t work out. I’m guessing that his full powers will come into play closer to the launch of Legends of Tomorrow but as of now it does add a new level of humor to his already plentiful arsenal of quips and witty one-liners.
Anyone who keeps up with my Flash ramblings will know I love me some Team Parry. With the promise of an epic confrontation between Barry and Zoom, Barry and Patty was the last thing on my mind. So obviously the writers would deem it the perfect time to give us more Parry material. Sure, your adorable and I care deeply about your need to be taken seriously by you peers. But shut up and let them fight! Keeping them from entering the “omg you never have time for me” scenario so soon was a great move to keep fans of this couple from rioting. Barry realizing that he should spend as much time with her as possible, even after hours of waiting for Zoom to show up, was a great moment that endeared me to their pairing even more. I don’t think I could handle the melodrama that comes with a hero’s scorned ex-girlfriend. That being said, Enter Zoom played host to some of my least favorite P Spivot moments. Luckily they weren’t all her fault.
He looks so cool! How could they wait so long to show him off?
Joe has always been the voice of reason on the show and the first one to tell you that secrets can and will lead to unnecessary conflict. For some reason this season has him harboring some of the least important secrets ever. First we learn that he kept Iris’ mother a secret (can’t blame the guy, she is a crack head). Than he opted to keep the fact that there was a wild Wells on the loose (fair enough, he thought it would freak Barry out). But now he adamantly refuses to Tell Patty a single thing about what he and the rest of Team Flash have planned. Just let her in on the fact that you work with the Flash. She will stop poking around and you are communicating with your partner.
(Having written that, these are totally Joe moments. Patty Spivot’s record remains blemish free!)
My thoughts toward the abundant Linda Park material are similar to my Spivot thoughts. Having her adopt her doppelgangers power suit was a clever idea and led to some hilariously bad acting to draw Zoom out of Earth 2. The scenes with her accidentally blowing stuff up were fun and we really get a sense of who Linda is, which is about time considering we knew next to nothing and she dated the main protagonist. I love the fact that she is finally getting more screen time and I appreciate Barry learning that in order to mesh with his team he must learn to trust them (though telling everyone his secret identity seems a tad too trusting) but in an episode titled Enter Zoom I expect a good bit of entering and or zooming. With so much emphasis on Linda and the supporting cast there was a glaring lack of both.
“hears back breaking in the distance”… oh, that’s why.
Now to the epic showdown! Zoom doesn’t even show himself until the final 10 or so minutes of the episode. Which totally sucks because, while the rest of the episode was ok I found myself zoning out in my anticipation of the central villains debut. When he does finally appear he does not disappoint. Fans, myself included, went nuts over Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash. If Thawne was a nightmare, Zoom is the devil. This guy didn’t simply beat Barry. He literally broke him. Outrunning Barry at every turn, catching tens of bullets with a single hand like it was nothing and flaunting his abilities and a mangled Flash all over the city. Zoom is a literal monster.
That backbreaking punch to Barry had me stunned. I knew Zoom was going to be tough, but not like this. The last we see of Barry he is in a hospital bed at STAR Labs recouping. He retains his healing factor but with the injury to his back he has been left paralyzed from the waist down (for now). There was a moment where Zoom stabbed him with a single finger reminiscent of when he stabbed Jay in the flashback. Has Zoom stolen Barry’s speed? I just want to know what else Zoom can do now that he has mopped the floor with the strongest hero in the CW-verse.
The final moments of Enter Zoom saved the episode from mediocrity. You don’t promise an epic showdown and hide it behind a mountain of jokes (unless your villain is as awesome as Zoom).
This episode gets an 8.5/10 (yes, that is how good the last few scenes were).
If you liked this review hit me up on social media for more!
Instagram: OTL.Movies.TV
Facebook: OTL News
Twitter: boboMELOSHE18