Recap: THE FLASH Has the Potential for Everything to Fall Apart

Episode 210 “Potential Energy”

[photos: Jack Rowand & Katie Yu/CW]

The Flash is back, with a gaggle of story lines that all center around the idea of potential energy, and not just that of the physics-defined type. We get “potential” states of being with Joe and Wally, Barry and Patty, Jay and Caitlin…

… and the Turtle.

The Turtle (Battlestar Galactica‘s Aaron Douglas)… a man with the metahuman power to slow down time. A myth, a legend, someone Cisco (Carlos Valdes) has been trying to track down for a while. And for some reason, everyone knows about him except Barry (Grant Gustin). The Turtle is an urban legend, but a string of robberies brings the case to the fore, and as they figure out the power he wields, they realize there’s potential to develop a way to slow Zoom down enough to defeat him.

The Turtle’s M.O. is to steal things that are “more important than anything” to their owners; priceless artifacts, valuable art, and the like. When Team Flash figures out his next target will be a painting at the museum, they lay a trap.

Which is compromised because Barry brings his girlfriend Patty (Shantel VanSanten). And just as Barry is about to pop out that he’s the Flash, Turtle shows up and runs Barry off. Patty, being the cop that she is, gets the drop on Turtle, but he uses his ability to slow everything down and take her gun. So when the Flash shows up, Turtle uses Patty as a diversion, shooting the chandelier over Patty’s head.

And somehow, the Turtle figures that the Flash must care a lot for this random person standing under a falling fixture of iron and glass, or something, because he manages to kidnap Patty later in the episode…

… right after Patty and Barry have a little spat about his running off at the art exhibit. She’s ready to step up in their relationship, get serious, and Barry needs to decide what he wants out of their … whatever it is.

Barry, of course, is going back and forth the whole time trying to figure out how to tell her his secret. Wells tells him it’s a Bad Idea™, but Iris thinks it’s important if Barry wants the relationship to go any further.

The Turtle even gets that the Flash has a thing for the cop, which is why he grabbed her. Patty, of course, thinks the Flash is just some guy who doesn’t know her. Why would he have any reason to single her out, right?

Team Flash figures out the frequency of the Turtle’s power pulses, giving Barry the one shot to push through and stop the Turtle before he can kill Patty.

So the potential murder is foiled. And the potential for a relationship between Barry and Patty seems to be on the outs, as Patty has decided to leave Central City and go back to school to study forensics.

Meanwhile, the second plot centers around the potential relationship between Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and Wally “Tail Lights” West (Keiynan Lonsdale). Joe’s pushing pretty aggressively to have some kind of connection with this kid, who’s got a chip on his shoulder (of course) and is only in town really to race — illegal street racing “for pinks” (you young ‘uns look it up) so he can get the money for his mother’s medical treatments.

Wally doesn’t want Joe to be “Instant Dad” and resents the effort Joe’s making. And in the end, Joe realizes he’s pushing too hard and needs to let Wally be Wally. They can be friends first, maybe, and work from there.

And Jay and Caitlin (Teddy Sears and Danielle Panabaker)? The potential for something to be brewing is going to be marred by the fact that eventually Jay has to go back to Earth-2, but also that he’s dying without the Speed Force™ to keep him alive.

But really, this particular Jay Garrick is such a wasted character. He’s had nothing to do since he arrived. He disappears and we never see where he goes. He’s a scientist with no science to study. All he does is mope and brood and say negative things about Wells. He’s useless. There’s no reason to keep him on the show other than to keep him in reserve for the final battle with Zoom.

And who knows how that’s going to play out? Wells (Tom Cavanagh), in his “do anything to get Jessie back” mode, shoves a sampler up the Turtle’s nose to get some tissue to study; if they can figure out how he slows down time, maybe they can replicate the effect and slow Zoom enough to beat him.

Which may prove even more of a challenge, if Zoom connects with Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher). Yeah, the Reverse Flash. The one who just burst back through time with Gideon into a very familiar neighborhood…

Still, the season so far has been a pretty solid one, with Tom Cavanagh delivering an exceptionally nuanced performance as Earth-2’s Harrison Wells, tortured and troubled and compromised even though he’s clearly playing the long game when it comes to Zoom. He has his own agenda, and he’ll do anything to make it all work his way and get his daughter back.

Barry and Patty are still fun to watch, and it’s nice that they’ve progressed to the point where it’s not all giggles and kissy-face, because relationships only go so far with that before it gets old. You get used to a person, and you can start having the for-real conversations, like Patty starts here. She recognizes the need for a change after catching her father’s killer, and her first love is forensics, so it makes a certain amount of sense that she’d be drawn to Barry in the first place.

But Barry’s inability to tell her his secret — complicated by the fact that Wells is sure that’s a major disaster waiting to happen — only hearkens back to last season’s runaround with Iris, and the fact that not telling her put her in just as much danger as she’d be in had she known what was going on.

And shall we make Wally West the stereotypical black kid with a chip on his shoulder because he didn’t have a Daddy? Does he have to be a potential thug? Does he have to play into the stereotype? Come on, writers, you can do better than that. Really.