I should have known.
THE FLASH has this annoying habit of making you feel safe and hopeful and happy, only to pull the rug from right under your feet when you least expect it. Last night’s “Invincible” did exactly that. Up until the last scene, I was thinking, hey, this is a feel good episode. We got to see Laurel again, Barry is super confident and happy and cheerful and he and Iris are going to give this relationship thing a shot – which I so do not support. But more on that in a minute. Things were great. I remember I even thought, maybe this is the calm before the storm and all that.
But I should have known.
Because that’s just how this show is. Stab us in the back when we’re happy, so we can cry right along with Grant Gustin. Why, why would you kill Henry? Okay, I know why, but Barry had just gotten his dad back. He was happy for once, not worrying about much, and confident that the odds were finally in their favor. And then Zoom just had to come in and ruin everything.
The episode starts out with a super happy Barry. After his experience within the speed force (that still blows my mind), he is super confident that everything is going to work out in the end, because, hey, the universe is on their side. What could possibly go wrong? Things get even better when Caitlin shows up, after Zoom followed up on his promise that he would let her go. So you know, things were rainbows and sunshine. It was such a feel good episode.
Even the meta of the week was awesome. We got to see Katie Cassidy again and oh my god, Laurel should’ve been evil from the start. I wasn’t a Laurel fan up until very close to the end on ARROW, but Earth-2 Laurel, aka Black Siren, is one of the coolest metahumans we have seen so far. Cassidy did such an amazing job with her that I was almost sad when they locked her up in the pipeline in the end. She took the Laurel we all new – prime and proper and boring good Laurel – and threw her out the window, only to be replaced with such a fun evil version of herself that I didn’t even know could exist. Every time she was on my screen, I was like, I want more. So please, TPTB, bring the Black Siren back. Make her escape the pipeline or something, I don’t know. All I know is, I need more Evil!Laurel in my life. Please.
Now that I think about it, we had so many subplots in this episode. Caitlin is obviously going through some major PTSD and she keeps seeing Zoom everywhere she looks. That gave us so many awesome scenes between Caitlin and Barry and Cisco, and I just love their friendship. That group hug towards the end made me smile so big. Also, Cisco and Caitlin posing as Reverb and Killer Frost? Fantastically hilarious.
Elsewhere, Wally is trying to be a hero. He feels guilty for making the Flash lose his powers, so he needs to atone for his sins. Joe is super concerned and asks Barry to go and talk to him as the Flash. Barry tries, Wally doesn’t listen and ends up saving him from the Black Siren. I wonder if Wally is going to develop powers at all. Jessie is already suspiscious that something may have changed, but Wally is completely in the dark.
While all this was going on and Barry was super confident – particularly after they took down every metahuman in the city – Zoom was busy planning how to make Barry suffer the most. That scene where he summons Barry to CCPD was a huge warning flag that he would definitely try to do something to someone Barry loved. But taking his father to his childhood home and killing him right before his very eyes was a little too much. Poor Barry just can’t catch a break.
Also, I take back everything I ever said about Jay Garrick being a waste of screen time. Teddy Sears is doing such an amazing job at being super evil, that I couldn’t be happier about their casting choice. While he was pretty boring as Jay – because, you know, Jay was just there doing nothing – he is fantastic as Zoom.
Now Barry has lost his father and Zoom just better watch his back. I’m willing to bet money that our Scarlet Speedster will stop at nothing to get his revenge.
The season finale of THE FLASH airs on May 24 at 8/7c on The CW.