The Flash Season 2 episodes 16-17 review - Trajectory/Flashback

Trajectory

The Flash comes face to face with the fact he’s just not fast enough, for only the 25th time now

This episode is generally a good one but once again, it’s laced with a few stupid elements that have made this season so frustrating for me to watch. The Flash has a lot right with it. I haven’t praised about the season. I like the leads, I like the tone and the humour (generally speaking) I think Zoom is an appropriately threatening enemy for them to fight and I like the fact that they’re incorporated parallel universes.

Which makes some of these dumb plot beats all the more frustrating and they’ve plagued this season, not like they did with Arrow last season, only that didn’t have quite as much going for it.

So, Velocity-9 makes its return in this episode, the one that isn’t supposed to have the bad side effects and actually helped Jay, except it does now and they discourage Barry from using it, less it kill him. What does Barry do, he considers using it to get faster.

  

Yeah, you can’t stop Zoom if you’re dead, Barry. But it turns out Velocity-9 is being used by that woman that Caitlin gave parts of the formula to. The fact that they didn’t explore the lab at all and took her by her word is boggling to me and it turns out that it is here, with the interesting bit of having multiple-personality syndrome. She’s one of the more interesting side-villains they’ve had this season

Having another speedster did bring consequences to Barry’s personal life as people did think that it was him (although given the wealth of metahumans Central City has seen, you don’t think maybe one of them considered that there might be 2 with the same power) and with Iris’ kinda boyfriend/boss wanting an article on the Flash being turned – something he wants to prove given his own history – it does ring close to home. Where it’s squandered in my opinion is that Joe is the only CCPD officer in the entire episode, we really should’ve seen more there.

Meanwhile Cisco is vibing about Zoom anytime he gets close to the helmet. I feel like they jumped to conclusions a bit with them realising that Jay is Zoom because the effectiveness of Cisco’s powers is down to how the visions are interpreted, although it does unfortunately fit in with what they know about Velocity nine given Trajectory’s fate. The one problem comes with the fact that none of the consider the possibility that he’s another doppleganger.

Also, there’s a subplot about Jesse, Harry’s daughter and the episode ends with her leaving to find a new life. I don’t know how old she is but she seems adult enough not to need Harry’s permission to do things.

Rating 6.5/10

Flashback

I’m going to confess, I only skimmed through the best part of this episode, but my summary of it is this clip

Said dumb plan is heading back in time and asking the guy who betrayed him to help him get faster, not thinking that 1^st of all, it’s a fundamentally stupid plan and 2^nd didn’t account for any problems whatsoever and 3^rd did I mention how stupid it was?

So needing to complete an equation for the speed force, Barry decides to visit Harrison Wells aka Eobard Thawne aka the Reverse Flash aka this really is a stupid plan! He heads back pursued by Time Wraiths, like guardians of time or some sh*t, which have never shown up before until now because… reasons

Look, I get that they’re trying to establish something concrete for time travel. Lord knows I’ve been complaining about the lack of established rules for time travel all season. This does not help, and I won’t be satisfied until I see at least one attacking the waverider in Legends of Tomorrow

Even then, they make no sense, why did they attack the police station? Barry was not at the police station nor was he close to the police station

Anyway, if there is a standout moment it’s the scene between Barry and Harrison in the time vault. Harrison knew how to play his cards but of course Barry knew his plans and could play his own hand against him. The amazing part, despite how stupid this plan is, it worked.

My other issue is it focuses on the ‘betrayal’ of Jay Garrick. Except he has not betrayed you. They’ve yet to get any concrete evidence that it’s ‘their’ Jay that’s Zoom, although the teaser for the next episodes seems to imply that it is. The only evidence they have of this is from Cisco’s vibing and that’s open to interpretation, that’s the whole point.

If there are any better bits I’ve probably skipped over because this episode frustrated me so much.

Rating 5/10

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Images used in this review are from The Flash, Ratchet and Clank and Justice League Unlimited and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.