What was your big idea as a kid? Everyone has at least one (but mine so awful I won’t reveal it), the idea you play around with and make idle thoughts about it becoming a reality whether it’s a science breakthrough that would revolutionize the world or just something fun. When Geoff Johns was a kid, he used to draw his own cartoon/comic characters. One of those was a molten villain by the name of Tar Pit. As his adult career progressed and ascended the ranks at DC Comics, he eventually got to include that same childhood drawn Tar Pit character as a Flash villain. Now, years later still, he gets to see that character make its live action debut on this week’s Flash episode. So I guess no matter how farfetched your childhood ideas seem, that doesn’t mean they won’t come true if you work hard enough for them.
Fast Lane – The medical bills are paid but Wally is still street racing, and concern drives Iris into making some dangerous moves. Wells creates a speed force stealing gizmo and starts siphoning off Barry’s speed for Zoom, all of which gets complicated a molten asphalt metahuman, Tar Pit, showing up for payback against those that tried to kill him.
This episode dusts off a trick that really worked well in several Season 1 episodes. That is bringing in a cool single week metahuman villain but making them only a minor part of the story, a way of linking the more featured character arcs without requiring much development itself. Tar Pit fits the bill perfectly. The opening two years ago/particle accelerator explosion night flashback perfectly sets up both his creation and motivation as he’s dropping into a vat of boiling asphalt by some thugs, then returns to take his vengeance. Marco Grazzini does some great work in his brief moments of indulgence like describing his memories of the horrific ordeal. The VFX team some great fun visualizing his powers from a T-1000 like floor puddle rise, to some craziness at the street race, and of course, showing his full comic blob form (like Clay Face but with lava) in his climactic scene. The simple nature of his character also negates the need for any lengthy exposition about how they take him down; he’s burning hot so cooling/freezing makes complete sense.
Instead, the episode spends most of its time exploring 2 key developing relationships: Wally West with Joe & Iris and Barry with Earth 2 Harrison Wells. It even presents a very neat parallel between them over the concept of speed. Just as Iris and Joe want to take away Wally’s speed by stopping him racing, so is Wells reluctantly taking Barry’s to give to Zoom in exchange for his daughter Jessie. Both stories also have elements of family induced honesty. Despite some initial snooping, Iris is completely open to both Joe and Wally about her intentions to stop the races. Similarly, despite some initial sneaking, once the rest of the team figure out Barry’s speed force has taken a two point drop, Wells literally throws his arms up in air and confesses all. Obviously, Wells gets a harder time for it than Iris with the deceptive history of his Earth 1 counterpart hanging over him but that sets up well towards the family based moral conclusion. Barry even sites some great examples of various team members doing the unthinkable to save a family member, like Cisco making guns for the Rogues to save his brother. This justifies Harrison’s actions as being no different to theirs in a similar situation. It’s taken what could be straight forward idea of justified betrayal and cleverly woven it into the entire episode for a really well structured result.
Despite the heavy drama of the episode, we’re treated to many good isolated comedy moments to stop things getting super serious. Gems like Cisco’s new “Metahuman Tinder” app, complete with overly dramatic musical notifications. Although the funniest moment of the episode comes from a Cisco put down as the rest of the team set him straight on who the world’s greatest hacker really is. Many will be watching this episode with a serious case of Patty withdrawal as there are many points (especially the police scenes) in which the absence of her delightfully quirky charms are missing. Hopefully, we’ll see someone stepping up to fill the void.
As with all the post Christmas episodes, there’s some notable development on Wally West’s character but a few key points in particular raise some serious questions even propose the following (possibly crazy) theory: is Zoom really Wally West? Either as a future version Earth 1 Wally or an Earth 2 (or beyond) version? The key points come over Wally’s obsession and association with speed, “You are really all about the speed huh”. While his notions about being obsessed with anything that lets him go faster could be passed off as being an adrenalin junkie, this episode we see Zoom display similar tendencies when given a taste of Barry’s mojo and even quivers after injecting himself like a Speed Force junkie. Then consider Wally’s monologue in the hospital about the positive associations he places on speed due to the long drives he and his mother used to take. He even states that he’s spent the rest of his life trying to recreate that feeling.... but what if certain powers or abilities permitted him to that (like speedster powers)? Would that create an obsession like Zoom’s? Then finally, there is a very comparable comic story here from the New 52 centring on the character of Daniel West. A story in which Daniel is a younger brother of Iris with a troubled childhood that after an accident with a Speed Force battery (the very thing Well’s creates in this episode) attains Speedster powers and adopts a Reverse Flash persona (Zoom is a Reverse Flash in the comics). He then starts killing fellow speedsters for their Speed Force so that he’ll be able to travel back in time and fix his childhood. He becomes obsessed with doing this just like we’ve been pledged Zoom is obsessed with acquiring more Speed Force. This process corrupts his body, just like we’ve seen in Zoom’s mutated form: his body bonded with his suit. While there is still a heap of speculation here, it is entirely possible that The Flash is basing its Zoom character around an adaptation of this Daniel West story. If so, it will produce some incredible ramifications for the characters when they learn the truth.
Fast Lane doesn’t quite overtake last week’s sensational Reverse Flash Returns but it gives it a good race. It’s an excellent episode that manages to produce a great villain despite only using it sparingly. It utilizes conflict to create some meaningful growth within the group and the character dynamics. The final moments confirm next week’s destination in what looks like (from the episode names) being a two-part story as Flash goes Sliders. For now though, this season of the Flash is definitely in the fast lane and shows no sign of pulling over.