On Earth-2, which is about halfway to The Jetsons‘ version of the future, Dr. Harrison Wells holds a press conference revealing he has developed a metahuman detection app. It definitely works too as it goes off when Jay Garrick enters, where he openly chastises Wells about deceiving the public and hiding that he created the metahumans, even Zoom. They butt heads before Jay eventually leaves, prompting Earth-2 Wells’ daughter (actress Violett Beane, who will take on the role of Jesse Quick) to ask if he’s okay. Meanwhile on Earth-1, Wells is very cold to Barry, Cisco, and Caitlyn and won’t apologize for anything that his doppelganger did previously. He does, however, confess to creating Zoom and that he traveled all this way to help Barry stop him. Joe enters and promptly draws his gun, firing three bullets, which Barry catches. Barry takes him outside the room and explains that even though he looks like the monster they dealt with, he’s a different person.
Linda Park argues with her editor at Central City Picture News when Joe enters to talk to Iris. He explains to her the circumstances of another Dr. Wells being around and wants to make sure she’s okay. Joe then gives Iris a gun for her protection. At Jitters, Barry and Cisco stand in line when Patty shows up, telling them all about her encounter with The Flash, King Shark, and the hooded man that saved them. Barry squanders another opportunity to ask her out, prompting Cisco to try his hand at wooing the barista, none other than Kendra Saunders (the future Hawkgirl on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow). As Barry orders, Cisco gets a vision of another Breacher at Central City Bank, forcing Barry to act. Upon arrival, Barry finds the metahuman, whose face is concealed, and dodges her blasts of light before she makes a daring escape.
Back at STAR Labs, Dr. Wells explains who the metahuman is, a thief named Doctor Light who they can use to their advantage. As if on cue, Jay Garrick enters and starts a verbal throw down with “Harry,” as the characters and we will be calling him. Barry calms everyone down by saying they’ll decide what to do with her after they catch her. He asks Cisco how he knew about the break in and he dodges the question clumsily. At CCPD, Barry runs into Patty and finally asks her out on a date for the next night. Meanwhile Harry reads up about his Earth-1 counterpart and confronts Cisco about what Dr. Wells did to him. He explains that “Wells Prime” killed him, in an alternate timeline no less. Harry goes on to say they don’t have to like each other, but they do need to work together. A silent alarm goes off at Bank of Central City, and Barry meets Doctor Light inside the vault. He does his best to talk her down but when he sees her face, and realizes that she’s Earth-2’s Linda Park, he spooks her. The villain fires another shockwave of light, blinding Barry in the process.
Though his vision is improving, and Harry says it will take over 6 hours to fully heal, Barry is blind. The team comes to the conclusion that Zoom somehow knew about Barry and Linda and sent Dr. Light after him knowing it would trip him up. Barry also worries that he might have spilled the beans about her having an Earth-1 doppelganger and that she’ll go after Linda. He stands up to leave but can’t exactly walk in a straight line, so Caitlyn and Jay head off to watch after her. Iris enters, and sees Harry for the first time, which goes better than expected. She walks over to Barry when he receives a text from Patty that she’s running a little late for their date. Clueless about how he’ll handle it, they slap some sunglasses on Barry with a camera feed linking back to Cisco at STAR Labs. He guides Barry for a little bit before sitting back, because in his words “You got this.”
Jay and Caitlyn sit in a van outside CCPN where he opens up about his history with Zoom, revealing he doesn’t trust Wells and neither should she. Back on the date, Patty asks Barry about being struck by lightning, he describes it (leaving out the part about superpowers) and she relays a story about drowning as a girl. Hey, they’ve both escaped death! That’s probably foreshadowing! She then does the unexpected and calls him out on not being able to see her. Barry recovers by saying he had his pupils dilated. Smooth indeed. Caitlyn and Jay continue their watch, comparing their two Earths when he drops the morsel that they still have the city of Atlantis on his world and that his best friend is from there (Earth-2 Aquaman anyone?). As the two go to kiss each other, Dr. Light approaches and knocks their van over with a powerful blast. She enters CCPN and demands they all leave, except Linda of course. The editor of the paper tries to stop Dr. Light, but she turns and kills him in self defense. Iris takes out the gun Joe gave her and shoots off her mask, revealing to Linda that a person that looks like her is running around, and killing people. Jay runs inside, prompting Dr. Light to exit.
Patty walks Barry down some stairs toward her car where they share a kiss, but both their phones ring and send them to CCPN. Linda can’t process what happened, and there’s not much Barry can go on evidence-wise since it will all just lead back to her in the process. Back at STAR, Jay tries to come up with a plan for the team to handle this, but Harry insists they can’t reason with someone under Zoom’s control. He goes on to badger Jay and talk up Barry, because he knows how much more powerful he is, plus he has more courage. Their words turn into blows, forcing Barry to separate them and have a private chat with Harry. Harry insists they capture Dr. Light and use her as bait for Zoom, and they’ll do it with Cisco’s help, revealing to them that their old buddy has superpowers. He shows off his metahuman detection watch which forces Cisco to explain his powers, which don’t work on Dr. Light’s recovered visor. After two failed tries, Harry pushes it on Cisco’s chest, forcing a vision of the villain at the train station.
Barry arrives just in time to clear everyone out and for Dr. Light to start firing at him. He can’t get the drop on her and he has no ideas. Lucky for him, Harry says he needs to run fast enough to create a Speed Mirage, copies of himself not unlike what the Reverse Flash did in season one. It appears to be working, but Dr. Light uses one of her shockwaves again, which dissipates the mirages and knocks Barry down. He gets back up and tries again after a quick pep talk from Jay and eventually knocks out Dr. Light. They put Dr. Light safely in the pipeline and Barry tells the team they’re going to go with Harry’s plan and use her as bait for Zoom. Jay isn’t wild about the idea and warns them against it. He doesn’t want to stand by while Zoom takes Barry’s powers, or his life, plus Earth-2 Harrison Wells has plenty of secrets too. When the team sticks to their guns, Jay leaves despite Caitlyn’s protests.
The next day, Cisco goes back to Jitters where an uncomfortable conversation with the barista takes place. After he orders his coffee, she asks if he wants anything else, revealing that his initial proposition caught her off guard since she’s new in town. Barry consoles Caitlyn about Jay leaving as Cisco returns, phone number secured. The trio realize that Cisco needs a codename and quickly come back to a word that he used previously in describing his powers – Vibe. Harry stands outside Jitters and watches them as they drink. Meanwhile on Earth-2, Zoom enters the set from one of the Saw movies where Harry’s daughter is chained up. She tells him that her father is going to find him and he tells her that what happens to both her and her dad has yet to be decided.
You can watch a preview of next week’s episode, titled “Enter Zoom,” using the player below.
