The Reverse-Flash Returns in Our The Flash Recap!

The Reverse-Flash returns in our The Flash recap

As Barry runs around Central City helping people out, Cisco insists maybe he give it a rest and Harry agrees because they need to work on stopping Zoom. Just as the words exit their mouth, they get a report on a runaway truck. Barry runs to its location and hops in the cab, finding it sabotaged. In a stroke of genius, he takes a tire iron and removes all of the wheels before it can crash and explode. Caitlin and Jay enter after Barry’s heroics and reveal that The Turtle from last week’s episode is dead. Barry runs back to STAR Labs as Eobard Thawne watches – now he knows what time period The Flash comes from. Guess there’s no history books in the future.

After inspecting The Turtle’s body, it’s determined he died from a brain aneurism the night they brought him in. Despite veiled accusations from Jay, Harry feigns not knowing anything about it. The group reconciles to return figuring out how to stop, and decide maybe closing the breaches is the route to stop him. At CCPD, Patty brings something for Barry to trace and things are tense and awkward. She didn’t want it to be weird between them, but it’s too late for that now! As Patty leaves Iris enters, followed soon by Joe, who tells her that her mother Francine doesn’t have much time. Back at STAR, Harry works on something to do with The Turtle’s cells but can’t quite nail it. Cisco wonders how he can vibe to catch Zoom which sparks something in Harry’s brain: triggering the vibes comes from an adrenaline rush, and he manages to get one out of Cisco by dressing as The Reverse-Flash. The true coincidence being that Cisco sees The Reverse-Flash return in his vibe.

Alarms sound at Mercury Labs as the Reverse-Flash enters, but before he can get to Dr. McGee, Barry intervenes. He plays his hand a little early revealing that The Reverse-Flash dies. His enemy knocks him down and takes the doctor anyway. Back at STAR, the team tries to figure out how, since Eddie died, that The Reverse-Flash could be here. Harry explains it thus: The Reverse-Flash came from the future, albeit before he came back the first time, and perhaps was caught in the speed force which served as a shelter form eliminating him from the timeline. Satisfied with the mumbo jumbo, Barry starts to exit when Caitlin confides in him that Jay is sick and they decide the best way to cure him is find his Earth-1 doppelganger. Meanwhile in another location, The Reverse-Flash has Dr. McGee prisoner and wants her to use Tachyons to send him back to the future.

Joe and Iris go to see Francine, who expects Iris to yell at her once again, but she surprises her by saying she wished she had been part of her life the whole time. Barry goes through police records to find Earth-1 Jay Garrick, not finding anything. Patty returns for another awkward talk and discovers that Barry does some consulting work with STAR. Things are still weird, and they both wish it wasn’t. Too bad they can’t do anything about that! At STAR, Harry builds Cisco a pair of glasses that tap into his brain and allow him to vibe like never before. He puts them on and sees all kinds of events from the past before finally finding The Reverse-Flash and then his current location. The problem, of course, is Dr. McGee has built him a machine home, and he killed her. As the team is at a loss for what to do now, they realize one crucial detail, none of that has happened yet, it was actually the future, and they still have three hours to track them down.

At CCPD, Joe approaches Patty and reveals he’ll miss her when she’s gone. She confides in him that it seems Barry won’t miss her and Joe says Barry’s not great at sharing. This prompts Patty to reveal some irregularities after she discovered Barry worked with STAR Labs, such as The Flash being in all his reports and details that only The Flash could know. Joe of course is caught in a quandary when Patty says Barry is The Flash, so she knows it. In a non-descript garage, Iris finds Wally and tells him to visit his mother in the hospital and say goodbye, she didn’t have that chance for the last person to die in her life.

Team Flash is running out of time to find Dr. McGee and there’s been no progress on Jay’s doppelganger. To top it off, Joe tells Barry that Patty knows. He doesn’t want to confirm it to her though because he doesn’t need another person for a villain to come after. Just as he makes the proclamation, they get a Tachyon alert. Barry runs into action and arrives just in time to knock The Reverse-Flash out of the way, saving Dr. McGee. Barry and Thawne begin their race, as they are want to do, and just when it seems Thawne can get away Barry takes a shortcut and catches him. Finally in his hands, Barry prepares to end it by beating the snot out of Thawne before Joe talks him down. Back at STAR Labs, they put him in a cell but they’re in a unique position because this version of The Reverse-Flash doesn’t know Barry is The Flash. As Barry mopes away, Cisco has a nose bleed.

Caitlin meets up with Jay and talks about watching her father die from MS. She doesn’t want to see that to happen. She explains he has no doppelganger but Jay says he has a good explanation. At STAR, Cisco goes down to the cell to gloat in front of The Reverse-Flash and flaunt how he caught him. Barry goes to talk to Patty who confronts him about being The Flash, but he still denies it. He returns to STAR Labs to see The Reverse-Flash, who explains that he wanted to replicate Barry’s life, but when he discovered his destiny was to become his enemy, he did just that (bringing up all kinds of wacky questions about fate and destiny just below the surface!). Barry does a dumb thing and mentions that he kills his mother. Just as things get really dramatic, Caitlin calls Barry upstairs where Cisco is seizing.

Caitlin sedates Cisco, but then his body begins to phase in and out, which Harry chalks up to irregularities in the time line. They can fix it though by sending The Reverse-Flash back to the future with their combined speeds. As Barry prepares to let his enemy slip through his fingers, Harry reminds him that this is his origin. It’s how he learns about all of them, including Harrison Wells. Barry and Thawne run through the Particle Accelerator and he tosses the yellow ne’er-do-well through the wormhole. Cisco stabilizes as a result.

The next day Caitlin and Jay walk through the park where he reveals why he has no doppelganger: he does, he’s just hidden. His name on this world is Hunter Zolomon (The name of the third version of The Reverse-Flash in the comics, who also went by the name… Zoom). There’s a problem though, they still can’t use his DNA because Jay’s was mutated when he became The Flash. At home, Iris works on a story when Wally knocks at the door. He’s taking her advice and going to see Francine, and he wants her to come too. Back at STAR, Cisco wakes up and they explain what happened to him. Joe and Barry talk about his responsibilities as The Flash and that he’s going to have to continue letting stuff go as he advances, like what he did with Patty. Speaking of the devil, she calls him and says there’s a man with a gun on the train to Midway City. Barry runs to the location and arrives where there is no gunman, only a smiling Patty. They say their final goodbyes to each other as Barry races away, Patty unwavering in her detective work.

You can watch a preview of the next episode, titled “Fast Lane,” using the player below.