The Flash - 'Flash versus Zoom*'

Secret origins.

We begin with the secret origins of Zoom who, as Hunter Zolomon of Earth-2, witnessed the murder of his mother at his father's hand, before being remanded to the custody of the St Backstory's Home for Children in Need of a Tragic Past, where not a single fuck is given.

In the now, the tachyon-enhanced Barry decides that he is ready to face Zoom, despite Harry's continued warnings that this is a bad idea. Zoom has nothing he reminds Barry. Zoom cares about no-one, but will hurt absolutely anyone and everyone that Barry or any of his friends care about to get what he wants: Barry's Speed Force. Naturally, Barry decides to go ahead with his plan anyway, for he is Barry, plan-maker extraordinaire.

"Well, that went well."

Central to the plan is Cisco, whose Vibe powers control interdimensional energy and thus permit him to control the breaches. Barry talks Cisco down from his fear that he will become like Reverb and the path is opened for the confrontation of the century (or at least the season... well, this half of the season.) Tipping the balance, Caitlin drops the name Hunter Zolomon, which allows Harry to identify 'Jay' as the troubled orphan and later serial killer.

Using pictures of his parents to disorient him, Barry owns Zoom in the fight, gets the Boot on him and immediately locks him in the Pipeline... no, wait, he talks to him until Zoom goes all black eyed evil, declares that 'you can't lock up the darkness', busts loose and kidnaps Wally West. 'The Flash's speed for Wally,' he demands, because they can't resist a little metatextual irony.

With no means of getting Wally back from a foe that he has already bested in combat once (admittedly the whole parent trap thing wouldn't work again,) Barry agrees to the trade. Zoom releases Wally and Team Flash... go through with the exchange. Seriously; there is not one iota of an attempt to box clever, to pull a fast one or anything.

"Man! What a rush!"

In a chatty mood, Zoom explains that 'Jay' was a temporal relict; if I am reading this right, a past version of himself that he persuaded to be murdered if necessary. I have literally no idea how killing him didn't erase Zoom from history, unless Jay was a future version who... No; I have no idea. I'm completely lost on this one. Apparently Barry wouldn't believe who the man in the iron mask is if Zoom told him, so that's a mystery for another time. Oh, and he pretended to be a hero in order to give people hope and then take it away, because he's crazy.

Anyhugh, he gets supercharged and kidnaps Caitlin. I'm sure someone will try to convince Barry that this isn't his fall, but actually... Yeah, totally his fault.

So, the important lesson of the week is 'do not let Barry make plans'. Secondary, but still important, is 'box first, then sermonise', always assuming that they are committed to live capture, which frankly has been hit or miss this season, with several villains straight up murdered or at least allowed to die by Team Flash.

Next week, episode one of CSI: Central City, I guess.

* And not, as my Sky Box insisted, 'Venus Zoom'. Seriously, I've been wracking my brain trying to work that one out and expecting like, a guest appearance from Earth-2 Cupid or something.