The Flash - 'Back to Normal'

Hoodie: It's the new spandex.

We pick up after last week's bombshell, so here's a spoiler space so that G+ isn't all 'surprise!' (unlike Sky, which trailed Arrow after this episode by showing the front of the gravestone; thanks Sky!)

Barry Allen is not the fastest man alive; he's just a regular guy. We can tell because instead of his theme tune he wakes up to Desmond Decker's 'The Israelites'. The Flash is no more, and having reopened a breach and given Zoom Barry's speed, the world is vulnerable. Joe and Iris immediately assure Barry that it's not his fault, so called that one.

Harry goes looking for Jesse and gets kidnapped by Griffin Grey, a super strong metahuman who blames Harrison Wells for the fact that he is ageing at a massively accelerated rate. In fairness, it is Harrison Wells' fault, just not this Harrison Wells; the fake one from Earth-1. Not that Grey is wearing that.

"We are men of action. Lies do not become us."

Lacking his speed, Barry joins Cisco and Joe in the ill-advised manly men's club and they get their butts collectively kicked. They recruit Jesse, who had biochem among her five majors, to help analyse Grey's blood in the absence of Caitlin. Because Caitlin, remember, is in (on?) Earth-2 with Zoom, as part of his twisted psycho love plot, but I'll get to that later since it's entirely separate from the rest of the plot.

Cisco and Jesse upgrade the Flash suit with dwarf star alloy provided by Felicity Smoake, but only enough to take one hit to the torso. By dodging a lot, Barry is (barely) able to wear down Grey until he dies of old age at 18, which when you think about it sucks to all hell and back. Harry admits that he thought that he had escaped his guilt for creating Zoom and his Earth's other metahumans, but that Grey made him realise that he has to own it. Thus he is going to help Barry to get his speed back, but rigging up another particle accelerator explosion.

"It's like looking in a mirror... only not."

And on Earth-2, Zoom declares his intention to hold Caitlin until she loves him again. She helps Killer Frost to break out of her cage, but is then faced with Frost's sudden yet inevitable betrayal. Zoom returns in time to save Caitlin and shank Frost with her own icicle (which is both figuratively and literally cold, man.) The Man in the Iron Mask is still in the mask, but when Caitlin asks to go home Zoom takes this as a rallying cry to add Earth-1 to his dominion.

Oh, and Wally asks to meet the Flash to say thank you, which does wonders for Barry's self-esteem.

What's really interesting about this episode is how little Barry's speed is missed in narrative terms. It's still all about working out what the meta du jour can do and how to counter it, they just rule out lightning and supersonic punching from the get-go.