The Flash 2.13: “Welcome to Earth 2” – Review!

WARNING! SPOILERS!

Well, this was the episode that I’ve been waiting for, and it sure didn’t disappoint as Harrison Wells took Barry and Cisco with him to Earth 2 where the characters all encountered different versions of themselves. Their counterparts varied in form; Barry was married to Iris (who this time is the hotshot Detective) much to the disapproval of Joe, a bar-lounge singer, and there were far greater extremes for the other characters involved. Robbie Amell’s character had, without the aid of Dr. Stein, become Deathstorm, an evil version of Firestorm, and worked together well with Caitlin’s Killer Frost, that together both worked for Cisco’s evil counterpart, who in turn, worked for Zoom, who was out hunting for speedsters like Barry, who had just arrived in his dimension. *phew*

After the disappointing installment of last week’s episode we saw The Flash gain some spark and energy that it has been lacking so far for most of this second season, particularly since we’ve come back from Winter break. The episode itself might just have been one of the best episodes of the entire series because I’m a sucker for whenever alternate worlds are explored on TV shows (there’s a reason why I love these sort of Stargate Atlantis episodes for example), and the whole concept of Earth 2 was handled well especially with the reactions to the characters seeing their evil counterparts again. We saw Barry trying to impersonate his doppelgänger in a goofy, amusing storyline that worked fairly well even if we probably didn’t need it. The fact that it turns out his mother was still alive in this universe was one of the scenes that had the biggest emotional impacts yet in the series. It worked incredibly well, and was just one of the good things about this excellent episode.

We got to see Danielle Panabaker don the Killer Frost guise this week and it was great fun seeing the evil version of Caitlin Snow in play, doubling with Robbie Amell’s Deathstorm. Yes, the performances may have been a little bit too OTT, but this is Earth 2 after all, and we should expect some of that similar wackiness. Yet out of this group it was probably Cisco who stole the spotlight the most as Reverb in a hilarious scene that really worked, establishing the full extent of Vibe’s power and the interactions between the two really stole the scene in the conflict. However, we didn’t get to see much of Reverb and Deathstorm in action as Zoom showed up and brutally dispatched them both for harming The Flash, leaving Caitlin alive who understood his instructions not to harm her. I wonder if Deathstorm’s death will be what ultimately sees Killer Frost throw in her lot with the good guys in an attempt to get revenge on Zoom, but we’ll have to wait until next Tuesday to find out whether or not that actually happens. Either way, Flash now lies in the hands of Deathstorm, and things have gotten incredibly more difficult for the protagonists.

Who else wouldn’t love to have seen an Earth 2 series on the CW though? I mean, Barry’s phone number alone had numbers addressed to certain characters like Hal, Bruce and Diana. So that means there’s a Green Lantern, Batman and Wonder Woman on this Earth as well, right? Or at least some version of these characters. Other hints that we also saw include a teaser at the upcoming crossover with Supergirl, Jonah Hex in the flesh, and the older Green Arrow with the metal arm. And on Earth 2 we even got references to a Mayor with the surname “Snart” which was pretty awesome because that basically means that Captain Cold or someone in this universe is essentially the Mayor of Central City. I wonder what Earth 1’s Snart would say if he knew what his parallel counterpart was up to, and vice versa.

Needless to say, this was a pretty awesome episode that gave the series new life and came just when it was needed. It’s almost a shame that Reverb was killed off so quickly because he was a fun addition to the show, and on top of that, we’re only spending two episodes in Earth 2 (judging by the “Escape From Earth 2” title of the next episode) when it would be nice to have a whole lot more. But either way, Welcome to Earth 2 goes down as one of the strongest episodes in the series, at least in my book. What did you think of the episode however? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Let me know in the comments section below, and be sure to catch the next episode of The Flash next Tuesday at 8pm on the CW.