I know what you’re thinking, but no. The title has nothing to do with either one of the Lane sisters becoming a speedster, nor The Eagles song “Life in the Fast Lane”. Or a gross combination of the two.
Iris isn’t happy about Wally’s street racing. She pretty much ends their family dinner by broaching the subject, causing Wally to make an excuse to leave. Joe’s peeved by this, but Iris points out that he’s acting like more of a friend to Wally than a father figure. Joe, however is worried about driving Wally away, and spends most of the episode somewhat torn on the issue.
Two years prior to the beginning of the episode, a couple of toughs were trying to get information out of a third by threatening to drop him in a vat of hot tar. Unfortunately for him, they drop him in even though he tells them what they want to know. On the other hand it just happened to be the night of the accelerator explosion. And after two years, he’s finally free from the asphalt he was mixed into, and he’s out for revenge. And he starts with the chunkhead that was holding him over the vat.
Barry was helping Harry figure out how to close the breaches before he got called to his day job. It actually got a chuckle out of me when Harry points out that if any universe has claim to being called Earth-1, it’s his since they’re far more technologically advanced. Barry’s departure to invest the crime scene, leaves him to finish his speed sapping device. He places it on Barry’s suit before they get back, though he’s clearly at odds with himself over doing so.
Cisco dubs their Metahuman Tarpit, since Barry was too slow on the draw. And wouldn’t you know it, but he’s just decided to go after tough #2. And thanks to Cisco’s metahuman smartphone app, they know just where he is. Barry goes to stop him, not knowing that Harry’s device is on him and active. He manages to save Tarpit’s target, but in doing so, Tarpit gets away. Cisco notes that Barry was moving slower than usual, but Barry brushes it off. Afterwards, Harry takes the collected speed to Zoom, who’s not impressed with the small amount collected. He threatens to torture Jessie if Harry doesn’t bring him the rest of Barry’s speed, and gives him a taste of what his daughter is facing if he fails to do so.
Iris doesn’t let the street racing thing go, showing up at one of the races to try and convince him that he doesn’t need to keep doing them since Francine is dead and he no longer has to support her. when that fails, she threatens the guy holding the races with an exposé. Wally gets her to back down, but does a very poor job of expressing the real reason why, as usual.
Just one problem; the guy running the races is the last one on <i>Tarpit’s Revenge List 2016. And rather than be discriminate, Tarpit decides to wreck the race first by turning the road into half of one of those classic Sonic the Hedgehog loops. Barry gets there in time to save wall, the other driver, and Tarpit’s intended victim. But when Wally’s car crashes back towards the crowd, Barry isn’t fast enough to stop a shard of windshield from lancing right into Iris’ chest.
At the hospital, Wally shows up with flowers hoping to make amends, then awkwardly tries to leave. Joe, however, lays down the family law, letting him know that they care about him and leaving would be a shit thing to do. Wally decides to stay with Iris while Joe catches Tarpit. He finally admits to Iris that the racing reminds him of their mother; they didn’t have much money, but they would take long drives, and the racing helps recapture some of that feeling.
Harry and Cisco devised a way to stop Tarpit with some nitrous grenades. Barry, noticed that he was slower this time. It doesn’t take long for Harry to let his guilt get to him, and exposes what he did. Joe punches the shit out of him, and they throw him in the pipeline while they go catch Tarpit, using the second guy as bait.
Barry, however, isn’t willing to give up on Harry. He knows that Harry isn’t just going to let his daughter die, and points out to the others that the situation is little different than the time Cisco was captured by Captain Cold. They ultimately decide to help him free his daughter, setting up next week.
Final Thoughts:
- I sort of glazed over a lot of the little things in the episode that led Barry to make his decision on Harry.
- Tarpit dropped like a sack of hammers. Very anticlimactic.
- The teaser for next week was illuminating. Notably, they’re going to use the shit out of yellow filters for the majority of their shots.
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