Last week on The Flash, they caught Dr. Light (and not that nefawious Dr. Wahwee). They had a bad plan to catch Zoom using her. How do you think it turned out? I’ll answer; it didn’t.
Cisco was always the one to feed the people they put in the pipeline. So he’s taking Dr. Light some food to find that her cell is totally empty. So you have a villain who has control of light; gee I wonder why her cell is seemingly empty without an obvious breach? Could it be that someone who can turn themselves invisible did so to get you to accidentally let them out? Oh yeah, that’s what happens. For a guy that’s so smart, Cisco sure did fall for an old one.
Without Dr. Light, their plan is kind of sunk. Except they have an even worse plan to get their universe’s Linda Park to fake being Dr. Light. After all, the genuine article went completely naked in her escape, for some reason, leaving her costume behind. I’d imagine she could’ve worked whatever invisibility juju she used around it, but whatever.
Cisco rigs up some gloves that will give a very weakened version of Dr. Light’s powers to Linda. They then give her a training course of standees for her to practice on. This winds up being oddly like that gun range scene in Men in Black. Then again, it’s not like it’s the first time Cisco’s had a big hole in his chest.
It’s obvious that this really won’t work, but Barry believes he has no other choice. So he lets Linda in on his identity to jump start the trust. Meanwhile, Harry continues to work on the speedster tranq dart that is the second part of their plan. No one trusts him, so they get the bright idea to have Cisco vibe on him. The problem is that Cisco doesn’t really have much control of his powers yet, so the only real fair run he gets at it fails. And pisses Harry off, of course. It’s really clumsy every time, and Harry knows that Cisco could possibly see anything. When it finally happens, it’s an accident like every other time. And he sees that the reason Harry came was to save his daughter, who had been kidnapped by Zoom some time after he accused Jay of being a sucky hero. He doesn’t share this tidbit of information until everyone has had it with Harry’s shit later on, though.
They have their little play fight, with Joe and Harry in a nice vantage point to snipe Zoom with the tranq dart. It’s every bit as clumsy and unconvincing as you’d imagine. Linda chucks the emblem through the portal, and they wait for Zoom to show up. They stand around afterwards for an hour, before they finally call it.
Later, Linda is talking over the whole thing with Iris at work, notably lamenting that they took the gloves back. Then Zoom shows up and kidnaps her. Barry gets the call and heads right for STAR Labs. And boy, is he outmatched. Barry is absolutely not faster than Zoom. And the dart doesn’t catch him by surprise. So Barry does the only thing that will actually help him; removing their relative speed from the equation. He leads Zoom up the side of the STAR Labs building, launching them both high into the air, meaning that the only speed they really have is terminal velocity. Too bad it doesn’t work. Zoom kicks Barry’s ass, gets him in the Camel Clutch, breaks his back and makes him humble. He then parades Barry’s unconscious body around every important location, making damn sure it makes the nightly news. All the while he gives the usual “I have defeated your god” speech, which is really effective given Tony Todd’s delivery.
He doesn’t miss the opportunity to gloat, though, going back to the main room of STAR Labs to finish his speech. Which is a mistake, because Cisco manages to tag him with the dart, driving him off. They are really only capable of fixing Barry’s wounds due to the fact that he heals so quickly. When he finally comes to, they have to hold him down. He notices, however, that he can’t feel his legs. The fastest man alive is now a paraplegic.
Final Thoughts:
- Sargent Slow is a terrible name.
- On the plus side, they still have a sweet motorized wheelchair on hand.
- I don’t know if that back snap ever happened in the comics, but it was sort of brings to mind the “breaking of the Bat” scene.
- Criminy, Tony Todd sounds like something from beyond the grave.
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