The Flash is no more! After his last encounter with Zoom, Barry sacrifices his powers in an effort to save Wally West. With Wally now safe, Barry is now questioning his next move against Zoom now that he no longer has his powers. But what now happens to Central City with no Flash to protect it?
The Positives
This particular episode titled “Back to Normal” really stood out for me. I was already upset at Barry’s actions in the previous episode, so I was eager to see the fallout from it. I wasn’t disappointed either. Immediately we are introduced to a man named Griffin Grey, who thanks to the particle accelerator has been given superhuman strength but it comes with a catch–the more he uses it, the greater it ages his body. Seeing Dr. Wells obviously as the cause of his pain, he kidnaps Dr. Wells–of course not knowing that he’s actually Dr. Wells from Earth 2. I enjoyed Barry acting outside of the uniform attempting being a hero, but unlike Oliver of course, Barry has no fighting ability at all–and it shows. In his first encounter with Grey, Barry finds himself injured and now that he has no accelerated healing, it makes the pain worse. In an effort to find Wells, the team finally finds Wells’ daughter Jessie, who helps the team track down her father. I was really happy that Jessie is finally back in Central City and her help to the team in this episode is invaluable.
The Negatives
My only negative about this episode is the villain himself Griffin Grey. Here we have someone who has to the potential to be an awesome villain, but because of his unique condition he was gonna die anyway. He was really a one shot villain once you find out his condition and I must admit I’m growing tired of seeing potential villains getting wasted. I have loved every villain from The Flash so far but the ones I really liked such as Plastique, Turtle, Deathstorm, and even Killer Frost are now dead. Captain Cold and Heatwave are two villains I’ve liked even in the comic books, but with them being on Legends now, the chances of them returning to Central City and causing havoc are few. To get deeper into the issue another villain I really liked– Pied Piper, is now a good guy since Barry went back into time a few episodes back. I love the writing of The Flash truly and each episode is always a good one however I don’t want Barry’s only threats to be just the speedsters. I was really hoping for the eventual rise of The Rogues, but that’s highly doubtful without Cold and Heatwave.
The Verdict
“Back to Normal” was a good, solid follow up episode. Here we really saw the fallout of Barry’s actions to save Wally, and we even see The Flash and Wally have a moment thanks to Joe. Although Barry no longer has his powers he still has the heart of a hero and it shows here. I’m eager to see exactly what lengths Barry goes to get his powers to return to him though because we all know– Zoom is still out there.
