The Flash Season 2 Episode 6 "Enter Zoom" - Recap and Review

Barry Allen/Flash (Grant Gustin) decides to take on Zoom (voiced by Tony Todd) to prevent further civilian casualties. The other Flash, Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears) strongly advises against this. He believes that Barry (like Jay) is no match for Zoom. When Flash refuses to take his advice, Jay takes leave from S.T.A.R. Labs.

If there is one person who whole-heartedly supports Flash's plan, it is the alternate Earth's Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh). The other members, including Iris West (Candice Patton) hatch up a plan to have Linda Park (Malese Jow) pose as the villainous (and currently subdued) Dr Light. The endgame is to trick Zoom and have Flash capture him.


Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) has reservations and is of the opinion that Flash wants to kill this alternate version of Reverse Flash, since it was Ronnie Raymond (Robbie Amell) who took care of this Earth's version of Reverse Flash.

A subplot involves Cisco Ramon/Vibe(Carlos Valdes) using his newly found superpowers to find out if Harrison Wells is hiding any secrets from the team. After failing initially, Vibe's persistence finally pays off. He reads Wells' thoughts and sees his daughter, Jesse Wells (Violett Beane) being held as hostage by Zoom.

In the mean time, Flash and the the gang train Linda Park to act as Dr Light. She uses a gadget (developed by Cisco) to simulate the supervillain's superpowers. This training montage came off as a bit childish.

When they finally act out their encounter, Zoom does not turn up. Joe advises the disappointed Barry to focus on things that make him happy. Barry knows exactly what that means and heads right away to meet Patty Spivot (Shantel VanSanten).

Zoom is no slouch either. He kidnaps Linda and arrives at S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry suits up and saves Linda. But Zoom proves to be way too fast even for the Flash (just as Jay had predicted). Despite being outmatched, Barry tries to outwit Zoom, but fails.

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Zoom beats up Barry good and then parades the beaten hero before the local cops and the media. Finally, he takes Barry to S.T.A.R. Labs and is about to finish him off. Cisco manages to land a hit at the distracted Zoom, who still takes off and escapes.

As Barry regains his consciousness, he realizes that he cannot feel his legs any more.

This was an OK episode. As I had mentioned earlier, the scenes featuring Malese Jow's Linda Park were boring. On the other hand, Zoom completely stole each scene he was in. Voiced by Tony Todd, he is a very compelling villain. Kudos to the casting director for this inspired choice. Tony Todd brings his full weight and experience to the role and what a difference it makes. A very inspired casting choice...

The rest of the cast are adequate in their performances. Carlos Valdes gets a lot of screen time as he gets to practice his powers on Dr Wells. But they could have avoided having Cisco and Caitlin discussing about Wells well within his earshot. That was pretty amateurish.

In the review of the previous episode, I had remarked that Cisco Ramon had become the equivalent of Professor Charles Xavier's Cerebro due to his ability to locate meta-humans. This episode brings that comparison even more relevant by making Barry himself the equivalent of Charles Xavier due to his current physical predicament.

Recommended watch to fans of The Flash/DC Comics.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, The CW Television Network

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Supergirl Season 1 Episode 3 "Fight or Flight" - Recap and Review

The episode starts with a quick recap of the previous two episodes, right from the Krypton's scene to Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) whisking away Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) away for an one-on-one conversation.

Supergirl's interview with Cat Grant has more than a passing resemblance to the one that Margot Kidder's Lois Lane had with the late Christopher Reeve's Supes. While Margot's Lois took notes, Cat Grant uses her smartphone to record the interview.

Over the course of the interview, Supergirl unintentionally reveals that she is Superman's cousin. Being the savvy businessperson that she is, Cat Grant makes sure that this piece of information becomes the talk of the town.

This attracts the attention of Reactron (Chris Browning), a super-villain with a long standing grudge against the Man of Steel. Since he is unable to kill Supes, he decides to try his luck with the Girl of Steel.

On the personal front, Kara Danvers faces yet another challenge from her boss. Not content with publicizing Supergirl's connection to the Man of Steel, Cat also wants to host a gala occasion to publish her self-authored critical piece about Supergirl.

Supergirl faces Reactron and manages to cause enough damage to his suit to make him flee the scene. To get back into a fighting condition, Reactron infiltrates Lord Technologies with the intention of abducting someone with the necessary skills and knowledge to repair his damaged suit. Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli) willingly offers to be the hostage.

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Supergirl takes Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan)'s help in zeroing in on Reactron's location. James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) is against Kara taking on the supervillain, who has proven to be a match even for Superman. James' fears come true when Reactron overpowers Supergirl and is about to finish her off, when the Man of Steel himself appears out of nowhere and forces Reactron to make yet another escape.

Kara is not happy with Jimmy summoning Superman to help her. James explains that he did so more out of old habit and a fear of losing her.

Reactron makes his re-appearance during Cat's aforementioned function. With help from Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) and Hank Henshaw (David Harewood), Supergirl finally defeats Reactron.

The third episode of Supergirl turns out to be the best one yet. The actors are getting into the skin of their characters very well.

At the top of the list are Melissa Benoist and Calista Flockhart. Melissa has been under the costume and the cape right from the beginning. But her act as Kara Danvers was a bit too Tina Fey for my taste. In the last episode and particularly in this one, she finally manages to leave her own stamp on the role.

Same is true of Calista. Her Cat Grant is growing as a character. She hints at childhood trauma as well as a romantic past with Lords. Calista is clearly having fun with her part.

David Harewood continues to glower effectively as Hank Henshaw. This episode gives even more evidence that he is Martian Manhunter (MM). Hank Henshaw uses his telepathic powers to detect Alex's presence. Fingers crossed that he turns out to be MM.

There is a newcomer in town and this is Lucy Lane (Jenna Dewan Tatum). Lucy is the younger sister of Lois Lane and the former flame of James Olsen.

The writers included a number of winks and nods to current pop culture events (James Bond, Millenium Falcon from Star Wars, Caitlyn Jenner Vanity Fair, Keeping up with Kardashians).

But the best parts were the references to Superman mythology . The watch used by James to summon Superman to his help is a staple of the Superman Canon. James also accidentally reveals Superman's secret identity to Winn Shott.

Even better was the brief appearance by Supes himself. Needless to say, that was the highlight of the episode for me.

Melissa Benoist gets to mouth some of the best lines:
1. Supergirl's reply to waitress: “I am an alien”.
2. Supergirl's description of Cat Grant: “She is a super interviewing villain”

I also liked this line: “Every Generation gets the Superhero it deserves.” A subtle nod to the Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, perhaps...

With great acting, fun action sequences and made by people who clearly love the DC Universe and especially Superman, this is becoming a must watch for fans of Superman/DC Comics.

Trivia
The song “Wish I Could Fly” by Roxette plays during the scene in which Kara Danvers is entering the venue of Cat Grant's event.

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Image Sources: Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), DC Comics Database, Wikipedia

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