Flash Review: “Enter Zoom”

The episode has some fun with Dr. Light—and then it brings out this season’s heavy.1

Title: “Enter Zoom”

Director: J.J. Makaro
Writers: Brooke Roberts and Gabrielle G. Stanton

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / The Flash
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West
Malese Jow as Linda/ Park Dr. Light
Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells
Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow
Shantel VanSanten as Patty Spivot
Candice Patton as Iris West
Patrick Sabongui as Captain David Singh
Violett Beane as Jesse Wells/ Jesse Quick
Tony Todd as the Voice of Zoom

Premise

The Flash decides to face Zoom. Unfortunately, Zoom proves as dangerous as Jay Garrick has warned.

High Points

We have a genuinely scary villain the Flash cannot beat.2 Zoom really grabs the lightning this week…

Low Points

…Unfortunately, he literally grabs the lightning. That was kind of dumb. So was his failure to unmask the Flash before the public though, at this rate, Barry will have told everyone in Central City by next week. Also, given that Cisco has invented almost as much absurd high-tech as Tony Stark, why isn’t he as rich as Tony Stark?

The Scores:

Originality: 3/6 A character impersonates her duplicate, and a hero loses his power. We’ve seen these twists before, though the TV Flash has not yet faced quite so terrifying a villain as Zoom. It feels a little different for this series.

Effects: 5/6

Acting: 5/6

Story: 4/6 The start of this episode and the Dr. Light plot were a little silly, but the first appearance of Zoom, and the threat he poses, are not.

Emotional Response: 5/6 We know The Flash will persevere, but Barry’s defeat, nevertheless, feels grim and quite final.

Production: 6/6

Overall: 5/6

In total, “Enter Zoom” receives 33/42

Notes

1. Next week’s episode features Grodd in something called “Gorilla Warfare.” Some people really can’t resist a bad pun.

2. Who can beat a villain the Flash can’t? I suspect the answer will be “Two Flashes” or perhaps, “Two Flashes and Jesse Quick.”3

3. Unless Superman can put in one of his brief appearances from the Supergirl series. Speaking of other heroes, we get a glimpse of what’s been happening in Earth-Two’s Star City. The divergent histories really raise the question of why so many duplicates have to exist on the parallel earths. One thing I liked about DC’s original multiverse is they didn’t feel compelled to have exact duplicates on every earth.

3 replies on “Flash Review: “Enter Zoom””

  1. Yeah, Daddy Queen being the Hood inspired some interesting thoughts. More of a WTF than a What If?, though.

  2. The lightning grab may make no sense, but it was really, really cool. I’m letting it pass. They set Zoom up extremely well in this episode. This is how you introduce a villain, people! He comes in and beats the living crap out of the hero.

    They better not make defeating him super easy and dumb.

    • I’ve already posited part of how I think this will resolve but, yes, it’s good to see a Big Bad on the Flash who represents a serious threat that shouldn’t be easy to overcome.

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