The Flash recap: Season 3, Episode 4

With Captain Cold and Heat Wave somewhere in the time stream — and Pied Piper becoming a good guy — there’s a big hole in National City when it comes to Rogue. Thankfully, two metahumans make their highly anticipated debut in tonight’s episode to fill that gap. Shall we dive in?

Picking up where we left off last week, Joe shows the rest of Team Flash the Iron Heights footage to give them an idea of what they’re facing. Unfortunately, no one has any clue what to make of what Doctor Alchemy is seen doing in the video. To keep their mind off things, Barry and Jesse decide to do some training, which leads to one of my favorite lines of the show thus far: “Oh my god, I’ve become Oliver,” says Barry after explaining to Jesse the importance of thinking before acting.

This is a small point to make, but I really enjoy how we’re getting to see Barry in a bit of a mentorship role. Historically, The Flash doesn’t have nearly as many sidekicks as Batman, but I’ve still always thought of him as one of those heroes who’s always teaching and working with other speedsters. I’m glad the show is finding a way to incorporate the idea of Barry as a mentor, especially since it’s an important part of the DC Universe in general. Moreover, it’s also nice to see a positive mentor-mentee relationship — as opposed to the twisted ones between Barry and Eobard/Wells and Barry and Jay/Zoom.

Tonight’s episode finds several members of Team Flash dealing with relationship issues. First, there’s Barry and Iris, who are enjoying finally being together. However, Barry still feels kind of uncomfortable and gets weird whenever Joe is around. Iris doesn’t have time for his foolishness, telling Barry he needs to talk to Joe about their relationship — she doesn’t want to have to worry about kissing him in front of her father, which is a fair point. Then there’s Wally and Jesse, who’ve had some kind of connection since Jesse’s first visit to Earth Prime (that’s what we’re calling our Earth). Jesse wants to take their relationship to the next level, but Wally is hesitant.

Three years ago — a.k.a. the night of the particle accelerator explosion, the gift that just keeps giving — criminal Sam Scudder and his partner in crime, Rosalind, got into a fight with Snart after they disobeyed one of his rules. (Yes, Wentworth Miller made a welcome return in tonight’s episode. I’ve missed his delightfully campy performance.) During the scuffle, Snart tossed Scudder into a mirror right as the accelerator exploded, and Scudder disappeared after being hit by the dark matter. Now, three years later, he finds a way to escape the mirror in which he was trapped and is out for revenge against Snart. Unfortunately, Snart’s nowhere to be found — he’s “off on a trip” — so Scudder decides to use his ability to travel between mirrors to break Rosalind out of prison and take control of National City’s criminal underworld.

NEXT: A familiar face from another Earth

Meanwhile, Harry works with Cisco and Caitlin to create a device that will allow them to contact the other Harrison Wellses in the multiverse. Harry wants to return to Earth-2, but he knows Team Flash needs a Harrison Wells, so he decided to beam a riddle into the multiverse to contact his counterparts and find his replacement. Like Joe needs his Barry Allen, The Flash needs Tom Cavanagh playing some version of Harrison Wells.

It doesn’t take long for the responses to start flooding in. Harry, Cisco, and Caitlin sit back and watch videos of these Harrison Wellses from others Earths pitching themselves for Team Flash, which gives Tom Cavanagh an opportunity to flex his acting muscles. He portrays a southern Wells, a British Wells, and a French Wells (who’s also a mime) — all of whom the team rejects. Eventually, they come across a video from Harrison Wells from Earth-19 (a hipster) who seems to be the most capable of the candidates. An added bonus: He’s also nice! Cisco and Caitlin want to invite him over, but Harry rejects his hipster counterpart because he’s afraid of being replaced. Fear is pretty prevalent in tonight’s episode.

Mirror Master and Top begin their reign of crime by robbing a bank. The Flash and Jesse Quick show up to stop them; however, in the struggle, Jesse almost falls to her death after Top whammies — i.e. uses her powers to induce crippling vertigo — Jesse, forcing Barry to stop chasing Mirror Master to save her. Mirror Master takes advantage of the distraction to trap Barry inside a mirror.

Team Flash figures out that the way to free Barry is to slow down the mirror’s molecules, which will allow him to phase out. The only way to do this is to freeze the mirror. Unfortunately, the device they build isn’t cold enough to get the job done. A very convenient alarm from The Cortex gives Caitlin the moment she needs to surreptitiously use her Killer Frost powers on the mirror and free Barry. No one knows how Barry escaped, but they don’t question it too much — while he was locked away, Barry came up with a way to stop Mirror Master.

Using fancy technology, Team Flash recreates Snart’s voice and has “Snart” arrange a meeting with Mirror Master and Top. However, when Mirror Master and Top show up, they are surprised to see Snart is just a hologram. While Jesse Quick takes care of Top, The Flash outsmarts Mirror Master and traps him in a never-ending-reflection loop.

With Mirror Master and Cecil locked away, Harry decides it’s time for him and Jesse to take their leave. Before returning to Earth-2, they hang around to meet Earth-19’s H.R. Wells, who’s not only nice but also has a sense of humor. “Greetings, Earthlings,” he says when he exits the wormhole. Satisfied with H.R., Harry decides it’s time to leave — but before returning to Earth-2, he warns Cisco he needs to determine how Barry got out of the mirror, since their device definitely didn’t work. It’s comforting to know that while some things change, some things stay the same…like the fact H.R. Wells also loves Big Belly Burger. I think Team Flash will be fine with this new Wells.

The episode ends with Caitlin returning home and taking a shower. While she’s washing up, the water starts to freeze — when she gets out of the shower, she discovers her hair has turned white and her lips blue, which means her metahuman powers are growing. I’m excited to see what comes next.

The Wall of Weird:

• Throughout the episode, Cecil does Joe several favors, and she asks him out once the Mirror Master case is wrapped up. But Joe, who is clearly into her, asks for a raincheck because he has to spend time with his kids.
• I loved how awkward Barry and Joe’s chats were about the former’s new relationship with Iris. It’s good the show isn’t completely ignoring the fact that given their history, their relationship is kind of weird.
• Also, Barry decides to move out of Joe’s home.
• Harry tells Team Flash that Earth-2’s Mirror Master used a gun, a nod to the comic-book incarnation of the character.
• Who else loves the lengths this show will go to in order to keep Harrison Wells around?
• I can’t say it enough: It felt so good to have Wentworth Miller on The Flash again. I hope the show finds another clever way to bring him back.
• This episode used a lot of special effects. They were a bit hard to follow at times, but for the most part looked pretty good.

Episode Grade: B