The Flash is DC’s television adaptation of the comic book of the same name. It airs Tuesday nights at 8/7 Central on The CW. Our writer, Nicole Drum recaps the series each week updating you on the latest episode here in The FlashBack.
Hello, Coast City! Tonight we open up the episode with a super fast little road trip to Coast City, Flash-style, for some pizza. I have to admit that I love the random little snippets of the larger DC universe we get each episode and this nod to Coast City made me happy. As everyone’s enjoying the pizza we find out that Cisco and Joe are going to visit Starling City (aka home of the Arrow, yay crossover stuff) to investigate the car accident that changed Harrison Wells. That leaves Barry and Caitlin to keep up with Central City while Eddie and Iris are generally useless and have relationship issues.
Image Credit: CW
Of course it can never be an idle Tuesday in Central City and this week we keep up the pace per the usual. In one of the banks an employee is captured on camera emptying a customer’s safe deposit box, but when the employee is questioned at the police department she is adamant that she didn’t do it. Eddie jumps right to the conclusion that they must be dealing with a metahuman and since this is Central City that is actually pretty logical, solid police work. Then a man tries to sell stolen diamonds, but the clerk figures this out and calls the cops. Eddie rolls up sans Joe to arrest the guy but fails. The Flash speeds up, but is only in enough time to see the guy disappear in a crowd. How does the guy disappear? Why this metahuman has the ability to take someone else’s face just by touching them which is creepy and awesome.
So we have the bad guy of a million faces to contend with. The team is also investigating Wells and they have to keep that under wraps because the guy is probably homicidal. And stealthy. And always creeping around so they have to sneak extra hard and have mixed luck with that, especially since Creepyjeans is useful in solving the criminal case of this many-faced metahuman. He gives Barry some solid advice, too: don’t let this dude touch you because he might steal your identity and your powers. Yeah, that’s scary.
Meanwhile over in Arrowland, aka Starling City, Captain Lance is sitting down with Joe and Cisco, sharing those files when his super smart daughter Laurel (yes, that is sarcasm) shows up to say hi and also has a word with Cisco in which she pretty much giddily tells Cisco that oh my God, she’s the Canary! She also wants to upgrade her dead sister’s sonic thing and needs Cisco’s help. Seriously.
Anyway back in Central City Caitlin still isn’t handling the whole bit about Wells maybe being a psycho with much grace. She decides to go visit the creepy doctor behind Barry’s back. Barry catches her literally on Wells’ doorstep and stops her, but she pleads her case that if the guy is really a bad one that this destroys her life. Dr. Creepyjeans has been her only support since the explosion so him being evil will really hurt her emotionally. Barry manages to beg enough time for Joe and Cisco to come back.
Have you forgotten about our shapeshifter yet? Yep, time to get back to him. So Barry and Eddie discover pretty fast that you can’t trust people when there is some dude taking faces out there. They question the suspect Hannibal Bates’ grandma, but um, she’s not really the grandma. And things get really bad because our shapeshifter has touched Eddie, steals his face, and kills two cops. Oh and it’s captured on dash cam. Crap. Eddie is now all arrested and such, but hey Iris decides now is a good time to be a good girlfriend. There’s that. Barry’s trying to help, but Eddie has to convince him not to bust him out illegally.
Barry is also duped by the shapeshifter pretending to be Eddie. That’s lovely because that means the shapeshifter touches Barry and now can steal his face. Then Caitlin gets dragged into it and thinking she’s talking to Barry, tells the shapeshifter the plan to defeat him (now nicknamed Everyman.) Her plan? De-powering serum. Pretty great, really. Also great? We see some Barry-Caitlin smooching except that it’s really Everyman and now he has the ability to be Caitlin, which sucks. Iris shows up, which is weird, and then Dr. Wells is useful and stops Everyman with a taser. Of course he manages to escape anyway, though, by morphing into a kidnapped girl who then gets some construction workers to rescue her. Well that was crazy and confusing. I hate shapeshifters.
Over in Starling, Cisco finds the presence of those pesky tachyon particles at the site of Dr. Wells’ accident. I had no idea those would last so long out in nature, but okay. Anyway, they check things out and uncover the corpse of the real Dr. Wells. Joe has to have a quick chat with Detective Lance to keep things cool. He also tries to talk the detective into patching things up with Laurel and Cisco fixes up the Canary Cry for said Laurel. He also has a fanboy moment and wants a photo with her in costume, which is adorable and why I love Cisco so much.
Now it’s time to finish up this episode and get our villain! Seems Everyman is trying to get the heck out of Dodge by going to the airport. Flash gets there in time, but then Everyman takes on the appearance of Caitlin and that gives him enough time to mace Barry. And then we fight! Barry fights Everyman who takes on the faces of Iris, Eddie, Caitlin and even Barry himself which is kind of neat. Barry manages to best Everyman, though, and injects him with the serum. Barry wins!
All is well that ends well. Security footage reveals Everyman’s abilities so Eddie and others are going to be exonerated and set free. Everyman ends up in the super secret metahuman jail. Hannibal Bates can’t remember what he actually looks like so he takes on the appearance of a blind and disfigured man. Oh and the Scooby Gang has the corpse of the real Dr. Wells. Dr. Creepy and Joe have a little chat about how they are both widowers which is pretty weird and it’s clear Wells is up to something per the always. Awkwardness abounds.
But then, at the end of the episode, Cisco uses the blueprints of the lab to track down any place Dr. Creepy might be hiding something and finds that secret room. And in that secret room? A newspaper headline from April 25, 2024 that reads: Flash Vanishes, Missing in Crisis.
DUN, DUN, DUN!
Four. More. Episodes. I’m dying.
What did you think about tonight’s crazy episode? Let’s talk in the comments!
The Hudsucker 
Cisco is awesome, as usual. And Joe got some really great moments in this episode. Quintin Lance there seemed much more, ah, wired than he usually is on Arrow.
That said, Barry must really have taken his stupid pills this ep. He fell for Everyman’s tricks far too easily.