The Flash 2x11 Recap: "The Reverse-Flash Returns"

The Reverse-Flash Returns.
The Reverse-Flash is back in town and Cisco's the first to know when he gets a vibe. Francine (Iris' mom) is back, as well. It's said to be one of the best episodes this season, so let's get into what happened. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Tensions are strong between Patty and Barry, but Barry doesn't want to stop her from leaving because he can't get in the way of her becoming a member of the CSI and living with regrets, he just feels like everyone he loves leaves at some point. Patty's also been busying going through a bunch of Barry's old cases that Joe's gotten his help on and all of them concern The Flash and details that there's no way Barry would have known. Patty confronts Joe about this and Joe's a horrible liar, so Patty walks away with her answer that tells her that Barry is The Flash, but she eventually confronts Barry himself about it. He denies it, not wanting her to be put in danger by knowing and she says if Barry does say it, she'll stay, but Barry can't risk her safety for his own happiness.

Joe visited Francine to see how she is, only to discover that she doesn't have much time left. Iris visits her mother and she says that she's no longer angry about what happened. She wishes that she was part of her life and that she would have come back sooner so that she could forgive her earlier instead of now. Iris and Wally also have a moment during this episode and she tells him about Eddie and what happened. Wally hasn't gone to see her, yet, but Iris encourages to because she doesn't want him to live with regrets of never being able to tell her how much he loves her.

Cisco and Wells are trying to use his Vibe powers to find Zoom, but in doing so, Wells shows up in the Reverse-Flash suit to trigger his adrenaline and instead of seeing Zoom, Cisco sees that the Reverse-Flash is in Central City. When Reverse-Flash breaks into Mercury, the Flash comes face to face with Eobard Thawne, who gets away and takes Christina McGee, a physicist at the building, captive. Here's the explanation as to why he's not erased from existence: He's a timeline remnant. This Thawne of the future has not traveled back yet, so therefore, he's still alive. This Eobard Thawne doesn't know who The Flash is, nor has he killed Nora, yet, making him a timeline remnant. Wells has made Cisco goggles that allow him to Vibe instantly. They allow him to see different events in time, but by concentrating on one specific person, he can find someone else. By doing so, he eventually finds and sees the Reverse-Flash and sees him kill Christina, and then he left to the future through the speed machine she built.

Here's the thing, currently, it's 6:00 PM and the event that Cisco sees occur happened at 9:52 PM, meaning that Cisco's seen the future and now they have time to stop him. The time comes to take action and Barry makes it there in time, saves Christina, and stops the Reverse-Flash's mode of transportation back to the future so he can no longer get home. The question is now whether Barry's fast enough to stop him, and he is, and his anger may have taken him a little bit too far in beating him up before taking him in. He wants to talk to him, but everyone warns him against it because it'll alter the timeline too much.

Cisco wants Eobard to know that he's the one that helped to put him in the cell. He always wants him to know that he was the one that gave him his powers. Something's wrong though. Cisco's getting nosebleeds ever since he's used the glasses and he eventually is put into a prolonged state of chronic seizing. Cisco's being affected by the changed timeline and he's starting to phase out, and now Barry has to bring Eobard home because of the time paradox. It's the only way to save him. This is the Reverse-Flash's origin story and there's nothing Barry can do about it, but he can save his friend, and Barry's successful in sending him back, saving Cisco.

An important thing that occurred throughout the episode that HAS to be mentioned here and not under the "other things worth mentioning" was that we finally know the identity of Zoom. Caitlin thinks that they should find Jay's Earth-One doppelgänger in order to get cells that could help regenerate the ones that are causing him to die now. Problem is, they're having a hard time finding his doppelgänger, but Jay knows where he is. Hunter Zolomon is the name of Earth-One's Jay Garrick. His name changed because he was adopted by the Zolomon family, but even though he exists, the only way to help him is to catch Zoom and get him his speed back. If you know the comics, you know that Hunter Zolomon is the name of Zoom, making him the Zoom we've been dealing with.

Joe knows that Barry's going to have to let things go eventually and Barry's prepared for that. And at the end of the episode, Patty does find out that Barry's The Flash when she calls and says there's someone with a gun on the train. She wanted to know that she was right, and she knew she was when The Flash showed up to her false alarm. Barry needed to make sure she was okay, and he did.

Tonight's episode was very well done and very enjoyable. Definitely one of the best this season. And a big reveal with Jay Garrick's doppelganger's name. Things appear to be getting messy next week with a metahuman who can manipulate tar to his advantage and Iris getting stabbed in the preview, so we'll see how that goes. Should be interesting.

Blog note: Arrow and Supernatural recaps won't be up tomorrow night because I'll be working. However, I'll get them up as soon as possible. It's just a little hectic this week because of other work things.

Other things worth mentioning:
⚡Jay's doubting if Wells is actually on their side because Charles (the Turtle) is dead and they were going to use him to figure out a way to stop Zoom. Being that Jay's catching on and Caitlin's not objecting to it, it'll be interesting to see how that develops.