‘The Flash’ season 2, episode 2 review: A Harrison Wells mystery; Jay Garrick, Patty Spivot’s arrival

Let’s start off this particular story on “The Flash” with an obvious reminder: Superhero shows on The CW always start things off a little slow. They have to build to the epic showdowns in the final episodes, and thanks to that, there is at times a feeling that the early episodes are slow.

We’re not going to say that there was really much danger at all in the battle between Barry Allen and Sand Demon, since he was a relatively lame Villain of the Week who was Sandman from “Spider-Man” light. Atom-Smasher was at least slightly more compelling.

What was far more interesting about this episode was the arrival of Jay Garrick from Earth-2, and the instant reaction from Barry not to trust him. This was the show smartly paying off some of its own mythology. After Harrison Wells, this is not a guy wanting a mentor, and Jay had to prove that he was genuine. Luckily, he did, and eventually proved useful in teaching Barry to do another ability: Lighting strikes! His finishing move on Sand Demon was almost straight out of a fighting game, and he and Garrick proved themselves to make quite a great team! Even without his powers, the original is still a force to be reckoned with.

Also notable in this story is the arrival of intrepid new officer Patty Spivot, someone who clearly loves “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” while also being out in the field. She’s got a little bit of many of the women we’ve met on the show rolled into one person, and is seemingly the new love interest du jour. We like her … for now. We still figure Iris is endgame, but you can’t rush anything in the wake of Eddie for now. Also, we discovered a little bit of backstory near the end: She is the daughter of Mark Mardon, a man you certainly know better as the Weather Wizard.

One other compelling note in this episode before the end was the development of Cisco into Vibe. It is fairly slow, deliberate, and perhaps most interestingly, secret. Mr. “I Love Superheroes” is not bragging to the world, largely out of fear of his own abilities. It’s a nice twist he certainly did not see coming going into this season. He eventually told Martin Stein about what’s going through … and then said “vibe” in the process. Sweet.

Here is another: The arrival of Iris’ mother at the end of the episode. Now, Joe has to make a decision about how much to tell her.

And, one more: What’s with the Harrison Wells plotline? If he’s over on Earth-2 now, where does this leave him with the rest of the story?

In the end, “Flash of Two Worlds” was a cool hour. Sure, the main villain didn’t really do it for us, but all of the supporting stories were compelling enough for us to still be entertained from start to finish. Grade: B.

Want some other news when it comes to “The Flash”? Then be sure to head over to this link! Also, you can sign up here in the event you want some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: The CW.)