The Flash season 2, episode 21, “The Runaway Dinosaur” — directed by Kevin Smith — dealt with the aftermath of second particle accelerator explosion.
In many ways, “The Runaway Dinosaur” was about grief and the ways we respond to death. After his “death” due to the second particle accelerator explosion, Barry finds himself in the Speed Force, coming to terms with his mother’s death, while those left behind are forced to deal with the ramifications of Barry’s supposed death. Meanwhile, Girder is reanimated due to the particle accelerator explosion.
While in the Speed Force, Barry faces the fact that he hasn’t worked his way through all the stages of grief. And until he does, he will not be able to regain his powers or return home. For all that Barry is in touch with his emotions, he’s never moved past the deepest wound that has shaped him: the death of his mother. And as someone with the ability to travel through time, his refusal to accept his mother’s death makes sense.
The fact that Barry is eventually able to reach acceptance of his mother’s death prompts the Speed Force to return his speed to him, saying that he’ll be able to run unburdened now. To me, this brings back the parallels between Barry and Hunter Zolomon. Both men lost their mothers at the age of 11, and that loss helped shape the divergent paths that they ended up taking. Both men have held onto that loss into adulthood — as we see Hunter flashing back to his mother’s death, particularly around Caitlin. But Barry finally accepting the death and letting it go takes a weight off his shoulders.
The implication to me is that having faced and accepted this tragedy and letting the weight go will allow Barry to reach new heights/speeds — thus giving him room to run fast enough to defeat Zoom. I predict Zolomon’s inability to face, bear and eventually accept the tragedy will lead to his downfall.
Back in S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry’s loved ones deal with Barry’s loss. Henry is grief-stricken at losing his son, Harry is shocked and horrified at what he’s done, Iris and Joe are distraught but Cisco is the one to act in his denial. He eventually vibes Barry, seeing him in the Speed Force, prompting him to work with Harry to find a way to bring him back. They are men of science, so they focusing on doing what they do best.
However, they are distracted from their efforts by zombie Girder. Joe and Iris take point on bringing Girder back to S.T.A.R. Labs, with Iris volunteering to serve as bait. It’s great to watch the remaining members of the team coming together to try to solve the issue. However, when the first plan to stop Girder fails, it’s clear that the team needs all its pieces in place to be truly successful — they need The Flash.
And who is the one to bring Barry back? Iris. The show is pretty quickly bringing these two together romantically after keeping them apart for so long. I enjoy the chemistry between Barry and Iris but have found the romantic dynamic the least interesting part of the show up until now. Hopefully we’ll see an upturn in not only how their relationship is written but in giving Iris relevant things to do, as she had in this episode. This was, in fact, a really great episode for Iris.
It’s not until Barry returns with his powers that Girder is defeated. The members of the team are then able to play the parts they play best, and as a result they pretty quickly take down the zombie meta. (Cisco’s hilarious line about Barry’s return, “I’m so glad you’re back… ’cause we’re about to die,” is the best representation of this.) Girder’s final expression before he goes down for good is hauntingly sad — he didn’t ask for this — which left me with a surprising pang.
Speaking of the team, we also see the after effects of the particle accelerator explosion on Wally and Jesse. Wally comes to pretty quickly; Joe suspects Wally has gained powers, but Wally doesn’t react when Joe tries to get him to talk about it, nor does he show off any powers. (Not yet, anyway. Cough Kid Flash cough.) Jesse, though, ends up in a coma much like Barry’s: one medicine can’t explain. It’s not until Barry returns and sparks her with lightning (Speed Force?) that she wakes up. She totally got powers.
Henry, meanwhile, tells Barry that he’s going to return to Central City for good. Why do I feel like his chances at dying just skyrocketed?
And finally, Zoom brings metahumans from Earth-2 to Earth-1; it’s time for them to take this world for their own. Caitlin, for her part, watches on in horror.
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