In The Flash season 2, episode 20, “Rupture,” Zoom proved himself the best villain while Barry mulled over a difficult decision.
“Rupture” served as a series of events that eventually pushed Barry into deciding that he had no choice but to recreate the particle accelerator explosion to get his speed back. Without these events, we have the Barry from the beginning of the episode, who is unwilling to go through with it without the guarantee that it would be safe for others. Let’s break those events down.
Henry Allen
Looking for advice, Barry goes to his father and tells him about what’s happened. Barry is torn because he feels like every good thing that happens to him gets torn away, and Henry realizes this also means him getting out of prison. So, Henry comes to Central City and considers returning permanently. (This makes me nervous for Henry; at least when he was off in his cabin he wasn’t likely to be killed.) Henry is against Barry going through with the particle accelerator explosion because he wants his son to be safe — and alive.
There is a fascinating scene between Barry’s three father figures, with Henry against the plan, Harry obviously in favor, and Joe not sure they can convince Barry once he’s made up his mind one way or the other. Barry overhears, though, and tells them that he needs to make the decision on his own.
Henry seems to be the main voice of reason in this episode, as he recognizes how freaking dangerous it is to mess with the forces Harry wants to mess with. In an overt display of hubris, Harry has no qualms about what he’s doing — which becomes his (and Barry’s) downfall, as is the case with most tragic heroes.
Side note: Henry reveals that Garrick is his mother’s maiden name. WHAT?! Greg Berlatni teased that The Flash would not make the original Flash, Jay Garrick, a villain, and I can’t help but think this will relate to the identity of the man in the iron mask.
Rupture
The Earth-2 version of Dante Ramon joins Zoom on Earth-1; he’s looking for Cisco because Zoom told him Cisco killed his brother, Reverb. After letting Cisco escape, he’s ordered by Zoom to attack the officers of CCPD to send a message to the rest of the city. However, Caitlin overhears the plan and gets a message to S.T.A.R. Labs, allowing them to plan. Rupture is captured between the efforts of the Flash hologram and CCPD.
Rupture’s presence has more effect on Cisco than it does on Barry, though it gives Barry and Cisco another chance to show off their awesome Flash hologram. It brings the truth about Cisco’s recent exploits to light, as Dante learns Cisco is a metahuman and has been to another Earth. Though Cisco and Dante are still not close — even with Dante’s kidnapping at the hands of Captain Cold — this conflict pushes the brothers to decide to change things.
It’s significant, I think, that we get the relationships between Barry and Henry and Cisco and Dante in the same episode. So much of The Flash has been about the found family of the characters at S.T.A.R. Labs. But there are also important blood family relationships to explore, and we get two of them in this episode.
Zoom
Rupture’s defeat leads Zoom to attack; he kills Rupture and the CCPD officers except Singh and Joe. He then broadcasts his message to the city that the Flash is no more and he is in charge. We also see Zoom keeping Caitlin hostage and declaring that she betrayed him by warning her friends, even though he, you know, kidnapped her. But hey, logic.
Seriously, though, I’m so impressed with Zoom’s trajectory. He began as a masked terror and his unveiling didn’t undo any of that. Discovering just who he is and what his backstory is makes him, perhaps, even more terrifying. And it’s his actions that push Barry to decide to go through with Harry’s plan after all. Central City — and Earth-1 as a whole — won’t be able to stand up to Zoom without the Flash.
Had Zoom stayed on Earth-2, Barry likely would’ve kept using the hologram as long as possible — while looking for another way to rescue Caitlin — but bringing his threat to Earth-1 forces Barry’s hand.
Particle accelerator
So, Barry decides to go through with the plan. Harry, in his hubris, is confident that things will work. Barry’s loved ones give him a pep talk — including Iris confessing that she’d like to see where things could go with Barry in the romantic sense — and then it’s time. Harry injects Barry with the necessary chemicals, Cisco uses Weather Wizard’s wand to summon lightning (with a Harry Potter reference), and the particle accelerator hits Barry. But rather than give Barry super speed, it disintegrates him.
Harry just killed The Flash. Like I said, hubris. In the end, Icarus flew too close to the sun.
Each character’s reaction to realizing Barry has been killed is affecting, but perhaps most devastating is Henry, who just watched his son die.
Meanwhile, Wally and Jesse are also hit by the effects of the particle accelerator. Considering their comic book identities, it’s likely that they both became speedsters in the moment.
It’s obvious that Barry will come back somehow since, you know, the show is titled The Flash, but I’ll be curious to see how they go about doing so. It’s not like there is a body to drop in a suddenly discovered Lazarus Pit or something. Perhaps Barry became part of the Speed Force, and it will take our two new speedsters to bring him back.
Watch a promo for the next episode
Yes, this is the Kevin Smith-directed episode:
