Enter Flashtime is probably the best episode this show is had in a while because it’s a classic The Flash plot straight out of the comics. A nuclear bomb detonates and Flash spends the entire episode figuring out how to stop it while the seconds slowly tick by.

The villain du jour is Veronica Dale, leader of eco-terrorist group, Eden Core. She gets next to nothing in terms of motivation or speaking lines in the show while her comic counterpart left more of an impact by killing Oliver Queen!

Assisting Barry is the returning Jesse Quick and Jay Garrick. I did love Barry’s little quip about Wally, since he’s now running around with the Legends (something I hope continues and he gets more to do in that show than he did here)

Jesse’s main reason for returning to Earth-1 is to get her dad to open up about her mother, the one we have yet to be introduced to though we do hear echoes of her voice via telepathy in a rather touching scene that demonstrates just how hard it is for Harry to talk about her death.

Flash Fact: The equation featured predominantly on the Speed Lab’s writing board, 3×2(9yz)4A, is an equation/mantra that Jesse’s comic counterpart inherited from her father, Johnny Quick, and allowed them both to access the Speed Force.

Jay’s presence is as an additional advisor and to cut Barry’s dumb ideas down, especially when they involve the destruction of the Speed Force. I don’t care how much you hate Thawne, Barry, Jay is not letting you take his speed, you little shit.

Using the technique he used in the courtroom a few episodes ago, Barry is able to communicate one-on-one with his closest allies and is a nice chance for some bonding and character pieces.

The solution to the problem is classic Flash; a hail mary pulled from the deepest part of his scarlet underoos. Grabbing the speed McGuffin that was tricking the Speed Force into thinking Barry was being held within it’s prison, Barry throws it at the nuclear explosion causing it to destablise and just vanish? Yeah, that’s a real old school comics way of dealing with a problem but given how it fits perfectly in with the episode’s vibe as a whole, I can forgive it.

Barry is laid up in the aftermath, his speed utterly spent and promising to take it easy so that sets up next week’s episode. Jay also announces his retirement but he won’t leave Earth-3 sans speedster, promising to train up a female replacement! To my knowledge, Jay never had children so it’s up in the air as to who this could be but there’s been a couple female speedsters debut in the past few years so maybe it’s one of them!

We also get another cameo from Mystery Girl, being decidedly more sinister than previous appearances. Not sure why, maybe she has beef with Frost and Wells? I guess we’ll find out eventually!

Overall, this was a pretty good, stand-alone episode that could have taken place anywhere in the season but allows a nice breather from all this Thinker nonsense. Next week, we go Freaky Friday as Iris and Barry’s “We’re The Flash” mantra takes on a whole new twist in Run, Iris, Run!

Rupture is a real slow burner. We’re still dealing with Barry sans powers and while that’s no bad thing, we all know he’s going to get his powers back and the majority of the indecision is because of…

Henry fucking Allen. Seriously, he buggers off for god knows how many episodes (seriously, when was the last time we saw him? Episode 2?) and comes back filling our boy’s head with some Snyder-esque Pa Kent nonsense. You don’t have the right, sir! Barry is meant to be The Flash, this question shouldn’t even be up for debate! Like the man himself says: “Being The Flash is the best version of me”. On a weird bit of trivia, Henry reveals that Garrick is his mother’s maiden name. Could this mean Barry has a more familial tie to the original Jay Garrick in this universe? Maybe, and if true, it’s dumb as hell.
Villain of the week is the Earth-2 doppelganger of Dante Ramon aka Rupture. For such a tragically short run on the show (introduced and killed in the space of 20 minutes, man and the episode was named after him!) he certainly made an impression on me. His costume and weapon are easily one of the most awesome designs this show has produced and the vex for the scythe’s energy looked amazing. Shame we won’t see more of him. RIP in Pepperoni.

Iris finally comes out and admits her feelings for Barry and dear god it’s as excruciating and cringe worthy as you’d expect. I like Candice Patton, I do, but she has absolutely no romantic chemistry Grant Gustin which is tragic because these two are the canon couple! Still, at least that’s all out in the open now. Barry just needs to get his speed back and beat Zoom and they can get to ban—

Oh. Oh! Ohhhhhhh snap, that’s not good. In an effort to restore Barry’s speed by replicating the exact conditions of his original accident, Barry’s flesh peels away and he explodes in a golden light, leaving only a charred emblem. Barry Allen is dead. Or is he? The effect used looks vaguely reminiscent of the effect of Trajectory atomising after injecting V9… Could that be a coincidence? I hope so!

And Zoom comes in to congratulate the shocked group for doing so before peacing out. What a delightful bastard! Still, one good thing came from all this…

Wally and Jesse are caught in the Speed Force explosion which will no doubt give them their speed abilities and, with Barry out of the picture, they can finally become the heroes they were meant to be: Más y Menos, sí podemos!

Rupture, while slow and plodding, had some excellent scenes and that cliff-hanger actually took me by surprise! What went wrong? How will Team Flash survive without a Flash? Will Cisco be naming the new speedsters or can they choose their own codenames? I guess we’ll have to see next week as we see what cult director Kevin Smith can do with an episode titled The Runaway Dinosaur.