The Flash: Rupture

By: Ashley Binion (@ashleybinion)

In the previous episode, Barry and Team Flash attempted to cope with Barry losing his speed. While “Back To Normal” was quite unsuccessful, “Rupture,” on the other hand, delivered beautifully on drama and Zoom’s continuous presence.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Typically, it’s hard for The Flash to do dark episodes. They tend to come across as boring and out of character. However, “Rupture” proved that the series is able to successfully create dark episodes.

Throughout season two, there have been major issues with Zoom. Thankfully, “Rupture” brought back Zoom’s ruthlessness that made him so formidable. Hearing about Zoom’s ruthlessness via Wells – killing cops on Earth-2 – was not effective. It felt like a rehash of old material. Hearing and not seeing Zoom do something horrible. But, The Flash finally capitalized on this and had Zoom massacre a dozen police officers in one second. Just like watching Zoom break Barry’s back, it was intense.

That’s what I’ve been wanting from Zoom. Not just the violence, but the heartlessness of doing whatever he wants to whomever he wants. At the beginning of the season, he was billed as this merciless figure who would do anything to get what he wanted. Besides breaking Barry’s back, he hasn’t done anything to really warrant fear from the audience. “Rupture” brought him back to being the terrifying Big Bad.

Cisco’s brother, who I completely forgot existed, returned for the episode. His Earth-2 counterpart was actually really fun and intimidating. Even though he didn’t have a true superpower, he did have an awesome weapon – a scythe – and a nice costume. I wish he had stuck around longer; he could’ve been a perfect sidekick for Zoom. Let’s be honest though, Zoom doesn’t really need a sidekick. He’s doing the whole villain thing pretty well by himself.

The hologram Flash was a brilliant idea. I wish they had used the hologram idea in “Back To Normal.” Especially since the hologram was operated by Cisco, I would’ve liked to see him step into the hero role a bit longer.

After a short absence, John Wesley Shipp finally returned as Barry’s dad. He was so underutilized during the episode. When you have him guest starring, you have to give him more to do. The scene between Barry’s three father figures was in theory a good idea, but having two of them argue about Barry’s decision fell flat. There was a nice little tidbit about Barry’s grandmother having the maiden name of Garrick. Hmm. I’d bet The Flash will be exploring that at some point.

Visually, having the charred Flash suit was striking. But to make the audience to think that he’s actually dead is shortsighted. Just like on Arrow, there’s no way they are killing their title character. The audience isn’t that naive. Really, the idea of recreating the particle accelerator explosion was a horrible one in the first place. I wish they had thought of a better way to try and get his powers back. The only aspect of the explosion that had any merit was possibly making Jessie and Wally speedsters. Now, the question becomes will both of them become their true comic book counterpart?

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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