The Flash S02E17 Flash Back Recap starts now!

We’re heading back in time tonight, so the spoilers have probably already be spoiled, back when we first watched the spoilers, but spoiler warning anyway! Okay?!

Barry is angry at himself, once again he has trusted someone and they have betrayed him. First Eobard Thawne/Harrison Wells and now Jay Garrick/Zoom. He thought they’d both come to help him, but instead they’s both ended up using him. So now, he going to work on cracking the code, how to increase his speed force so he can finally take down Jay/Zoom. Maybe Jay-Z would be a good nickname? Or Zoojay? Hmm, I’ll think on that.

So Barry is doing his equations, and speed reading every book on speed and velocity ever written but nothing new is jumping out. Caitlin tells him that even though his legs are moving at the same speed as both Jay-Z and the Reverse Flash, his feet are not getting the same traction and less propulsion. She tells him that maybe it’s time to start asking the hard questions, maybe he just can’t run that fast?

Later at Joe, Iris and Barry are having dinner and Iris tell him about her date with her boss, Scott. She’s not sure she’s ready to move on from Eddie Thawne, her fiancee who died when he shot himself in order to destroy his future relative Eobard Thawne. Yes, that was as convoluted as it sounds. It’s been almost a year and Barry tells her that she needs to be open to new things, that she runs the risk of missing out on something great. Like the handsome beast sitting right in front of her, hello!

Wally arrives just in time for dinner and he tells than he’s going great guns doing engineering at College and his supervisor has asked for his help on a big project. Wally tells them that he’s been doing as much research as he can, even going back and reading the journals of the original engine masters, Enzo Ferrari and Ferdinand Porsche. This gives Barry an idea, and he books it on out of there.

Barry goes to see Cisco and Caitlin to pitch his crazy idea. He wants to run back in time, totally possible, and ask Eobard Thawne/Harrison Wells (Thawson? Eobells?) how he can increase his speed. Eobells was the only one who fully worked out the speed equation, and if he can convince him he is the Barry of that time, he might help him. It would also mean knocking past Barry out, not getting caught by Eobells, and making sure ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is changed. Otherwise the timeline will be effected and nothing will be the same when he gets back. Oh, and he also needs to make sure he gets back to the exact same moment in time he left, or there’s a possibility he’ll get stuck in a Twelve Monkeys-esque time loop. No wuz, cuz!

Harry tells him his plan is asinine, that Eobells has been studying Barry for 15 years, he’ll know something is off. They decide that if he goes back at the same time past Barry is fighting Hartley Rathaway, the first person to work out that Eobells knew the particle accelerator might explode, Barry might be able to pass of any weirdness on his part on being angry about that. Caitlin gives him a tranq dart for past Barry, which should knock him out for about 6 hours. Nothing major happens with Hartley until later that night, so it should give him enough time to find out what he needs to know and get back. What could possibly go wrong, eh?

He goes down to the pipeline and starts his run, the wormhole opens and he runs through. He concentrates on where he needs to go and various images from his past flash by. Suddenly he meets a Dementor-y looking wraith and the fright knocks him out of the time tunnel. He emerges onto the street in Central City, and he’s too early! His past self Flash is just facing off with Hartley, and he spots future Flash across the street when their comms start to interfere with each others. Future Flash gets further away and watches from a distance, but runs in and pulls Past Flash away into an alley after he is attacked by Hartley. This is getting confusing. Anyway, past Flash can’t believe what he is seeing and is not open to get tranqed so they fight and chase each other for a bit. Future Barry eventually wins and knocks him out and switches places with him.

Barry captures Hartley and takes him back to Star Labs where they place him in a cell in the pipeline. Cisco has discovered he has metallic objects in his ears, and Hartley tells him that they’re hearing devices he has to reduce pain after the particle accelerator explosion. Barry flashes back to when it actually happened, and remembers that the devices doubled as explosives and he blasted his way out. He tells Cisco to scan for electro-magnetic pulses, spoiling Hartley’s plans. Barry passes his brilliant idea off as nothing much, and Eobells arrives in his wheelchair and praises Hartley for his potentially brilliant plan.

Barry follows Wells into his lab and asked him to help him out with improving his speed. He tells him he’s been trying all the techniques, but hasn’t really looked at the science of it yet. Barry shows him what he has so far, and Eobells is curious as to why he has this sudden interest. Eobells hesitates, but agrees to work on the equation with him.

At CCPD, we get our first glimpse of Eddie since he died last season, and Joe asks him to look closer at Eobells, and search his place. The Dementor thing bursts its way into Barry’s lab upstairs and flies around CCPD seemingly searching for someone. The officers all unload their weapons on it but it has no effect. The CCPD alarm goes off at STAR Labs and Eobells tells Barry he should go and check it out, but Barry is hesitant to leave so close to an answer to his speed problem. He eventually goes but Eobells is twigging that something is not quite right. He gets to CCPD but the thing is gone.

Barry heads back to STAR Labs, where Cisco and Caitlin are trying to find the Dementor. Barry tells them that he didn’t see it, but he may have actually seen it before, when he was running to get Hartley. Eobells can’t believe he’s only just telling them about it. He sets Cisco onto finding and asks Barry to come to his lab so they can talk more. Once there, Eobells clonks him over the head, knocking him out.

Barry comes to in Eobells secret room, and he’s cuffed to Eobell’s wheelchair. Eobells asked who he is really, that nothing that has happened so far that day adds up. The interference with the comms, the speed equation, the Time Wraith. So that’s what it is. They go after people who have travelled through time, and Eobells knows that he hasn’t done anything to set one off. Barry tries to convince him he’s the same old Barry, but when Eobells stands and flashes across the room, Barry doesn’t react with shock as he should. ” You know who I am.” Barry tries to phase his hand out of the cuffs, and there’s the next clue that he’s from the future, Eobells hasn’t taught Barry how to do that yet.

Barry tells him why he’s there, to get faster with Eobells’ help. Eobells realises that if Barry is still alive in the future, then his plan has failed, and he doesn’t make it back to his own time. Barry manages to convince him that his plan worked, he went back in time, and Eobells made it home. He tells him about the singularity that forms after, and that this was the only way he could think of to increase his speed and fix it. Eobells works out that he doesn’t need this Barry alive, but Barry tells him he’s left a letter for past Barry with instructions on how to beat Eobells if anything happens to him. Barry ends up with the upper hand, and Eobells agrees to help.

Cisco tries to get Hartley to tell him how his gauntlets work, as they have proved to be very destructive to the Flash. Meanwhile, the Wraith turns up in STAR Labs and chases Caitlin down to the pipeline. She and Cisco lock themselves into the cell with Hartley, on the basis that the cells are supposedly indestructible. Not so much, as the Wraith begins to crack the glass with its fist. Hartley programs his gauntlets to give off a frequency that drives the Wraith away, for now. Eobells and Barry arrive too late to help them, and they realise that the Wraith is after Barry. Cisco and Caitlin leave to work on the gauntlets, and Eobells tells Barry they have to work out how to stop the Wraith, or they won’t be needing to work on the speed equation.

Barry checks out his lab, but can’t find any trace. Eddie arrives, and Barry asks him for a favour. He’s planning Iris’s birthday present, two months from now, and asks Eddie to contribute to a video montage he is making for her. Eddie agrees and starts to tell the camera what he loves about Iris, and is this room dusty or what?

Cisco gets Eobells to agree to let Hartley help him fix the gloves, when Barry flashes back in. It’s past Barry, asking where the other Flash is. Future Barry’s time has run out, “I’m right here,” he says from behind them. They are all stunned, and try and work out what the feck is going on. Future Barry tries to explain himself, while Cisco tries to work out which Barry is the real one.

Future Barry ties himself in knots trying to explain himself and Eobells clarifies that he is from the future. Past Barry is shocked to hear he can time travel, and Eobells tells them all to shut up, that if they overthink this they’ll start doing things that will effect the timeline. They tell past Barry about the Wraith, and they all agree they have to work out a way of stopping it.

Eobells takes Future Barry to his little lair and gives him the key to improving his speed, tachyon enhancement. He gives him a thumb drive, and tells him he has to go back to his own time, and take the Wraith with him. They go back to the lab, and Future Barry tells them they have a year to figure out how to stop the Wraith, and to be ready the moment he makes it back to the Lab in the future. Before he leaves, Barry tells Cisco that Hartley knows where Ronnie is, giving him a hint to working out Eobells secret.

Future Barry starts the pipeline run and the Wraith arrives to chase him, it slows him down however and he can’t get his speed up. Past Barry heads down and kicks it off him and gives Future Barry the speed to get through. The Wraith follows him through the wormhole, and he manages to outrun it and gets back to STAR Labs. He warns Caitlin and Cisco that it’s coming, and they’re ready. Cisco shoots it but it doesn’t work, and the Wraith attacks Barry. It starts to suck the life out of him, but Hartley arrives with his gauntlets and blasts it into nothing. Barry is shocked to see Hartley free and working for the good guys, but that seems to be the only thing that has changed.

Barry shows them the thumb drive and he tries to get it going, but nothing happens. Barry can’t believe he’s been duped again and gives the console a good thump. They drive starts to work, and equations are projected all over the room. “We got it,” Barry says, triumphant.

Barry goes to Joe’s, and find Iris looking through an old photo album of her and Eddie. She can’t believe its been almost a year and Barry tells her that everything keeps moving forward and the question is when will she. Barry tells her he found a video he made before Eddie died, and leaves to let her watch it in private. Eddie tells Iris how he loves her because she is fearless, independent, loving and kind. Eddie thanks her for choosing him, and that each day is a gift. “You deserve the world Iris. You deserve to be happy the rest of your life, and no one wants that more than me.” *sniff*

We finish up with Barry at STAR Labs with Zoojay’s helmet, and he says, “I’m coming for you.” And we out, for another 3 weeks! What is up with these hiatuses! Honestly, it will probably take that long to get my head around what just happened. The next episode looks hella scary, and we might get some Zoojay answers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EATEqpaMorc