The Flash S02 Ep22, "Invincible" Recap & Thoughts

So we’re finally at the penultimate episode of The Flash season 2, and what a strange ride it’s been! Last week, Barry had a spiritual experience with the Speed Force and returned stronger and more confident than ever, ready to kick Zoom’s ass!

This week we pick up with Zoom’s army of metas rampaging through Central City. As the CCPD scrambles to take them on to support our hero, Team Flash struggles to keep up with the mess. For all the dozens of metahumans making things difficult for everyone, Barry is in a total zen-like state, believing that they will absolutely prevail. His walking on sunshine creeps out Team Flash, who perceives that he is way overconfident.

Not that you can blame the guy. I mean, he had a real heart-to-heart with his mom last week, and he feels better than ever! Is confidence really a bad thing? Where is the line between confidence and overconfidence, exactly?

Anyway, Cisco ends up vibing randomly about a dead bird, but has no idea what it means. An alert at Mercury Labs sends the Flash running to the rescue, because the building is coming crashing down, and we get a small taste of what metahuman is taking it down.

Barry rocks a really awesome rescue of Dr. McGee (and by the way, anyone worried about the smaller budget that Supergirl will work under now that it’s at the CW, should really take a gander at this episode of The Flash, because with their limited budget, they sure do some pretty cool things. This rescue scene was astonishing!).

Dude, wow, this was a badass rescue. No foolin'!

Dr. McGee reveals that she figured out who the Flash actually was, much to Barry’s chagrin. Not that it matters, because his identity is kind of the worst kept secret in Central City.

Meanwhile, Wally decides he needs to go out and help people, and thus begins Joe’s freakout, because Wally takes on a meta to help out some regular folks. Joe asks Barry to talk to Wally and convince him to stand down, and Barry promises that he will.

Cisco experiences yet another dead bird vibe. What could it all mean?! Barry takes a moment to talk to Wally, trying to convince him not to play the hero, but Cisco interrupts him and tells him there’s a meta that needs an ass-kicking. Barry conveniently says out loud where he needs to go, with Wally overhearing.

Much to his shock, Barry faces down Earth-2’s evil version of Laurel Lance aka Black Siren, who rocks a much better costume and a WAY better canary cry than our dearly departed Black Canary from Arrow.

Since we lost our own Laurel Lance... can we keep her?!?!

Laurel is pretty much kicking his ass when Wally rides in, running her over and giving Barry a lift to safety.

Back at base camp, Black Siren tries to get Zoom to tell her what his plans are, but he tells her to run along and destroy more buildings like a good little birdie. She’s serving as a distraction while Zoom works on his larger plan.

Team Flash figures out that they need to take care of all the metas at once, and Cisco and Harry concoct a new plan using the Flash and some sound science. Can I just say what an absolute joy Cisco and Harry are together nowadays? They play off each other so beautifully and hilariously. I love these guys!

With a plan in place and ready to go, they are interrupted by Black Siren knocking down yet another building. Instead of letting Barry run off to rescue the people in that building, Cisco comes up with the worst idea ever, so that Barry can start running around the city in preparation to take all the metas out. Our old pals Reverb and Killer Frost pay Black Siren a visit to distract her, but she sees through the ruse and is about to kill Cisco and Caitlyn when Harry’s machine goes off, knocking her and all the metas out. They did a passable job cosplaying their evil doppelgangers, I must say, and it was pretty awesome to see Cisco’s powers evolving.

"What the what?!" You took the words right out of my mouth, Caitlyn...

The good news is that all the metas were knocked out and Flash rounded them up to throw them either at Iron Heights or inside the tiny non-toileted cells at STAR Labs (we’re locking up metas again without trial, eh? Awesome!).

Our favorite goth girl Black Siren gets put away at STAR Labs, so here’s a Laurel Lance that is definitely not dead! Hurray!

Can we at least get Black Siren a bucket or something?
I'm really worried about the lack of facilities at STAR Labs...

But the bad news is that Zoom managed to open up a portal back to Earth-2 before he got knocked out, so he’s still out there.

But all’s well that ends well, amirite?! Barry’s confidence has paid off, he was totally right about winning the day! Team Flash, plus Wally and Dr. McGee and Henry, celebrate at the West house with dinner and a toast. But just as they finish toasting, Cisco vibes one last time, and this time he’s able to stay in the vibe long enough to figure out what’s going on. Not just dead birds… dead lots of things! He watches as Earth-2 is apparently ripped in half. Woah! Did he just vibe a crisis event? Please say it’s so, DC!

RIP Earth-2... we hardly knew ye...

But to further prove a point about Barry being denied his happy ending, Zoom shows up as an uninvited guest to dinner, and runs off with Henry. Barry zips out of there, openly revealing to Wally (who is like, probably one of the last people in Central City to know) that he’s the Flash. But more importantly, he follows Zoom and Henry back to his childhood home, where Jay rants about making the Flash see that they are actually alike. Thus, surprising no one who heard the death knell back when Henry said he was in Central City to stay, Zoom speed-punches Henry through the chest, while Barry helplessly watches.

So even though I saw it coming three episodes back, I’m annoyed that Henry has to be killed in front of Barry, because seriously… the kid had like one entire episode of peace and happiness. I just kind of feel like the writers are torturing him for no reason at this point.

That said, I’m pleased that the death didn’t belong to Caitlyn, because after her constant moping about the entire season, I was kind of worried she would end up being this season’s sacrificial lamb. Hopefully this means we’ll get more and better Caitlyn. She pulled off Killer Frost rather nicely!

After her strong outing last week, Iris doesn’t have a whole lot to do here, which is fine. We do finally get to see her writing an article for the paper. Which is a nice change of pace for Iris, who has otherwise been hanging around STAR Labs being Mopey-Barry’s cheerleader for weeks. Then again, I am mildly irritated that she ended up being one of the debbie-downers who talked to Barry about being overconfident. I ask the same question I did earlier: where’s the line between confidence and overconfidence? Because I kind of think Barry never crossed it. It was nice to see peaceful, zen, confident Flash for once, instead of emo Flash worrying about everything.

I seriously already miss Katie Cassidy. She did a great job as Black Siren here, and I hope we see her again, since her character didn't die.

So we’re finally at the season finale next week, which clearly has something to do with Earth-2 being destroyed. And more importantly, can we please find out who is the man in the iron mask ? Because I’m pretty sure most of us are tired of waiting to find out. See you next week!

Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.