'The Flash' recap: 'Back to Normal'

Considering Barry gave up his powers to save Wally last week, it’ll be interesting to see how Barry adjusts to life post-Flash. We originally met him as a perpetually tardy, unorganized but brilliant scientist, living a slightly unfulfilling life as a regular forensic scientist. The show promised a lot for this week; Wally is sure to have his interest piqued after the Flash saved his life, Iris is starting to realize she might have legitimate feelings for Barry and Jay ran off with Caitlin after stealing Barry’s speed.

Despite all of this, “It’s a regular day in Central City; nothing out of the ordinary,” Barry says in his voice over as we see how he normally speeds through his morning, utilizing his powers for more than just fighting crime. However, like the title suggests, he is “Back to Normal,” going through the present day at the rate of non-meta humans.

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco’s able to “vibe” on Jay’s helmet and see Caitlin, still alive but suffering and scared. An annoyed Wells is packing up, angry at the fact that Barry gave his speed up to Zoom, allowing him to have the ultimate control over the team. He’s got a bright spot: he’s managed to find Jessie by tracing the “cellular dead zones” she leaves behind, a result of being from Earth-2.

A Killer Time on Earth-2
In Zoom’s lair, Caitlin is chained to the bed and refusing to eat but staying strong, not letting herself fear Jay or letting him get close. He tells her that she’s there with him because he loves her and is sure that she’s going to love him again, too. In an effort to get her to be more comfortable, he unchains her before zooming off, leaving her alone once more. She takes advantage of the opportunity to walk around; she catches sight of the man in the mask but her attention is pulled away from him by her doppelganger in her case.

Caitlin-2 is trying to play Caitlin-1, hoping to get out while the man in the mask keeps knocking on the window, annoying Killer Frost and piquing Caitlin’s interest. Killer Frost gets Caitlin’s attention once more, hoping to make a deal to have Caitlin release her so she can help her get down the cliff. Ultimately, she decides to help, rigging up something to help weaken the frequency of the glass.

As Caitlin-1 sets it up, the two compare childhoods; though their mother was the same, Earth-2 Caitlin had a brother that passed away young. Their catch up session is cut short as they put their plan in motion; Caitlin manages to heat the carbonite and smash the glass, freeing Killer Frost. However, as she tries to decide what to do about the man in the mask, Killer Frost makes her attack, recognizing that Jay only kept her around because she was a placeholder for Caitlin-1. Though Killer Frost manages to knock Caitlin down, Jay zooms in and kills her, warning Caitlin that if she tries to release the man in the mask, he will face a similar fate.

Meeting a Hero
Wally shows up to see Joe and ask about the Flash -- he’s figured out that Joe was the one Zoom was referring to when he said, “Someone you care about cares about you.” Joe’s less eager to talk with him about the Flash, being summoned to a meeting with a promise to talk about it later.

Later that day, Wally finds Joe in Barry’s own private little office, still hoping to set up the meeting with the Flash. He just wants to say thank you, realizing that despite his high-risk hobby of speed racing, the reality of death wasn’t real until Zoom kidnapped him; if the Flash hadn’t stepped in, he could’ve actually died. Joe caves, agreeing to ask about the meeting but not promising anything.

Fortunately, Barry seems to agree to the meeting; that night, Wally and Joe head up to a strange roof, finally getting a chance to meet with the Flash. When he shows, Joe bails, leaving the two boys alone. Wally finally gets to thank him, promising to not waste the chance that he gave him.

The Wells Family Reunion
Wells’ lead turns up solid; Wells turns up at Jessie’s apartment door, where he’s greeted by her roommate before the two Wells are left alone. Jessie is angry at him, refusing to leave with him because she believes she’s in more danger with him than without him. She hasn’t been able to let go of the fact that he killed someone to get to her, claiming that while she’s scared of Zoom, she’s just as scared of her father.

Seeming to relent to her wishes, he heads back to Central City. When a man steps into the middle of the road, he’s forced to slam on the breaks but doesn’t manage to avoid hitting him -- which turns out to be a non-issue, since the man is unharmed as the van wraps around him, ripping off the door and kidnapping Wells.

Old-Fashioned Crime Fighting
Back in the lab, Cisco interrupts Barry watching news coverage on rising crime rates after the disappearance of the Flash when an alarm beeps behind them. On the screen is the video footage of Wells’ accident, sent to the lab due to some tech in the car that alerts the team if there’s been any issues. Barry sets off to find Wells while Cisco starts hunting down the cause of the crash.

Iris catches up with Barry at the crash site and the two find blood spatter, indicating that someone was there with them. They decide to find Jessie, hoping she holds a key to finding Wells.

In captivity, Wells’ bracelet is going off while the meta introduces himself as Griffin Grey. In a classic case of mistaken identity, Grey wants Wells to fix his mistake -- though he’s been granted Superman-levels of strength, it also turns out that he’s aging incredibly rapidly; at 18, he already looks to be in his late 30s/early 40s.

Barry, Iris,and Jessie catch back up with Cisco, who’s managed to trace the fingerprint back to Griffin Grey. Barry’s confused; having seen the missing person’s report a few months ago, he knows the two aren’t the same. With facial recognition, they see that the missing 17-year-old and the middle-aged man are the same person. Though Cisco can’t run the proper tests, Jessie steps into Caitlin’s shoes, announcing that biochem was one of her five majors in college.

In the lab, Barry’s managed to catch Grey breaking into an abandoned chemical warehouse thanks to some facial recognition software. He and Cisco head there, catching up with Joe. The three find Grey, who promptly starts throwing barrels of oil at the trio. Barry tries to get a sneak attack on him but finds himself on the receiving end of a barrel, knocking him over. In front of him, Grey ages another decade or so before realizing something’s wrong and running off.

Back to Square One
Regrouping, Iris bandages Barry up while Jessie explains what she thinks is happening with Grey. When Barry mentions watching him age, she realizes that the more he exerts himself, the faster he ages. Cisco has an idea, dragging Jessie along with him to run some tests. Joe heads back to work, leaving Iris on Barry duty.

Standing in front of his costume, Barry reminisces on his first “rescue,” having first saved Iris from getting hit by a car. He’s not quite sure he’s still a hero and still lost on how to save the city without his powers.

Fortunately, Jessie has managed to figure out how to track Wells using his Metahuman Alert Bracelet, leading them to the Central City Amusement Park. The group suits up, Barry in a newly engineered suit thanks to a donation from Felicity Smoak of the same alloy that built Ray’s A.T.O.M. suit. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get much, just enough to cover the chest for approximately one punch. “Anything else and you’ll be a piñata ... only, instead of candy coming out, it’ll be ... you …” Cisco tells him.

Un-Amusement Park
Wells is working on a possible cure for Grey’s condition while Grey whines about how the explosion ruined his life and countless others’, without Wells having one worry about what would happen to other people. Wells asks him to be quiet but Grey isn’t interested in listening, continuing to rant.

As Grey finishes his pacing and goes to hover more, Wells hands Grey the finished product but Grey knows that Wells wasn’t actually working on a cure, just diluting the product. “There is no helping you,” Wells tells him. This sends Grey into a tailspin, which is only worsened by the realization that the Flash and crew have arrived.

Though Joe and Cisco try to distract him, it’s not much of a distraction, causing him to exert himself to the point of an old man. Unfortunately, after a handful of solid punches, he succumbs to his age, having exerted himself too much. At death, he turns back into his 17-year-old self.

The team plus Jessie make their way to release Wells, where the father/daughter share a sweet hug. Back in their quarters at S.T.A.R. Labs, the Wells finally hash it out. Jessie’s bearing the burden of the man’s life, feeling responsible for Harrison to have been pushed that far. Harrison admits that with the death of his wife, his need to be overprotective went into overdrive, refusing to lose another person.

However, despite the fact that she understands that, she wants him to promise he won’t do it again. In exchange for promising to be a father she’ll be proud of, he makes her promise to not run away again.

The Race for Earth-1 Begins
With her back in captivity, Jay is confused as to why Caitlin’s not happy that he saved her life from Killer Frost. As she keeps reminding him of the night he watched his father kill his mother, Jay goes off the rails even further, agreeing to take her back to her Earth ... so he can conquer it, as well.

In the central room in S.T.A.R. Labs, Wells and Barry finally get a chance to talk. Wells feels guilty that he hasn’t paid for the consequences of the accelerator explosion, either on his Earth or on Earth-1 (even though he’s not this Earth’s Harrison Wells). He vows to help Barry get his powers back and to possibly reverse some of the damage he’s caused.

When Barry asks how, Wells adopts a slight Mad Scientist-esque grin and mutters probably the most terrifying words possible: “by building another particle accelerator explosion.”

So, next week promises the return of the particle accelerator explosion. This could go two ways: either it’s a success and Barry’s back to normal or it goes terribly wrong and Barry gets his powers back but another batch of metahumans is created. We know Jay is bringing Caitlin back to Earth-1; what if, with this new explosion, her powers are activated? Killer Frost told Caitlin she simply woke up one day and had her powers - maybe being re-exposed to another particle blast will activate her own powers?

Of course, the show has yet to tackle other mysteries I hope they choose to explore if they don’t give Caitlin powers; take Wally, for instance. Jessie’s bracelet going off when he met up with them at the bar a few weeks ago was a not-so-subtle hint that there’s got to be more to him than we know. Plus, Wally West is part of Flash comic canon as the Iris’ nephew, taking over as the Scarlet Speedster after Barry’s death. Even if he’s not a speedster himself (though the Fast & Furious lifestyle surely doesn’t help convince us otherwise), he’s got to have some power hidden.