Barry Allen’s superhero alter ego has been experiencing a plateau when it comes to his speed and he thinks the only person that can help him solve his dilemma is someone from his past and defeat Zoom.
Allen thinks that Eobard Thawne, the man who pretended to be Harrison Wells unknown to everyone at STAR Labs, is the person who can help him.
Apparently, Thawne is dead and as much as Barry, played by Grant Gustin, hates to travel back in time as it will bear some repercussions in the present and the future, he has no other choice.
In Season 2, episode 17 aptly titled ‘Flash Back’, Barry figures out just how to himself move fast again. At the same time, he realizes that the key to matching the speeds of the Reverse-Flash and Zoom is to turn to one of them.
In the episode, Keynan Lonsdale’s Wally happened to be the one who gave Barry the idea of turning to an old master in the field during a West family dinner.
The dinner also gave Barry another goal to achieve when he heads back in time after he heard Iris lamenting she still feels guilty after dating Eddie.
Cisco, played by Carlos Valdes and Danielle Panabaker’s Caitlin then plan for Barry to head back to the era of the Pied Piper. While Tom Cavanagh’s Dr. Wells find the whole ordeal foolish.
They plan a six-hour stay, during which time Barry can assume the identity of his past self, work with Eobard Thawne on a speed formula, and return back to the present without disturbing any timestream.
Gamespot reports that the episode paid a huge homage to original source material. While the team was focused on how to get Barry back in time without causing too much damage in the present timeline, a new deadly force passes them.
Fans of ‘The Flash’ comic book series speculate that it’s probably the Black Flash, who is a symbol of death for speedsters.
Thawne then explains that these creatures follow someone who travels through time and doesn’t know what they are doing.
This gives Thawne a clue that something is up with Barry and discovers that he’s working with the future Barry so he knocks him out and handcuffs him.
Thawne was about to end Barry’s life after the latter spills why he came back. However, Allen says there’s a hidden letter which he gave to his past self and if Thawne kills him, his ultimate plan won’t succeed in the future.
Upon discovering he was telling the truth, Thawne was game to help Barry rediscover his speed. In the course of their team-up, Thawne mentions in passing that there are other speedsters.
Viewers have seen numerous characters that have tapped into the Speed Force: The Flash, Reverse Flash, Jay Garrick, Zoom, and even the woman from last week’s episode that used the Velocity 9 serum to gain powers.
During his time travel, Barry’s other goal aside from getting his speed back was not to alter time as well. The Flash Team enlisted Pied Pier’s help to stop the Time Wraith.
Piper was one of Flash’s rogues and ended up getting locked in STAR Labs. In the new timeline, it was revealed that Piper is the only way the team can get rid of the Time Wraith.
Flash then gets the Time Wraith to follow him to the present and in that time, Piper managed to develop a weapon to destroy the creature. Thus, Piper now being the latest member of Team Flash.
Fans will look forward to episode 18 where the preview reveals that Zoom is someone named Hunter Zolomon. This means that the Jay Garrick fans know may probably be not Zoom.