The Flash Midseason Finale Recap
A panicked Harry runs through the halls of STAR Labs where he’s being chased by none other than Zoom, who catches him and holds him by the throat as he begs for his daughter’s life. Meanwhile back on Earth-1, Iris and Joe talk Christmas shopping and Joe reminicses about the watch his father gave him, which he always said he would pass on to his own son. This gets Iris thinking and she goes to see Barry at CCPD to tell him the truth, she has a brother and Joe has a son. The pair decide they’ll tell him together, because she can’t keep it a secret anymore. Back at STAR Labs, Jay and Caitlin talk about the breach points in the city and the sexual tension reaches an all-time high, culminating in Caitlin asking Jay to join her at the West Family Christmas party.
Snow begins to fall hard at Iron Heights, but it’s no regular snow, as Mark Mardon the Weather Wizard is back in town. Mardon enters and sets Captain Cold free, repaying a debt from season one, and the pair go downstairs to get another friend, James Jesse, aka The Trickster. The next morning, Joe tells Barry about Patty’s obsession with Mardon, and when he tries to tell her to take it easy on this case she lashes out and leaves the scene. Meanwhile, the villains have a powwow in one of the Trickster’s old warehouses and Mardon lays out his master plan, it’s a good one: Kill The Flash, it’ll be easier after Zoom weakened him. Team Flash brainstorms ideas about what to do with three villains on the loose, leading Cisco to pitch his idea for the Wizard’s Wand, which he hasn’t actually invented since Barry traveled back in time the first time he did it. That night, Barry and Iris meet joe at CCPD and tell him the truth – he has a son out there, and his name is Wallace.
After revealing the secret to Joe, Barry and Iris go home to find none other than Captain Cold waiting inside. Barry threatens him at first, but Snart has really only come by to let him know about Weather Wizard and Trickster’s plan, which he won’t be partaking in. As he leaves, Barry asks him to help him, but Snart refuses, he’s too busy starring in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Read your TV Guide, Barry, c’mon. Later at STAR Labs, Joe and Barry have a talk where Joe wonders why he never felt anything in his gut about his son the same way he did for Iris, leading to even more existential questions about Wally and the realization that Joe didn’t propagate the lie about Francine’s death for Iris, he did it for himself.
Wasting no time, The Trickster hijacks the broadcast feed in Central City and delivers a Flash-themed Rudolph parody to the people of the city. Team Flash pulls a “CSI: Miami” and sees the reflection of a Teddy bear in his eye and is able to trace it to the exact warehouse. Upon arriving, Barry sees he’s not alone and that Patty also figured out the location. It was all a trap though as the Trickster sends a few hundred dreidels made out of C4. The pair run out of options, but Barry uses his hurricane hands to fly them out of the building as they all explode. Barry warns Patty that she’s being reckless, a key word choice she should have picked up on, and it causes he to reveal that she blames herself for her father’s death and that she fully plans on killing Mardon in retaliation.
Barry calls Patty the next day with no luck as work continues on The Wizard’s Wand at STAR Labs. Meanwhile at a nearby mall, The Trickster is dressed as Santa and handing out presents to the kids. That night, Harry stands by the breach in the basement as Zoom exits and asks him if he’s decided, but Harry asks for more time. Team Flash continues to track Mardon via electrical patterns and realize he’s at the Central City square tree lighting ceremony. Barry finds him and before he can use the wand, Mardon flies away with his powers. He chases after him, including a great shot of Barry running across the blades of a helicopter, before knocking him down.
As Barry stands over Mardon, a small box rides over to him leading to Mardon and The Trickster revealing there are 100 families with bombs under their Christmas trees, and the catch is they won’t detonate them if Barry just lets them kill him. Barry seemingly agrees as they start to beat the snot out of him. Harry figures out a way to track the bombs and takes Cisco and Jay to find one of the bombs in the city. The trio find a bomb and strap it to a drone, and alter the dimensional frequency of the bomb (just go with it) and send it through one of the breaches in the sky, resulting in all of the other bombs flying out of the homes they’re hiding in and into the clouds. Mardon zaps Barry with winds and lightning and leaves Trickster to deliver the killing blow as all of the bombs are safely removed. Once he gets the all clear, Barry ties up Trickster and throws down Mardon. Once he finished, Patty appears and uses one of their Metahuman task force devices to hook him to the ground, and prepare to execute Mardon. Barry makes her realize that she’ll be throwing her life away by succumbing to this desire, and eventually talks sense into her, resulting in her arresting Mardon once again.
Once all the excitement settles, it’s time for the Christmas party at the West house as Joe heads that way, after giving Barry the watch he always said he’d give his son, and Barry mulls about STAR Labs. He notices Harry in the other room and “talks” to him as if he were the original Dr. Wells, saying how much he still hates him and that his video message keeps him awake, but he forgives him. Barry invites Harry to the party, but he declines. Meanwhile, Caitlin and Jay finally share a kiss as Patty reappears and tells Barry she’s ready to open up to him. As the party keeps going, there’s another knock at the door and it’s none other than Wally, whom they invite inside. Elsewhere, Harry stands in an alley as Zoom exits another breach. Harry tells him he knows what he’s doing, his plan is to “fatten up” Barry with more Speed so that when he finally takes all of his speed he’ll have even more. Zoom asks him for his answer and Harry asks to see his daughter, Zoom quickly returns with Jesse as the two share a hug before Zoom takes her back. Having seen his daughter one more time, Harry agrees to help zoom steal Barry’s speed.
Watch the “Potential Energy” trailer for The Flash’s return on Tuesday, January 19.
