Synopsis of 3×04: Round and round they go… Looking for your very own Harrison Wells? There’s an entire multiverse full of them, and you can lure one to a STAR Labs near you, Pokémon Go style. All you need is a breach, a complex math problem, and the willingness to dive headfirst into one hell of a bad idea.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
Captain Cold Returns… Sort Of
Ah, Leonard Snart, you’re the rogue with a hidden heart of gold. Unfortunately for Sam Scudder and Rosa Dillon, it took the combined powers of The Flash and Rip Hunter to bring out Captain Cold’s inner Legend, neither of who were on the scene the night of the particle accelerator explosion.
Instead, we see Snart at the height of his criminal reign. Scudder chooses to cross the villain; an ill-advised move that would have earned him a bullet to the brain if a wave of dark matter didn’t suck him into a mirror first.
Skip three years into the future and Mirror Master is on the move, freed from his reflective prison by an unwitting construction worker.
Top Spins In
Looking for answers regarding Scudder and his newfound powers, Joe heads over to Iron Heights with DA Cecile Horton, who, as it happens, is ready to explore her chemistry with Detective West. Joe might not be genetically related to Barry, but the Flash’s foster father seems to share his first date nerves, so much so that he declines poor Cecile’s dinner offer.
Anyway, the pair track down Dillon in the metahuman wing. Now imbued with the ability to cause debilitating vertigo, Dillon quickly absconds with Mirror Master, who manages to slip in and out of her cell through the reflective glass. (Although, considering the cells are meant to dampen a meta’s powers, we’re still a little confused as to how he managed to get back out.) Ready to knock over a few banks, the pair is now the Flash’s problem.
Jesse Quick’s Big Mistake
Harry is ready to head back to Earth-2, but Jesse isn’t prepared to head off on her own quite yet, not least because she has a little crush on one Wally West. Taking down Mirror Master would be a perfect test of Quick’s powers if only she could follow direction.
Despite Barry’s Oliver-esque warnings of caution, Jesse’s youthful exuberance causes her to get whammied by Top, fall of an office building, and get a distracted Barry trapped in a mirror. Talk about a bad day.
The failure has Jesse ready to turn in her mask. A little pep talk (and a kiss!) from Wally, however, and the speedster is off and running. Barry… ah… not so much.
Absolute Zero, Absolute Lies
It’s time for Cisco, Caitlin, and Harry to take a break from their inter-dimensional search for Wells 3.0. Barry can’t seem to phase out of Mirror Master’s makeshift prison, but his pals have a plan. While the STAR Labs team whips up a device to cool the mirror to absolute zero, WestAllen have a little chat.
There’s a little tension in the West household, and it’s all down to Barry and Iris’ relationship. Joe doesn’t like to see his daughter making out with her new boyfriend (what father does?), and Barry isn’t too fond of showing affection in front of his pseudo-father.
There’s not much our hero can do about the situation at the moment, other than make Iris laugh about it, but, by the time the episode comes to an end, the answer is clear – it’s time for a certain millennial to get his own apartment.
Meanwhile, Cisco and Harry’s invention has a flaw. In other words, it simply doesn’t work. Unbeknownst to them, however, there is one person in STAR Labs who has no trouble bringing down the temp. Caitlin taps into her Killer Frost powers when no one is looking, easily making the mirror cold enough for Barry to phase through.
From there, it’s just a matter of using a Captain Cold hologram to trick Scudder into a circle of mirrors. Trapped in an endless repetition of reflections, the Mirror Master is handcuffed while Jesse takes down Top.
Harrison Wells From Earth-19
There’s a new Wells in town. STAR Labs’ multiverse casting call for a Harry replacement received several replies, and, after a little hemming and hawing, the team opted for Harrison Wells from Earth-19, aka H.R. The Flash really put Tom Cavanagh through his paces this episode, calling upon the actor to play everything from a cowboy to a British steampunk scientist to the fedora wearing H.R.
Placing the affable H.R. and the cantankerous Harry on screen together created possibly the greatest scene of the entire episode. It’s all down to Cavanagh’s impressive acting chops, and we’re more than a little excited to see what the future holds for the Earth-19 scientist now that Harry and Jesse have returned to their own world. Despite H.R.’s congenial nature, we’re willing to bet he has something sinister up his sleeve.
Snow Meets Frost(bite)
If you were wondering why Caitlin managed to avoid Killer Frost’s icy looks for so long, the answer lies in her reticence to use her powers. Now that she’s opened that door, however, her Killer Frost side is ready to take over. For Caitlin, the episode ended with a literal ice shower and the horrifying realization that her lips had turned a deadly shade of blue…
Find out what’s next for the STAR Labs gang when The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.
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