Plot
Career criminal Mark Mardon has returned and he's out for revenge on the man who killed his brother, Clyde. And not only does Mardon know that Joe West is the man he's looking for - he possesses a more precise form of his brother's weather control powers!
Cisco is quick to build a wand that can negate the powers of this so-called "weather wizard", but Cisco has greater concerns than Central City's latest metahuman menace. Because Joe West's suspicions about Harrison Wells have caught his imagination and turned the young scientist to investigating his boss.
Harrison Wells is also a subject of interest to the reporter Mason Bridge, who has set Iris West on trying to learn Wells' secrets through Barry Allen. Little does Iris realize that Barry is not without his own secrets. And that a secret she has kept hidden for several months is about to be revealed.
Influences
The Geoff Johns run on The Flash (Mark Mardon's powers being internalized) and the Francis Manapcul/ Brian Buccellato run on The Flash (Weather Wizard being motivated to hunt for his brother's killer).
Goofs
Granting that Mason Bridge seems like an arrogant so-and-so, it still seems a little unbelievable that he'd brag to Barry about having all this dirt on Harrison Wells on a secure server knowing full well that Barry has a close connection to Wells and might have the resources to get at said server given proper motivation. At the very least, Barry might tell Wells - whom Bridge believes to be a murderer - what Bridge is up to.
Performances
Rick Cosnett hasn't always been given a lot to do as Eddie Thawne in recent episodes but he plays his part here - being suspicious of Iris' increasing friendliness to Barry whenever Linda Park is around - quite well.
The final scenes with Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells are powerful stuff, as the truth is revealed yet we still aren't sure just how much of what Wells says is the truth as he complements Cisco on his brilliance before silencing him.
Artistry
The sequence in which Barry evacuates Joe's car just before Mardon strikes it with a bolt of lightning is a thing of beauty.
The effects-work for Mardon's assault on the police station is of cinematic quality.
Flash Facts
The title of this episode is shared with an upcoming collection of The Flash comics. Like this episode, the collection tells the story of Barry Allen using his powers to time travel, in order to stop a great disaster.
In the original comics, Mark Mardon was the first and only Weather Wizard. His younger brother Clyde was a scientist who discovered a way to control the weather shortly before his death by heart attack, though some stories suggest Mark killed his brother and repressed the memory, In either case, Mardon used his brother's research to create a wand-like device that let him control the weather and his first target was the police officers who arrested him. He later internalized the power and no longer needed the wand to manipulate weather.
The New 52 version of The Weather Wizard was part of a Mafia family, who ran away from home after the death of his father. He returned after receiving news of his brother's death and began hunting for the killer, using his new-found powers of weather control.
Cisco's Wizard's Wand is a nod to the original Weather Wizard Wand, though it accomplishes the opposite effect, preventing Mark Mardon from using his powers.
Harrison Wells confirms his true identity as Eobard Thawne - the first villain to go by the name of The Reverse Flash. In the comics, Thawne was a Flash fanboy from the 25th century who became obsessed with Barry Allen, to the point that he had plastic surgery to become his virtual twin. He later gained super-speed powers of his own and went back in time to meet his hero, going mad in the process and then seeking to replace Barry Allen. We have yet to see how much of this may apply to Wells but he does confirm that he comes from The Future among other things.
Wells' method of killing Cisco - vibrating his hand through his chest at super-speed - is a lethal tactic quite often used by evil speedsters as a means of murder in the comics.
Technobabble
Mark Mardon's powers are capable of creating tennis-ball-sized hail indoors. He is accurate enough to cause multiple bruises in a span of seconds and strong enough to beat a man to death. Barry determines this based on the dead coroner's bruises and the amount of ice fragments and water left on the floor shortly thereafter.
Barry notes that Leonard Snart's cold gun is not capable of doing what The Weather Wizard did, creating small, accurate ice projectiles.
The medical term for brain-freeze aka an ice cream headache is a Trigerminal Headache.
Cisco proposes creating a grounding mechanism to fight The Weather Wizard - a device that could attract unbound atmospheric electrons. Since the only way Mardon can control the weather is by tapping into the atmosphere's natural electrical circuit, a device that could take away that circuit would result in "clear skies".
Wells suggests at one point that if Cisco were to adjust the radial velocity parameters of the STAR Labs satellite, they might be able to detect the vortex of a forming storm and that those air updrafts, no matter how small, could be used to locate Mark Mardon.
Wells is able to use his powers to appear to be in two places at once. This is called an afterimage or speed mirage.
A vortex barrier - a giant wall of wind - could be used to protect against a tsunami by sapping the tidal wave of its energy before it hits the shore.
Dialogue Triumphs
Caitlin: So Clyde Mardon had a brother?
Dr. Wells: And both brothers survived the plane crash, and then the dark matter released from the particle accelerator explosion affects both in virtually the same way.
Barry: Yeah, only Mark's powers seem to be a lot more precise. To be able to control the weather like that, indoors?
Cisco: He'd have to be a... Weather Wizard. Oooh... been waiting since week one to use that one!
Barry: Things between us have gotten a little complicated... again.
Joe: (laughing) You're asking your adopted father for advice about being with love with his daughter, who just so happens to be dating his partner?
Barry: I know... I know!
Joe: Things have gone WAY past complicated.
Barry: Oh. You're the guy who thinks that Harrison Wells is some kind of mad genius?
Mason Bridge: Oh, no, no, no. I never said he was crazy.
Mardon: Guess you'll never know what it really feels like to be God.
Joe: That's what your brother said to me. Right before I killed him.
Cisco: I can help you.
Wells: You're smart, Cisco. But you're not that smart. Do you know how hard it has been to keep all of this from you? Especially from you? Because the truth is I've grown quite fond of you. And in many ways you have shown me what it is like to have a son.
(Wells vibrates his hand through Cisco's chest)
Wells: Forgive me, but to me you've been dead for centuries.
Barry: (To Iris) I am so sorry. I didn't want for you to find out this way.
(Barry changes into his costume at super speed, suddenly appearing before Iris as The Flash.)
Barry: Go!
Continuity
The opening scene with the Mardon Brothers escaping in their plane is a continuation of a scene from The Pilot. We learn later that Mark Mardon was sucked out of the plane and broke nearly every bone in his body. He spent the last year recovering from his injuries.
Barry and Iris both enjoyed bowling as children and still like it today.
Cisco is not close to his family.
Mason Bridge refers to the mysterious disappearance of Simon Stagg in 102. Apparently his body has not been found in the past few months.
We see Captain Singh's fiancee for the first time.
Captain Singh is struck by lightning taking a bolt meant for Joe. The doctors believe he will never walk again and that the attack may have caused neurological damage.
Barry's girlfriend in high-school was named Becky Cooper. Iris did not like her.
Cisco determines there is no reason for the capacitors from 109 to have failed. He later discovers that they are actually a hologram projector rather than a force-field and that the device plays a pre-recorded message meant to make it look like The Reverse Flash was captured. This explains how The Reverse Flash was able to escape - he was never truly caught in the first place!
Mardon's control of his powers is fine enough that he can generate a tennis-ball-sized piece of hail in seconds and strong enough that he can generate a tsunami.
Harrison Wells reveals his true identity as Eobard Thawne. He refers to Eddie Thawne as "a distant relative" and claims that he meant to kill a young Barry Allen rather than Nora Allen. He also explains that he has been teaching Barry to use his powers as a means to an end that that he has been trapped in this time period for 15 years. The Flash and his speed are the key to Thawne returning to his world and time.
Barry and Iris kiss for the first time.
Barry reveals his secret identity to Iris.
Barry travels in time for the first time, going back one day, to just before he discovered the dead coroner.
The Bottom Line
For the first forty-five minutes it seems like this will be just a standard villain-of-the-week story, albeit one with a greater emphasis on the show's continuity. And then everything becomes very intense very quickly with the episode ending with one heck of a cliffhanger. The Flash needed to hit the ground running after a month's hiatus and it did that with style!
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