The end of the last episode resulted in a big reveal, though we’re not entirely sure who it is, before the show went on a break. The Flash has finally returned from its midseason break and much like last season Barry learns that he has been betrayed yet again. Poor kid can’t catch a break.
A failed attempt at helping Barry run faster results in the team, minus Harry, going out to a club and de-stressing. Harry gives Jesse a watch that can detect meta-humans as a form of protection. But obviously being around Barry, the watch went off quite a lot. While trying to outsmart her father by turning the watch off, Jesse comes across a voice memo that Harry had recorded and reveals his true nature – he would kill for his daughter. Meanwhile, a seemingly new speedster arrives to terrorize the party go-ers of Central City, and steal their belongings. Everyone mistakes this speedster, named Trajectory, as The Flash, including Iris’ editor, who tells her to write a piece on how The Flash is actually a criminal.
The titular character played by Allison Paige was definitely a step-up from some of the villains we’ve seen in the past. Her performance as Eliza/Trajectory did kind of remind me of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in the first Spider-man movie. You know that scene where Norman is talking to the more evil side of him through his mirror? I enjoyed seeing that in this episode, it gave Eliza more depth, and I did feel for her. Although a villain, she was taken victim by an addiction, and it eventually destroyed her.
The new speedster is revealed to be Eliza Harmon, who works at Mercury Labs and is a friend of Caitlin. Eliza makes her way into STAR Labs in order to acquire more Velocity-9 to become faster, imprisoning Barry and threatening to kill Jesse if she doesn’t get what she wants. Harry and Caitlin make a new set of V-9 for Eliza, but to make sure they haven’t laced the formula with other harmful chemicals, Eliza injects Jesse with it, before taking off with the rest. Jesse soon goes into shock and needs a blood transfusion, while Barry goes after Eliza and tries to get her to give up. Eliza refuses and injects herself with more V-9, but her lightning soon turns blue and she disintegrates.
Back at STAR Labs, Barry points out Eliza’s lightning being similar to that of Zoom’s and the team discuss how V-9 had a negative side effect. Cisco then has a vibe of Zoom and tells the team that Zoom has the appearance of Jay Garrick.
With this episode, we saw how Barry is obsessed with becoming faster and while it may be for a good reason, it’s still an obsession and we’ve seen how those turn out. Barry is so determined to take Zoom down because that’s just the kind of hero he is. The club scene was quite entertaining – it’s always a treat to see Team Flash off duty and just having some fun.
I had a feeling that the writers were trying to build up a possible relationship between Wally and Jesse, but with her quick exit at the end of the episode, I don’t see that happening. I was a little upset to see Jesse go, to be honest. I thought she would’ve made a great addition to Team Flash, and it’s fun to see her outsmart Harry.
Trajectory was directed by Glen Winter, who has worked on shows such as Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow and Smallville! I wasn’t expecting this episode to really hit a high note, but I’m not saying it was a bad episode. As usual, Grant Gustin kills every scene and he is simple so believable with every emotion. And it really kills me when I see Barry feel hurt or anger.
And now that Barry has reached a speed of Mach 3.3 (even if it was just for a second), we’re definitely going to see a faster Barry Allen – he might even become faster than Zoom.
But my favourite part of this entire episode, was Cisco at the club.
