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Recap / The Flash 2014 S 2 E 10 Potential Energy

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Barry is having nightmares of Zoom killing Patty, and is desperate to find some way to stop him. To that end, the team tracks down the Turtle—a thief who slows down everyone in his vicinity to steal what they love most. Meanwhile, the West family has some friction with Wally.


  • Appropriated Appellation: Two years ago on Earth-2, a metahuman with super speed lured 15 officers with a fake hostage situation, where he killed all but one. The survivor referred to this metahuman as "zooming". Just when he thought he was free, the newly named Zoom murders him in his home.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Barry and the audience are anticipating Zoom finding out who Barry is, and kidnapping his Love Interest Detective Patty Spivot just to hurt him, when instead she's kidnapped and nearly killed by a Metahuman criminal Barry and the audience had never heard of until this episode.
  • Ballroom Blitz: The Turtle almost literally crashes the Dances and Balls Barry and co. are attending.
  • The Bus Came Back: Gideon and Eobard come back after their last Season One appearances respectively.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Barry has several opportunities to tell Patty that he's the Flash but he always chickens out at the last minute. It ends up ruining his relationship with Patty, since she's done having fun.
  • Celebrity Paradox: Cisco makes a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pun on The Turtle, acknowledging the existence of the franchise in the Arrowverse. Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen) is slated to play Casey Jones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows the same year this episode aired.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • There's a shot showing a University envelope in Patty's table just before The Turtle abducts her.
    • The bullet shells of Patty's gun is what clued Barry that The Turtle abducted her.
  • Continuity Nod: When Cisco proposed to find a solution to slow down Zoom, Harry reminded him that the anti-speed darts they used only angered Zoom instead of crippling his speed.
  • Dances and Balls: Barry, Jay and Caitlin came into one in an attempt to catch The Turtle.
  • Dance of Romance: Subverted. Barry was planning on telling Patty that he is The Flash while they were dancing, but that's when The Turtle shows up.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Actually distracted by his nightmares about Zoom killing Patty, but given the dress she was wearing, it works as a perfect cover.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Joe finds out that Wally is drag racing to pay Francine's medical bills, Joe offers to pay for them, which Wally rebuffs since's he's the man of the house.
  • Fake-Out Opening: The opening segment where Zoom kidnaps Patty and killed her was just Barry's nightmare.
  • For the Evulz: Zoom killed the officer he originally spared, for no other reason than just because he could.
  • Foreshadowing: Wally gives a snide remark about Joe being CCPD's best detective, indicating a sense of issues he has buried.
  • Giver of Lame Names: Harry questions why Cisco keeps giving the metahumans such ridiculous names. Cisco thinks whoever named Zoom was this too, until he learns how he got that name.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Wally is clearly jealous of Barry's place in the West Household since Joe never bothered to track down him or Francine.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Barry rushes off to save Patty from The Turtle before Team Flash has devised any sort of way to neutralize his powers, simply saying that "he can power through it". And amazingly, it works.
  • Little Black Dress: Caitlin wore one in the Dances and Balls.
  • The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Poor Barry...
  • Mad Mathematician: This is Harry in his first scene. He even knocks stuff on the ground.
  • Misblamed: Wally blames Joe for never being there when he was growing up, despite the fact his mother never told Joe that he even had a son.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Gideon addresses Eobard as "Professor Thawne", a nod to his other comic book moniker - Professor Zoom.
    • The Turtle (or rather, Turtle Man) was Barry Allen's first foe in the comics.
    • Wally is a drag racer. An amalgam of certain aspects of the character (not just a Foreshadowing to his "eventual" role, but also his day job as an auto mechanic, and perhaps a nod to the other character Wally's a composite of, Daniel West note ). It might also allude to the temporary hobby of a certain black teenager from another DC-based series.
  • Navel-Deep Neckline: Patty's dress has a plunging neckline that reaches her navel.
  • Papa Wolf: Wells is willing to kill the Turtle in order to harvest his power, so that he can keep his end of the bargain with Zoom and save his daughter. As he narrates in a journal entry addressing his daughter playing over this, he knows that he would do anything to protect her.
  • Pet the Dog: Even though Harry is plotting to take Barry's speed he advises against Barry telling Patty his secret, since if Zoom found out about her he would undoubtedly kidnap her.
  • Promotion to Opening Titles: Keiynan Lonsdale officially joins the cast starting this episode.
  • Put on a Bus: Patty reveals that she's planning to quit the CCPD and study being a CSI like she originally intended to.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Played for Laughs, as Barry discovers that seemingly everyone else on the team has been treating this guy he's never heard of before as one of their biggest arch-enemies.
  • Running Gag: Everyone knows about Cisco's theories involving the Turtle....except Barry.
  • Secretly Dying: Jay. The only cure is to get his speed back.
  • Sequel Hook: The Stinger of Thawne's return leads directly into next week's episode.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Barry, Caitlin, Jay and Patty all looked slick in their formal wear.
  • Sole Survivor: Harry explains to Cisco that Zoom made his presence on Earth-2 known by engineering a hostage situation and killing all the responding officers but one to tell the tale — who described him as "blue lightning zooming about", which is how he got his moniker. The trope is then cruelly Subverted when Zoom goes to his house and kills him after he gets the story out.
  • Spoiler Opening: Matt Letscher's name is in the OBB. No, Eobard Thawne will not show up.
  • The Stinger: Eobard Thawne, pre-transformation into Wells, arrives in Central City, apparently for the first time.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: Eobard's return was heavily advertised by the producers and in upcoming trailers. Not to mention Matt Letscher's name in the opening credits.
  • Wham Shot: Eobard Thawne/The Reverse-Flash's appearance, despite the pre mid-season premiere trailers and the actual episode OBB spoiling it.
  • Windmill Crusader: According to Joe, Cisco's gained this reputation at the CCPD for all his theories about unsolved crimes involving meta-humans. He's even been affectionally nicknamed "La Mancha" by the force.

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