Violet recaps Season 2 Episode 9 of The Flash, titled Running to Stand Still, where the Weather Wizard breaks Captain Cold and the Trickster out of prison so that they can team up to kill The Flash! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The Flash, Season 2 Episode 9: Running to Stand Still
The episode begins with Dr. Wells running down the hall at STAR Labs, and Zoom chasing him and catching him, holding him by the neck. Dr. Wells begs Zoom to let his daughter live.
Iris meets up with Joe at Jitters, and they discuss what to get Barry for Christmas. Iris suggests a watch, and they reference the watch that Joe’s father gave to him.
Meanwhile, Barry and Patty are kissing in the lab, when Iris walks in, prompting Patty to leave. Iris expresses her happiness for him, but then she breaks down crying and tells Barry about the son her mother had, which is also Joe’s son, whose name is Wally West. Barry says he’ll help Iris tell Joe about him.
At STAR Labs, Caitlin invites Jay to Joe’s place for Christmas Eve. Cisco tries to leave them alone to flirt, when Dr. Wells walks in, seeming like something is bothering him.
At Iron Heights Prison, the Weather Wizard (Mark Mardon), breaks out Captain Cold (Leonard Snart) and the Trickster (James Jesse).
Later, when they investigate the breakout, it’s revealed that Patty had been personally affected by Mardon, though we don’t know how, exactly. Barry is worried about Patty doing something reckless.
In a warehouse, Mardon tells Snart and Jesse the reason he broke them out: because they all want to see The Flash dead. Snart warns the others not to underestimate The Flash and contemplates whether he wants in or not.
Back at STAR Labs, Barry seems to anticipate Cisco’s plan on how to pinpoint the location of the Weather Wizard, Captain Cold, and the Trickster, and Barry reveals what happened in an alternate timeline in which Cisco created the wand.
Joe meets Barry and Iris at the lab, where Iris tells him about his son, Wally. Iris and Joe both break down crying. Joe needs some time to process this.
When Iris and Barry return home, Captain Cold is sitting in the living room waiting for them. He warns Barry about Mardon and Jesse planning to kill him, though Snart says he’s not interested in joining them. Barry asks Snart to help him stop them, but he declines.
Down in the Pipeline, Joe and Barry talk. Joe blames himself for not knowing about his son, and for his son not having a father. Barry tries to reassure him it’s not his fault.
The Trickster takes over the TV and threatens The Flash.
At STAR Labs, they zoom in on the reflection in the Trickster’s eye and figure out his location. It seems that Patty has figured this out as well, and has gone to the warehouse, where The Flash has also shown up, and is surprised to see her. They soon find themselves surrounded by explosive dreidels. The Flash has Patty hold onto him while his spins his arms in circles, causing him to fly them out of there just in time to avoid the explosions. They talk, and we learn that Mardon shot and killed Patty’s father, but that Patty blames herself, and that she has made her whole life about getting justice.
At STAR Labs, Patty seems to be ignoring Barry’s phone calls. Barry examines the wand that they’ve been working on, and approves.
Meanwhile, the Trickster dresses as Santa and hands out gifts to kids.
Zoom comes through the breach in the STAR Labs basement and asks Dr. Wells if he has decided. Dr. Wells says he needs more time. Zoom says he’ll give him one more day, then jumps back through the breach.
Cisco locates the Weather Wizard, and Caitlin figures out he’s there for the Tree Lighting ceremony. Barry grabs the wand and confronts Mardon at the top of a building as the Flash. To Barry’s surprise, Mardon jumps off the building — and uses his powers to fly. Barry chases him, running along the sides of buildings, and jumping off of a helicopter. Barry soon uses the wand to bring him down — in the middle of the town square where James Jesse is still dressed as Santa, except without the hat and beard. Mardon explains that the gifts that Jesse has been giving out all day each have a bomb inside them. There’s no way for the Flash to get to all of them. The Flash begs Mardon not to do this. Mardon says he’ll let everyone live if the Flash lets him end him very publicly and painfully. Barry hands the wand over to Mardon, who delights in using it on Barry.
Back at STAR Labs, the team comes up with a plan to get rid of the bombs. Dr. Wells says they only need to find one. They locate one of the bombs, which Dr. Wells retrieves by knocking on the door of one of the children. The plan is to send the bomb through a breach and use magnetism, which will attract all the other bombs. They use a drone to pilot the bomb to the breach up in the sky, and all the bombs follow and detonate.
Meanwhile, Jesse stands over the Flash with a knife, ready to gut him. However, Cisco radios to Barry that the bombs are gone, and the Flash uses his super speed to immobilize both Jesse and Mardon. Patty shows up and uses a weapon to secure the Flash’s leg to the street, so that he is unable to move. Patty then points a gun at Mardon, ready to kill him. However, the Flash is able to talk her down, and instead, Patty arrests Mardon.
Back at STAR Labs, Joe tells Barry that it went well with Francine, and seems excited about having a son, though the son still doesn’t know yet. Joe then gives Barry his watch, because he wanted to give it to his son one day. Joe leaves to go home. Barry stays behind, and sees Dr. Wells through the glass. Though Dr. Wells can’t hear him, and Barry realizes that he’s not the same Dr. Wells, Barry says he can’t hate him anymore, and that he forgives him. Dr. Wells notices Barry looking at him, and uses the intercom to ask if he needs him for something. Barry invites him to come over for Christmas, but Dr. Wells declines, saying he can’t celebrate without his daughter.
At the West house, the STAR Labs team is in attendance. Jay Garrick and Caitlin kiss under the mistletoe. Patty comes over, and apologizes to Barry, saying she’s been going through something, and that she’s ready to tell Barry about it. There’s a knock on the door. It’s Wally — Joe’s son. He introduces Iris to him, and invites him in.
In the final scene, Zoom appears to Dr. Wells, who has guessed what Zoom is doing — he’s trying to make Barry faster and stronger, to become full of “speed force.” Zoom confirms this, saying that the more power Barry has, the more he can take — and that Dr. Wells is going to help. Dr. Wells asks to see his daughter first. Zoom brings Dr. Wells’s daughter through the breach for a few seconds and then brings her back. Dr. Wells agrees to help Zoom steal the Flash’s speed in return for his daughter’s life.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 9 of The Flash: Running to Stand Still
This was a pretty fun Christmas episode! Any time we get to see Mark Hamill in his Trickster role is a good time. He plays crazy just right. However, it seemed like another transparent attempt at continuing to set up Legends of Tomorrow, with the way that Mardon broke Captain Cold out of prison — and then he didn’t even end up joining up with the bad guys! I suppose that was the show’s way of showing us that Captain Cold isn’t all bad, that he has a good side to him, which will be put to use when he’s a good guy on Legends of Tomorrow. It just felt odd how he was on the episode at the beginning, warns Barry, and then is gone.
So, pretty much this Dr. Wells is going to be doing what the other Dr. Wells did: trying to make Barry faster and stronger. Won’t this seem suspicious not only to Barry, but the whole team, who has already seen this happen before? It’s the Reverse Flash all over again, but this time with Zoom. Of course, this time around Dr. Wells has a different motive for trying to get Barry to increase his speed and strength, but it still seems like Barry and the others would feel like this is too reminiscent of what happened before. I’m curious to see how Dr. Wells is going to handle trying to get Barry to do what he wants him to. The old Dr. Wells was pretty much the leader of the STAR Labs team, while this Dr. Wells feels more like he’s in the background working on stuff. Either he’ll have to try to step up and take a leadership role, or subtly manipulate the others.
The show’s been teasing it for awhile, but we finally got to meet Wally West, which should please readers of the comic books. I must admit, it felt unnatural the way they said his full name “Wally West” every time, and the amount of times they said it! I guess they just didn’t want anyone to miss who this character was. Now the question becomes, is he going to be a permanent fixture on the show, or merely a recurring character? I’m not very familiar with the comics myself, so I can’t really comment much about this character in the grand scheme of things.
Definitely looking forward to what the rest of this season brings! Hopefully Barry and Patty can open up and stop keeping things from each other! It feels so cheesy when Patty and The Flash are in close quarters, and Patty doesn’t recognize her own boyfriend. Just like when Iris never recognized him. Let’s hope this problem can be remedied, because Patty’s lack of knowledge about Barry being The Flash has annoyed me all season.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Flash, Season 2 Episode 9: Running to Stand Still
COMING SOON
Scenes from The Flash, Season 2 Episode 10: Potential Energy
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Flash, titled Potential Energy:
