“Versus Zoom” is episode eighteen of season two of The Flash.
The episode opens 15 years ago with Barry saying that sometimes terrible things happen to us when we are children, and that they can define who we become, whether we want them to or not. The night is the night Barry’s mother was murdered by Eobard Thawne. Barry continues, how he was taken in by people who helped him heal, how they helped him move past what happened and how it was thanks to them that Barry became what he did. He says that not everyone gets that support, and where he might have ended up, what he might have become without the support, he doesn’t know.
It then moves to Earth-Two, but still 15 years ago. A young boy wakes up to hear crashing noises downstairs, just like Barry did. A man is shouting that he spent 15 years fighting, and this is what he comes back to. That he is someone’s husband. A man in some sort of uniform, wearing a helmet that looks like Jay’s but without the wings, is yelling at a woman, his wife. The man insists he is a hero; his wife says that he is a monster. And tells her son to run., His father tells the boy to stay and gives him the helmet, telling his son that he is going to want to see this. Which would seem to be the man taking a gun and shooting his wife. The boy is taken to a dark, creepy looking building. The man escorting the boy tells the woman who answers that the boy’s name is Hunter Zolomon. His father killed his mother and Hunter saw the whole thing. And he has no next of kin. The woman tells Hunter to follow her.
In the present, Barry is at Keystone City and puts the tachyon enhancer on, created using the information got from the Reverse-Flash in “Flash Back”. Caitlin tells Barry the device is powering up the Speed Force in his cells. Like a quick-charge battery. Barry sets of running and Caitlin, Cisco and Iris are watching. Cisco says that Barry has never run this fast and Caitlin says Barry’s vitals are fine. Barry says he can run faster and does. Then runs through a blue portal and, a fraction of a second later and a bit further down the street, exits from another one.
When Barry arrives back at S.T.A.R Labs he asks Caitlin and Cisco how long he was gone. Cisco merely comments that Barry shattered his previous record. Now, during the brief space of time between the blue portals, Barry accidentally travelled to Supergirl’s universe in “Worlds Finest”. Clearly no-one else notices and, rather oddly, no mention is made of this during the episode. Maybe it will crop up at a later date. Cisco tells Barry that he ran four times faster, that he’s as fast as Zoom. Wells says that Barry is actually faster. Barry asks Wells can make the tachyon enhancer smaller as it kind of sucks. Wells replies that, if it sucks, yes.
Barry says they now need to figure out how to back to Zoom. It’s pointed out that all the breaches are closed but Barry has an idea. Wells does not like this idea; he says that the breaches should remain closed. He does not want to let the man who kidnapped and tortured his daughter have a chance to do it again. Caitlin says they will not let that happen. Wells tells them that Zoom is different. He has no ties and does not care for anyone. They all have people they care about and Zoom will use that against them.
When Barry returns home Joe says that he can’t believe he’s going to say this about the man he shot at, and punched in the face, but Barry should listen to Wells. Joe is worried what might happen if Barry goes to Earth-Two again. He escaped once, so why go back again. Wally arrives at this point, so discussions of the Flash and Zoom need to be put on hold. Wally has brought laundry to do, and mentions he is not living on campus because room and board became too expensive. Joe says he will help Wally out, but Wally doesn’t want that. What Wally wants – and Barry points this out to Joe later, as he hasn’t realised – is to move in with them.
Back at the lab, Caitlin and Cisco are staring at a whole lot of equations. Barry asks how they are doing; according to Cisco, the best plan they have so far for getting back to Earth-Two is to set off a nuclear bomb next to the city’s electrical grid. So, only the best plan for very bad definitions of ‘best.’ Barry had thought of something when Joe had wondered what Wally’s doppelganger was like. He asks Wells to tell them what Reverb – Cisco’s evil twin doppelganger – could do. Wells replies that Reverb could see through dimensions and manipulate multidimensional energy. Barry thinks Cisco will be able to open a breach to any Earth.
Wells goes to see Joe himself. He first asks if Joe has had any luck locating his daughter, Jesse, who went for a walkabout at the end of “Trajectory”. It seems he hasn’t as yet. Wells also asks if Joe can do him a favour – talk Barry out of reopening the breaches. Joe replies that he can’t do that. He thinks that Barry’s idea is just as dumb as Wells does, but Joe learned a long time ago that you can’t talk Barry out of anything he has set his mind to. Joe asks a favour of Wells in return – to go with Barry. Because Barry has a much better chance of defeating Zoom if Wells is involved.
Cisco’s first attempt does not work. So he and Barry try at another place. Cisco is still not managing it. Then Wells arrives with Reverb’s visor, which he has tweaked so that Cisco can use it. Wells tells Barry that he knows what he said, but as he can’t stop Barry, he is going to do what he can to ensure that Barry doesn’t get killed. This time it works and, on Earth-Two, Jay detects the open breach and speeds to the other side of it. Cisco stops, though, saying he can’t do it. Later, it seems that he is worried that he might turn into Reverb if he does. Get so carried away with his power that he does what Anakin Skywalker did, turn to the Dark Side and become Darth Vader.
Lots of stuff still left undone by the end of the episode but, thanks to Zoom’s real name being known (not Jay Garrick), Harrison Wells is familiar with who he used to be. And still – who is the man in the iron mask?