It’s that time again, Speedsters! Another episode of The Flash is upon us and this week, things get trippy! So without further ado, let’s jump right back into the world of Central City! 

Last week ended with the shocking revelation that Zoom was none other than Earth-2’s Flash, Jay Garrick. Or, at least, it was shocking to Team Flash. We’d known for weeks! 

Now, Barry is beating himself up for trusting the wrong person again and trying harder than ever to increase his speed and stop Zoom. Meanwhile, Cisco is continuing to vibe Zoom around Jay’s helmet and asks Barry to throw it away. Barry, unfortunately, says no, telling him that it keeps him motivated. 

Caitlin comes in to inform Barry that although Zoom and Reverse Flash are moving their legs at the same rate as him, their feet spend less time on the ground which allows them to move faster. Barry vows to make up the difference somehow which worries Caitlin. She asks him if he’s considered the fact that he may just not be capable of running as fast as Zoom. 

At the West house, Iris tells Barry that what happened to Jay wasn’t his fault. Joe says that no one saw this coming so none of them should beat themselves up about it. During dinner, Iris slips in the fact that she went on a date with her boss, although she’s clearly apprehensive because of Eddie. Barry tells her not to keep herself closed off or she might miss out on something great. 

Wally shows up and tells them all about the success of his engineering project. He’s attempting to push the speed limits with… Well, I don’t really speak science but it sounded cool coming from him. Anyway,  when he says that he’s been reading the journals of classic engineers, Barry gets an idea and races off. 

Back at Star Labs, Barry tells Cisco and Caitlin about his new plan to run back in time and have Evil Harrison Wells teach him how to run faster. Cisco asks what he’ll do about his past self but Barry says that he’ll just knock Past Barry out while Wells teaches him instead. Chyeah… somehow I don’t see that going too well. Harry comes in, after a long and unsuccessful trip looking for Jesse, to tell Barry that his plan is stupid and won’t work because Wells will know that it’s him and the timeline will be altered. Barry tells him that its the only way and Cisco and Caitlin agree to help. 

They decide to send him back to the time when Wells was distracted by Hartley Rathaway, also known as Pied Piper. For those that don’t remember, he’s the genius S.T.A.R. Labs prodigy who uses technology to emit sonic attacks and incapacitate people. Ringing a bell? Ah, won’t it just be lovely to have that asshole back? Cisco tells Barry not to underestimate Hartley and to not interfere with the timeline, namely by telling Past Cisco and Caitlin that Wells is evil. Armed with advice and information, Barry zooms off into the past. While in the timeline, he sees a creepy black creature before landing in a time he soon realizes is earlier than he intended. 

Across the street, Barry sees Past Barry still dealing with Hartley and the two make eye contact before Barry runs away to decrease their comm interference. While Past Team Flash (jeez… that’s a moutful), try to figure out what’s going wrong, Barry realizes that he can still make this work and, after adorably quoting himself, he snags Past Flash after Hartley launches him through a glass statue. Naturally, Past Flash is a bit confused but Barry tells him that he doesn’t have time to explain and attempts to to tranquilize him. Unfortunately, Past Flash isn’t  going down without a fight and runs away. Thankfully, our Barry is much faster now and catches him without much problem, apologetically tranquilizing him before stealing his emblem, the original red one. 

Back in the battle with Hartley, Barry manages to catch him again and takes him back to S.T.A.R. Labs. Down in the pipeline, Barry, remembers how Hartley used his hearing devices as explosives, tells Cisco to scan for E-bombs. When the scan reveals the bombs, Evil Wells tells Cisco that they’ll build Hartley some non-explosive hearing aids before wheeling away. Seriously, Barry? You couldn’t even wait a whole hour before changing something? (Dramatic Sigh) What are we going to do with you, Scarlet Speedster? 

On the way back to the Cortex, Wells compliments Barry on his observation about Hartley’s devices and says that it’s because he’s getting faster. Seeing the perfect in, Barry questions Wells about how to improve his speed. Wells seems a bit suspicious about Barry’s progress on his speed equation and asks him what prompted this approach. Barry tells him that he just needs to get faster in order to beat the Man In Yellow. Wells agrees to help him.

At  CCPD, Joe and (tear) Eddie discuss Eddie’s theory about Wells. Joe tells Eddie to go to Wells’ house and search for clues. In Barry’s lab, a deputy encounters the incredibly creepy, skeletor creature that Barry saw in the timeline. Wells tells Barry that he needs to go help, and he reluctantly rushes off. At the station, the cops try, with no success to shoot down the creature. However, before Barry gets there, the creature leaves without hurting anyone. 

Afterwards, in the lab, Eddie asks Barry if he has any theories on what the creature could be. Barry is clearly still too disoriented about the past (and the reappearance of Eddie) to be totally articulate. Joe asks him why he’s being weird to Eddie but obviously Barry can’t tell him. 

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, the team tries to figure out what the “dementor” is that attacked CCPD. Barry reveals that he saw the creature earlier but lies about it being in the timeline. Wells, however, still seems suspicious. Barry asks Cisco to track the dementor while Wells pulls Barry to the side to have a chat, during which he stands up and knocks Barry out. 

Down in his secret room, Wells questions Barry about who he is. He tells Barry that the creature is called a Time Wraith and that he knows that its after him. And when Barry doesn’t react to Wells using the speed-force, it’s clear that he’s not who he says he is. Knowing that he’s been figured out, Barry tries to phase through the cuffs that are attaching him to Wells’ chair, further proving Wells’ theory. When its unsuccessful, Barry tells Wells that he came back because Wells is the only one who can teach him to go faster. But Wells realizes that if Barry came back, he loses in the future. Thankfully, Barry lies and tells him that he actually won and that he only came back in order to stop the singularity that opened when he returned to Central City after helping Wells get home.

All seems well, until Wells realizes that he doesn’t need future Barry to get what he wants. But, much to my relief, Barry has a plan: He left a secret letter with Past Barry, telling him the truth about Wells and detailing exactly how to beat him. Barry says that if he dies, Wells will never make it home as Thawne. Now that Barry has some leverage, Wells has to help him with his speed. 

Back in the pipeline, Cisco asks Hartley to explain how his gauntlet gloves work. Hartley agrees on the condition that Cisco turn off the glorious Rick Astley that’s blaring into his cell and trades the knowledge for his new ear pieces. Meanwhile, in the Cortex, Caitlin is working when she feels a vibration, signalling the arrival of the Time Wraith. She runs down to the pipeline where she and Cisco hide out with Hartley in his cell. When it doesn’t look like Barry will come to help, Cisco gives Hartely back his gloves so that he can fight off the Wraith. Using them, Hartley rewires the frequency so that it’ll hurt the Wraith. 

Finally, Barry and Wells arrive but again, the Wraith is gone. Back in the Cortex, Cisco is grateful for Hartley’s help but Wells’ says that he needs to stay in the cell. Caitlin deduces that Barry is the only common denominator in the two Wraith attacks but he says he doesn’t know why. Wells says he’s not sure how to stop it but tells Caitlin and Cisco to start by repairing Hartley’s guantlets. 

Barry isn’t too pleased to find out that Wells doesn’t know how to stop the Wraith but Wells tells him that that’s the reason speedsters go out of their way to avoid them. Apparently Time Wraiths hate when speedsters manipulate the timeline which is why its after Barry. Although Barry wants to keep working on the speed equation, Wells tells him to go the CCPD to look for clues or there won’t be any point to the equation anyway. 

At the station, Barry isn’t having much luck finding any clues. Joe asks why the Wraith would be after Barry but Eddie calls him out before Barry can answer. While he’s gone, Barry asks Eddie to make a video for Iris, seemingly for her birthday, telling her how feels about her. Nope, those aren’t tears. The ceiling is just leaking! 

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco is having trouble reconfiguring Hartley’s gauntlets. Caitlin says that they should ask Hartley and Wells agrees as long as he stays in his cell. Before Cisco can go down to the pipeline, however, Past Barry zooms in, much to the team’s surprise,  looking for Current Barry.  Right on cue, Barry walks in, revealing the two flashes to Cisco and Caitlin, who are naturally, pretty freaked out.

After much fun back in forth between the two Barrys and Cisco, Present Barry tells the team that he’s also Barry, just from the future. This is especially surprising to them, considering Barry hasn’t time traveled at this point yet. Wells tells Barry not to say anything else or he’ll risk affecting the timeline even further.  They fill Past Barry in on the whole Wraith situation and Wells says that he has and idea on how to stop it.

This idea turns out to involve the speed equation. Wells tells Barry that the key to his speed problems involves tachyon enhancement and makes him a flash drive containing all of the information and tells him to take it and run faster than he ever has. Barry takes the drive but tells Wells that if it doesn’t work, he’ll come back. 

Back in the Cortex, the Team and both Flashes watch as the Wraith approaches. Barry prepares to return to his time, knowing that the Wraith will follow him. He tells Cisco and Caitlin that they  have a year to figure it out before he returns. Before he leaves, Barry pulls Cisco aside to tell him that Hartley knows where Ronnie is. Then the two Flashes switch back emblems and Barry races back through the particle accelerator with the Wraith in pursuit. When it appears that the Wraith is slowing him down, Past Barry races off to help him, despite objections from Wells. With a little push from Past Barry, Current Barry is able to time travel again, Wraith in tow.

Back in the current Cortex, Barry warns our Cisco and Caitlin that the Time Wraith is coming. It seems that in the year they had, Cisco and Caitlin built a gun they thought would stop it. Unfortunately it seems ineffective and the Wraith continues its attack on Barry, even after being shot. Just when it seems like the Wraith is going to suck the life out of Barry, Hartley comes out of nowhere and uses his gauntlet gloves to kill the Wraith. Apparently there was one positive effect of the timeline change, making Hartley much more friendly than hostile.

Cisco asks Barry if Wells helped him with the speed equation and they go to view the contents of the flash drive (now wondering if that pun was intended…). At first it seems like Wells lied and the drive is empty but when Barry punches the stand in frustration, the contents materialize and it looks like everything he needs to know to solve the speed equation. 

Afterwards, Barry goes to talk to Harry (who, might I say, I missed dearly throughout this Evil Wells dominated episode). Harry is still upset about not finding Jesse but Barry tells him that he did everything that he could do. Barry tells him to trust the decisions he’s made, even if it seems like they backfired. 

At the West house, Barry asks Iris when she’ll move forward from Eddie. She says she doesn’t know and he decides to show her the video he made of Eddie and its clear she’s not ready to move on. 

At the lab, Barry realizes that in order to move forward, he’ll have to confront the things in his past that have been holding him back. In the end, we’re left with Barry holding Jay’s helmet and vowing that he’s coming for Zoom. 

Wow this episode was an emotional rollercoaster. Believe me when I say that I laughed, I cried (real tears, ladies and gents), and I yelled in frustration at the television. Seeing Eddie was a lot sadder than I anticipated it being but it was still nice!  Now I can’t wait until the next episode. What about you? Tell us what you thought in the comments!