The Flash Recap: Episode 210 -- "Potential Energy"

Warning: This recap will contain spoilers for the January 19 episode of The Flash.

The Flash is finally back with its midseason premiere tonight, and its villain-of-the-week is a potentially silly foe direct from the comics. Does the episode make this character work? And how does it answer the big questions hanging over key characters from the last episode's cross-over event? Read on to find out my impressions.

• Out of all the episodes in season two, this is the one with the most scenes of two people standing around talking about their feelings. It's very heavy-handed, and we get a lot of repeated discussions about characters drifting apart while trying to come together at the same time (whether it's Barry and Patty, Joe and Wally, or Jay and Caitlin). The dialogue is well-written, but the overlapping scenes feel like overkill.
• Aaron Douglas shows up as the "villain of the week" Turtle. (It was pretty interesting that Turtle's wife was named Rosalyn, and Douglas appeared on Battlestar Galactica, where the President's name was Roslin. (Ok, maybe "interesting" isn't the right word.) Douglas does a great job portraying a character with a pretty dopey counterpart in the comics. The Turtle in this episode was creepy, but, sadly, he was killed off at the end.
• Barry and Flash being at the same place at the same time to juggle work and love is the most cliched trope in all of television. It's tired and overdone to the point where it becomes frustrating to see on-screen. Luckily, this didn't play out like a comical Mrs. Doubtfire scenario. It's quick and straight to the point, which was a giant relief.
• Everything here is building towards Jay Garrick getting his powers back and everyone taking on Zoom. There's not a whole lot that's delivered to push this overarching story forward, but what the audience got was some solid storytelling that that moves us closer to the season finale. This builds tension and suspense, and you can see what the characters want to accomplish, even though they know there's going to be a few wrenches thrown into the mix.
• How about that final reveal that Eobard Thawne (AKA the Reverse Flash) is back? There are one of two things going on: Thawne could have survived death at the end of season one by escaping and just got dropped into the future after his distant relative killed himself. Or, and far more likely, this is the first time Thawne has come back to the past, even before killing Barry's mother. What's going to happen when Barry and the rest of the Flash team finds out? This was easily the most exciting part of the episode.
• This was a pretty middle-of-the-road episode and not a very strong return after the winter break. "Potential Energy" gets caught up in its interpersonal relationships while delivering a weak Flash villain story. However, this was a great episode to see more of how Wally West fits into the world, and maybe we'll actually get to see him as Kid Flash at the end of the season. Aside from all of that, the episode does a fine job of moving towards the final goal of Flash taking on Zoom, possibly with Jay's help.

What did you think of tonight's Flash episode? Sound off in the comments below!