The Flash
Season 2 Episode 21: “The Runaway Dinosaur”
Directed by Kevin Smith
Written by Zack Stentz
Starring Grant Gustin, Jesse L. Martin, Danielle Panabaker, Candice Patton, Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanagh
Created by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns
The CW
Air Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2016, 8:00pm

Last week on The Flash, the group tries to make do with a slow Barry (Grant Gustin), using video game-like holograms to scare the bad guys into submission. And it seems to work a bit. Zoom is terrorizing Central City, and “Rupture” (Cisco’s brother’s Earth-2 counterpart) is after Cisco (Carlos Valdes), so they decide to recreate the particle accelerator explosion. After a really long back and forth, and three dads worth of advice, they try it. Barry disintegrates. Jesse and Wally get hit with the speed force and Barry particles and pass out.

Spoilers below.

The Flash 4.21 “The Runaway Dinosaur” review: Kevin Smith directed this episode, and showed what a fan he is by keeping this story and these characters in line with the entire season (look out for the Jason Mewes cameo!). Wally and Jesse (Violett Beane and Keiynan Lonsdale) are out cold. Jessy’s heart stopped for a bit, but they are okay. And by okay, I mean she won’t wake up, but she’s alive. They think Barry’s gone forever for all of 3 minutes. Cisco vibed and saw Barry in the speed force. Barry thinks he’s home and sees Joe (Jesse L. Martin).

“But I’m not Joe. We were there. We will be there.” He’s talking to the speed force. What?

“You’re not going back until you catch that.” Something shadowy is speeding around the fake neighborhood.

Meanwhile, back at the lab, Cisco is tasked with finding evil Wells’ notes when Barry was in a coma. It’s downstairs in the morgue.

Cisco: “Morgue-ish. I’m not going alone.” Iris (Candice Patton) goes with him. There’s banging. It’s a meta-zombie.

Cisco: “A zombie? For real? Get behind me.”

Iris: “YOU get behind me!” Iris was funny for once!

The meta is Girder… rather Zombie-Girder who had aspects of himself reanimated with the 2nd particle accelerator intentional explosion. They use Iris as bait. Joe has grown so much since the beginning, from overprotective father to using his daughter as bait.

The gang is falling to pieces, but are glued back together by one of Joe’s speeches. Cisco tries to vibe to find Barry and bring him back. He does not come.

Barry has a choice to catch that thing or go home without his powers. He turns away, and sees Not-Henry by his mother’s grave – he had never been there in real life. Barry is on a journey of self-realization inside the speed force. He continues and sees his mother, who really acts like his mother, “My beautiful boy.” The speed force is speaking for his mother. It is really sad. They read “The Runaway Dinosaur” together, which was even sadder. Cisco tries once more (because they are out of options and facing imminent death) to grab Barry out of the speed force, and this time Iris goes with him. Success!

“I’m so glad you’re back, cause we’re about to die.” Cisco!! So funny! Then a speedy summary. “Plan H!” Barry zips around a bit, and saves the day.

He then goes over to Jesse and touches her hand, a spark jumping between them. She awakens.

Cisco: “Are you like magic now?” I love you, Cisco. All those looks shooting around… we know she’s a speedster too. No confirmation. We just know.

Henry (real Henry) decides to stay in town.

The last scene is Zoom (Teddy Sears) giving a speech to all his meta friends, after giving Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) a choice to be with him or against him. If she was smart, she would stay with him for info. I don’t think she is smart in that way. Zoom’s friends looked pretty interesting.

Cisco was back with full “Cisco-ishness.” He was pretty good last week with the Harry Potter fanboy moments, but this week… Every word out of his mouth was hilarious. He even made Iris funny. Caitlin was never funny with him like that. They make a good comedy team.

The Flash episodes are usually great, and this one with the world inside the speed force, and the speed force being an alive omniscient presence is brain injuring. But what is brain injuring is always brain interesting.

The last 2 episodes of the season are shaping up to be an awesome showdown. Zoom will certainly be surprised to see speedy Barry.

The Flash airs Tuesday nights at 8:00pm ET on The CW.

The CW’s synopsis:

The Flash
The Runaway Dinosaur (Ep# 221)
KEVIN SMITH DIRECTS — With Barry (Grant Gustin) gone, the team must figure out a way to handle the return of an old enemy — Girder (guest star Greg Finley). Realizing Girder is retracing his steps from his last attack, Iris (Candice Patton) volunteers to act as bait to trap him in S.T.A.R. Labs. Meanwhile, Barry fights to return to his old life. Kevin Smith directed the episode written by Zack Stentz (#221). Original airdate 5/10/2016.

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The Flash | The Runaway Dinosaur Scene | The CW

The team deals with the aftermath from setting off the particle accelerator in tonight’s new episode of The Flash at 8/7c!