In ‘The Flash’ recap, Barry runs into another of Dr. Alchemy’s creations as a new speedster arrives in Central City…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s tough to remember at times that all of Central City was engulfed by that ominous dark matter explosion from STAR Labs when only a select few were turned into metahumans.
For every Barry Allen, there are plenty of Iris and Joe West’s, who were never affected by the exposure to dark matter. You have to wonder if more than a few of the people left without powers aren’t ever jealous of the ones who got them?
Case in point — Jesse Wells reappears on this week’s episode of ‘The Flash’ as a speedster after getting hit with a big dose of dark matter last season. Her powers didn’t manifest right away, but now she’s zipping around the room just like Barry.
Meanwhile there’s Wally West — a speedster known as Kid Flash in the alternate Flashpoint reality that Barry created — and he’s probably struggling to run a six minute mile. Deep down, Wally knows he was meant to do more but he never got powers like Jesse, despite standing right next to her when the wave of dark matter washed over both of them.
Barry knows that Wally had powers in the alternate Flashpoint universe, but he never shared that with him. Still, Barry looks at Wally in a different way now as he watches his pseudo brother struggle with the reality that maybe he should have powers but doesn’t get them in this alternate version of Earth.
Of course, Dr. Alchemy is passing out powers left and right and you have to wonder if perhaps he won’t offer Wally a chance to become a speedster just like he was in another life. Something to ponder as we go forward this season.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Flash’ titled ‘Magenta’….
A New Speedster
It’s finally time for Barry and Iris to have their long awaited date, but things don’t go exactly as planned. Despite Barry pulling out all the stops with roses and a candlelight dinner that will probably cost him more than he makes in a month at the Central City PD, he’s going to make sure this date is perfect.
But things get weird in a hurry when Barry and Iris suddenly don’t have much to say to each other after she asks him to leave his powers at home for the night. Sadly that plan comes to an abrupt end after they both get an alert from Cisco to hightail it back to STAR Labs.
When they arrive, Cisco, Joe and the gang have guns pointed at a rift that has opened inside STAR Labs. Something or someone is coming through and they can’t stop it.
Luckily this time it’s just Harry Wells and his daughter Jesse — who has suddenly transformed into a speedster!
Harry brought Jesse to Earth-One for testing to find out about her speed after she finally exhibited powers after weeks back on their Earth. It also doesn’t take long for Harry to find out that Barry messed with the timeline again after a few things about STAR Labs have suddenly changed. It seems Barry messing with his own timeline doesn’t have any affect on Earth-2, but it still perturbs Harry that these changes keep happening.
Never the less, Harry brought Jesse here to test her speed — sort of.
It seems Harry’s real motive was to get everyone on the team to try and talk Jesse out of being a hero. He knows how dangerous Barry’s life has become since he turned into the Flash and he doesn’t want the same life for his daughter. Despite his best efforts, it’s clear Jesse wants to become a hero and it’s going to be hard for anyone to stop her.
Jekyll and Hyde
At an apartment somewhere in Central City, a girl named Frankie and her foster mother are watching TV when John — the foster father from hell — returns home demanding his dinner. When Frankie dares to speak up to him, he ridicules her and reminds the teenager that she wouldn’t have a home if it wasn’t for him taking her in.
From out of nowhere, Frankie’s eyes turn a dark shade of red and a street lamp comes flying through the window, knocking John halfway across the apartment.
After the “accident”, Frankie meets with Joe to talk about what happened. Joe sees a trembling, scared child who had no idea what took place but Julian has a much different idea. It seems after investigating the street lamp and the torque that it would take to bend and move that structure into the apartment, he’s convinced that Frankie isn’t the victim but instead the person responsible.
Julian gets a sample of her DNA from a glass of water and runs a test.
It seems Julian has discovered a substance that all of the metahumans created by Dr. Alchemy have in common and he finds out that Frankie is one of them. Before she can leave the station, Julian confronts Frankie and calls her out as the metahuman responsible for attacking her stepfather John.
Frankie ends up hulking out again with the red eyes and nearly drops a huge metal sign on Julian’s head if not for the Flash appearing to save his life. Frankie makes a hasty exit and the Flash gives chase, trying to talk her down from whatever turned her into this fiery, revenge seeking metahuman. It almost seems like he’s getting to her until Frankie’s eyes flash red again and she tosses a police car in the air to keep the Flash distracted so she can get away.
After leaving the police station, she appears inside Dr. Alchemy’s hidden lair and reveals her true self as Magenta — a magnetic bending metahuman with powers similar to Magneto from the X-Men. It seems on the alternate Flashpoint world, Magenta was a very powerful metahuman but since Barry changed the timeline, she’s now just a timid foster child named Frankie. Magenta is still living inside of Frankie, but the two personalities are split with each one trying to fight back the other.
Alchemy promises that if Magenta exacts her revenge on John that Frankie will fade away forever and only the metahuman side will remain.
The Quick and the Dead
While Jesse is still testing out her new powers, Wally is left lamenting why he didn’t join her as a speedster. Wally finally asks Jesse how her powers manifested and she explains that while crossing the street one day, a car nearly hit her and the adrenaline boost must have ignited the speed force inside of her because she immediately ran out of the way.
Wally decides to see if he’s got the same ability so he steps out front of a speeding car, but his powers don’t appear. Instead, Jesse has to save his life before Wally gets dressed down by both Barry and his father about how dangerous this game is to play.
Meanwhile, after some research into Frankie’s background, the team discovers that she’s a foster kid that’s been bumped around from home to home her entire life and this Magenta creature living inside of her must be a split personality that’s fighting to take over control.
Iris decides to go visit Frankie’s stepfather in the hospital to see if she can get some answers and it doesn’t take her long to figure out John was a very abusive parent. As disgusted as she is by him, Iris doesn’t have time to feel angry after a gigantic tanker appears in the sky over the hospital.
Magenta has decided to take out her destructive revenge by dropping the vessel directly on top of the hospital and that will undoubtedly kill her evil stepfather. Sadly, it will also kill everyone else inside as well.
Run, Jesse, Run
Barry rushes off to save the hospital from Magenta’s wrath and thanks to a suggestion from Harry, he realizes that if he can run in a figure 8 and create a wind tunnel strong enough to hold up the tanker from falling onto the building. Unfortunately that won’t stop Magenta from exacting her revenge downstairs while he’s on the roof holding onto the ship.
Harry decides to make one more suggestion — he tells Jesse that it’s time for her to embrace her desire to become a hero and with three words he sends her off to save the day. Run, Jesse, run!
Jesse rushes to the roof to relieve Barry while he goes back downstairs to try and talk Magenta down from killing everyone inside. Thankfully, Barry is able to draw Frankie out and push Magenta back inside as she moves the tanker back away from the building and into the harbor.
After the harrowing experience, Frankie explains to Barry and the gang how she acquired the powers in the first place after having dreams about another life before hearing a voice saying ‘Alchemy’ calling out to her. Finally, Barry tells Frankie that they found her a new foster home with great parents and she’s free to go. Of course, Frankie is scared that Magenta will rear her ugly head again but Barry assures her that if that day comes, they will be there in a flash (pun intended) to help her.
Meanwhile, Harry admits to Jesse that he was scared thinking about her taking risks to become a hero, but he knows deep down that’s just who his daughter was meant to be. So with some help from Cisco, Harry hands Jesse a custom made suit that she can use now that’s she’s known as ‘Jesse Quick’.
Finally, Barry and Iris have a second attempt at their date but this time he uses his super speed. Barry and Iris agree that they can’t ignore the rest of their lives if they are going to be together and he’s as much the Flash as anything else nowadays. Just when it looks like they are going to have a perfect evening, Barry gets called away to work again.
Back at the lab, Joe and Julian have retrieved a video from inside Iron Heights prison that shows Edward Clariss getting tossed around his cell with no one else in there with him. He keeps repeating the name ‘Alchemy’ over and over again and now it seems this monster sprung to life after Barry created another timeline is not only creating new metahumans but he’s also killing them.
‘The Flash’ returns for a brand new episode next Tuesday night at 8pm ET on the CW.
