Wow. Just...wow. Please tell me I wasn't the only one left breathless by this episode? There were so many moments that left me gobsmacked that this may have just become my favorite of The Flash thus far. How are the production team going to top this for the season final? We're in a wild ride with these last few episodes of the season!
In the end I expected more from the Weather Wizard. However that was all made up for with the amazing plot surrounding Harrison Wells.
Harrison was the real heart of the episode and now his mystery has really been brought forward. Various characters have begun to pick up on the fact that Harrison isn't all that he appears to be, in particular Cisco. They really played up that father/son dynamic the two have teased throughout the earlier episodes. I also have to applaud the production team for the scene involving Harrison and Cisco watching a classic movie. On my first viewing it just seemed like a filler scene, but on further viewings it really packs a punch just to see how close they are. Which of course paves the way to the heartbreaking moment when Cisco discovered the truth.
We had a series of revelations that I wasn't expecting at this point. As I saw someone mention in the comments, "Did they accidentally air the season final?". Despite that, I thought it worked well. The entire sequence of revelations took me completely by surprise and left me on the edge of my seat, which was furthered by what happened to poor Cisco.
Carlos Valdes performance this episode completely surprised me. Here's the guy that overacted at the start of the show and at times seemed annoying, digging deep into his emotions. While Tom Cavanagh performed exceptionally well, it was Carlos who really made the scene in my opinion. He made the scene purely powerful, emotional and raw. I've seen some mention in the comments that Cisco's tears weren't scripted, well congratulations to Carlos because he hit all the right emotional notes this week.
From all that though I was pretty mixed on the Linda/Barry/Iris/Eddie situation. Much of the scenes they all had I felt should have been taken out and that time devoted to Weather Wizard and Joe rather then adding in another plot to an already packed episode. Barry revealing himself to Iris along with the kiss was a really solid moment though. Iris was always going to find out eventually, but I liked how Barry just did it and moved on.
In the end, this episode had a strong payoff after many weeks of build up for Harrison. The ending also opens up many possibilities now that time travel has been formally introduced. Are we going to relive this episode and see events play out differently? Is Barry going to hide his secret from Iris again? I hope they don't completely undo everything, after dropping so many twists and bombshells I'd like for at least some to be retained.
Overall thoughts:
While the Weather Wizard ended up being a bit of a letdown the plot with Harrison and Cisco more then made up for it. Time travel was formally introduced and number twists and turns were introduced. I have to say that the latter half of this episode kept me on the edge of my seat and left me wanting more.