Tuesday night’s episode of The Flash, “Paradox,” was all about damage control. But there are some problems even Barry Allen can’t fix, and it looks like Cisco might be suiting up as Vibe full-time to help the Flash tackle them.
Flashpoint giveth and Flashpoint taketh away. Barry (Grant Gustin) is still trying to fix the bonds he broke among his friends and family after racing back in time and changing history.
But things are getting back to normal … sort of. The Flash has a new enemy in Doctor Alchemy, a moniker coined by Cisco (Carlos Valdes), which was a big moment: It meant Cisco is slowly becoming himself again after the death of his brother Dante. During the fight against Alchemy and the revived Rival (Todd Lasance), Cisco comes to the aid of Barry after begrudging him the whole episode for not using his powers to stop his brother from dying. As Jay Garrick of Earth-3 (John Wesley Shipp) told Barry this week, just because he can go back in time doesn’t mean he should.
In the post-fight pow-wow, Barry reveals how meta-humans will appear this season: “I think everybody that had powers in Flashpoint are gonna get them back.” He’ll also likely reach out to Cisco for help more often.
“It was pretty cool having someone out there with me last night. I don’t know, maybe we can make that a thing every once in awhile,” Barry says to Cisco, who is only slowly crawling out of his shell.
“I got some things to work out before I start doing that,” Cisco replies before pausing, “Maybe some day. It’d be pretty bitchin’.”
It would be, as Cisco puts it, “bitchin’.” The Flash has been on the field as a superhero all by himself for too long. Meanwhile, the Green Arrow has been surrounded by teammates for years now. Cisco’s got the gear, so it shouldn’t be that much of a biggie to make Vibe a thing in Central City.
And it’s not like we haven’t seen him dressed up before. In Season 2 of The Flash, Cisco’s Earth-2 doppelgänger Reverb was dressed up in an entire getup as a henchman for Zoom. Caitlin Snow was as well as the icy meta-human Killer Frost. Barry says everyone who had powers in Flashpoint will get them back, but in the Flashpoint timeline Caitlin didn’t demonstrate any extra-normal abilities — that we know of. At the end of “Paradox,” Caitlin worries over her secret ability to generate ice and frost.
Could Killer Frost fight on Barry’s side along with Cisco? And will Wally also get his super-speed back from Flashpoint? Jesse Wells (Violett Beane) is coming back next week as the speedster Jesse Quick. She might not have answers, but hey, it could be the start of a real Team Flash.
