The Flash Season 3 Episode 2 Recap: Introducing Dr. Alchemy – Popcorn Time

Here we go. The Flash, Season 2, Episode 2, titled Paradox. And this time, I’m getting excited. Let’s get right into it.

Spoiler alert: Read at your own risk if you haven’t watched Episode 2.

CW started the season with a somewhat fast-paced, but soft-hitting pilot episode, but this seems to be an improvement. We open with Barry in the middle of ranting about time travel. Apparently, he had decided to run to Star City and ask Felicity Smoak for help. We also find that episode 1’s Flashpoint has caused minute changes to the lives of those in Team Arrow as well. Barry realizes this when he finds John Diggle’s daughter Sara no longer exists, and in her place is a little boy named John Diggle Jr.

Flashpoint changes things for Barry

Now I’ve already mentioned in the Episode 1 recap that the first difference between the previous timeline and things as they are now is that Iris and Joe West no longer see eye to eye. It’s revealed to us that this is because Iris hasn’t forgiven Joe for keeping it from her that her mother is alive. Barry also finds that Cisco is being hostile to him because Barry wouldn’t travel back in time to save his brother.

This alternate timeline also introduced changes to Barry’s work environment. Apparently, he has been working with a crime scene analyst named Julian Albert (Tom Felton), who also happens not to like him very much.

Doctor Alchemy makes his debut

Let me say right now, I love plague doctor masks, and this interpretation of Doctor Alchemy is dressed in a full black plague doctor outfit.

Doctor Alchemy makes his first on-screen appearance after calling out to a frightened Edward Clariss (Todd Lasance), offering to give him his powers back. We never actually see his face, but we do know that the voice behind the mask belongs to actor Tobin Bell. Doctor Alchemy seems to be bent on granting powers to normal humans, helping them reach their “full potential.” A side effect of the process is that his the Doctor’s “patients” leave behind a fully intact husk of human skin, almost symbolic of metamorphosis.

The Flash Episode 3: Barry tries to fix his mistakes

Most of the episode focuses on Barry Allen’s efforts to right the wrongs he had caused as a result of his alterations to the timeline. Initially, he tries to bring Cisco, Caitlyn, Iris, and Joe together for dinner. He does it in a spectacularly hilarious fashion as well by running back and forth between Joe and Iris’s workspaces to get them to set them up. Needless to say, the dinner doesn’t go quite as planned, and after their evening is interrupted by a metahuman alert, Barry attempts to travel back in time again.

Now this is surprising. Earth Three’s Jay Garrick (John Wesley Shipp) makes an appearance as Barry enters the Speedforce, pulling him out of his attempt to alter history once more. He tells Barry that he has made the same mistakes before, and demonstrates that the timeline is like a fragile cup. Once broken, no matter how you go back, the cracks and imperfections will still be there. Ultimately, Barry realizes that the only option he has to fix his mistakes is not to go back in time and reset things, but to move forward.

Barry finally lets the team know what he has done, and while they initially take it badly, we all know how it’s going to play.

The Rival and Flash fight again; Vibe takes down his first villain

The Flash chases down a lead provided to him by his coworker Julian, and faces off against The Rival. It doesn’t seem fair however, as Clariss brought help in the form of Doctor Alchemy himself. Alchemy attacks Barry with a bolt of light from what appears to be some form of crystal (is this the Philosopher’s Stone from the comics?) and he explains that he is “preparing the world.”

The Flash initially takes a beating, but he emerges victorious when Cisco arrives in his Vibe costume. The team had put their heads together and decided that Barry needed them, and their past mistakes and alternate lives wouldn’t get in the way. The fight ends with a tag team combo between The Flash and Vibe, with Barry landing a fancy spinning Speedforce-enhanced punch to knock The Rival out.

And yet in the aftermath, Doctor Alchemy was nowhere to be found.

Killer Frost returns? Who is Doctor Alchemy?

So the episode ends with the hostilities within Team Flash subsiding to some extent. Barry even gets to kiss Iris for the first time in this new timeline. But of course the CW will want to leave us waiting for more.

As Barry leaves Star Labs chin high and fresh off his victory, the audience is shown a final change Flashpoint had caused: Caitlyn is developing cryokinetic (ice) powers. We remember form Season 2 that Caitlyn’s doppelganger was the criminal Killer Frost. Are we about to see Caitlyn Snow’s fall from grace? Well… powers are a tool. It’s the decisions people make with their powers that birth a hero or villain. I mean anyone who’s ever followed the comics probably expected that to happen sometime, but we’ll see.

And finally, we’re treated with a teaser of what Doctor Alchemy is like when he’s mad. Somehow, he breaks into Iron Heights Prison to grab a terrified Edward Clariss by the throat. And what’s this? His arm looks like it’s covered in some kind of clay or inorganic material. Alright, it’s set. I’m liking Alchemy more and more. But who is he?

Naturally, I’m on Google right now and checking fan theories. The most popular one is that it’s actually Julian Albert, but I’m not too convinced. This character has secrets, definitely, but it seems too easy an explanation if he were Doctor Alchemy. And if he was indeed Doctor Alchemy, there is no way that he would have made it in time to the showdown between Barry and Clariss unless he was a speedster… and Doctor Alchemy is no speedster. Personally, I’m hoping we actually get to see Tobin Bell himself on screen.

So there you have it. That’s the gist of what happened in the episode. I’m liking how the story is going so far. What do you guys think?

The Flash Season 3 airs on Jack TV every Wednesday at 15:00 (+8:00 GMT).