The Flash Recap With Spoilers: Potential Energy

The episode opens with Barry meeting Patty for a date. After accidentally burning up the flowers with his super speed, he tells her how lucky he is to have her — and then she’s snatched away by Zoom, carried to the top of a building and thrown to her death.

Barry wakes up in bed next to Patty in a panic.

At the Police Department the next day, Joe and Iris are walking Wally around. Captain Singh stops and introduces himself, saying that Joe is a great detective. Wally says, “Obviously not,” and Singh leaves. They invite Wally over for dinner, and he agrees after briefly resisting. Before he leaves, he sees somebody being taken into custody who seems to know him.

Patty joins Joe and Iris, asking to be excused to talk to Iris; she wants to talk about Barry.

At Jitters, she asks for help figuring Barry out, saying that he’s guarded, has been having nightmares, and won’t let her help him. Iris says to talk to Barry; that he has a habit of carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

At S.T.A.R. Labs, Wells throws a tantrum after some of his equations don’t work out. Cisco comes in and asks him what he’s working on, and says that instead of working on ways to make Barry faster, they should try to find another way to make Zoom slower — to steal Zoom’s speed. Wells is intrigued. Cisco says they need The Turtle.

In the main lab, Cisco reveals that he’s been tracking a metahuman he calls The Turtle. Everyone but Barry and Harrison already knew about him. There was a series of robberies seemingly committed at high speed, but in reality, the perpetrator was slowing everything around him to a crawl and then just walking in and looking like he was moving at speed.

Barry finds a pattern in the Turtle’s cases: he’s stealing items of immense personal value to people. He also sees that a recent theft — the Vandervoort diamonds — will be returned to their owner at the Police Department today in a ceremony. He hurries there, but is unable to stop the turtle from stealing a prized ring right out of the owner’s hands, with cops and reporters standing by.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, they determine that whatever the Turtle did didn’t affect Barry permanently. Wells and Jay figure out that Barry could move — albeit very very slowly — because the Turtle steals people’s kinetic energy and turns it into potential energy — but Barry can convert his energy faster than anybody else.

Jay feels guilty that he can’t help against the Turtle, but when Caitlin asks if he wants to work on getting his speed back, he says no — he already tried.

At the police department, Barry and Joe are talking about how nervous Joe is about meeting with Wally.

Joe leaves, and Patty comes in, asking Wally if everything is okay and offering to be there for him if he needs anything. He asks her on a date tonight, saying that he’s having a hard time dealing with New Years since it’s close to the anniversary of his mom’s death.

At the West home that night, Wally doesn’t show up for dinner. Iris is frustrated, but Joe is just glad Wally and Iris are there to stand by him.

Iris asks Barry why he’s been so quiet, and he admits that he’s having issues with Patty. Iris admits she told Patty to talk to him, and tells Barry he should reveal the truth about The Flash to Patty before it drives a wedge between them.

Back at the lab, Cisco has a theory as to who the Turtle’s next target will be: there’s a recently-recovered painting going on display at a museum gala. Barry has to call Patty and ask her if she wants to change their casual dinner plans to a more upscale, black-tie version of the evening. She agrees.

Barry tells the team this is the night he’s going to tell Patty that he’s The Flash, and they’re apprehensive, but supportive. Wells, on the other hand, tells Barry not to do it since if Zoom finds out he cares about this girl, Zoom will use her against him.

Later, at the gala, Barry is dancing with Patty and about to confess his secret to her when he excuses himself — he’s seen the Turtle.

Meanwhile, Wells is waiting in the van with Cisco. He tells Cisco the story of how Zoom got his name — that he killed 14 cops, left one alive to tell the story, that officer described blue lightning zooming around. That officer was killed that night at his home. Cisco tells Wells that if he ever needs him to vibe to check in on Jesse, he will, but Wells tell him he knows she’s alive.

Patty is confused by his decision to run away mid-dance, but even more concerned when she sees the Turtle trying to steal the painting off the wall. She pulls a gun on him, but he freezes the people in the room, including Patty. The Flash rushes in, but The Turtle manages to trap him into getting slowed down by taking Patty’s gun and shooting a chandelier, which forces Barry to push his limits to save Patty.

He gets her out of the way, but is struck by the falling fixture and has to be dragged away by Caitlin and Jay, leaving Patty alone in the dark.

Back at S.T.A.R., there’s no sign of Turtle or the painting. When Cisco mentions Patty, though, Barry speeds off to check on her.

Jay asks Caitlin to talk in private, and pours her a beaker full of champagne in the lab since she never got hers at the gala.

At her apartment, Patty is furious about Barry not being honest with her, and about his running off and leaving her to almost get killed. She tells him to figure out what he wants, and leaves.

Elsewhere, Wally West finds himself in a street race. After winning, the loser turns over his car keys — and Wally is pleased with himself until he sees Joe watching.The two argue, with Wally saying he needs to do this to help pay for his mother’s medical bills, and rejecting Joe’s offer to help pay for her before he storms off.

At Patty’s apartment, she’s staring at an unopened envelope from Midway City University when The Turtle comes to her door. She tries to shoot him but he stops the bullets, take the gun and uses it to kidnap her, “to hurt The Flash.”

Not long after, Barry arrives and figures out what must have happened when he finds the spent shell casings on the floor. He calls Joe and tells him to met him at S.T.A.R.

At his lair, The Turtle tells Patty that his wife took him for granted, and that he saw that people take too much for granted, which is why he steals the things that mean the most to them. He reveals that he has stolen his wife, and has her in a glass case, and he’s got another glass case he’s set up for Patty.

At S.T.A.R., Cisco says The Turtle has fallen off the grid, but they reallze that he needs a big space to store all the stuff he’s been stealing. Cisco figures out that The Turtle’s wife used to work as an archivist at a library that’s been shut down for months. Barry heads there, his only strategy to gather up enough kinetic energy to make his move between bursts of the Turtle’s powers.

When Flash arrives, Turtle manages to slow him down and punch him to the ground; instead of pressing on, Barry runs back outside and around again to get more momentum, this time successfully knocking The Turtle out and freeing Patty, who hugs him, crying.

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Turtle wakes in the Pipeline, where Flash tells him that now, he’s their most prized possession. They lock him up and leave. Barry says Patty is okay, and Team Flash leaves in their separate directions, but Caitlin corners Jay, telling him that she knows he’s sick. She says that Jay knows she lost Ronnie, and she’s upset that he let her get close to him knowing that she’d lose him, too. Jay said he didn’t expect any of what has happened, and when Caitlin says she needs to find a way to help him, Jay says the only way to save him is to get his speed back and the only way to do that is to stop Zoom.

At Joe’s house, Wally stops in to get a sweater he left behind. The two have a short heart-to-heart, where Joe says they should take their relationship slow. Wally says he’ll stay and have Chinese take-out with Joe as a start before he leaves town.

The next morning at the police department, Barry asks Patty if she has time to talk. He wants to tell her his secret, but she first tries to blow him off and eventually admits to him that she is leaving town to attend Midway City University’s CSI program, and their relationship has to be over.

In the pipeline, Harrison Wells records a message for his daughter, promising that he’s coming for her. He opens the door to The Turtle’s cell and shoots something into the man’s nose, killing him.

Somewhere else, The Reverse-Flash comes out of an apparent time-travel run, and asks Gideon “Where the hell am I?”