That scene where Barry got the chance to talk to his mother on the phone was every bit as gut-wrenching as his farewell to Nora in the Season 1 finale.

But the writers also mined this situation for all its dramatic worth as well. There was a lot of humor in seeing Barry’s reactions to one goofy twist after another. Barry anchored the episode throughout this surreal experience, as he was no less lost and befuddled than viewers were as he tried to impersonate his doppelganger. After spending a year and a half allowing viewers to fall in love with these characters and their city, there’s a lot of potential when it comes to subverting those relationships and just having fun with the notion of a parallel universe. But it was all great, from seeing Iris as the hotshot detective in the West family to the evil versions of Caitlin and Ronnie to Singh being a flamboyant, fedora-wearing master criminal.

My favorite twist was that Earth-2 Joe is a lounge singer who despises Barry. It never got old seeing all the major and minor ways life on Earth-2 is different from Earth-1. Frankly, this episode could have spent the entire hour focusing on the bizarre nature of Earth-2’s alternate reality and it would have been a winner.

Professor zoom earth 2 episode 10