‘The Flash’ Season 4, Episode 15 ‘Enter Flashtime’ Recap: On a Nuclear Level [SPOILERS]

The latest episode of “The Flash” was speedy but heart-stopping, heart-dropping, and heart-breaking. In just 8 minutes and 42 seconds, Cisco (Carlos Valdez) asks Barry (Grant Gustin) for a shoulder rub. Jesse (Violett Beane) and Harry (Tom Cavanagh) also have father-daughter moments while Joe (Jesse L. Martin) gets caught in a line of fire as a city-destroying bomb detonates. Meanwhile, Jay Garrick (John Wesley Shipp) and Jesse lose their powers, and Barry gets sweaty and cries. That’s “Enter Flashtime,” everyone. However, it is notable that DeVoe was missing from this episode. Last we saw him, he was playing the fiddle for his wife.

Desperate for DeVoe

The episode begins with Barry, Cisco, and Iris (Candice Patton) trying and failing to beat a breach. They think if The Flash is fast enough, he can get to DeVoe when he teleports in and out of his pocket dimension. Tired and frustrated Cisco asks Barry to stop unless he gives him a shoulder rub. Vibing and breaching aren’t as easy as everyone thinks. Huffing and puffing, Cisco walks away, leaving the couple alone.

After what felt centuries to them, the newlyweds talk. They feel like they never have time together even though they practically never leave each other’s side. To make up for lost time, Barry promises a date night to someplace very romantic.

The road to destruction

Harry calls for Barry and Iris to the Cortex. The brilliant Cisco Ramon came up with an algorithm that could tell every single time DeVoe has been in and out of the pocket dimension. Apparently, DeVoe has been doing this for three years.
Unexpectedly, Jesse arrives with an apology cube from her father. The angsty teen and the uptight father talk is usually funny, but then Jesse brought up the main thing drifting them apart–her mother’s death. She insists that her father deals with her death, to which Harry claims he has. The argument goes on, and Jessie clears the confused mind of the viewers why she gave her father the boot. Because of the pain that Harry’s dealing with, he makes everyone miserable. She persists, making Harry angry and agitated. When he calms down, he still can’t talk about the weight his heart is carrying.
After the heavy talk with his daughter, Harry gets a call that Joe is gunning it out with armed men trying to take an Argus box in a hangar.

The Flash, Vibe, Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker), and Jesse Quick get to the hangar just after the leader of the armed men opens the containment box. With all the men on their knees, The Flash confidently tells the woman it’s over. What she said next meant Barry has failed. “For all of Central City,” she says pressing the detonator in her had that activated what was in the box: a nuclear bomb.

Team Flash enters Flashtime

The Flash wasn’t quick enough to stop her from pressing the button. When he checks the bomb, Jesse joins him. She notes how the core has gone critical and that the second they slow down it’s over. After making Barry more nervous, he suggests bringing it to the backlands. But her idea won’t work because their speed would just speed up the reaction. Barry gets the idea of calling Jay Garrick from Earth-3. He sends Jesse off and thinks of more plans to stop the city from being demolished.

The Flash touches Vibe, hoping he can help. In Flashtime, Cisco looks at the bomb and instantly understand it. With enough pressure, the isotopes inside produce heat and light. To make Barry even more worried, he tells him the steps the bomb with go through before it’s end-game for everyone: Blue, yellow, purple, then death. He tries to breach it to another earth, but Flashtime can’t give him the time to create a breach. To make things worse, he starts to get weaker because he isn’t a speedster.
Next, Barry asks for Harry’s help. He suggests throwing the bomb to the Speed Force, even though Harry knows little to nothing about what that will do to the Speed Force. Jesse and Jay arrive at the lab. When Barry tells them about Harry’s idea, Jay quickly and furiously shuts it down.
He argues that an explosion that strong could destroy the Speed Force, leaving every speedster alive powerless. Thinking about the people of the city, The Flash dismisses Jay’s explanation. In the lab, Barry stands in front of a board while Jay continues to argue how bringing the bomb into the Speed Force is a bad idea. Already losing hope, The Flash bites back, yelling, “Then what Jay?!” As if on cue, Jay starts to sweat. His old age isn’t giving him much strength in holding his speed. Now that everyone was calm, Jay took the problem step-by-step using physics. In the end, the best he can come up with was to cool the nuke down.

Back at the hangar, The Flash brings Killer Frost into Flashtime. Unfortunately, like Vibe, her powers fail her. It also looks like The Flash is either losing his strength too, or the cold just sped up the reaction because the bomb went from blue to yellow. Before Barry lets go, Killer Frost tells him, “Barry, don’t let Caity die.”
Jesse gets another idea from what Jay said about needing fusion machine. She thinks the three of them can stop the explosion if they throw a lightning bolt at the same time. But this did not work because of Jay’s weakness. When it was his turn to throw a flash, he collapses and drifts back to regular time and speed.
Jesse gets another idea that they can run back in time to stop the bomb from ever detonating. But The Flash has had more than enough experience with time travel, so he shuts the idea down. The two speedsters start slowing down and start losing hope. Barry tells Jesse to go to another earth to keep her safe. Instead, she goes to Harry. Knowing he can’t listen, Jesse says that she just wants him to be happy, sits beside him and drift into regular time.

Iris kind of saves the day

Sweaty and crying, Barry gives up. All he can do is to say his goodbyes. So Barry goes to Iris in the Cortex. Bringing her into Flashtime, he tells her everything. Their last moments together is the quality time they both wanted. “You’re my lighting rod, Iris,” is the last thing Barry said before a light bulb pinged in Iris’ brain.

Apparently, the Speed Force is the answer to all their problems. The Flash alone can’t produce the energy needed to stop the bomb, but the Speed Force can. Running. Barry gets the sphere to Cisco, and Caitlin frees him. The lighting storm chased him and ultimately ended the bomb’s explosion.

The Flash can’t rest

The woman who detonated the bomb now has a name: Veronica Dale. CCPD found her manifesto in her apartment which was supposed to air after Central City came crumbling down. Her goal? To blast “everybody back to the days of the Garden of Eden,” as Joe put it.
“Enter Flashtime” lacked a DeVoe appearance but was still the hand that played the episode. Team Flash assumes he’s the one who tipped Veronica about the Argus drop.
Jay also reveals he’s retiring from his age-old job. He tells the team that he’s training someone to protect Earth-3. He says “she” will be another Flash on his earth.
The episode ends with Barry and Iris having the date night they did not expect (sweatpants and power bars). Harry and Jesse make up when he lets her read his thoughts. The tear-jerking scene shows Harry giving Jesse the modified cerebral inhibitor. Inside his head were moments with his late wife. Now they’re closer than ever.
Before the credits, Caitlin and Harry are at Jitters, talking about Jesse and how Killer Frost showed concern for Caitlin. Then, the mysterious girl–the one who can write the jibberish Barry can and keeps popping up randomly–spills her coffee on Caitlin and Harry’s table. Her babbling and jitteriness fade away when the two leave, showing her smug face.
“The Flash” continues next Tuesday, March 13th, with “Run Iris, Run” at 8/9c on The CW.