Just when you think you have The Flash all figured out, it throws a curveball to make everything twisty again. I'm so glad that Barry had a brief vacation on Supergirl, because he needed it. Cisco discovered that Zoom is Jay Garrick aka Hunter Zoloman on The Flash , but are they actually the same person? Is the masked villain really the same guy that befriended everyone at S.T.A.R. Labs? I think that they are from one point of view, but the truth is a little difficult to discern in these circumstances.
With this show, multiple characters having the same face and being played by the same actor isn't even close to a guarantee. Couldn't Zoom be Earth-1 Jay/Hunter, or some other dopple? What if Hunter's identity was stolen, like Thawne? I know that Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, and Harry have been acting as though their friend Jay betrayed them, but are we certain that that's the case? I have been able to accept multiple universes, dopplegangers, and time travel, but the fact that Zoom could be Jay's long term afterimage is a lot. Sure, Jay might have pointed his Earth-1 counterpart "Hunter Zolomon" out to Caitlin, but that doesn't mean those were two different people. Zoom, like Eobard Thawne and Barry Allen, has the ability to be in two places at once through speed alone.
In an interview with Variety, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg did reveal that indeed, the villain is someone that the heroes trusted all along. "Jay had been watching them," he said, "and knew that so he was able to masterfully step into the role each of them needed. He became a friend and mentor to Barry. A love interest to the heartbroken Caitlin. He skillfully played them all.” He just didn't smirk and retreat to hidden lairs as often as Harrison Wells did in Season 1, so we didn't see this coming. So yeah, they are the same person — but there's at least one other Hunter on Earth-1. I just want to know how many characters Teddy Sears is playing!
But... wait. Does that mean that on Earth-2, Zoom (who is Jay Garrick) and the Flash (who is also Jay Garrick) are just running around and fighting each other using time travel and/or afterimages? Is Zoom hitting himself? How fun — once again, I want to move to Earth-2 because it is clearly cooler than Earth-1 on every level. Of course, that still doesn't explain why he seemed relatively chill, only a bit concerned, with having attacked himself. Maybe the "Flash" that we've seen in Earth-2 flashbacks is somebody else entirely. Even when I think I know the answer about Hunter and Jay on The Flash, the show still needs to spell things out.
Image: Diyah Pera/The CW; Giphy
