Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Flash Season 3 Episode 2, "Paradox", are ahead. Feel free to head over to one of our other lovely articles if you haven't caught up yet.
The second episode of The Flash wasted no time in getting the villains going again. Barry had to face off against the one-two punch of Rival and Alchemy, and now we know what Alchemy's plan is for Central City.
Barry had a lot to deal with in this episode. He ran over to Star City to talk to Felicity about the changes he's noticed since he tried to put the timeline back together, and eventually had to come clean to Team Flash about what he did and the fact that it means their lives are different, and not necessarily for the better, because of his timeline meddling.
While he was trying to deal with the repercussions of messing with the timeline, Edward Clariss, better known as Flashpoint's Rival from the premiere episode, was being mentally tormented by Alchemy and visions of the other life as a speedster he had during that other timeline. Clariss manages to find Alchemy in his super creepy hideout and asks him to make his visions go away, but he's told that he can instead make the visions come true. And, well, because Clariss is all nutty from the visions and not getting any sleep, he says yes, and Alchemy somehow gives him back his speed and gifts him with his Flashpoint Rival costume and handy dandy voice disguiser.
Right before the end of the episode, Barry has to fight Rival for a second time, and this time he's brought Alchemy along for the ride. When Barry is caught off guard by Alchemy blasting him with a mysterious object, he asks who he is and what he wants. Alchemy answers that he wants people to realize their true potential, just like Clariss has. He also mentions that he's "preparing this world," which seems to mean that he's giving powers back to people who had them in the Flashpoint timeline, like he did with Clariss.
So, we know what Alchemy is doing, but we don't know why yet. Is this going to be like Zoom building an army of evil metahumans to try to take down The Flash? Or, does he have some other big plan for these people? Either way, seeing as how giving them their powers back leaves behind a weird human skin shell that they have to get rid of, there might be some nasty consequences for these people down the line.
You can check out what Alchemy has in store for Barry Tuesdays on The CW at 8 EST. Be sure to read our TV premiere schedule to see what you can watch in addition to The Flash this fall.
