After a super fun trip to the hospital (I got better), we now return to your irregularly-scheduled reviews. Seems like nothing really…*sunglasses*…phases us. Enjoy this recap of CW’s The Flash.

This week is all about belief in yourself. Wally is being taught the fine art of phasing through objects, but is having a hard time wrapping his head around it.

Spoilers under the cut.

This episode finally gets into the fundamental differences between Barry and Wally. Wally is an engineering student, so he doesn’t really understand a lot of the biological or computer science that Team Flash brings to the table. That leaves him feeling alienated and unsure of himself, which comes into play as Barry tries to teach him to use his speed to phase. Barry keeps pushing him, while H.R. remains Wally’s cheerleader, never wavering in his faith in him.

Meanwhile, we have Clive Yorkin, our villain of the week. Yorkin is an interesting opponent in that he’s someone they can’t punch because his touch decays all matter.

Wait. Hang on. Why isn’t he naked, then?

Yorkin ties into the season-long thread of taking responsibility for past actions. He’s one of Alchemy’s transformed metas, and he’s killing the police officers who arrested him in Flashpoint.

Flash Fact: One of Yorkin’s victims is a musician named Julio Mendez, who was captain of the CCPD in Flashpoint, but also a character in the 1990s Flash series and played throughout both shows by Alex Désert.

Also, goddammit Barry, this is what happens when you break time.

Another officer who arrested our villain in Flashpoint was Joe, who happens to be Yorkin’s next target. After an initial attack at Jitters where Wally saves the day, Yorkin goes after Iris and touches her just before Wally can get to her. Caitlin is able to slow the spread of the decay by using her Killer Frost powers to gently freeze Iris’ arm, while Barry realizes he has to adjust his teaching style for Wally.

Meanwhile, Cisco and H.R. figure out that Cisco can vibe the Flashpoint and see all the cops on Yorkin’s hit list. The last one is a woman named Laura Stone, who on this Earth is a P.I. and on a train. Yorkin decides to kill two birds with a lot of stones and collapses a bridge in front of the train.

Barry manages to vibrate the entire train through the rubble while Wally neutralizes Yorkin by…vibrating his blood into him. Yes, I actually just typed that sentence. Setting aside the “wait, what” factor here (on a scale of one to freezing laser beams, how ridiculous is the science here? Show your work), how are they playing this off as heroic instead of extremely creepy?

There’s another subplot about Joe having to deal with both his future with Cecille and his past with Iris when he learns about Iris’ future murder. Jesse L. Martin and Danielle Nicolet have really great chemistry and their acting is always a high point in these episodes. There’s also–sigh–the continued forced shipping of Julian and Caitlin, which at this point is just grinding my gears so bad I have to stop talking about it or I’ll never stop ranting.

While this episode is basically filler, it still manages to present a credible threat while finally getting all the characters on the same page. Now Iris’ fate is out in the open, and everyone can come together as a team to cooperate and stop hiding important secrets from one another and I’m sorry, this is a CW superhero show and I can’t keep typing that with a straight face. Until next time.

George Hatch can be found on Twitter not ruminating about naked men at @Raeseti.