The Flash is DC’s television adaptation of the comic book of the same name. It airs Tuesday nights at 8/7 Central on The CW. Our writer, Nicole Drum recaps the series each week updating you on the latest episode here in The FlashBack.
Welcome back to the Flash, Speedsters! Season two is finally here and I can’t be more excited. No, really, I can’t. I tried but realized I needed to focus so I could watch the episode and recap it for you. Let’s do this. Spoilers beyond this point!
So our episode opens up with a nicely put together montage of the events of last season. Gets us caught up without a whole lot of fuss. Then we see a battle between our man Flash and my personal favorite bad guy, Captain Cold. Thank you show writers for giving me some Snart right off the bat, but I am a little confused here. Everything is so nice and tidy and I’m pretty sure that my buddy Snart is going to have things to do elsewhere, but I’ll roll with it. Of cours the Flash has things well under control, but Firestorm rolls up to give a hand (after the hand is no longer needed, but that’s okay.) It’s rather cute, as is Ronnie and Cait so clearly Barry did some good things with that singularity last season. I think this happy though until Eddie shows up and my brain knows that something is very, very wrong here. Eddie, as you will recall, sacrificed himself at the end of last season. Did fixing the singularity undo everything? Is this going to be like that episode last year where Barry jumped time? No, no it’s not. Turns out Barry is just having a little fantasy because his reality isnt as tidy and happy. Yes, he saved the world and fixed the singularity, but we quickly find out things aren’t roses. But first, Barry has to go to work.
There’s been a murder. The victim, Al Rothstein, was a welder at the nuclear plant and his cause of death was definitely strangulation by someone huge and crazy strong. Not Grodd, of course, but someone. Barry’s on it, but Joe has pressing questions such as is Barry going to Flash Day. You see, the people of Central City are very grateful to the Flash for saving them from the freak black hole and the mayor is hosting a special day to give him the key to the city. It’s very exciting, but Barry doesn’t want to go. He doesn’t feel like he deserves it and then heads off to find out what he can about the murderer. As he leaves a guy creeping behind a wall takes a photo of Barry. Hmm.
At police HQ we find Cisco. Working with Joe. Trying to convince Singh to give him a badge. That’s right, folks, Cisco works with the cops now. Cisco is working on something called the Boot that they will use to stop metahumans since Barry appears to be working solo these days. It seems he’s pushed everyone away, but someone needs to convince him to go to Flash Day. A surprisingly not annoying Iris volunteers as tribute. She finds him rebuilding Jitters. Seems a lot of the damaged parts of Central City are being rebuilt good as new at night. Iris knows its the Flash and she does her best to convince him to go to Flash Day because people want to appreciate their hero. Barry doesn’t feel like a hero these days.
You see, Barry ran right into the singularity on that fateful day six months ago, but he wasn’t able to dismantle it alone. Barry could only stabilize it and Firestorm had to come join him. Ronnie and Dr. Stein had realized that the energy of their separation would disrupt the event horizon and save the day so that’s what they go and do. And it totally works…but as they all fall from the sky Barry is only able to catch Dr. Stein. Ronnie is gone. Eddie’s dead. Ronnie’s dead. It’s a bad day for Team Flash and they all sort of go their own ways. Cisco at the police, Caitlin at Mercury Labs, Dr. Stein being Dr. Stein. Barry just isolates himself and does janitor duty at STAR which has now become his Sad Times Igloo.
Image Credit: The CW
But all of that was six months ago. The people of Central City, they love them some Flash and that Flash Day event is happening anyway. There’s a whole mass of people chanting for him and Barry gets it together and shows up. The crowd goes wild with joy at the sight of their hero, but that happiness is short lived. Some Bane-looking dude shows up and engages with Barry after throwing a hot dog cart at him and the mayor. It’s not actually Bane, but this guy can pretty much double his body size and toss Barry around like he’s a rag doll. He freaks Cisco out for a moment (and Cisco has a strange flashback type of thing to boot) but Joe snaps him back and gets him to use the Boot. Which fails so Cisco runs. Barry and Joe use some propane tanks to try to stop this guy. It doesn’t work well, but the guy does retreat…after taking off his mask and revealing himself to be our dead guy, Al Rothstein.
Except not. Rothstein is still quite dead and he can’t be a metahuman because he wasn’t even in town when STAR labs went splodey. So what gives? The only thing they understand for sure is that Barry can’t do things alone so they decided to force the issue and just go help. Cisco even manages to recruit a reluctant Caitlin. With Team Flash back in place they break into STAR and try to do some sleuthing. Dr. Stein names our villain of the week Atom-Smasher, which gets him a hug from Cisco but Barry isn’t feeling the love. He doesn’t want them to be involved so he leaves his communication device behind and goes off to check on Atom-Smasher. The Atom-Smasher is chilling out and eating some radiation and isn’t too happy that the Flash has shown up. They tango and things are going really badly for Barry. Mercifully even without comms Cisco is able to hack into the facility’s security system and set of an alarm which allows Barry to run for his life.
Cue cuddly moment between Joe and Barry with a flashback of Joe teaching lil’ Barry that he needs to let himself feel. It’s a message that Joe reminds him of now along with reminding him that Ronnie and Eddie chose their own fates when they chose to be heroes together. Barry can’t take all the blame and regret. This seems to work for Barry. He goes to visit Caitlin, who tells Barry her feelings of regret in regards to Ronnie’s passing. Barry confides in her about a will message that Dr. Creepy Jeans left for him and that he hasn’t been able to bring himself to watch. Caitlin offers to watch it with him and is there when Dr. Creepy does something amazing: he confesses to killing Barry’s mom. It’s enough to have Henry Allen released from prison.
There’s just one more thing to take care of before they can celebrate, though. They have to catch Atom-Smasher and Caitlin has a great idea. Using the newly-minted Flash Signal/Flash Light (really? Seriously?) they summon the bad guy who chases Barry right into the nuclear power plant. Barry traps him in the reactor chamber and they blast him with radiation. It’s more than our bad guy can handle and he collapses, dying. Barry doesn’t like having had to kill this guy and apologizes, but asks him what the deal is. And that deal? Someone named Zoom promised to send him home if he killed the Flash. Zoom! Oh my goodness, but we must wait for that. We have a party to go to. Henry Allen is a free man! The whole crew throws a party for him, but even the joy at being reunited doesn’t last. Henry tells Barry that he has to leave for now. It seems that Henry has his own healing to do, but more than that, Henry doesn’t want to be a distraction or a threat to the Flash. It breaks my heart and at first I was really upset, but I can understand where Henry is coming from. Henry lost everything. He needs a chance to get himself together even as his son finds his footing. It makes sense. It still made me ugly cry.
Henry moves on, happiness is tempered by sad, and we find the whole crew hanging out in STAR labs again. They’ve upgraded the security, made some advancements on the Flash suit and things are getting back to normal. Then, in the final minutes a mysterious stranger emerges from the shadows. It’s the same guy who took Barry’s photo in the beginning of the episode. But who is he? He tells us: “My name is Jay Garrick; your world is in danger.”
BOOM!
This first episode tied up things nicely from last season but opened up a lot of doors. I’m pretty excited. What did you guys think? Are you excited to see Jay Garrick Flash next week? Let’s talk in comments!
The Hudsucker 
Interesting that Atom Smasher showed up as a villain and the “real” Al Rothstein was apparently not even in Central City during the explosion… since he was one of the people specifically name-checked by Dr. McCreepyPants as having been affected by the reactor.
That said… ZOMG JAY GARRICK!