Geekscape Recaps: The Flash – ‘The Man Who Saved Central City’
It’s been a long summer without The Flash, but it’s back now, and it got off to a great start. Season one of The Flash steadily built mystery and intrigue that lead to the creation of a singularity, which seemed to be impossible to stop. After watching the episode tonight, I can safely say the excitement around season one’s finale definitely carried over.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
The first episode of the second season takes place six months after the singularity event. Since then, a few things have changed. For one, Barry has since worked by himself after feeling responsible for Ronnie’s death. Before we go deeper into this, it’s important to note that the death of Ronnie is not the death of Firestorm. Firestorm, as we all know, will appear in the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow series. Still, Ronnie’s death has had a considerable impact. The singularity experience prompted a dream sequence that opened the episode with all of Barry’s friends around him, and ultimately vanishing.
Through the episode, the group copes with Ronnie’s death and Barry eventually lets everyone back in to STAR Labs, which belongs to him now. The ownership of STAR Labs was left to Barry in the form of a living will. The message was delivered via Harrison Wells’ lawyer, who handed Barry a USB drive containing a video message. The video message also contained Wells’ confession of Nora Allen’s murder, which lead to Barry’s dad, Henry, being released.
Henry Allen
Having just been released from prison after fourteen years, it’s understandable if Henry has a hard time adjusting to normal life again. Henry tries, I guess, for approximately one evening before telling Barry he has to leave the city.
It’s a little strange, and frankly, a little lazy if Henry has to disappear from the show just because he has to readjust for a time. It almost felt like a cop out. Almost. If there’s one constant about The Flash, it’s to never take things at face value. It’s quite possible Henry has an agenda that requires his presence elsewhere. Before leaving, he did tell Barry that he would be back if he ever needed him. With Zoom coming, that time may be soon.
Atom Smasher
Our first Meta-Human encounter became Atom Smasher. This was an interesting choice for our first villain of season two, mostly because of Atom Smasher’s history. In the comics, Atom Smasher is of Earth 2 origin and often finds himself hanging around JLA members. That’s right; for those of you non-comic readers, Atom Smasher’s allegiance is with the good guys. So why was he a villain in this Flash universe?
We know one of the first crimes Atom Smasher committed was killing, well, himself – or a version of himself. It’s quite possible that the villain Atom Smasher is not of this current Flash universe and is instead from another universe where his intentions aren’t so good.
We also know Zoom, the big baddie for this season, is the one who presumably brought him to this universe and most definitely promised to take him home. Having Atom Smasher kill his counterpart of his universe could have been Zoom’s sick way of having Smasher prove himself. Whatever the case may be, it’s confirmed Zoom is here and is putting out hits on Barry.
Jay Garrick
Well, that didn’t take long. We got our first glimpse of Jay Garrick early in the episode snapping some pics of Barry at a crime scene. It’s easy to guess as to why Garrick was following Barry around, but why the pics? We see that Garrick was able to walk right into STAR Labs at the end of the episode, but it was just him. Also, if Garrick had been following Barry around, he would have presumably been at the Flash Day event. Why not help him out then?
Back in the season one finale, we’ve seen evidence that a portal to different universes had been created and may have been open long enough for things to pass through. We’ve even peered into this multiverse when Barry was running around the particle accelerator. In that same episode, we saw Garrick’s helmet fly out of the portal when Barry was gone. Snapping the pics leads me to believe Garrick isn’t alone and, for right now, puts him in an untrustworthy light. Maybe Garrick has no idea what’s going on in this current universe and is researching everything about The Flash, or maybe not. For all we know, Jay Garrick is Professor Zoom in disguise. The pictures could have been used to show Atom Smasher who The Flash was. After all, Atom Smasher did say he had been dealt a curveball when Barry appeared at his hideout, claiming, “I thought I was going to have to come looking for you.”
Assorted Musings
Flash Signal
“I think I saw it in a comic book somewhere.”
White Emblem
This development is interesting. Over the summer, my friend and I were debating on whether the emblem change would come naturally or because the future would influence the change. Tonight, we got our answer. It’ll be interesting to see what else the group, especially Barry, takes into account having the extra knowledge.
Questions? Comments? Fire away! As always, thanks for reading!
