Review; The Flash: Season 2

          Sorry this is a little late, one of these day’s I’ll figure out time management. So, how was The Flash opener? Pretty darn good, I’d say. They keep the tension running high as they add their new slew of supervillains, hint at the big bad of the season, and even introduce a potential new mentor for ol’ Barry, Jay Garrick. I feel I should mention that The Flash seems to be following the original, and now current again, DC Universe set up. Meaning that guys like Jay Garrick, and assumedly the rest of the Justice Society, exist in a separate parallel universe. In fact, in the origin for Barry, Jay Garrick and his adventures were a comic series, and Barry was a huge fan. Hence why he modeled himself after said character. Enough background? I think so, let’s get to it.

He's back and still working on some stuff.

So we learn that, much like with its sister show Arrow, the break between seasons is in real time. So I guess most supervillains take the summer off? That’s nice of them. Anyway, Barry Allen is still cleaning up the streets of Central City, both figuratively and literally, following the Singularity Incident forming above S.T.A.R. Labs. Barry, as the Flash, takes on two of his most persistent enemies, Captain Cold and Heatwave, before getting a little back up from pal and fellow superhuman Firestorm. They go back to S.T.A.R. Labs, celebrate with their team, and then Harrison Wells shows up. It’s at this point that Barry is clearly having a nightmare. So yeah, that happy moment is all a dream Barry was having during those rare moments of sleep he gets between his day job, Forensic Scientist, side job, The Flash, and other side job, rebuilding the city. But that’s not the surprising part, no the surprising part is that Barry has gone solo. We learn pretty quickly that Cisco Ramone is now working alongside Det. Joe West on Central City’s Metahuman Taskforce, Caitlyn Snow is now working for S.T.A.R. Labs former rival Mercury Labs, and obviously Harrison Wells isn’t stopping by anymore, given his unfortunate ending in the season finale.

The Wests and Cisco are worried about Barry and his new “lone wolf” mindset. Iris is encouraged by her father to talk with Barry and convince him to 1. Let everyone back into his life, and 2. Go to the Flash Day celebration. She meets him at their old coffee shop hangout, Jitters, as Barry high speed rebuilds it. Iris encourages Barry to be a hero, Barry says he’s not the hero of Central City. It’s then revealed that six months ago, all Barry was able to do was contain the Singularity. He kept it from spreading, but there was still a giant gaping black hole over Central City. Dr. Stein theorizes a bit of fusion power could seal the breach, so he and Ronnie Raymond fuse together to form Firestorm and do just that. Barry tries to stop Firestorm, but is too late. Firestorm releases a huge nuclear burst, which seals the singularity shut, Barry and Dr. Stein crash into Central City otherwise unharmed, but Ronnie is nowhere to be found. SO that’s why Barry’s been beating himself up. Funny how neither he nor Iris mention the whole “Dead Eddie Thawne,” isn’t it?

There was really no reason for his mask to come off, except
to reveal to Barry and Joe that they're fighting a dead man.

At the Flash Day celebration, most of our primary characters show up, the Wests, Cisco, and even Caitlyn stops in. We even stop and hold on a guy who would have totally been mysterious and vaguely creepy, if the promos hadn’t already revealed him to be Jay Garrick, the Flash from another dimension. Way to drop the ball PR department. The Mayor gives a speech, thanking the Flash, but Barry is nowhere to be seen. Until about two seconds later when he super-speeds in and accepts the key to the city. Barry Allen, fastest man alive, but always fashionably late. And then he’s almost hit by a car. He then superspeeds the mayor out of the way, and confronts his new opponent. Said opponent opens with the least fitting quip I could think of, “Sorry to rain on your Parade.” Dude doesn’t have weather powers, this wasn’t a parade, and he didn’t even throw more than one car so it’s not like it was raining debris. He should have said “Sorry to crash the party,” or something like that. Jeeze. Anyway, Barry and the new leather clad baddie fight, but he proves to be too much after growing with some of the worst CGI effects that this show has done. Seriously, the show that made me really believe that the Flash was superspeedy really sucked at making a man grow. So Barry gets beaten, and Cisco’s new anti-metahuman weapon “The Boot” proves to be more of a work in progress. It’s revealed that the villain bears a striking resemblance to Al Rothstein, whom Det. West and Barry found dead the day before. Weird. If again the promos hadn’t kind of ruined it by already revealing they’re going to be delving into the alternate world’s shtick.

Long time coming. Sad to see him go again.

While at his lab, Barry is approached by a lawyer representing Dr. Harrison Wells. He claims that, while Wells left Barry S.T.A.R. Labs in his will, the building will go onto auction if Barry doesn’t watch a video left to him by the fake Dr. Wells. Barry blows it off, for now. A bit later, Barry discovers most of his old team, with Iris in for Caitlyn and Dr. Stein in for Wells, at S.T.A.R. Labs. Iris had come up with the idea that if Barry keeps telling them “no” for help, they’ll stop asking and just give it to him. And the team is pretty quick, deducing that Rothstein seems to gain his power by absorbing radiation, and even naming him Atom Smasher. To quote Dr. Stein, “Because he absorbs radiation. And he smashes.” Barry, frustrated by all this, speeds away when the newly christened Atom Smasher appears again, leaving his communicator behind. He fights Atom Smasher, even whipping out his new Tornado Hands attack, but is overpowered by Atom Smasher’s raw power. Rothstein makes a veiled reference to his Flash, claiming Barry isn’t worthy of the name, before being distracted by the fire alarm going off, allowing Barry to escape.

After another pep talk from Joe and Co, Barry is encouraged to see Caitlyn, and apologize for not saving Ronnie six months prior. Caitlyn admits she never blamed him, but blamed herself for not leaving when Ronnie asked her to. For a bit of closure, they agree to watch Wells’ last message together. In the video, Dr. Wells walks in and takes off his glasses. This was a somewhat subtle hint last season that he was dropping the guise of Harrison Wells and speaking as his real self, Eobard Thawne. Thawne/Wells muses about the last fifteen years, and how in that time he and Barry weren’t really enemies, like they would one day become. He then puts his glasses back on, instructs Barry to delete the opening monologue, and then confesses to murdering Barry’s mother all those years ago. Riding high on the idea that his father will soon be released, Barry lets his team back in and they come up with a plan to defeat Atom Smasher. Said plan includes something that Cisco read in a comic book, dubbed by some fans as the Flash-light. Don’t want to be sued by the maybe-maybe not real in this universe Wayne Enterprises. I won’t ruin how the final fight goes, but Barry defeats Atom Smasher, who reveals that he attacked Barry because someone called Zoom promised to take him home if he did.

The episode ends with a few parties, a tearful goodbye to Henry Allen whom is leaving Central City to see the world and to make sure he doesn’t interfere with Barry’s Flash duties, and the introduction of that weird guy from the Flash Day celebration, finally revealed to be Jay Garrick.

Eddie as the new Zoom? Yes no, maybe so. Just have to wait
and see.

This was a good opener. While I was initially surprised they didn’t pick up right where they left off with the Singularity over Central City, the way they did approach it was true to form. It was good to see Barry still recovering from the incident psychologically, as it cost several lives including two of his friends, rather than just having him bounce back suddenly. I especially liked seeing Iris stepping up to be the resident Barry expert, now that Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne is gone. It was also nice to see Cisco again, whom despite losing a good friend (Ronnie) again still remains upbeat and just a little off.

I was a little disappointed in the CGI they used for Atom Smasher’s powers, as it was really clunky and just looked soo fake. And the fact that the promos kind of ruined what could have been a few really cool surprises, like the intro of Jay Garrick and his alternate universe. I know you guys were excited about those elements, but you could have waited until the second promo, especially since the first episode promo had like two scenes from the episode in it. And I really wanted to see Zoom and how his design and personality differed from Eobard Thawn’s Reverse-Flash. But we have a whole season to get to know our new resident psycho.

Final note, my theory about Eddie Thawne being unstuck in time and is the TV Zoom seems a little more likely now that I’ve seen the first episode. No character really made reference to Eddie, despite his death six months prior and his unwitting hand in creating the Singularity. I mean, come on, he was Det. West’s partner, and Iris’s fiancé, and neither one of them talks about how they’re dealing with his stupid but noble sacrifice? Seems pretty darn suspicious to me. But who knows, I could just be paranoid.

Overall, A- opener. It was great but still could have been a little bit better in a few areas. I’m so glad to see Barry back on TV and hope this next season keeps the bar high. Next time, we’ll be talking about Eddie Brock’s next stage in the Marvel Universe, Anti-Venom.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flash_%282014_TV_series%29

 http://www.comicvine.com/images/1300-4747805

 https://twitter.com/nattoth876/status/640215609846943745

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3262894/The-Flash-starts-second-season-sad-note-apparent-death-key-character-black-hole-comes-light.html