Check out Violet’s recap of Season 1 Episode 6 of The Flash, titled The Flash is Born, where Barry has to face a meta-human who can turn himself into metal! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode!
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Episode Recap of The Flash, Season 1 Episode 6: The Flash is Born
This episode begins with Iris writing a blog post, thanking “the Streak” for what he does. The Streak shows up just then and says “You’re welcome.” He also tells her to stop writing about him, but she wants to continue writing in order to bring hope to people. Barry hears police sirens and heads towards them.
The Streak rescues a kid just before he is hit by a Humvee. From behind a roadblock of police cards, Joe and Eddie try to shoot at the reckless driver, but the bullets just glance off of him. The driver plows through, but reaches a dead end, where the Streak confronts him, telling him to step out of the vehicle. The man complies, ripping the door of the Humvee to get out, and throws the door at Barry, who ducks. The Streak punches him in the face, which turns to metal, and injures Barry’s hand. Then the man punches Barry, sending him flying. The man tells him, “Looks like you were born to take a beating.” But Barry runs off before he gets injured anymore. Barry returns to STAR Labs to get patched up, and tells the others about the man made of steel.
The next day, Barry confirms to Joe that the man was a meta-human. Joe hands him off to Eddie, who is taking over the case. The police identify the man as Tony Woodward, who Barry remembers bullied him back in he was in school. Barry tries to explain away what Eddie saw when he shot Woodward, saying maybe Woodward was wearing body armor. Just then Iris shows up to check on Eddie, giving Barry the cold shoulder. When she leaves, Eddie notices that something’s going on with the two of them. Barry gets flustered and walks off.
Joe visits Dr. Wells at STAR Labs to get his help solving an old case: the murder of Barry’s mother.
Barry reports to Cisco and Caitlin about Tony bullying him back in school. Cisco has a device to help train Barry – a metal dummy that Cisco is able to move around with a remote control. Barry starts fighting it, and dislocates his shoulder in the process. Caitlin pops it back in place. She also advises him against visiting Iris in disguise.
Eddie calls Barry to tell him that they found the stolen Humvee, so he heads over. While checking out the scene, Eddie asks about him and Iris, and Barry says they had a fight, and doesn’t really want to talk about it. Eddie confesses that the was a little threatened by Barry at first, because of how close they are, but he says Barry seems like a good guy, and that he just wants Iris to be happy.
Barry has a flashback to when he and Iris were kids, and Joe was training him to box. Joe has Iris and Barry go up against each other, and Iris easily beats him. Joe tells him that if he ever comes up against someone he can’t beat, to be smart, and that it’s okay to run the other way.
Barry and Eddie head over to check out Keystone Brewery, the brewery of the kegs found in the back of the Humvee. But first, Barry gathers up some shards of debris in the back of the Humvee and bags them as evidence.
Joe and Dr. Wells go over the details of the night of the murder of Barry’s mother. Dr. Wells points out a flaw in Joe’s theory that a meta-human could have done it, saying that people didn’t get their powers until the particle accelerator explosion, while this murder happened 14 years ago. However, Joe presses, asking if he thinks someone with Barry’s abilities could have existed before the explosion. But Dr. Wells says it’s highly unlikely.
When Barry and Eddie question a couple of Keystone employees about Tony, one of the men runs off. They give chase, and Barry uses his super speed to get ahead of the man and block him from getting away. The man punches him, but Eddie is able to apprehend the man. He tells them that 10 months ago, Tony fell into a vat of molten scrap at Keystone Ironworks. He is surprised to hear that Tony is still alive. When Eddie asks how Barry got in front of them, he says he took a shortcut.
Tony stops by to see Iris at work because he knows about her blog, and asks if she knows who the Streak is. An alert comes on TV, showing Tony’s picture. He turns his arm to metal and crushes Iris’s phone before she can call anyone to notify them about Tony being there, then he leaves.
Back at STAR Labs, Cisco reports to Barry that the gravel he found is consistent with the mines at Keystone Ironworks, which closed down 10 months ago. Barry realizes it’s the perfect hideout. Caitlin also shows Barry a message that Iris left on her blog for the Streak.
The Streak visits Iris at work after hours, and she informs him that Tony said he had a big place out in West Keystone. She also tells him about his hand transforming into an iron fist, and Barry confirms that he’s like him. Iris thinks maybe she can talk to Tony, but Barry says he’s too dangerous. Just then, Iris’s police escort shows up, so Barry takes the opportunity to leave.
Barry checks out Keystone Ironworks, and communicates to STAR Labs that it’s definitely where Tony has been living. Then Tony attacks him, and pushes a shelf on top of him. Cisco and Caitlin go there and pull Barry out. Back at STAR Labs, Barry is frustrated that he keeps getting beat up. Cisco determines that if Barry hits Tony at Mach 1.1, or 837 mph, then he could do some damage to Tony — that’s faster than the speed of sound. He would need a straight shot from 5.3 miles away.
The next day, Barry tells Joe what happened. Eddie is upset that Tony got away, and wants to blow off some steam. He has Barry hold a punching bag for him. Eddie confesses that back in school he was fat and had his fair share of bullies. Eddie tells him that the key to fighting is patience, that it only takes one punch, but you have to make it count. Then he has Barry punch the punching bag. The first couple of punches don’t do anything, but then he punches a hole right in the bag. His excuse is that the seam was starting to split.
Joe and Dr. Wells meet up for a drink. Joe says it seems to him that there must have been another particle accelerator 14 years ago. Dr. Wells continues to say that it’s unlikely. Joe asks when Dr. Wells moved to town, but Dr. Wells figures out that Joe already knows the answer to that question. Joe knows that Dr. Wells opened his lab a month after Nora Allen’s murder, and asks what Dr. Wells was doing in Central City before that. Dr. Wells says that he was starting over, and tells Joe to look up Tess Morgan if he wants answers. Then he leaves.
Tony attacks Iris’s police guard outside her house, and visits her inside.
Meanwhile, Eddie and Barry are boxing at the police station. Just then they get the report that the unit watching Iris was attacked, and that she’s missing.
Barry calls Cisco and Caitlin and asks for their help finding Iris.
Tony takes Iris to the school they attended together. He tells her that he squashed the Streak, and wants Iris to write about him now. She pulls the fire alarm. The police get word of the fire alarm, and Joe recognizes the name of the school as the one Iris and Barry attended with Tony. He tells Barry to go.
The Streak confronts Tony at the school, and Barry uses evasive maneuvers as Tony tries to attack him. But then when Barry tries to hit Tony with a flagpole, Tony uses it against him, and hurts him. Barry remembers what Joe told him about running the other way when he was a kid, and runs away — 5.3 miles away, to be exact. Then he runs at full speed and punches Tony in the face, making his metal turn back to his normal skin. Iris takes the opportunity to punch Tony in the face.
Barry brings Tony back to STAR Labs and locks him away in a prison cell. He then reveals his identity to Tony, and says that the same thing happened to both of them. He tells Tony he won’t be using his gift to hurt people anymore, and leaves him locked down there.
Joe visits Dr. Wells and apologizes, saying that he looked up Tess Morgan, and says he’s sorry for his loss. Dr. Wells explains that after the car accident, he couldn’t go back to the lab where they worked together, so he moved to Central City, where no one knew him. Joe says he hopes he can still count on Dr. Wells to help him, and that he won’t stop until he gets his man.
Barry visits Iris after hours at work — as himself, not the Streak. They make up, and decide to hang out and catch up. She talks about wanting to write about other people who have super powers, including a guy that’s on fire but doesn’t burn up. She excitedly talks about the Streak, and Barry comes up with a new name for him: “the Flash.” Iris goes on to use that name in her blog posts.
At Joe’s house, he is busy examining the evidence from Nora Allen’s murder. He has just crossed off Dr. Wells as being connected, when a tornado of red and yellow, just like what Barry described as what he saw when his mother was murdered, comes into Joe’s living room. When it leaves, it has taken all of Joe’s case files, and left behind a message on the wall. It’s a picture of Iris with a knife stabbed through it to pin it to the wall, and written above it on the wall is “Stop or Else.”
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 6 of The Flash: The Flash is Born
So Barry is officially “the Flash” now instead of “the Streak”… Yay? I’m not sure why he couldn’t have been the Flash to begin with, but I suppose hero names have to develop over time. I mean, even on Arrow, Green Arrow started out as “the Hood” and “the Vigilante,” and even now he’s only “Arrow,” not “Green Arrow.” But I digress.
Overall, I am still enjoying The Flash. It’s not the most spectacular, well-crafted show ever, but it is fun and enjoyable. I say this despite the fact that Tony felt kind of like a rip off of Colossus – but then, that’s Marvel, and this is DC. I suppose the two universes are allowed to have similar characters. But once again, the meta-human is a villain. I mentioned last episode that it feels like every meta-human they come across, with one exception so far, has been a bad guy. I suppose that trend will continue. I would like for another meta-human to be a decent person. Why is it assumed that most people who find out they have super powers would become bad if they’re not already?
This episode, we got to know Eddie a little better. And I have to admit, I kind of like him, actually. He seems like a good guy. I’m actually almost okay with Iris being with him instead of Barry. Almost. Before this, we didn’t see much of him, and from the audience’s perspective of being on Barry’s side, I kind of viewed him as a jerk, swooping in and stealing Barry’s girl. But really, that wasn’t fair to Eddie. Barry and Iris were never actually together anyway, so he didn’t do anything wrong.
Speaking of someone who didn’t do anything wrong, now it’s time for my weekly (irrational) defense of Dr. Wells. So, this episode really made Dr. Wells look guilty. Before, it just seemed like he was evil, and hiding something, though we didn’t know what. Now this episode makes it seem like he was the red and yellow tornado that killed Barry’s mother. At first, this episode was actually making Dr. Wells look good, and Joe look bad for suspecting him of the murder, to the point where Joe brought Dr. Wells a bottle of wine and apologized. But then suddenly at the end, the red and yellow tornado guy invades Joe’s house and takes all of his evidence on the murder, and threatens Iris’s life if Joe doesn’t stop. This happens shortly after Joe tells Dr. Wells that he won’t stop until he finds his man. As far as the audience knows, Dr. Wells is the only one that even knows Joe is looking into the case again, so the audience would conclude that Dr. Wells must be the red and yellow tornado guy, and that therefore, Dr. Wells murdered Barry’s mother. But that seems too easy to me. That’s what the show wants us to think, to throw us off. Besides, Joe had just crossed Dr. Wells off his list as being connected to the murder, so he wouldn’t even be trying to prove it was Dr. Wells anyway. It has to be someone else, somehow who knows about Joe re-examining the case. I don’t know how they know, but it could be any number of ways. For example, Joe was watching the old videos at the police station of Barry’s statement as a child about the murder, and he probably had to check the evidence out of archives. It could be someone who works at the police station. I felt bad for Dr. Wells this episode, the way he and Joe went out for drinks, and how he confessed that he never gets invited out, but then it turns out Joe was just interrogating him. Poor Dr. Wells, he doesn’t have any friends. All he has are Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry. I wonder what Joe is going to think after this attack. Will he continue to be friends and work with Dr. Wells on the murder case, or will he think that Dr. Wells is his guy again? Ok, end of my Dr. Wells rant. This week.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Flash, Season 1 Episode 6: The Flash is Born
I thought this episode of The Flash was a little cheesy. It also felt a bit like the Spider-Man movies, where ironic Flash (a different one, without any superpowers) is giving Peter Parker a hard time, and then eventually Peter, with his new found abilities, is able to take him down a peg. It took Barry a little longer to figure it out, and he was going up against someone else with powers, but it had the same feel I thought. The silly part for me was Cisco explaining that they need to calculate the exact speed and angle that Barry needs to hit Tony, but in the end Barry just goes for it, and it goes as expected, which seems odd, as no calculations were actually needed.
Also, Barry is getting close to people figuring out who he is. It is pretty obvious something is up when he is using the punching bag, and accidentally puts a hole in it and knocks Eddie over in the process. That and all of the time he is spending with Iris as the Flash. Eventually you’d think she would pick up on his mannerisms. Then Barry reveals who he is to Tony. Sure he is locked up now, but I have a feeling that won’t always be the case.
So the conversation between Joe and Wells was pretty awkward. I really wonder if Joe has “let it go”, or if his peace offering was just a way to calm Wells down. Joe now knows that Barry is telling the truth with 100% certainty about the “yellow blur”, as he is attacked by it. It also seems a bit ironic that this blur attacked him right after Joe made the accusation towards Wells.
So, I think that there was time travel that happened in the course of the show, and Wells know what the timeline is. I have a feeling that Wells is protecting Barry because Barry is integral to the timeline, and letting Barry die could alter time in a way that Wells isn’t wanting to see. This also means that some of the meta-humans could be moved from the future, to the past, and that could include whoever this yellow blur is. So far, The Flash has done a great job of keeping my interest. Let’s hope this keeps up!
Scenes from The Flash, Season 1 Episode 7, Power Outage
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Flash, titled Power Outage:
