Violet recaps the Season 2 premiere of The Flash, titled The Man Who Saved Central City, where we pick up 6 months after the events of the season finale, and things are a little different at STAR Labs. Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of The Flash, Season 2 Episode 1: The Man Who Saved Central City
The episode begins with Barry taking on Captain Cold and Heat Wave, and Firestorm flies in to help out. Then they go back to STAR Labs and the team celebrates their victory. But then we see Eddie and Dr. Wells, and it is soon revealed that this was all a fantasy. In reality, Barry looks around at the abandoned STAR Labs. He gets an alert, and runs off.
Six months have passed since the events of the season finale. Barry shows up to help Joe out at a crime scene at the nuclear plant and takes a look at a man’s body, who appears to have been strangled. Joe asks Barry if he’s going to Flash Day, but Barry doesn’t seem interested. A mysterious man secretly snaps a photo of Barry.
Back at the police station, we find out that Joe has brought on Cisco as a scientific advisor. It seems that neither have talked to Barry or Caitlin much lately, and that Barry has been fighting crime alone. Iris stops by, and Joe asks her to try to get through to Barry about Flash Day.
That night, Iris finds Barry at an abandoned Jitters, which is not in very good shape. Apparently, Barry has gone around to local businesses at night to put them back together. Iris gives Barry the flyer for Flash Day and says both she and Central City believe in the Flash.
We then get a flashback to 6 months ago, as Barry is running in a circle within the “Singularity.” Professor Stein tells Ronnie they have to help. Caitlin, tries to convince Ronnie not to, but it’s the only way to stop it. Firestorm flies up into the Singularity, and makes an explosion. We see a body fall from the sky, and Barry catches it, running with it to the ground to safety. It’s Professor Stein, who is fine. However, Ronnie didn’t make it. Barry apologizes to Caitlin and hugs her.
Back to present day, it’s Flash Day. Joe and Cisco notice that Caitlin has shown up. We also see the mysterious photographer from earlier. Then we see someone wearing a black hoodie force his way through the crowd. Just then, The Flash shows up to accept the key to the city from the Mayor. But before he can take the key, a large flying object is about to it the Mayor, and the Flash saves him. The hooded figure pulls back his hood, and is wearing a black mask. Barry starts to go after him, but the man easily throws him, knocking him out. Joe and other police officers fire at the man, but to no avail. Cisco has a weird vision. Joe snaps him out of it, and Cisco runs to get “the boot” and uses it on the man. However, the boot isn’t taking the man down like it’s supposed to, instead, the man grows. Barry wakes up, throws some propane tanks toward the man, and tells Joe to shoot them, which causes an explosion, which makes the man go back to normal size. The man retracts his mask, and Joe and Cisco are surprised to see that it is Al Rothstein, the same man whose body they found at the nuclear plant. He runs off.
At the police station, Cisco looks up information about Al Rothstein. It turns out his body was in the morgue all night, he was in Hawaii at the time of the particle accelerator explosion, and does not have a twin brother. Iris comes in and tells Joe and Cisco that the X-Ray machines at the hospital by the Flash Day rally all failed at once. Cisco doesn’t think it was him. Iris talks to Joe about Barry, saying that he can’t do this alone anymore.
Cisco stops by to see Caitlin, who is now working at Mercury Labs. He asks for her help with the badge they found on the metahuman.
An attorney comes to the police station to see Barry. It seems that Dr. Wells left STAR Labs to Barry. The attorney gives Barry a flash drive that is to be watched only by Barry. Barry runs over to STAR Labs when he gets an alert that someone is there. It’s Iris, Cisco, Stein, and Joe. Barry appears less than thrilled. Cisco figures out that the metahuman is at a hazardous waste reclamation plant, and Stein subs the guy Atom-Smasher because he absorbs atomic energy and smashes. Barry runs off, and leaves his comm system behind.
Barry arrives at the plant, where Atom-Smasher is inhaling radioactive waste. Barry asks why Atom-Smasher killed Al Rothstein, and why he looks like him, but Atom-Smasher says he wouldn’t believe him if he told him. Meanwhile, Cisco hacks into the plant’s security cameras so they can see what’s going on. Barry tries to fight Atom-Smasher, who grows and grabs Barry at the throat, slamming his head repeatedly into the wall. But Cisco is able to set off the alarm system there, distracting Atom-Smasher for a moment, allowing Barry to run back to STAR Labs.
Upon arriving, Barry passes out, and has a childhood memory which took place 6 months after his mother died. Joe tells him that it’s okay to be sad. Barry hugs Joe.
In the present, Barry wakes up in a bed at STAR Labs and sees Joe sitting nearby. They have a heart to heart, and it seems Barry accepts Joe’s advice to rebuild his friendships.
Barry stops by to see Caitlin at Mercury Labs, and he apologizes for what happened to Ronnie. Caitlin says she doesn’t blame Barry for Ronnie’s death, she blames herself because she didn’t get out of town with Ronnie when he suggested it, because she wanted to stay at STAR Labs. The flash drive falls on the floor, and Caitlin suggests that they watch it together. In the video, Dr. Wells confesses to the murder of Barry’s mom and tells him to give the message to the police. Barry calls Joe to tell him to have everyone meet him at STAR Labs.
Joe talks to the DA, and it sounds like Barry’s dad can come home. Barry confers with the group how to beat Atom-Smasher. Caitlin has an idea: if this guy likes radiation so much, they’ll give it to him.
Barry uses The Flash signal to get Atom-Smasher’s attention. When he shows up, he chases Barry to the nuclear plant. Barry lures him into a reactor core, and Cisco remotely locks him in and releases radiation. Atom-Smasher is unable to absorb it all, and collapses, dying. After the radiation clears, Barry enters and asks Atom-Smasher why he wanted to kill him. Atom-Smasher replies, “He promised he’d take me home if I killed you.” Barry asks who promised him that. He says it was Zoom. Then he dies.
The next day, Barry’s father is released from prison, and Barry is waiting there to take him home. When they get back to Joe’s house, everyone is there to throw him a Welcome Home party. Henry and Barry speak privately, and it seems like Henry won’t be sticking around. Henry asks Barry if he thinks he can become all he can be with him around. He says that right now Central City needs him to be The Flash, not Henry Allen’s son. He tells Barry he has to go. They share an emotional goodbye.
Back at STAR Labs, Cisco shows Barry the upgrade he made to his suit: the lightning now has a white background. They also discuss the new improved security system, so that people can’t just waltz in anymore. On cue, a man waltzes in. It’s the mysterious photographer from earlier. He introduces himself as Jay Garrick and tells them their world is in danger.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 1 of The Flash: The Man Who Saved Central City
The Flash does it again — Season 2 starts off with yet another emotional episode, with several heart to heart conversations that bring you to the verge of tears. I wasn’t really a fan of how we picked up 6 months after the “Singularity,” when everything has gone back to relatively normal, rather than picking up where we left off at the exciting end of the season finale. There was so much momentum, that you didn’t want it to stop. You wanted it to keep going, but it cut off at a cliffhanger. Sure, it goes back and shows us what happened, but still. On the other hand, I guess they had to make things go “forward,” as Professor Stein said during his speech. It’s a shame that Ronnie had to die too. I wasn’t expecting to lose him, and it seemed so abrupt. So, there’s no FIRESTORM anymore? Poor Caitlin though. Just after finally getting him back, she loses him yet again. This time for good — or is it? Maybe they’ll come up with a way to bring him back down the road.
I also disagreed with Henry leaving. I wasn’t sure what the point of that was. I guess they’re trying to say that Barry can’t concentrate on being The Flash if his father is around because he’ll be too concerned with being a son rather than a hero? Um, what about Joe? He’s around and Barry does just fine. Joe is more of a father to Barry than Henry has been able to be. Of course, this wasn’t Henry’s fault, but it is what it is. All this time, working to get Henry out of prison, and for Henry just to leave? It makes no sense. He could join the team and help Barry out! But oh well. I guess we’ll continue to see him off and on throughout the season, just like last season when the show would come up with excuses for Barry to see his father.
In any case, the team looks like it’s back together now, and it seems like the universe will soon expand, character-wise. We’ve heard a little about a bad guy named Zoom, who we’ll probably see soon, and we’ve just met Jay Garrick, who seems to be from a parallel universe. At this point, it doesn’t seem like anything has been disrupted by Eddie killing himself. Will there be any timey-wimey repercussions at all? We had all this cool time travel stuff going on last season, I hope it continues this season.
Josh’s Thoughts: The Flash, Season 2 Episode 1: The Man Who Saved Central City
I was a little disappointed in the premiere of The Flash because I was hoping it would pick up where the finale left off, right with the wormhole that was opening up. I guess they did some flashbacks to it, but I still think it would have been interesting to see the full scope of what happened with the wormhole. I also didn’t feel there was adequate explanation as to why the wormhole closed, but I guess that might be asking too much.
It’s sad that Barry’s dad feels like has to leave town so that Barry can be the man he is supposed to be. It doesn’t really make sense to me either, but either way, it seems sad for Barry still. He did all this work to get his father out, and now he is still just going to be left alone. So far, there is no more news about Cisco’s power, so I look forward to seeing what happens there. I am also curious to learn more about what happens to Ronnie, because we know he is not dead. Dead permanently at least.
With Zoom being introduced, as well as Jay Garrick being introduced, it looks like we are going to have quite a few new universes to deal with soon. I guess we will see what new villains pop through this wormhole to give Barry a hard time. It seems like with this wormhole, the show has a pretty easy way to keep filtering them in to each episode. Let’s hope the season is a good one!
Scenes from The Flash, Season 2 Episode 2: Flash of Two Worlds
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Flash, titled Flash of Two Worlds:
