The mid-season finale has sped by, and left a lot in its wake. Please be warned that spoilers for this episode are discussed – and they’re doozies. If you aren’t caught up, turn away now.
1. Fathers
Look, I’ll get to all the awesome meta-human shenanigans in a bit, but seeing Joe West and Henry Allen both tear up at the man Barry has become was the absolute center of this episode. Joe’s “I need Barry Allen” line elicited feelings in me that are so raw and pure that if I ever admitted them to my wife she’d have me committed. And yet she can watch Pretty Little Liars guilt free, because…ok, I’ll stop.
Barry Allen may not have a mother in his life anymore, but he’s lousy with father figures – his actual father is handling a life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit exceedingly well, Joe is more or less the perfect surrogate father one could ever ask for, and Wells, on the surface, is both the father of the Flash and his counterpart, the Reverse Flash. Let’s start with his actual father – in what could have been a horribly maudlin scene, Henry essentially diagnoses Barry’s “problem” – that he is always putting himself behind those he loves. Henry, more or less, says, “here is why you’re destined to be a superhero” without any knowledge of Barry’s powers.
Joe, on the other hand, is everyone’s father figure – he shows Eddie what a cop should be, Barry what a man should be, and sets Iris up for success at all turns. I’ve gushed about Jesse L. Martin here in the past, and the guy continues to do some of the most nuanced and touching acting on television. The scene of him and Barry in the lab was a beautiful scene that just makes the eventual death of Joe West hurt even more. That isn’t a spoiler for folks who haven’t read Flash comics – Joe is a brand new character for the show, but it seems like it is so obvious, doesn’t it?
Wells…well, we’ll get to Wells in a minute.
2. Winks and nods
This show continues to pepper itself with so many wonderful little references that, at best, are little hints to the future and, at worst, are just little inserts meant to make Geoff Johns pop a boner as he watches at home. This week we met Tina McGee, a character both associated with Wally West and the 1990 The Flash TV show – in fact, the same actress plays McGee on both (complete sentence name Amanda Pays). We also get a scene at “Mercury Labs” – a subtle nod to speedster (and Flash mentor) Max Mercury.
3. I’m not Ronnie Raymond
I’m sure many fans will be gushing more about the Firestorm appearance tonight than anything else – and while I thought parts were particularly great (especially how he flew), I also didn’t love the crazy-eyes while shooting fire or the total deus ex machina-ness of his Barry-saving second third appearance in the episode. That said, there was one part in particular that was so amazing I actually got goosebumps:
“I’m not Ronnie Raymond”
Sure, maybe some people took that as a sign that Raymond knew he changed, and wasn’t the man he used to be – but I have a different idea. Maybe that really wasn’t Ronnie talking – maybe it was the other half of the Firestorm matrix, whoever that is (the show has cast both Dr. Stein and Jason Rusch). As bonkers of an idea as the Flash himself is, Firestorm is the deepest sci-fi/comics idea the show has gone – yes, even more so than the Mist. When the show decided to dedicate more time to Firestorm, I am really interested to see just how deep down the Nuclear Man rabbit hole they’re willing to go.
4. Two speedsters
Cisco comes to an interesting conclusion during the episode – that when Barry’s mother was killed, there must have been two speedsters there, as Barry saw both red and yellow lightning. This leads to any number of theories – perhaps that a lost in time Barry tried to save his mother (shades of “Flashpoint”), or that some other speedster traveled back in time to try to stop the Reverse Flash, or that perhaps he had an accomplice. I’m putting my money on the first theory – that Barry runs so fast he tries to save his mother years in the past.
Continued below5. Let’s talk Reverse Flash
Ok, here comes the real meat of the discussion. The end of the episode cast little doubt about Wells’s role on the show – he is a villain, pure and simple. However, without getting too deep into time travel paradoxes, was that him the yellow suit tonight? I don’t really think so, despite all the evidence pointing that way. Could it be an android/robot of some kind? Perhaps. Could it be another person, working with Wells? That seems a bit more likely. But who would that be?
Maybe it was Eddie Thwane, a character who in the comics is the Reverse Flash (Eobard is long for Eddie sometimes, folks). That would explain why he was left untouched in the scene at S.T.A.R. Labs. Even if it wasn’t him, clearly he has a path in the future that the Reverse Flash, whoever he is, cares about.
Multiversity Editor in Chief Matt Meylikhov and I were texting last night about the show, and he pointed out how Wells, thus far, is very similar to Hunter Zolomon, aka Zoom, a Wally West villain and the kind of sort of second generation Reverse Flash. He is confined to a wheelchair, seems hell bent on making Barry Allen a ‘better’ Flash, and has a strong connection to Thawne.
Regardless of the machinations of who exactly was wearing the yellow suit, the show has done a masterful job of telling a few huge stories in its first 9 episodes – we already have a Reverse Flash, a Weather Wizard, Captain Cold, Firestorm, and Captain Boomerang. That is a ton of world building already, and we’re not even halfway through the season yet. Man is it a great time to be a Flash fan or what?
