The other week, on the dawn of the new seasons, the awesome guys at Screen Junkies hosted a panel show to talk about the different comic book hero TV shows around right now, how they felt about each which they thought was the best. You can watch that here. Of the 3 panel guests, there were 2 common factors. They were all a bit too harsh on Gotham, and they all unanimously agreed that The Flash was their no. 1 show (that included Daredevil). From its outstanding series long storylines with meaningful and rewarding culminations to magnificent performances from a spectacular cast, The Flash became everything we wanted out of a comic book show. Fun and entertaining but serious and emotionally powerful when needed (I’ve watched the season finale 7 times, and each time it still ripped me apart), smart, well-written, and they even had a big gorilla. So as the series returns, our expectations could not be higher.... but so too are the promises from the showrunners! Multi-verse & Earth 2 expansion, more speedsters, more time travel, more crossovers, new rogues, new metahumans and new Cisco t-shirts (ok, that last one is an assumption). The Flash returns with a simple mission statement: that last season was just the warm up. Judging by this season debut, it looks like we are in for one hell of a year. His name is Barry Allen, he is the fastest man alive, the hero that won our hearts and the man who saved Central City. Let’s see what he’s been up to...
The Man Who Saved Central City – 6 months after stopping the wormhole, Barry Allen, who's still coming to terms with the events, has cast all his friends aside and struggles to accept a Flash Day celebration in his honor. Yet when a new villain town looks to crash the party, he rediscovers the strength of himself and Team Flash once more.
As The Flash returns, it seems to be weathering the emotional fallout of its finale just as much as we did. In fact, the starting positions of the main cast are quite surprising as Team Flash is well and truly fractured. Although this is initially puzzling, the episode plays it just right, providing the answers after merely 10 minutes of wondering as we flash back to the events of the black hole. Barry’s guilt is a great reflection on his character as he’s unable to accept the praise and gratitude of Central City and Flash Day celebration because he doesn’t feel he deserves it. This utilizes the season break to its advantage by skipping over the mourning period as we see the team rally and reuniting in the face of formidable foe. Again, this is very well written as there’s no sudden “Team Flash assemble” cry (clearly Cisco didn’t read that one in a comic somewhere). Instead, everyone is gradually brought back together and the likes of Martin Stein pledged as a more permanent member, his hilarious naming moment with Cisco is effectively his membership card being issued. However, the real fun is the expansion of character roles outside the team as many have new day jobs that will provide some excellent story opportunities. The biggest improvements are Cisco and Catlin, who are in need of new jobs following their former boss being erased from history. Cisco is the “Scientific Consultant” of Joe’s Metahuman Task Force. A wonderful development as it gives him plenty of opportunities to build and test new toys while keeping the Joe/Cisco buddy cop relationship that worked so well in the latter half of last season. While Catlin stays more within her field as a scientist at Mercury labs, bringing them back into bigger picture. Although unseen, Dr Tina McGee is mentioned as Catlin’s boss so we’ll likely be seeing her again. Plus keeping Catlin near plenty of lab experiments gives all the more opportunities for a Killer Frost creating accident.
The debuting villain of the week becomes the first showcase of opportunities Earth 2 and multi-verse characters provide as this rated R superstar metahuman (portrayed by Adam Copeland aka WWE's Edge) is traditionally a protagonist in the comics. Yet here, in the classic alternative reality twist, we see a villainous equivalent, or at least manipulated into wrongdoings as his subsequent revelations imply. Like the Gorilla Grodd successes last season, the special effects of his growth powers look good on screen to make Atom Smasher feel like a threatening foe. Copeland brings real presence to the role (Edge did spend many years as WWE's no. 1 heel), and hopefully we will see him again in some capacity. The multi-verse teases are good and subtle clues to help the non-comic familiar viewers grasp the upcoming events. Having Atom Smasher kill his Earth 1 equivalent is a brilliantly simple device that immediately draws speculation of other worlds, or at least time travel within this one. Then add to that good dialogue drops-ins like mentions of “going home” and a certain awesome climactic figure referring to “your world” (their appearance has been heavily published but no spoilers just in case). It looks like the team will get and least the idiots guide to the newly expanded world/worlds in next week’s episode, “Flash of Two Worlds” . It’s also interesting to see the season wasting no time over its big bad. Zoom gets a clear name check and it’s even been promised we’ll see him next week. His identity and intentions look set to be the big secrets but we (unsurprisingly) know for certain he wants The Flash dead.
Many smaller featuring characters get some great moments this episode. The most impressive is Tom Cavanagh’s reappearance via video will to Barry. For those unaware, it has been confirmed that Cavanagh will still be a regular cast member this season and returning as Harrison Wells from Earth 2. It’s highly likely we’ll see Wells mk2 shift to a protagonist, and this acts as a great bridging tool towards that transition as it plays the conflict of affection that Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne demonstrated towards the end of last season. That though he was fueled by hatred of his future Barry Allen, his time and experiences nurturing the younger Barry into The Flash created almost a parental level of compassion towards him. His video act of kindness is a terrific surprise and twist of direction for the series, and it will be interesting to see where it takes a certain character. Martin Stein reinforces his position within the group dynamic well, Cisco gives us a little tease of his Vibe powers and Iris feels much more involved with her reporter capabilities providing vital information.
Returning season finales are always more difficult than people actually think, and The Flash made things even harder for itself with the epic cliff-hanger it concluded on. Its resolution could easily have felt like an anti-climax, but it doesn’t because there’s such else to enjoy that they could have just shoved a cork in it for all we care. That’s why this episode really impresses in the way it juggles the season one aftermath while still gearing up for bigger and better this year. It’s a clear and well-executed grasp of tricky subject matter which was all too often a standout feature of last season. The characters have evolved while still being the people we love. So the real message to take away is this: The Flash hasn’t started running again.... it never stopped.