The Flash‘s season 1 finale, “Fast Enough,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans!
A history lesson
Barry confronts Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne in his pipeline cell, and Eobard regales Barry with the reason for killing his mother — because he hates future Barry. In the future, Eobard discovers the Flash’s identity and travels into the past to kill him as a child.
However, when future Barry followed and protected his younger self, Eobard killed Nora in the hope Barry would never recover from the tragedy. However, he found himself stuck in the past and was forced to create his greatest enemy, the Flash, so he could return to his time.
Eobard then makes Barry an offer he can’t refuse: If Barry allows him to return home, he’ll help him save his mother.
Barry tells the gathered group about the offer. Dr. Stein explains the whole multi-verse idea in which Barry, by saving his mother, will create infinite alternate realities. There is no way of knowing what life he’d be creating for anyone by saving his mother. Joe, though, encourages Barry to go for it.
Decisions, decisions
Barry visits his father in jail and fills him in. Henry, though, doesn’t want Barry to do it. Henry is incredibly proud of the man Barry has become and his mother would be too. She wouldn’t want him to lose who he has become to save her.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Ronnie confirms that he and Stein are back for good, and he and Caitlin decide to get married. Meanwhile, Iris finds Barry angsting over his decision on their rooftop spot. They contemplate where they might end up if Barry goes back in time, and Barry realizes how grateful he is for the life he has now. Iris tells him to, for once, think about himself.
This cements it for Barry that he’ll make the trip, so he returns to Eobard to find out how to go about it. Eobard explains that it will be done with Barry speeding through the particle accelerator. When he collides with a single particle, he’ll create a wormhole that will allow him to go back to the night of Nora’s murder and Eobard to return to his own time.
However, if he doesn’t reach the speed he needs (Mach 2), he’ll die.
Complications
Cisco is tasked with building a time machine for Eobard to travel forward in time with since his connection to the Speed Force is spotty. When Cisco realizes that the materials Eobard has collected won’t work, he visits Eobard in his cell. Eobard recognizes the issue and comes up with a solution, then asks about Cisco’s attitude toward him.
Cisco tells him about remembering the alternate timeline in which Eobard killed him. Eobard realizes that the particle accelerator gave Cisco the ability to see the vibrations of alternate timelines.
Meanwhile, Stein and Eddie have a talk. Eddie is frustrated that he’s had no part to play — and won’t, according to Eobard — but Stein recognizes him as a wild card. There’s no accounting for coincidences in science, and the fact that Eobard Thawne ended up in the same city at the same time as his descendant, who he needed to protect, is a huge coincidence. Eddie, Stein says, is the only person who can choose his fate.
Their conversation is cut short, though, when Stein discovers that the time travel could create a black hole that will consume everything. Eobard assures everyone that this won’t happen as long as Barry returns from his mission in under two minutes.
Reunited
Barry, watching the risks increase, talks to Joe. Joe admits that he lied about wanting Barry to do it, but it’s a thing parents do for their kids. Joe, though, tells Barry he believes in him. Barry doesn’t want to lose Joe, and Joe promises that he never will.
Across town, Eddie brings Iris lunch and tells her about how it was a series of coincidences that brought them together. He’s going to fight for their future, and the two reunite.
Later, the team gathers for Ronnie and Caitlin’s wedding. Stein, an official rabbi, officiates (making it “legit, as the kids say”) while the audiences waits for the first notes of “The Rains of Castamere.”
Back to the past
With the nuptials concluded, Barry suits up and says goodbye to everyone — including a tearful father-son goodbye between Barry and Joe. Barry then enters the accelerator and starts running while Eobard talks him through reaching speed and running through the Speed Force, which gives us some interesting glimpses into the past, present and future. Some notable teases included Caitlin as Killer Frost and the Legends of Tomorrow team.
Once Barry passes Mach 2, Stein releases the particle and the wormhole opens. Barry finds himself in his childhood bedroom the night of Nora’s murder. He heads downstairs and watches his future self battle the Reverse Flash. There is a brief moment when his future self sees him and shakes his head in warning before saving his childhood self. Barry, heart-broken, realizes he can’t go through with it and lets the Reverse Flash stab Nora.
After the Reverse Flash is gone, Barry heads into the living room where Henry is unconscious and Nora is dying. He unmasks himself and tells his mother who he is. In a heart-wrenching scene, Barry assures Nora that he and Henry are fine and that they love her. She tells Barry goodbye then dies.
Heroic sacrifice
At the present S.T.A.R. Labs, the team lets Eobard free to enter his time machine. Eobard mentions that Rip Hunter would be impressed, and when Jay Garrick’s helmet flies out of the wormhole, he prepares to depart. But as Eobard prepares to leave, Barry flies through the wormhole and punches Eobard, also destroying the time machine.
Eobard is furious and demands to know why he didn’t take everything he wanted; Barry replies that he already has it. Eobard pulls his mask on and brutally attacks Barry. He prepares to kill Barry, saying he’ll kill everyone else present too, but a gunshot goes off.
Eddie has just shot himself in the chest. In dying, Eddie prevents Eobard from ever coming into existence. As Eobard — the original one — crumbles out of existence, Iris calls Eddie her hero, which is all Eddie ever wanted to be.
However, there’s no time to grieve as the black hole, which Caitlin had shut down after Barry returned, has reopened. Everyone flees as Eddie’s body flies into it. The team runs outside and watches as the black hole grows in the sky above Central City. The only hope they have is Barry running in the opposite direction of the vortex to shut it down.
The speeds Barry would need to reach should be impossible, but Barry has no choice. He pulls on his mask and takes off running up a building and into the black hole.