The Flash finally made its public debut tonight on the CW, and it set up the show for an amazing season.
The Backstory
This whole series is based on the event in Barry Allen’s life that changed everything: His mother’s death (yeah, like most superhero stories). One night he wakes up to find his mother trapped in their living room by some glowing blurred tornado, with what seems like a man running through it. Next thing he knows he’s several blocks away, his mother is dead and his father is taken in for the crime.
Now, he works forensics with the police department under his adoptive father, Detective West.
The Martin Murders
Detective West and his partner are checking out the scene of the most recent Martin brothers murder when Barry shows up late, like he normally does. He doesn’t make the best impression with West’s partner, which alludes to just how dorky Barry can be. But he’s talented at his job, and it ultimately leads detective West and his partner to the barn where the Martin brothers hide out.
Things go awry when the detectives show up to the barn and find the Martin brothers, and it leads to a shoot-out that ends up killing West’s partner and the Martin brothers getting away in an airplane. They don’t get far, though, because almost as soon as they hit the sky the explosion from the particle accelerator sends a surge of energy through the storm clouds and mostly disintegrates the airplane.
Although Clyde Martin survives, he ends up robbing a bank months later (same day Barry wakes up) using his super ability to control the weather. Detective West heads out to the crime scene with his new partner, Eddie Thawne. They ask the witnesses what they saw, and manage to find out Martin drove a mustang.
Walking with Iris later that day, she and Barry almost get run over by that mustang and Barry goes off to see what’s going on, and comes across Martin and his superpowers. Martin gets away, but when Barry tries to tell Detective West about it West tells Barry to stop believing in the impossible.
Later, according to witness descriptions, West and Thawne discover it really is Clyde Martin. They go back to the barn and find him there, but then Martine starts producing a gigantic tornado, aimed to destroy the city. But fear not! Because Barry the Fast Man is here! Okay, terrible name, but still.
Barry manages to stop the tornado by running the opposite direction of it, all while West watches. In the end they agree to keep the secret between them and not tell Iris.
How A Hero is Born
Barry’s really obsessed with the particle accelerator that’s going to be turned on that night for the first time, and convinces his best friend Iris, daughter of the detective, to come along with him to the opening. However, things don’t go well when a random scumbag steals Iris’ bag and runs away with it. Barry, who loves Iris way more than what’s normal for their what should be brother/sister relationship, runs after him but gets knocked in the nose.
The guy who really brings the crook in? Eddie Thawne, a new detective. This whole event makes the night end early for Barry, who then goes home for the night. It’s that night, though, that the particle accelerator explodes and releases a bunch of unknown energies into the sky, all while a gigantic storm is going through Central City.
The explosion causes a surge through the storm clouds, and a lightning bolt from said storm manages to go through Barry’s ceiling and strike him down.
Figuring Things Out
Barry was in a coma for nine months and wakes up to scientists Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon, where he finds out he now has abs. We wish that could happen to us. Well, maybe without the lightning bit.
The man in charge of the particle accelerator, Dr. Harrison Wells, takes Barry through all of the things that’s happened and wants to study him to see what exactly has happened, but Barry takes off because it’s been months since he’s seen Iris and he has to make sure she’s okay. Oh, and in between the time he leaves Star Labs and gets to Iris in her coffee shop he gets a new change of clothes. Because fashion matters.
It’s during the visit with Iris that he first experiences time slowing down, and again when a crook tries to grab a gun at the police station. Although the second time is when he realizes he could actually run really, really fast. It’s awesome, but he definitely agrees it’s time to see what’s going on so he heads back to Star Labs where they do a field test to see how fast he runs. And guys, he runs really fast. In case you didn’t realize.
Wells cautions him to limit himself, and during the field test he loses focus and ends up crashing and breaking his wrist. And it’s a day of discoveries, because this is when Caitlin tells Barry that his wrist has healed completely in just a few hours. So to sum it up: Barry has abs, lightning fast reflexes and abilities, and superhuman healing powers.
After meeting up with Martin in the streets, Barry goes back to Star Labs to ask how many people are changed like them, and Wells reveals they don’t know. There was a ton of energy dispersed during the storm and they don’t know how many meta humans are out there. They argue, and despite Barry wanting to help Wells tells him he’s not a hero.
Looking for advice, Barry goes to Starling City to talk to Oliver, the Arrow. Oliver tells him he was chosen for this, and he can absolutely be a hero.
The Tease
At the end of the episode Doctor Wells rolls up to a secret room in his wheelchair, and the door shuts to reveal it’s all completely white and bare. He then gets up (yes, the crippled man walks) and walks over to a podium to activate the image of a news paper from 2024 that reads: “FLASH MISSING, DISAPPEARS IN CRISIS.”
