TV: ‘The Flash’ Midseason Wrap Up

"Pilot" [Warning: This story contains spoilers for Tuesday’s midseason finale of The Flash, “The Man in the Yellow Suit.”]

It needs to be said, The Flash is the best new show on TV, hands down. With each passing week, the show ups it’s game and provides viewers with the most entertaining shows by not taking itself too seriously and allowing the fun to shine through. The acting of star Grant Gustin and the supporting cast has proven to be the perfect blend of personalities and makes the characters they are playing shine each and every scene. If you are not watching this show, it’s time to catch up, cause The Flash has taken off!

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Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) is an assistant police forensic investigator for Central City and all around good guy. As a young boy, Bary witnessed the death of his mother by an unexplained incident which left his father (John Wesley Shipp) incarcerated for the murder. When an accident occurs at the S.T.A.R. Labs during the launch of their particle accelerator, the event causes a thunderstorm which strikes Barry leaving him with superhuman speed. Along with the help of Cisco (Carlos Valdes), Caitlain (Danielle Panabaker) and Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh), a man with a deep secret, along with Detective, and substitute father Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), Barry uses his powers to stop others who have been effected by the same accident that gave Barry his powers.

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Week in and week out Barry comes face to face with a new metahuman and faces adversity that helps him grow into the hero he hopes to become. For the past 8 episodes, a looming subplot of the story has been, who killed Barry’s mother? Barry remembers a blur of yellow light surrounding him mother at the time of her death leading him to believe that someone else has his powers of speed. Finally convincing Joe of his theory, the two set off to reopen the case and try and prove Barry’s father has been innocent all along. The Man in Yellow threatens to harm Joe’s daughter Iris (Candice Patton) if he continues to search for the real killer. Barry will stop at nothing to protect Iris, but his need to vindicate his father forces him to continue his investigation.

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This weeks midseason finale has brought the subplot to a head and brought Barry face to face with the Man in Yellow. The man in yellow insinuates to Barry that they know each other which leaves Barry perplexed. The adversary attacks Mercury Labs in search of the company’s work in tachyon particles for which Dr Wells seems to understand why. The group of allies construct a plan to capture the Man in Yellow. Meanwhile, Caitlain discovers that her fiance Ronnie (Robbie Amell) is alive and has become a metahuman with the power of fire. With the assistance of Cisco, the two set off to find Ronnie to bring him back to S.T.A.R labs to try and help him for which he refuses.

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S.T.A.R. Labs use the tachyon particle technology as bait to lure the man in yellow into trap. The man in yellow, who refers to himself as the Reverse Flash, escapes the trap and attacks Dr. Wells and the police before engaging in a second fight with Barry. Ronnie appears and blasts the man with flames before both flee the scene. Comic fans will recognize Ronnie as the superhero Firestorm. Knowing that the battle has just begun, Barry knows he will face his adversary once again. At a Christmas party at the Joe and Iris’s, Cisco reveals to Joe that he believes there were two speedsters there the night that Barry’s mom died, meaning not only was the Reverse Flash there but a Flash was also there fighting to protect her! Later, Dr. Wells enters his secret room and unveils the same yellow suit as the man that they captured, placing the stolen tachyon technology on the suit’s chest and uttering the words “Merry Christmas Flash” as the episode ends.

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Now the internet has taken it upon themselves to crown Dr. Wells the Reverse Flash in spite of having been in the room with the Reverse-Flash. How can this be?! Is he or maybe he is somebody working for the masked villain. Well…here’s my theory:

Dr. Wells may be a reverse flash, but not the one who killed Barry’s mother. It’s been clear since the premiere that Wells was capable of time travel in some capacity, or at least had access to technology and information from the future, which has lead to much speculation as to who his character might wind up appearing to be. So who is he and who killed Barry’s mom?

For this answer we must investigate the evidence. Now. in the comics, there is more than one character who’s called himself the Reverse-Flash or Professor Zoom. The first, Eobard Thawne, is a time-traveling supervillain who drew his powers from the speed force like Barry Allen did, who had comparable speed and powers but who used them for evil. You may recognize the last name as it is the same last name of Iris’s boyfriend and Joe’s partner Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett)! Follow so far?!

Another RF was a man by the name of Hunter Zolomon, or Professor Zoom, who was somebody who believed himself to be a friend and aide to The Flash. Zolomon’s powers worked a little differently and involved manipulation of time which appeared to be the same as The Flash but in reality, weren’t. Time travel, speed, OK…he must be the killer of Barry’s mom right?! Wrong..in the comics it was Thawne who killed her! So could a collision course between Barry and Eddie be on its way or is it possible there are two Reverse Flash’s working together for one goal?

Only time will tell, but let’s remember that Harrison Wells appears to be actually attempting to help Barry to become the Flash so being the person who kills her wouldn’t make much sense….

So…is he Zolomon? Hard to tell, but there are many signs pointing in the direction of the Flashpoint storyline (I won’t bore you with more comic book nerdness so I will allow you to search out that info on your own). One things for sure, Dr. Wells has positioned himself to make a humongous impact on the future of Barry Allen and the remaining episodes of this season and beyond. We’re just getting started folks! The Flash will be back in early 2015 and all our answers will be provided…we hope.

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Sound off! Who do YOU think Dr Wells is?!

 

 

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