“Welcome to the team.”
Warning: full episode spoilers follow.
When last we saw Barry Allen in the final moments of Flash’s Season 1 finale, he was racing up a building in a desperate, possibly futile attempt to prevent Central City from being devoured by a temporal vortex. It was certainly a dramatic way to cap off the season, if not necessarily kind to fans who have been waiting impatiently ever since to find out what happens next. Luckily, the show returned tonight to kick off the next chapter in Barry’s increasingly complicate life, and all is right in the land of television once more.
Surprisingly, “The Man Who Saved Central City” didn’t immediately pick up where “Fast Enough” left off in May. Rather than showcasing the immediate outcome of the wormhole kerfuffle, the show jumped forward six months to showcase a drastically different status quo for Barry and friends. The main takeaway being that while Barry saved Central City (hence the episode’s title), everyone in Team Flash was worse off for the experience. Barry became a loner, throwing himself into his job by day and slowly rebuilding the city by night. Cisco and Caitlin went their separate ways. Iris still mourned the loss of Eddie. The opening was really effective at setting up this new, depressing status quo by first showcasing a victorious Barry defeating villains (with a welcome cameo from Captain Cold and Heat Wave) and basking in the loving adoration of his friends before revealing that this was all a wishful dream on Barry’s part.
I really wasn’t expecting the show to veer in such a relatively dark direction so soon into this new season. That said, the darkness worked, especially with the revelation that Ronnie sacrificed himself to destroy the wormhole. Of course that’s going to throw a giant wrench in the gears of Team Flash. Barry is still young and naive enough to think that he alone is responsible for what happens in his city. The crucial lesson he had to learn this week is that Ronnie made his own choices and willing paid the ultimate price. There’s no reason for Barry to punish himself for what happened, especially as the city is bending over backwards to honor his bravery.
We want to hear it.
This episode worked because the darkness was really just a means to an end in terms of restoring a sense of balance to the show. The various character relationships that have been so crucial to the show’s success were still very much a focus. With that in mind, it was great to see the supporting cast play such a big role in the story. I loved seeing Cisco in his new role as the CCPD’s resident tech whiz. Jesse L. Martin and Carlos Valdes had a great rapport going throughout the episode. Then again, Martin has a great rapport with everyone on this show. He’s just so darned likable and genuine. It was equally amusing to see Cisco and Professor Stein enjoy some bonding time. That moment when Cisco was so awe-inspired by the name “Atom-Smasher” that he hugged Stein was perfect. Even Iris took a more proactive role in the group. I’m glad to see the writers trying to define her a little more outside of her romantic relationships. The one character who could have used a little more attention was Caitlin. This episode didn’t dig very deeply into the trauma of losing her husband for a second time. Though maybe she’s just assuming (rightfully so) that Ronnie will return once again.
As for Atom-Smasher, he didn’t necessarily emerge as one of the more compelling villains in the Flash/Arrow universe. Until the reveal that he was merely an agent for a shadowy new foe known as Zoom, there wasn’t much insight into Atom-Smasher’s motivations or why he wanted so badly to kill the Flash. The fact that he was defeated by being lured into the world’s most obvious trap didn’t speak much for his intelligence, either. But simply in terms of offering Barry a colorful new foe to contend with, Atom-Smasher fit the bill.
The special effects in this episode were pretty impressive (even if Atom-Smasher did look a little fake and rubbery during his transformation process). The real standout was the wormhole scene, which was as big and epic as anything we’ve seen from this TV universe. I’m of the mind that TV is inherently a better medium than film for superhero storytelling given its serialized nature. The one advantage the movies have is their bigger budgets and more robust effects work. But over the past year, The Flash has gone a long way toward closing that gap.
It’s worth noting that “The Man Who Saved Central City” is a nightmare for anyone who craves logic in their time travel stories. “Fast Enough” introduced a huge paradox when Eddie killed himself and caused Eobard Thawne to fade out of existence. If Thawne never existed, then he couldn’t have gone back in time, killed the Wells family and created the Flash. This episode’s solution to that problem was basically “Firestorm made a giant explosion and now everything is okay.” It’s a little strange that the writers seem so unconcerned about the ramifications of Thawne’s death. Though on the other hand, time travel is some convoluted business. There’s no point getting hung up on those details at the expense of more important elements.
We want to hear it.
The announcement that Tom Cavanagh would remain a series regular for Season 2 was certainly interesting given that his character died in the finale. This episode gave us a glimpse of the late Dr. Wells as he left a video will behind for Barry. That sequence was great about tapping into the complicated relationship between Barry and Wells/Thawne. Wells was forced to admit once more that he couldn’t bring himself to hate the young Barry Allen in the way he did his future counterpart. And not only did Wells leave S.T.A.R. Labs to Barry, he gave him his father’s freedom. Wells’ warning that this act of generosity wouldn’t make Barry happy was sadly on point. Barry has a peculiar habit of never allowing himself to be truly happy and appreciate his fantastic abilities and clsoe circle of friends ad family.
It seems doubtful that Cavanagh’s series regular status is a big red herring and that this is all we’ll see of Wells this season. Before watching this episode I would have guessed that the real Wells would spontaneously be brought back into existence now that Thawne is dead. But now it’s looking more likely that Cavanagh will be playing a different version of Wells from another world in the multiverse. Either way, there should be some interesting drama out of the fact that our heroes are forced to interact with a man who has the face of their greatest enemy but is really a completely different person.
This episode ended on a nicely upbeat and sentimental note as everyone celebrated Henry’s release. This show has really excelled when it comes to making these characters feel like real family, and that’s mostly due to the performances of Grant Gustin, Jesse L. Martin, John Wesley Shipp, and the rest. Gustin and Shipp had a nice moment where the latter seemed to officially pass the mantle of the Flash to the former similar to Tom Welling and Christopher Reeve’s big scene in Smallville. It does seem a little weird that Henry’s first act after finally being physically reunited with his son after 14 years is to leave town (it reminded me of the ending to Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar in that sense). That said, the show doesn’t really seem to need Henry anymore, and it’s probably better to give him a grand farewell than struggle to keep him in the picture.
The Flash made its long-awaited return in fine form this week. While this episode was somewhat darker than expected, that darkness was only a means to an end as far as reuniting Team Flash and setting up a new status quo for Barry. This episode boasted some strong visual effects, plenty of humor despite the darker elements and a lot of great emotional moments to boot. And thanks to the twist ending, it’s clear Season 2 is wasting no time in getting
