Six Big Moments from The Flash Season 2 Episode 1 "The Man Who Saved Central City"

Note: there will be spoilers below!

The Flash Season 2 premiere kicked things off at a fast pace. The show is definitely moving forward and not shying away from shaking things up. Because we already gave you a spoiler-free review HERE, we decided now it's time to dive right into the big moments that surprised us, made us cheer, and even get a little teary-eyed.

Joe and Cisco - The New Dynamic Duo

Sadly, Joe lost his partner, Eddie Thawne, last season. Because of what happened during the Singularity Event (we'll get to that in a second), Barry has pulled away from the rest of Team Flash. With Harrison Wells also out of the picture, there isn't much for Star Labs to do. That leaves Cisco to work with the police department on a new Metahuman Task Force to stop all the new powered villains that are on the loose.

Joe and Cisco make a great team. Seeing Cisco hungry to get an actual police badge was great. It makes sense for him to help out the police department by designing weapons or methods of containment. They'll need all the help they can get. As fast as the Flash is, he can't be everywhere.

Ronnie Died

This is one of those moments you wonder what the writers are doing. Why did Ronnie have to die? Why did anyone have to die?

In a flashback to the moment of the Singularity Event, we see Barry doing all that he can to reverse the effects. The city hangs in the balance. There's destruction and things are getting pulled into the Singularity. Professor Stein knows they can help stabilize the event. By merging, they become Firestorm and head up by Barry. By coming apart, the energy released would be enough to stop the event. As this happens, we see a body fall. Barry rushes down to catch the body and notices it's just the Professor. Ronnie is gone.

This is the second time Caitlin loses Ronnie. They just got married too. Of course having a character die illustrates how dire the situation was. The good guys can't always win unscathed. This is what lead to Barry breaking up the team. He felt guilty for not being able to save Ronnie. He didn't want the others to be put in harm's way.

Harrison Wells’ Living Will

Harrison Wells makes you want to shake your fist in anger every time you see him after all the bad things he's done. He may have helped set Barry on the path to becoming the Flash but he also killed Barry's mom. This also resulted in Barry's dad being in prison ever since. He took in Barry and the revelation was shocking. The shocks continue.

We learn that with Wells' death, Star Labs has gone to Barry. Even more, he left a video for Barry to watch. Barry was reluctant to have anything to do with Wells but watched it with Caitlin at his side. Wells made the video in case his plans failed and he died. He says the last fifteen years, they weren’t enemies. He’s still going to help him. He then says to erase everything up to that point and to give the message to the police. Wells confesses to Barry’s mom’s death. This could mean Barry's dad could be exonerated.

But, is this really the last we'll see of Harrison Wells?

Atom Smasher’s Final Words

Throughout the episode, Barry has to deal with Atom Smasher (whose name was given to him by Professor Stein, making Cisco overjoyed). He's tried taking on Atom Smasher by himself but eventually works with the others to come up with a way to deal with Atom Smasher's deadly abilities. The only way is to lure him into a nuclear power plant. The radiation becomes too much for him.

Barry apologizes and says he couldn’t let him hurt anyone else. He asks why he wanted to kill him Atom Smasher says, “He promised to take me home if I killed you.” When Barry asks who, Atom Smasher says, “Zoom” and dies.

What the heck does this mean? When Cisco first sees Atom Smasher, he gets a strange vision of having seen him before. We know Cisco recalls the alternate time line so this likely has something to do with an alternate world. Is this how we'll see Tom Cavanagh remain on the show as Zoom?

Henry Allen is Free

With Well's confession and the details he provided, Barry's dad is free. This leads to a heartfelt celebration with everyone back together. There is still some sadness in the loss of Ronnie and Eddie but, as Professor Stein puts it, they need to more forward.

Henry decided he needs to leave. The city needs Barry and by him being there, he takes away some of Barry's motivation and dedication to the city. Plus he still has another family with everyone in the room. Poor Barry. He never fully wins.

Jay Garrick Has Arrived

If we didn't already know Jay Garrick was coming, this would have been a huge shocking ending. At Star Labs, everyone has gathered together. Cisco presents a little change he made to Barry suits. The emblem has white in it like the future paper Gideon showed them. Security is now tight and no one can get in. But someone does come in. He knows them. He says his name is Jay Garrick and their world is in danger.

Now we have to wait until next week to find out what's going on.

At the end of last season I said that I really didn't like the finale because the time travel made no sense and that the world should've ceased to exist because of the paradox. People told me to calm down, that's what's the black hole is here for. Well they just wrote it away with "firestorm goes boom". And apparently now events on both sides of the paradox can simultaneously exist...

I liked the premiere, but I'd give it 4 stars. I thought it was odd how Mr. Allen felt he needed to move away from Barry in order to let him grow into his role as the Flash. I don't get that. 2ndly, It kinda felt like Team Flash murdered Atom Smasher. Like a lethal dose of radiation was the only solution to stopping him. Aren't they supposed to be better than the bad guys?

I hope Flash doesn't use the same flashback style as Arrow. That got annoying because it kept being stretched out

I hate all this build up for Atom Smasher just to die, I've been hoping for more obscure Justice League members and thought we'd get something like Barry turning him to good to temporarily replace Firestorm while Ronnie is gone, because, It's DC, I doubt he is dead.

i like the Flash premiere.

Man I hope they find way to bring Atom smasher back he was awesome

I see the writing still isn't any better.

@nightfang: Yea. Call them up and tell them YOU got a better script ready.

Flash + Firestorm team-up

@zackisme: You know I just might do that.

Atom smashers special effects were actually very good for TV

Was a pretty good episode.

So how was Atom Smasher from Earth 2 when Wells said he was one of the victims that died on the day of particle accelerator explosion?

Also Henry's sudden departure came off as emo bullsh*t.

confession: I was a little disappointed when Barry's dad got released. Let him rot! Joe's his real dad now. So while I think it's cheap his dad decided to skip town, I'm glad the dynamic with Joe won't be too hurt. Though I wanted to shake Barry violently when he said Henry was the only family he had left. What about the dude who raised you for 14 years??

It's pretty obvious that Ronnie will return in some form as we know Firestorm will be returning with that new guy we saw in the previews. Be cool if we discover that Ronnie is actually in an alternate universe, having ended up there when they closed the black hole, with him just ending up on the wrong side.

Also, I agree with previous comments on Atom Smasher coming back. He was a cool villain that actually seemed like a real threat to Flash as Barry couldn't just punch him or anything. His powers made him a serious threat, being able to grow in size and even keep up with Barry, which was pretty impressive. I'm curious as to why exactly he killed the version of himself from Barry's Earth, did Zoom tell him to do it to simply get Barry's attention or are did Smasher just have issues with there being another version of himself running around and decided that one of him was good enough.

And on a last note, in season one we learned that Gideon was created by Barry in the future, right? Now that Barry technically owns Star Labs, maybe this is the beginning of how Barry gets to the point that he could create an advance A.I. like that in only a few years. Could we see Barry becoming someone similar to that of the real Harrison Wells in the future?

Episode 1 was sick!!

I expected from the writers to come up with a better excuse for Barry's father departure than just the usual "I-have-to-go" thing but I guess I'm asking for too much.After all,this is CW...

Solid episode. The tie-ins were good for the most part, however the fights with Atom Smasher were rather too short and it was kind of disappointing they just killed him off.

And yet again, CW Flash wastes a villain.

WTF???

You know what sucks? Henry leaving COULD HAVE BEEN a really cool, touching plot point. Like in Supernatural after Bobby died when he continued to stick around as a ghost. There was that incredibly touching story about how he and the boys were glad he was back, but slowly realizing that he just didn't fit in that world with them anymore. If they had just spread Henry's departure out over a few episodes (like Bobby's stint as a ghost), and showed us that he doesn't fit (for any number of reasons: he's living in a city that used to be familiar to him but no longer is, he has to watch his son continually endanger itself, he needs a fresh start etc), his leaving really could have packed a huge emotional punch. But no.

Timing in general was very off this episode. Ronnie's death was poorly scripted AND timed. And a lot of dialogue just felt out of place (Stein's forward speech, Caitlin talking about Ronnie etc.)

Atom Smasher was okay. He was a believable threat, and the effects on him were decent most of the time. But there wasn't enough to him to make me upset at his death. Although I did find it bizarre that Team Flash decided to kill him instead of just trapping him. If he'd actually done more serious damage on-screen, I might have accepted that. But not with what we were given.

Barry's angst was unnecessary. Does it make sense from a storytelling perspective? Yes. BUT WE'VE SEEN THIS EXACT SAME THING 1,000,000 TIMES ALREADY! If the writers had found a new way to tackle the "survivor's guilt makes the hero push away his allies" kind of story, I would have been on board. But as it was presented here, it just felt like writers going through the motions of a typical telling of that kind of story.

Highlights of the episode:
- Cisco and Joe.
- Stein's inclusion with the team (despite that out of place speech)
- Wells' tape (AWESOME. That one scene single-handedly raised this episode from "meh" to "decent" for me. I did not see that coming)
- The Flash Day celebration. It's nice to see a city embrace its hero in live action. Hoping to see a bit more of that in the future.

6/10. Disappointing, in my opinion, but not without redeeming qualities. Now that we're past the point of needless exposition, bizarre character exits, and Barry's angst, I'm very hopeful for the coming episodes though.

So they murdered Atom Smasher?

I too thought his death was weak, probably the weakest part of the ep other than some timing.

He was a good match for Barry but they just murder his ass cause he is too dangerous? Other than murder a single guy and batter a few cops Team Flash hardly had a good case for killing him, does this mean Barry is going to justify murdering anyone who is a killer?

Great episode that got me really pumped for the upcoming season but a couple of things really bothered me. Barry's Dad leaving was completely forced. @supbatz is absolutely right, they should have done the departure over a few episodes. Also, Barry has been taking care of STAR labs it said for awhile now. Within STAR labs is an advanced AI that knows about the future. Barry hasn't revisited Gideon why exactly? That would have been my first thing to do. Unless Gideon was destroyed at some point last season and I just don't remember it.

It didn't bother me that they ended up having to kill Atom Smasher. Barry said it best, "I can't let you hurt anyone else" and you could genuinely tell he felt sorry for having to do that.

No clue, it feels like this story got rushed to introduce Prof. Zoom but if they were going to have Garrick show up at the end anyhow to warn Barry, they basically brought in and killed off Atom Smasher for absolutely no reason

@supbatz: thank you sir, I'll make your word mine.

@rexwing: So,it's ok to kill someone if he say he is sorry?Seriously?

@docholiday: I'm glad he died. Edge isn't much of an actor.

some points... the bad...

• Yay my father is finally free, but wait, he wants to get the hell away ... never mind that Barry lost friends, the city almost got destroyed and he's been through hell to free him and save his mom as well. NO... "I'm leaving so that you can grow." That was a load of crap. Very bad writing.
• So Ronnie will be the 'Resurrection Man' of this series. Ok got it.
• Looks like Iris will be even more annoying this second season.
• Too much sentimentality and weep inducement going on, feeling forced now.

the good...

• The opening sequence was gold (Flash imagining). Flash vs the two Rogues and everyone working together. That was pure comic book type greatness on tv. Well done.
• The Flash suit gets an adjustment. That was a cool moment too.
• The Flash inside the wormhole thing, trying to counter it, all those special effects were well done.
• Jay Garrick makes appearance at the end. It looks like he'll be a good character. He might outshine Wells.

It's not like all the meta-humans (or even non-meta) are that great :P Nimbus and Prism come across way to heavy handed, even if part of it is the writing. I like Weather Wizard, he is slightly more believable but James Jesse, the original Trickster, is my favorite.

I have to say this show does a good job with special effects, they put real effort in to make them believable or at least visually spectacular, like Grodd, really good work.

The images I've seen for Supergirl by comparison are far less convincing, especially that terrible Red Tornado design. I mention this because I hope the Supergirl show never crosses over with Arrow or Flash

I doubt it, those special effects ain't cheap for a character they didn't even seem to develop. Plus I'm pretty sure he is dead.

Anywho am I the only one who is glad Barry's Dad is out of the way?

@docholiday: I'm glad you like The Flash and appreciate the special effects (as I do too) but you don't need to put something down to build something up, the way you talk about the effects in Supergirl (when in fact not even the first episode is out yet and the show hasn't had the benefit of a fully played out 1st season) .

I saw the Red Tornado design and though it's different I wouldn't say it's bad. It's just different and when he's in full special effects mode in some action sequence, I'm sure he'll look better.

I am going also on the special effects from the initial pilot video and trailers they've released. I would be lying if I said I am in anyway enthusiastic about that show, especially considering the more drastic change to some famous characters or backgrounds.

I am looking forward more to new Flash episodes when we finally meet Hawkgirl

I didn't seen this episode. How much that I missed?

Barry's father's motivation for leaving was stupid in my opinion and not very realistic. Also not a fan of killing the bad guy intentionally. Really happy Flash is back and can't wait for next week.

I believe Ronnie is not dead but stuck on Earth-2

@vincent_valjean: No, it's okay to kill someone who is threatening the lives of countless others and not willing to listen to reason. Sorry, I don't buy into the Batman philosophy of no killing. Barry didn't want to do it, but it was a necessity. Call me a heartless bastard if you will, but a good number of villains need to be put down permanently.

I don't understand why Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne would confess his crimes. Just because his plans might fail? I mean, he's a pure villain here. He killed Nora Allen. He never liked Flash in the first place. Why else he was chased by 2020s Flash just to come back in time? Eobard intended to kill Barry as a young kid, so Flash wouldn't exist. Instead, he killed Nora in the process. He got stuck in the past, took over Harrison's life and created the particle accelerator in 2015 to create the Flash early, so that he could go back to his own timeline.

Also, Eobard telling to Barry that he's still helping him? That's absurd. Eobard never wanted to help Barry in the first place. He used him and the rest of the Team Flash to launch his escape from the past, and probably making another attempt to end Barry's life.

Another thing is that people should know, Eobard Thawne is the real culprit here. The real Harrison Wells was a good person. It sounds to me that a lot of people think Harrison actually committed crimes, yet the Team Flash knows it was Eobard Thawne in disguise. I might have missed it if Harrison/Eobard said that he wasn't Harrison Wells. That recorded scene should have fully been revealed.

I don't know about you guys. Enlighten me here and tell me if I'm wrong. This thing needs to be clarified. Using fake Harrison's evidence just to free Henry Allen felt forced. I liked the reunion and all, but the reason behind it, was really absurd.

Solid opening episode had to do a lotta table setting wihout it feeling perfunctory or just running in place. Cheap Plug to User Review

I agree with it being odd that Barry's Dad leaves. I think the writers were conflicted how to write two Dads in Barry's world. Guess the only Father figure they want Barry getting advice is Joe West. I still think they should have tried. It was a great premiere! Had me running home to watch it. I hope we haven't seen the last of Prof Harrison Wells. I still like his character. And Jay Garrick coming it at the end had me geek-ing out!

@the_impersonator: well as far as Thawnes hate goes 15 years is a LONG time to hold a grudge. Note the Thawne says to berry in the finale that after all the years and working with him he sees why so many people love him.

Yes wells is a good guy and died a long time ago and they know that on an intellectual level but they are so used to calling Thawne "wells" it probably doesn't even compute emotionally. I think that'll be addressed as the series goes on.

As far as fake Harrison confession goes. Well like you said he's been dead a long time. Why would they let care if a dead Harrison is blamed for something he didn't do if Henry gets out of jail when he's been innocent all this time?

Could Ronnie have possibly been blasted through the Singularity and landed on the other side? It is feasible to explore that world for Season Three. We have seen in clips there is another Firestorm half who may have been blasted to Barry's world because that Firestorm came up with the same idea.

It's back. It's finally back and it was better than what I could've imagined. Just gotta wait for next week. Come on.

Really liked the premiere, felt like I was watching a comic book come to life. Can't wait for next episode.

@lordraiden: What? As a dispassionate viewer, his being released and sticking around would only interfere with the current Joe/Barry dynamics. As a person who actually cares about people, I wouldn't actually want a real (innocent) person to stay in prison. But for all of season 1, his dad was pretty much disembodied motivation, only occasionally appearing physically for an episode. I guess the writers felt the same because of the whole "oh yeah... sure you're happy to see me son, but I'm just gonna mosey on off into the sunset" thing they pulled.

I'm sure we'll find Ronnie over in Garrick's world.

Barry's dad leaving was pretty much an impossible to believe decision for his character. What exactly would his staying around do to hinder Barry's development? After all his foster father Joe has been around as a father figure the whole time. Just stupid.

I have a hard time believing that they pretty much intentionally murdered Atom Smasher, or at least had no qualms about it afterward. After all what happened to the idea of illegally imprisoning them in the basement ? :)

Hmmm...You got some good points there. I mean, I thought Eobard Thawne always hated the Flash, which was why I felt something wrong here. But then, he was about to kill Flash in the finale before Eddie interfered. If he hadn't, Barry would have been dead by now.

But considering that Eobard Thawne can change, I highly doubt it. He's the Flash's arch-nemesis. Who knows if he had the chance to travel back to his timeline, he could try to kill Barry some other time or some other way.

The way they dealt with the wormhole was kind of a disappointment for me. Also if they wanted to make Jay Garrick's entrance a big deal at the end then they should've kept him being on the show a secret. I feel like I would've been blown away by it if they hadn't advertised him so heavily before the season even started.

On a side note I REALLY hope that Zoom won't just turn out to be an evil version of Barry from the alternate Earth. That would be really cliche and a waste to using Zoom's name. I also hope Wells comes back in some way soon. The show really felt like it was missing something without him and Stein just didn't work for me as the new intellectual genius on the team.

I was ninety-five percent sure Ronnie wouldn't be staying as Firestorm because he was mysteriously missing in the Legends of Tomorrow trailer. Since Jason Rusch, another character who was Firestorm, was introduced last season, I'm betting the Professor will bind with him to form the new Firestorm.

Why was Ronnie killed off? I'm not sure he was. No body, and all that. Regardless though, I think they chose to go with Jason as Firestorm to add some racial diversity to Legends.

I think Barry's Dad leaving didn't make much sense. That scene didn't sit right with me. I wonder (random speculation with almost no evidence) if Reverse Flash uploaded a copy of his personality into Barry's Dad. That would explain why he wanted them released and why Barry's "Dad" immediately took off.

Ronnie wasn't "killed off" for racial diversity. His part in the show was reduced because Robbie is in demand as an actor and will be in the x files relaunch. Same as Roy on arrow. They just do not have enough for these guys to do.

Firestorm died? We didn't see a body did we? So using comic book/TV logic ...

Somehow Henry getting out of prison freaked me out more. I am not that knowledgable on Barry Allen's comics biography, but did his father ever get out of prison?