The Flash Episode 106 - "The Flash is Born"

*This review contains some spoilers*

"Interesting. A man of steel."

"The Flash is Born" covers a lot of ground, and no, I won't make a pun about how quickly it's able to do so. We have solid progress between Flash and Iris, an uplifting arc for Barry, and a jaw-dropping development with Joe West. Aside from a few things being a little too blunt and some other minor gripes, this is a really, really good episode.

The last episode had some pretty frustrating conversations between Barry and Iris. Thankfully, this week's episode makes up for that. Gone is the forced drama between these two and things don't abruptly escalate. Instead, positive growth is made and it produces such a smile-inducing moment of fan service. Look, all I'm going to say is Green Arrowstill isn't called "Green Arrow" in his own show, and we already have Flash earning his title. And the way it happens didn't feel forced; it was such a happy moment. A lot of credit goes to Grant Gustin for being so consistently likable. I mean, the awkward way he reacted after Eddie Thawne asked him about Iris? Funny stuff. It's a nice change of pace to have such a consistently lovable lead character and the supporting characters are really growing on me. Yeah, sometimes the outbursts occur a little too quickly (okay, pun intended that time), but it's not a frequent thing and it's outweighed by all the charm and comedy we're getting. There's so many little lines here and there that'll make you smirk and I laughed a handful of times during this episode.

I love the slowburn approach to Harrison Wells' story, so it was great to see this episode pull Joe West into it. Having him question Wells really showed his abilities as a detective and I was just waiting for him to see Wells in the background of one of the crime scene pictures. Luckily, they instead hit us with something a million times more exciting than that. Considering he's such a good detective, this has to make him feel certain Wells is connected to the murder of Barry's mom, right? Suddenly he questions Wells and, aside from Barry, no one else knows about his new interest in the old murder case, and then that happens?! A little too coincidental, isn't it? So yeah, I'm very curious to see how the follow-up with Joe will be handled. Will he tell Barry about his chat with Wells and then what happened? In addition to Plastique's comment, this should really get Barry a little more curious about Wells.

Girder's appearance brings about some really entertaining material with Barry and presents a new way to make him test his speed. Cisco's enthusiasm was a joy and the training sequences Barry had each brought something different to the table. One offered a clever way to give the villain his name and the other finally fleshed out Eddie Thawne just a little more. Plus, the extra look at Barry's past gives us a nice reminder of just how much Joe cares about this kid and how much history is there. The special effects with the villain were solid (makes you wish Colossus had a bigger role in the X-Men movies, yeah?), and the buildup for the final part of the conflict was awesome. The delivery, however, felt a little disappointing, especially after the move received so much hype. I like how it concluded (hell yeah, Iris!) and Cisco's commentary was a blast, but it was a little surprising the hit didn't pack more force. Bringing them back to the Elementary school was a little heavy-handed as well. I get the guy has an ego -- that's why he stopped the car when he initially saw Flash, because he wanted to prove he's better -- but that felt a bit forced. As for Barry's abilities in combat, I think getting owned the first time is understandable because the pain he was going through must have been extraordinary. But the second time it seemed a little odd to see him attempt to roll away and completely fail at it. It would have been a little more fitting if he was too stunned to even attempt to react, but that's a really minor complaint.

Barry revealing his identity to Girder made me think, "What are you doing, man?!" It's easy to immediately decide what is or isn't the smart decision as an observer, but I understand why he did it. After all that he's been through with that guy, that must have been a hugely satisfying experience and Grant Gustin did a perfect job making that crystal clear when he walked away. It was such a rewarding moment for the character and, considering the guy is currently locked up, it's understandable why he wouldn't immediately think that decision would ever come back to hurt him. That said, we all know it probably will, right?

There's so many adjectives that come to mind while thinking about "The Flash is Born." Funny, exciting, emotional and gripping are just a few of them and I could go on and on with more, but I'd much rather just simply say it's a very fun episode. Yeah, Girder's not the most compelling bad guy around, but it generated a more positive arc for Central City's hero and, even though the big moment didn't quite live up to the hype, it was still a thrilling experience getting there. And the final scene? They sure know how to end on a high note, don't they? Many shows feel like they have a rough start, but The Flash is having a great first season. Here's hoping it only gets better and better.

Best episode by far.

Second best Villain so far (First is Captian Cold,lol)

Everything was great and interesting. except for Iris but i can see how from a Tv plot point of view its necessary.

The Joe/Harrison angle was interesting. I liked Iris's voiceover/callback. I also thought the mach punch could have been better (anyone notice that while he hit with his right hand, his left was showing in the closeup?). I didn't like the identity reveal and the fact Iris is still posting blog posts after getting abducted. The ending was pretty crazy too. Another fun episode.

Totally enjoyed this episode. Now I'm convinced who wells really is!

Iris is the worst character by far. If someone repeatedly told me to stop writing about them, I would respect their reasoning and STOP F%#ING WRITING ABOUT THEM!!

@transformers1024: Totally agree...I would'VE screamed at her "See Told you this would happen!!!!"

Good episode, but for all the hype leading to that sonic boom punch the result was kind of disappointing

I loved this episode for a few reasons:

1. It only makes me like Joe even more than I already do.

2. We get to see Flash fight Colossus.

3. Flash's speed is increasing, he's now faster than sound.

4. Iris wasn't as annoying as normal, yeah, she's still writing that blog, but having her seduce Colossus and then actually be the one to knock him out with a right hook was awesome.

5. Reverse Flash strikes again!

6. Finally, Barry is called The Flash, instead of "streak" or some generic CW name.

At first, I was mad when Barry revealed his secret identity YET AGAIN, but I understand why he did it, it was him kinda just rubbing it in Colossus' face.

Overall, one of the stronger episodes so far!

I think that's just a way for the writers to get you to ignore an obvious gap in logic -- one that Iris has already brought up, and kind of makes her seem stupid for not following up on her own: it is obscenely suspicious for Barry and Joe to demand that Iris stop writing about The Streak without giving them a logical reason for doing so. They can't say "because The Streak's enemies will target you", because how would they know that? For one, they don't even believe The Streak exists, and they definitely wouldn't think a non-existent being has enemies.

For two, Iris is the daughter of a lead detective and the girlfriend of that detective's partner. She's far more likely to be targeted by Joe's enemies than Flash's. In fact, multiple episodes this season have focused on criminals from Joe's past coming back and seeking revenge with superpowers. No such enemies exist in Flash's history, and Girder would have likely targeted Iris anyway since he apparently stalked her throughout junior high.

For three, there's no reason Barry should be hiding his identity from Iris in the first place. Does Barry not trust her to keep a secret? Isn't she training to be a DA? And is the daughter of a detective? And the girlfriend of a detective? Seems like she's more than responsible enough. Besides, in keeping the secret from Iris, it's just forcing her to put herself in danger to get information... information Barry and Joe could just give her so she doesn't have to involve herself in craziness for answers.

I also REALLY hate how Barry revealed his identity to this weeks villain. It's obvious he's going to get out eventually and now he knows exactly who locked him up and knows to target Iris obviously again. DUMB MOVE ALLEN.

I really enjoyed this episode. Girder was an okay villain, better than Weather Wizard and The Mist in my opinion. That last scene was awesome and I can't wait for the next episode. Oh and I really liked Iris's comment on another character that we'll be seeing later.

Girder was rather effectivly used. That actor Greg Finley as Bully who's a big o'll slab of man meat and making him a bully who couldn't really think beyond High School (or I guess Elemntary Shool in this case) was just enough.

I continue to love how Jesse L Martin is constantly in a hat in flashbacks because they don't wana give him a bad wig.

So the Flash beat Girder with essentially his super move from Injustice that's nice.

Nice review

I want Gorilla Grodd!!!!

YEP!!! I guess we can call it that Wells is Zoom. :D

@k4tzm4n Plastique didn't get to tell Barry anything important. All she did was say Well's name before she died. As far as Barry knows, that could have been for a number of reasons.

I'm glad their learning from Arrow's mistake and officially call him Flash early on. Not like the whole "Hood" nonsense. In all honesty I feel Wells was pretty dumb revealing himself to Joe at the end of the episode. I assume at this point wells is the yellow man anyways. Since the same day that happened Wells already commented on how Joe keeps pushing on no matter what, why instead of leaving Joe at a dead end on Nora's murder would he actually show Joe that the yellow man really exists and that he's still out there. It didn't make much sense to me even if he was threatening him.

Another solid episode. Besides the painful flashbacks, better then last wells IMO. Anyone noticed how they also (unintentionally?) name dropped Iron Fist, haha.

Great episode however only thing that really pissed me off is when iris hit him and knocked him out like wtf?

Each episode slowly transforms The Flash into a rip-off of The X-Men down to Professor X's high-tech wheel-chair. Come on! When did Colossus become a villain in DC Comics? Previously, they had Gambit become a girl in Plastique. They even hinted on having Human Torch. I would not be surprised if DC resurrects Wolverine in the future as part of their universe.

You know that would make too much sense.

DC and Marvel have had copycat characters for decades now. This is nothing new.

DC Marvel

Green Arrow - Hawkeye

Catwoman - Black Cat

Deathstroke - Deadpool

Green Lantern Corps - Nova Corps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5hsPB8Lndw

@sam001: you do know that Plastique exist first right ?

This was such a great episode! I couldn't sit down for more than a minute. That punch was so satisfying that I was rolling on the floor in excitement. That "You were born to take a beating" line was crazy dumb though, and my immediate thought when Barry took off his mask in front of the imprisoned Girder was "You realize he's going to get out of there, right? Whether the containment units let them loose or they just transfer them to Belle Reve, he's going to get out of there and he's going to talk to people." If that doesn't bite him in the ass sooner or later it's going to kill me.

I think we all say we knew Wells was the Reverse Flash/Dr. Zoom at that first episode when he showed a "paper" from 2024.

1) If Joe is as good of a detective as he said he is, he should figure out that Wells was that one that stole all his notes and killed Barry's mom. Afterall Joe only told Barry and Wells he was reinvestigating her death then suddenly a "yellow Flash" appeared and stole everything. A bit more than coincedence. eh??

2) *sighing* And another PSA about bullying. I'll leave it at that.

3) I'm in agreement with most posters here, why give out your identity to an enemy but not to the woman you love? Iris would fall into his arms if he told her he was the Flash.

4) I loved how Iris talked about sightings of a "burning man". If that isn't an egg about Firestorm I don't know what is.

5) Grodd! Grodd! Grodd! (and yeah, I want the Tricksters also)

I don't care what anyone says, Iris is freakin sexy.

I loved the episode but imo Barry had too much trouble to defeat a second rate villain. I can think of other ways to defeat the guy without breaking his hand or hitting the guy for that matter...

1st run around him, removing oxygen, knocking him out, Flash has done this before in comics.

2nd he could vibrate his hand then just vibrate his molecules, that would probably kill him shown by the blue Flash from the future. so maybe a bad idea!

3rd use electricity somehow....

1) Professor X wasn't even the first wheelchair-bound super genius leading a team. Ever hear of Chief from the Doom Patrol? If anything, we could say that they've turned Dr. Wells into him. Oh, but there's also the small detail that he's not really paralyzed. Does Prof. X pretend he needs his wheelchair? No.

2) Like someone else already said, Plastique debuted in the comics well before Gambit did.

3) That "human torch" reference was to a character named Heatwave. Completely different character.

1) Now you know that would be way to easy. ;)

2) Barry hasn't gotten to learn that part yet. He still trying to figure out his speed upper limit. Blue Flash? Now I need to look that one up. First I heard of him.

I know, I also watched the episode ;) But making her final word "Wells" is a little odd and must have Barry at least wondering why. It was probably in the back of his head as we moved forward -- something trivial -- but if Joe approaches him about this, it should get him thinking.

Great episode, but this show is starting to feel like Arrow. The night time meetings, the night time fights, the keep my head down and stick to the shadows instead of just vibrating my face.

This is the future Flash in blue costume!

2) Plastique - 1982; Gambit - 1990. Plastique was first.

3) Heatwave is like Capt. Cold. His "powers" are technology based (use of guns). The "human torch" reference sounds more like Firestorm since he has fire-based powers.

The flashbacks were incredibly cliche (and even cringe-inducing at times), and Barry revealing his identity to Girder BUT NOT IRIS is frustrating and ridiculous.

But aside for that, pretty solid episode. Iris' narration paralleling the first episode was a great touch. And the ending with Joe was very well done. They're slowly fixing the weaker part of the show (Iris and Eddy). Iris is on the right track, but they need to push her further. Letting her in on Barry's identity sooner rather than later would be a solid idea. And give us a reason to root her her blog and career as a journalist. So far, she comes across as naive where it is concerned. We need more focus on it so we can understand her motivation in that department and grow to actual WANT her to write the blog in spite of all of the warnings against doing so.

@vandersexxx:

no way is wells zoom, but he is connected clearly

Good episode but I'm literally blown away by how foolish Iris is.

I still don't think Wells is Zoom, he's definitely involved with what happened to Barry's mom but I keep getting the impression they're going to try to pull a Harry Osborn with Eddie, they're going to make them become friends, then he'll acquire super powers right around the time Iris breaks up with him over (Insert CW drama here), then he'll blame Barry and Wells will nudge him into becoming Zoom. Just my theory.

This is so small a thing that most of you probably didn't notice. There was a "man of steel" reference by Wells in the show.

I hate those types of characters. He dad told her to stop, Barry asked her to stop in a heart to heart, and "flash" asked her to stop, but she did it anyway because "the world needed to know." as if her dumb blog had the only coverage of the flash...people wouldn't know of him otherwise

Either Wells didn't mind revealing himself to Joe, or the CW is setting us up for a reg herring. I think its the first one.

Initially, we think, "Well that was stupid". But think about it, naturally Joe would think the only person who can help take him down, is Barry. But he can't tell Barry because Barry would likely confront Wells with the info, Wells would deny it, and then Kill Iris. So i suspect Joe will be very skittish, and closed off in episodes to come. Likely trying to lead Barry into finding out for himself.

That part with Wells and Joe was excellent made the whole episode for me. The mistery is truly exiting, I think it obvious who did it but seeing the characters going to find out that secret is really exting. The Grinder was awesome. I hoped that the punch would have been far more impressive than that.

@sachmoo: I just don't see Wells as Zoom. I have seen theories that he's actually T.O. Morrow but that doesn't exactly line up for me. I'm positive he has a connection to Zoom but at this point there is actually very little pointing to him actually being him. I just can't trust Eddie to be a good guy because of that last name. Thawne's have always been bad for Flashes. Cobalt Blue, a Thawne, Professor Zoom a Thawne, Inertia a Thawne, if you got a hateful reverse Flash, odds are its a Thawne.

Maybe there are two Zooms one of the present and another from the future (Wells).

This was my early Thoery also. Wells isn't his real name, he is actually Eddie Thawne from the future. I think Eddie helping Barry box was a bit of a foreshadowing and loose connection to Wells. It will be very interesting to see if they are ever in the same room and forced to interact with one another. Has that happened yet? I cant remember.

i'm very curious on who Harrison Wells is ?

Um...I know. I said Plastique came first

But that doesn't make any sense. Firestorm himself hasn't even been seen.

@jdp180: Yup plus overall Marvel has copied DC WAYYY more than DC copies Marvel.

But anyway great show and I'm curious to see who Wells really is, if he's indeed Zoom...I think it's too obvious, am I the only one who thinks this?

@zeeguy91:

Um...I know. I said Plastique came first

But that doesn't make any sense. Firestorm himself hasn't even been seen.

On screen. He hasn't been seen on screen. It doesn't mean that there haven't been newspaper articles written about him in the Daily Planet or rumors about his existence on the internet that have yet to be confirmed.

Iris has already proven that she's pretty tech savvy and with her newfound obsession with the Metahuman community, it's possible that she came across someone in cyberspace's article that has seen Firestorm even though he hasn't revealed himself to the world yet.

Very plausible, considering he has the ability to walk through walls so he could've simply walked (or flown) out of the Particle Accelerator after it was sealed off...

I doubt Wells is Reverse Flash because what was the point of trying to convince Joe earlier on that he is not him plus this episode try to hard to make Eddie a "Good Guy" but then again if my powers was to run fast the perfect cover would be to pretend to be mobility impaired.

Also is Harrison Wells name a reference to H. G. Wells(The Time Machine)?

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