Verdict: The Flash

Last week brought the premiere of the new CW show The Flash, which David and I have been super excited for. Now one thing that kind of got me about the first episode is that I think over half the episode is seen in the trailer. There was a couple things that were a surprise and there is a great moment at the very end of the episode, but even with all that the episode is great. I loved Barry Allen when he was introduced in Arrow and now we get all Barry Allen and it is fabulous. He is such a great character as The Flash and the episode does such a great job of show a superhero coming in to his powers for the first time. The first episode not only introduces us to Flash, but to how the potential for other super powered could be appearing in the world. I am excited to see where this series go and how they explain the death of Barry’s mom. (Spoilers for The Flash after the jump)

Barry Allen Becoming Flash

Watching Barry Allen become Flash is part of what is great about this episode. The episode starts with some flash backs of Barry Allen showing his desire to do good, but his lack of capability and showing the mysterious death of his mom. These various events give us an idea of who Barry is and what he might become if he became more. We then get a repeated showing of Barry getting struck by lightning, as was shown at the end of an Arrow episode. Then 9 months pass and Barry wakes up in the ruins of Star Labs after being in a coma. We find out that Barry kept dying and they could not stabilize him until Star Labs took over his care.

After 9 months and waking up feeling great Barry leaves before the Star Lab scientists can run their tests. While he is out telling the people that he cares for that he is still alive odd instances start to happen. Things seem to move slowly one minute and another he seems to move at super speed. Of course when he kind of starts to guess what is happening than the first thing he does is try to run and of course ends up crashing. He then heads back to Star Labs because obviously something is going on. We see as Barry tests out his ability and works with the scientists to test his limits. These beginning moments really show us what Barry as Flash can do and what he might become, which is really what this episode needs to be about.

More Than One Super Powered

At first there is some thought that Barry could be the only one affected by what happened at Star Labs. At the same time we quickly see that there is a bank robber who seems to be able to control the weather. When Barry talks to Star Labs they show that the explosion actually created a bunch of pockets of various theoretical elements that could have unknown effects on the population of Central City. Giving us the opening for the possibility of the impossible showing up in the show, which is exciting. Unlike Arrow which is grounded in people training to push themselves to the limit, Flash has definitely opened up the possibility to have some more extraordinary superheroes show up. We have already seen one such villain in the first episode, but will we get some potential allies for Flash that might have been effected as well.

Surprise Twist At the End (SPOILERS)

As I mentioned before a lot of the episode can be seen in the trailers for the first episode, so there is not much of a surprise through out most of the episode. Then we get to the last two minutes of the episode and it totally changes the dynamic of the episode. The main scientist of Star Labs, whose experiment caused the explosion is seen in a wheelchair for most of the episode. Than in the last couple minutes we see him go into a secret room and leave his wheelchair. Than he walks over to some display that shows a news article from 2024 about the mysterious disappearance of the Flash. Now the question is who is this guy and what happened to him. The main rumor that I have heard is that he is Zoom, on of Flash’s main villains, who has the ability to travel through time. So is he the one who Barry saw attacking his mom. There are so many questions and he is pretending to help Flash, so what is he hoping to accomplish. I love having a big question like this to wonder over and to watch out for as the show goes on. It makes for a great mystery to unravel as the show moves on.

Final Verdict

I am going to continuing watching The Flash. Barry Allen is a great character and I love the optimism and enthusiasm of the characters. The show is much lighter than Arrow, but that makes it work. I also really want to find out who they might decide to introduce as the season moves on and who is the main scientist of Star Labs and what is he planning. Suffice it to say this is a great addition to the comic book line up of TV Shows.

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