Barry Allen Saves The Flash: The Flash Season 2 Premiere Review
In the words of our recently departed sage, New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra, it was "déjà vu all over again."
Which show did I just watch, The Flash or Arrow?
Cases in point: the scene at Star Labs with the whole team, in which Barry says he knows he can't do it alone? Arrow season 3, episode 23 at Palmer Tech with the extended Team Arrow. The hospital heart-to-heart between Barry and Joe? The post-funeral "It's not your fault" between Felicity and Oliver, Arrow season 2, episode 21.
Barry "I have to be alone to keep my friends safe" Allen? Oliver "I can't be me and the Arrow" Queen, Arrow season 3, episode 1.
And when I saw The Flash episode 2 promo and Caitlin Snow helping Jay Garrick with his Flash helmet, I got this ominous feeling we're going to get a Flash-ified version of Arrow season 2, episode 9, the "How do I look?"/"Like a hero." scene with Felicity helping Oliver put on his Arrow mask.
For superhero fans who watch only The Flash, these scenes no doubt seemed brilliant and fresh. For CW viewers of both The Flash and Arrow, they were brilliant and fresh - a few months or years ago.
For a spinoff show to pay homage to its parent show is a compliment, and a continuity gold mine for forthcoming crossover episodes. But to recycle scenes, and even pieces of dialog, from the parent show's previous seasons without a clear reason for doing so is just plain laziness. I'm amazed that the press hasn't called out The Flash writers on this.
The Flash season 2 premiere ends with Barry Allen saving both the man Barry and the superhero The Flash by forgiving himself and letting people help him. Thanks again, Oliver Queen.
/rant
The enduring love story of The Flash continues to be Barry and his dads, particularly Joe West. Joe manages to hit exactly the right fatherly balance between heartfelt sympathy and tough love.
Barry wants Joe to tell him that the singularity, and everything that happened before and after, is all his fault. Joe won't do it. Everyone who was there that day owns their choices, and consequences, Joe says instead, and Eddie and Ronnie believed in Barry enough to help him save the city.
Knowing full well what the cost would be, and doing is anyway.
It's clear throughout the premiere that Joe knows Barry better than Barry knows himself, except maybe for Barry's best friend Iris (sorry, Cisco), who was responsible for this classic parental response: "You're quoting me to me?"
That's what happens when kids grow up. We realize our parents were closet geniuses and we finally love them for being right.
This still makes Barry's dad Henry Allen's abrupt departure a bit puzzling.
Barry devoted his entire LIFE in season 1 to exonerating his father of his mother's murder, and freeing him from prison. Against all odds, Barry accomplished that in the season 2 premiere.
Henry literally bailed on his own party. Why did Barry, with tears in his eyes, let his father walk out that door?
Henry Allen could've stayed in Central City and not been in Barry's way as The Flash. Barry Allen Whose Father Is In Prison For Murder would hardly have been any more of a burden than Barry Allen Whose Physician Father Is His Biggest Fan. Please tell us there's a back story not only behind Henry Allen leaving Barry so soon, but also Barry letting him go without a fight.
Henry could bow out because he knew Joe and Iris West would always be what they've always been: Barry's family. That's why the welcome home party scene, the extended family reunion, was worth the whole premiere.
We already know one of the prevailing themes of Arrow season 4 will be family. That's a Flash season 2 parallel I could really get behind.
Caitlin will lean on her Star Labs family even more now, having lost Ronnie for good - in this timeline, anyway - for the good of Central City. Dr. Martin Stein is such a natural in the deceased - again, timelines - Dr. Harrison Wells' role at Star Labs, providing hilarity, scientific genius, and renewed bad-guy focus (directed at a not very scary bad guy, Atom Smasher), all without diminishing the losses of their loved ones.
Including his and Iris' respective better halves.
Eddie's loss reverberates in some ways even more than Ronnie's, since Dr. Wells' taped confession to Barry's mother's murder came to light. Although Iris wasn't in very many scenes in the premiere, she's clearly earned the respect of the Star Labs team. I badly want an Iris story arc in season 2, one in which she comes into her own as a journalist by day/crime-fighter by night.
In the season premiere, however, the Barry Whisperer title goes to Caitlin Snow. Barry's visit to her new lab was him asking her - without asking her - to come back to Star Labs. Her "Let's watch it together." line gave him confidence to face whatever Dr. Wells' taped message would be. Even from beyond the grave, Dr. Wells' grave betrayal weighs heavily on Barry.
But it's Jay Garrick's sudden news that their world is in grave danger that will bring every member of Star Labs out of their respective shadows.
Joe, to Barry: "Stop with this hogging all the blame and regret." Dr. Stein, to the team: "Forward."
