By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

***Warning: Spoilers lay ahead for The Flash, Season 2, Episode 1***

Last season, The Flash turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. It wasn’t without its hiccups, of course. But in the end, it turned out that DC’s television universe may be more interesting than the cinematic one it’s trying to get off the ground. Grant Gustin plays a pretty good everyman, and the show proved that not all superhero shows don’t necessarily need to be grim or gritty to succeed.

Let’s hope that success can continue this season. This episode was fine, but also surprisingly frustrating…

Our season 2 premiere reveals that Ronnie Raymond apparently died while helping The Flash stop the black hole in the season 1 finale. I found this development pretty lame. We’ve already done the whole “grieving over Ronnie” thing. This feels like we’re retracing steps from last season. Granted, this is a superhero story. It’s entirely possible that Ronnie is alive and well somewhere. But then we’re just retracing our steps yet again with the whole “finding Ronnie” angle.

Still, Barry Allen pushing everybody away was a natural reaction to Ronnie’s death, if not a little textbook superhero. I also love that Caitlin doesn’t blame Barry for what happened. Personally, I’ve always liked the idea of Barry and Caitlin being together much more than Barry and Iris. With them both being scientists, it makes more sense. Hell, she even forgave him for his role in her husband’s death! She obviously cares about him deeply. Why not explore this?

In his living will, Harrison Wells inexplicably confesses to the murder of Nora Allen, resulting in Henry Allen being released from prison. This a trap. It has to be. There’s no way Wells, in defeat, would simply give Barry the one thing he wants more than anything. So what’s the punchline?

Also, I call BS on the whole “I have to leave so you can be The Flash” thing. That makes no sense at all. How would it hinder Barry to have his father there to encourage him? What’s more, Henry MAKES Barry tell him it’s okay to go away after 14 years in prison. Talk about a dick move. Between this and the Ronnie Raymond thing, it feels like they’re writing around the actors’ availability. But is that even the case?

Adam Copeland, a.k.a. WWE’s Edge, plays Atom Smasher. I’ve actually never seen Copeland act in any environment outside of WWE. I was pleasantly surprised. He’s quite good at it. But that’s not really a surprise, considering what a sadistic jackass he played during the last several years of his wrestling career. He’s got a really cool grizzled bad guy voice too.

Barry and the others construct a “Flash-Signal” to summon Atom Smasher for a confrontation. Cisco: “I think I saw it in a comic book somewhere.” This was an eye-roller. If you want to wink at the audience about Batman, then at least be clever.

Atom Smasher reveals a person named “Zoom” told him to kill The Flash. Obviously they’re building toward the introduction of Professor Zoom, here. I’m curious as to how they’ll do that. For non-comic book readers, Zoom was an alias of Eobard Thawne, who died last season. The line about Zoom taking Atom Smasher home was also curious. Is this home an alternate Earth, perhaps? Speaking of which…

Jay Garrick makes his on-screen debut in the closing moments of the episode. This is definitely exciting. Jay Garrick, the Flash of Earth-2, opens a lot of new doors for this season, and the series overall.

I can only assume we’ll see Barry travel to Earth-2 at some point, presumably by way of the cosmic treadmill. We have very little to go on at this point, obviously. But as a sucker for alternate Earth storylines, I’m very anxious to see what they do with Jay Garrick, and whatever Earth-2 characters pop up.

Image 1 from ign.com. Image 2 from forbes.com. Image 3 from comicbookresources.com.

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