5 Developments From The Flash: Season 2, Episode 22 [SPOILERS]

Zoom has released an army of metahumans from Earth-2. Flash and the team from STAR Labs has to figure out a way to stop them. Meanwhile, a face from the past comes to Central City and is more powerful than they could ever imagine.

Warning: Spoilers for the episode ahead.

Caitlin's Struggle

Last week, Zoom gave Caitlin the choice to leave or stay with him, before it was revealed that the villain brought his own gallery of rogues to Central City. Caitlin chose to go back to her friends, as any sane person would. However, Zoom may have done something to her. Caitlin begins to see images of her former captor and at first, he's transparent, but as the episode goes on, full images of Zoom start appearing and only Caitlin can see them. It's unclear as to whether this is psychological and all in her head or Zoom actually did something to her.

Cisco Vibes the Future

Throughout the season, Cisco's vibe power has gotten stronger and stronger. Throughout this week's episode, Cisco begins to vibe himself in a city, presumably Central City. He keeps seeing dead birds on the sidewalk. At the end of the episode, Cisco's vibe continues and he sees Earth-2's Central City being torn apart by the same rifts they use to travel between worlds. However, this isn't currently happening in Central City, that they know of, so Cisco believes that this vibe is coming from the future.

The Return of Laurel Lance

The villain of the week happened to someone from everyone's past. Laurel Lance makes her presence known in Central City by unleashing screams that can take down buildings. However, this isn't the Black Canary that everyone in Central City once knew. She's still dead. This Laurel Lance is from Earth-2, also known as Black Siren. She's working with Zoom to take over Earth-1, and she's more powerful than the Earth-1 Laurel Lance ever was. Taking her down was tough for the STAR Labs team as the majority of them had a connection with Laurel prior to her death.

Wally is Fighting Crime

Wally West takes one more step to becoming Kid Flash by hitting the streets of Central City to help take down the Earth-2 metahumans. He doesn't have his signature Speed Force powers (yet), but he has decided to take action by hunting down these Earth-2 villains. Joe finds out and isn't too happy. Eventually, Flash runs into Wally to have a talk with him about what he's doing. However, Wally says he's going this because he lives in Central City too, and he wants to defend his city.

Death of the Father

Zoom escapes to Earth-2 after the other metahumans in the city have been taken down. Everything seems safe, and the STAR Labs crew shares a dinner together at the West household. However, they are not safe. Zoom runs in and kidnaps Henry Allen, the Flash's father. Flash runs after him and Zoom leads Barry to his childhood home, where his mother was killed. Zoom thinks Barry will be just like him if he kills Henry. Barry pleads with Zoom, but in the end, Zoom kills Henry Allen.

Will the death of Henry Allen break the Flash? Will he give into his rage and seek vengeance? We've already seen Barry pushed to the limit in the first season, after finding out the Reverse Flash killed his mother. Now that two different speedsters have killed one of his parents, all because Barry chose to be a hero, the Flash could be unhero-like next week in the season finale.

The supporting cast gets some further developing as well, mainly Cisco, Caitlin, and Wally. We're not too sure where the developments with Caitlin are leading though. Could she turn into Killer Frost because of her dealings with Zoom? There's something going on, so expect something big from her in the season finale next week. In addition, Wally is finally becoming the character fans know and love from the comics. He's becoming a hero, without the powers. He'll be an important part of the next season. The same goes for Cisco, who is really honing his new powers. These secondary characters will become just as important in the field as Flash is in the next season, so it's great to see not all the focus is on Barry this week.

The overall episode was exciting and quite better than the last few episodes, which were the roughest of the season. The biggest complaint came from the fact that Central City is supposedly invaded with metahumans from Earth-2, yet the audience really didn't see more than three: Zoom, Laurel Lance, and the guy Wally helped take down in the opening of the episode. There were a few shots of other villains being taken down briefly at the end of the episode. Because of that, the sense of urgency the viewer was supposed to feel because the city was under siege just wasn't apparent. Regardless, it is nice to see everything slowly come to a close here, and there's a big enough hook with Henry Allen's death the grab them in for next week.

@inferiorego: did this episode suck as much as the rest?

Yes

They also ignore that one of the 5 big developments was that Cisco used his powers in combat for the first time ever against another metahuman

@doc-holiday: if the show didn't develop into anything better, i really don't care

I'm just annoyed that they actually use the "kill the parent for angst" trope RIGHT AFTER the episode that's entire point was Barry actually accepting and moving on from Nora's death.

Its slightly better but too late and not enough to make this season good.

this season has really gotten away from the creators. Jay garrick as zoom doesn't work.

Zoom stopped being interesting when they revealed his identity.

@doc-holiday said:

And that Zoom can now make portals with his powers.

I hope we find out next episode who the man in the metal mask is

The positive is that Black Canary's canary cry actually looks cool when there is visibly waves. Too bad that it's all too late.

Barry went to jobbing force, came back from jobbing force just to be more confident in his jobbing.

Haha, Barry's identity is the worst kept secret ever. Even the scientist lady who pops up a couple of episodes a season knows who he is.

I've been patiently waiting for the show to FIX this whole Jay Garrick/Zoom conundrum, but if they don't do it next week (assuming the man in the iron mask has something to do with it all) then I'm going to unleash my fury at the show over how they took a big steaming dump on the character of Jay Garrick with the atrocity.

Y'all are tough, I liked this episode.

@lukehero: I liked it too, just hated Henry's death.

It was a good episode.

Well Henry was going to die and they wanted to have a 90s Flash show reunion (The actor that plays Henry was originally Barry in that show and the scientist that helps was Christina Mcgee played by the same actress)

@black_arrow: Yeah, I can see that and I'm not hating on it. Just made me laugh is all.

@ethan-ricks: He had to die. It was a good death. It's obvious as to who is in the Iron Mask.

It's like the writers do not want Barry to be a hero. He's gone through the entirety of season 2 moping about how weak he is, and at every opportunity he has to show his strength, he begs villains for mercy.

YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO STOP THE VILLAINS, BARRY! BE A HERO FOR ONCE!

There was no reason whatsoever to have Earth-2 metahumans roaming the city when the audience wasn't going to see them anyways.

I have to say, I'm amazed at how many comments I've read where people either don't watch the show or don't seem to like this show. Anyway, I think this episode was really good. Cisco using his powers for offense for the 1st time was a pretty important development. But if the list is 5, i can see how that can fall around 6 or so. Wally seeing Barry speed off is pretty important, I think that's personally more important than Wally deciding to fight crime.

My only nitpick about the episode is the end. Barry is allegedly 'The Fastest Man Alive' and didn't use his speed to try and save his dad in the last moments. He saved Dr. McGee from a crumbling buiding, literally plucked her out the debris and got her to safety. Zoom is holding Harry when Barry walks in. Barry didn't try and super speed around Zoom or try and super speed Harry from Zoom. Perhaps Barry was distracted by being back at the house where he Mom was killed. For whatever reason, Barry didn't use his speed and I found that a little odd. I would have liked Barry to at least try and use his is speed to save his dad in the final moments. But that's a nitpick, I still liked the episode. Katie Cassidy was great.

@lukehero: While I see why they killed him, especially because it all but confirms who the man in the iron mask is, it reeks of angst fuel to me. The episode RIGHT BEFORE this one was dedicated to Barry finally moving on and accepting Nora's death.

@wardishy_: Isn't Barry's identity the worst kept secret in the comics?

Define "Anything better"

Yeah, kind of a major point if Zoom has new powers or has been hiding existing ones

@doc-holiday: merely bad rather than terrible

@doc-holiday: also what way to crap on zolomon, not only do they get his powers, they completely get his charcter wrong, HE'S REDEEMABLE.

Well they, for some reason, feel the need to make every character redeemable/sympathetic, every character has a tragic story, every character has a love interest. It does get tiresome.

The constant relationship BS which somehow ends up trumping fighting super powered beings who want to conquer/destroy the world. This is the teen drama BS that unfortunately modern television has given us "I really want to be with Iris" "Barry, we've got a twenty foot tall magma monster who is destroying the city" "Yeah but Iris..."

@doc-holiday: But zolomon, the dude who's supposed to be redeemable isn't(i missed the last two, that might have changed).

Its basically a romcom

It's an attempt at wider appeal. It's like how they turned Supergirl into a vapid story about fashion and romance and changed Jimmy Olsen from a skinny, short, timid ginger to a massive muscular black guy.

I am sure in the future, all of the greatest heroes and even villains will all be drastically changed.

"The biggest complaint came from the fact that Central City is supposedly invaded with metahumans from Earth-2, yet the audience really didn't see more than three..."

This is totally true and is a symptom of TV budgets. Maybe they could have spent less on Flash saving what's-her-face from the collapsing building and spent more on metahuman powers. Although I'll bet the costume department was working overtime on this episode.

I thought it was so silly that the show starts off with a big "invasion" of metahumans, police getting killed in a big attack, and then everyone just goes about their business. Shouldn't they be in a state of emergency? Martial Law and all that? I mean why was that couple just strolling around at night on a date? They were lucky that the metahuman who attacked them only wanted to snatch a purse?? WTF? I thought they really missed an opportunity to show a big citywide emergency situation. Even without showing more metahumans they still could have created an atmosphere of urgency and crisis if the streets were abandoned and the military had been called in or something.

But anyway, I still find myself enjoying the show even when it's a not so great episode.

The worst part of this season was the Iris love BS. Every time it was a lovey dovey Iris/Barry scene I rolled my eyes. It was so shoehorned in. I miss Patty :(

@ultimatepower6: I'm not exactly sure but its something to do with speedsters being protected by the speed force, like how Eobard wasn't completely removed from the timeline when Eddie died because his timeline is protected by the speedforce I think its the same sort of explanation for zoom

I thought they said they would never use a Golden Age character in this negative way. Wrong! Now they kill the Old 90's tv Flash. Not cool. They are just going to piss off the fans. Thats what you get when you have a writer who's never written for comic books handle your favorite characters. They trash them and kill them for ratings!

Sorry y'all. That "love thang" subplot is never going away. It seems to be a running gag with all C/W programming.

@zackisme: This is way DC needs to get the hell of CW! I wouldn't have a problem with the "love thing" if it wasn't shoehorned into every freaking character, every freaking time!

Like for real, this time Barry has the ability to save one of his parents and he just stands there. Get in there and go for it FFS!! You're The Flash!!!!! These writers are fucking horrible lol.

@nightfang3: This is the one program that would do really well on some other major network. Along with that would have to come new and better writers that would cater to adults as well as younger viewers. The C/W only caters to the very young adults.

Just cancel the show already

Same here. I guess there is just know satisfying a comic book nerd.. Maybe one day I'll remember this this being one myself.

Too bad, I was looking to geek about about how entertaining this episode was...Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow are kinda hard to get through for me these days.

No doubt that Zoom needed Barry for this race next week all along. He needs Barry to get angry and fast and that anger plays into Zoom's plans. It's why Zoom didn't already kill Barry.

@zackisme: Maybe the Krypton on SyFy will be better.

What is with Speedster villains and Flash's parents ? I mean how come every time a speed villain shows up, they go after his parents to turn him ''evil'' ? Did that ever work ? Are they THIS stupid ?

At this point, these characters are not the heroes we know and love anymore. Flash would NEVER act like this whiny, even to at his worst moments.

And Arrow , killing off Black Canary for the travesty known as Olicity.... My god CW is ruining these shows. No wonder Marvel is beating the HELL out of DC both in TV and Movies.

Marvel hasn't beat anyone in TV lmao , Netflix and tv are 2 completely different things , Netflix = bigger audience and bigger budget , completely understandable that shows are better quality but on TV ? marvel is complete garbage

and did you even listen to the Zoom dialogue for the reasoning to kill barry's dad? it seems like you don't realize this ISNT a damn comic book , its a show , of course they apply real feelings into situations like that

If Central City was getting raided by metahumans to the point it was called "The Metapocolypse" shouldn't Green Arrow or Vixen have shown up to help? It makes no sense that a crisis like this was going on and not one other hero showed up to to help out.

The meta that hit Captain Singh with a green blast looked suspiciously like a green lantern....