Last night, The Flash concluded its second season with a bang, capping off 23 episodes of comic book insanity airing since last October. Following a successful first season, Season 2 featured a lot of new elements, from Earth-2 and the entire multiverse to the added dangers of time travel. The Flash has already been renewed for Season 3, so viewers can expect even more speedster adventures on The CW this fall (along with their other superhero tales), but for now, there’s plenty to look back on from this season.
Now that a decent amount of time has passed to process The Flash Season 2 finale, we’ve decided to go over the 10 biggest twists that this season offered, listing them in chronological order. There was a lot to take in, but these are the biggest shockers you should remember and reminiscent about with your fellow fans during the hiatus.
Needless to say, there will be spoilers of all of The Flash Season 2 from this point forward.
Ronnie Raymond’s Death
In the months leading up to The Flash Season 2, fans knew there was a change coming with Firestorm. Robbie Amell wouldn’t be joining Victor Garber on Legends of Tomorrow, and it was revealed that Franz Drameh would play Jefferson Jackson, Martin Stein’s new other half as the Nuclear Man. So what was going to happen to Ronnie Raymond? That was answered in The Flash Season 2 premiere, when mere hours after Ronnie married Caitlin Snow, he and Martin became Firestorm and separated from each other within the singularity above Central City to destroy it. Barry saved Martin from plummeting to his death, but Ronnie didn’t make it out. Since then, Amell has only returned once to play Deathstorm, the Earth-2 Ronnie, and there are no (announced) plans to bring Earth-1 Ronnie back to life, especially with Martin and Jefferson working so well as the new Firestorm. At this point, the only way we’ll be seeing more of Amell on the series if if other alternate Ronnies are brought in.
King Shark’s Debut
Usually on these DC shows, it’s known ahead of time when a character will be introduced, whether from an official announcement, a casting report or set photos leaking. So having someone show up without any prior warning is welcome from time to time, but King Shark blew those other appearances out of the water (no pun intended). In “The Fury of Firestorm,” Patty Spivot mentioned a “man-shark” hybrid being sighted, and she even found a shark tooth at a crime scene. However, no one expected that at the end of the episode, the actual King Shark would attack Barry, and we didn’t just see an arm or hear a voice offscreen. We saw the whole monster! Aside from Grodd, King Shark is by far the show’s most impressive, all-CGI creation, and further proves that even with a TV budget, shows can create stunning visual effects. King Shark later returned for Season 2’s 15th episode, but his debut remains one of The Flash’s most surprising moments.
Zoom Breaking Barry’s Back
It’s one thing to be beaten by a villain. Barry Allen has been beaten several times on The Flash, but he always got back up and overcame whatever challenge was in his way. What Zoom did to Barry in “Enter Zoom” was way worse than that. The demonic speedster broke him, figuratively and literally. After Team Flash’s plan to trap Zoom failed, he delivered a brutal beating to Barry and broke his back. If that wasn’t bad enough, he also ran him through Central City and embarrassed him in front of the press and police force, declaring that the Flash couldn’t protect them any longer. The only reason Barry wasn’t killed was because Cisco was able to tranq Zoom before he finished the job. Barry spent the next episode regaining mobility, but it was what Zoom did to his morale that arguably hurt more. As expected, Barry was back up and running in no time, but this ranks among his worst defeats.
Gorilla City
Even though Grodd, like many others, was affected by the particle accelerator explosion, he’s still an outcast on The Flash because there aren’t any other gorillas like him. Well, that was the case until “Gorilla Warfare.” At the end of that episode, Grodd was thrown into one of the Earth-2 breaches and ended up at a sanctuary where other gorillas in that world who have been experimented on are sent. This was immediately recognizable to DC fans as Gorilla City, which in the comics is where Earth’s super intelligent gorillas live in secret from the rest of the world. Season 2 didn’t have any other opportunities to resists Grodd and his new surroundings, but executive producer Andrew Kreisberg said that the telepathic gorilla will hopefully play a big role in Season 3. Gorilla City opens the door for other super intelligent and powerful gorillas to be featured, whether they’re working for Grodd or allies of the Scarlet Speedster (like Solovar). It’s an exciting prospect for fans, but the show’s VFX team is going to have their work cut out for them.
The Earth-2 Doppelgängers
Once it was announced that Earth-2 would be introduced in The Flash Season 2, comic book fans knew that doppelgängers would eventually be thrown into the mix. At first, these visitors from Earth-2, like Atom Smasher and Sand Demon, didn’t feel that different from previous villains since we’d never met their Earth-1 selves before. When Doctor Light was revealed to be Earth-2’s Linda Park, someone whose Earth-1 counterpart we already knew, that’s when it started hating close to home. Then came the two-parter “Welcome to Earth-2” and “Escape from Earth-2,” where we met the doppelgängers of major characters, like Killer Frost (Caitlin Snow), Deathstorm (Ronnie Raymond), a way nerdier Barry Allen and more. The big surprise in this the first half was Reverb, a.k.a. Cisco’s evil Earth-2 counterpart, who had a much better handle on his powers. All the others had been advertised before the episode, but Reverb showed up out of nowhere. Seeing these doppelgängers showed us what our beloved favorites could have become given different circumstances in their life.
Zoom’s Unmasking
Ever since Zoom was introduced in "Flash of Two Worlds," fans wondered who was the Season 2 antagonist really was. It was no easy feat, as a mask covered his entire face and Tony Todd provided his sinister voice. Finally, at the end of “King Shark,” his identity was finally revealed: Jay Garrick, a.k.a. Hunter Zolomon (whose Earth-1 doppelgänger was seen in “The Reverse-Flash Returns’). Yes, the man who came to Team Flash as an ally at the beginning of the season was really their hated enemy. In “Versus Zoom,” we learned that Hunter was a serial killer on Earth-2 who gained his super speed during that world’s particle accelerator explosion. He terrorized Earth-2 for a while, then decided to play the hero and became that world’s “Flash” simply to give the people hope and then rip it away from them. Thanks to the singularity opening up in The Flash Season 1 finale, Hunter traveled to Earth-1 and eventually worked his way into Team Flash’s good graces to achieve his ultimate goals: becoming the fastest man in the multiverse and subjugating those worlds to his will.
Barry’s Bizarre Disappearance
When Barry sacrificed his speed to Zoom in order to save Wally West, it wasn’t like the previous times he lost his powers. The speed wasn’t just going to come back with a jolt of energy or with more positive thinking. It was gone, plain and simple. Barry was an ordinary human, and there was only one thing that would change that: replicating the accident that gave him his powers. At the end of Rupture, Harry Wells and the rest of Team Flash recreated the circumstances and hit Barry with lightning and the same chemicals, but what they didn’t expect is that it would result in Barry getting vaporized. Well, that’s how it looked at first. Barry was actually sent to the Speed Force, and during “The Runaway Dinosaur,” he interacted with entities disguised as the people he loved to help him truly accept his mother’s death and gain his speed back. Nevertheless, seeing the show’s protagonist seemingly killed is always shocking to see, and in The Flash’s case, it was a hell of a way to end an episode, though reminiscent of 2011’s Flashpoint #2 ending.
Henry Allen’s Death
After being freed from prison in “The Man Who Saved Central City,” Henry Allen was largely absent for most of The Flash Season 2, chilling out in the woods to be one with nature after being stuck in a cell for 15 years. He briefly returned to offer his son support during “Gorilla Warfare,” but after Barry sacrificed his speed to Zoom, that’s when Henry came back to Central City for good. That was the first subtle indicator that something bad was going to happen to him. Sure enough, at the end of “Invincible,” right after Team Flash successfully neutralized or captured the rogue Earth-2 metahumans, Zoom kidnapped Henry and took him back to the Allen family’s old home. Eager to make Barry a merciless killer like him, Hunter vibrated his hand through Henry’s chest. Barry lost his other parent, and unlike with his mother, he was forced to watch the murder happen before his eyes. It’s this moment that led to Barry making a controversial decision in the season finale, which we’ll get to later.
The Man In The Iron Mask’s Identity
When Barry was captured by Zoom at the end of “Welcome to Earth-2,” Jesse Quick wasn’t his only fellow prisoner. There was also a man whose face was covered by an iron mask, making it impossible for him to talk. The first clue towards his identity came when he spelled out “Jay” using a tap code, and several episodes later, after Henry learned that Zoom was Jay Garrick, he revealed that his mother’s maiden name was Garrick. That indicated that Iron Mask was somehow connected to actor John Wesley Shipp, and sure enough, after Zoom was defeated and the mask came off, the man was revealed as the real Jay Garrick, a.k.a. Henry Allen’s Earth-3 doppelgänger. This Jay feels much more faithful to the one from the comics, and now that he’s free from being kept as Zoom’s “trophy,” he’ll continue his own mission of justice as his world’s Flash. We can expect to see more of him in Season 3, and unlike the impostor Jay, Shipp’s version will be an ally to Barry 100%.
Barry’s Biggest Timeline Change Yet
Team Flash came out on top in the Season 2 finale. Zoom was taken away by the Time Wraiths (and possibly became Black Flash) and they had a new ally in the real Jay Garrick. Unfortunately for Barry, his father’s death still weighed heavily on him, leading him to take shocking action in the episode’s final minutes. Despite seemingly making peace with his mother’s death in “The Runaway Dinosaur,” Barry ran back in time to the night of his mother’s murder and prevented Eobard Thawne, a.k.a. Reverse-Flash, from finishing the act. When he went back to this moment in the Season 1 finale, his future self convinced him to let the killing unfold, but this time, Barry wasn’t going to be stopped. Now Nora Allen is safe, and if Barry is correct, then his father will be okay in the present era. We don’t know yet how this will affect the show’s timeline in The Flash Season 3, but those of you who read Flashpoint know that when he saved his mother in that story, it produced a ripple effect making the DC universe a worse place.
This poll is no longer available.
