Throughout Season 1 of The Flash, Barry had two big missions in mind: to save his mother’s life in the past and to get his dad out of jail. He realized in the finale that the former goal was a no go, but Season 2 kicked off with Harrison Wells confessing to Nora’s murder, which allowed Henry to become a free man, and he reacted by immediately skipping town. Thankfully, we know that he’ll be back in Barry’s life for next week’s episode.
John Wesley Shipp is returning, and it’s happening not a moment too soon. Last week’s huge fight with Zoom left Barry beaten, bruised and seemingly paralyzed. (DC comics characters are always getting their backs broken.) And being in the hospital is always made better when there’s a loved one that comes by to visit, although none of the new photos from the episode actually show Henry inside the hospital room. Maybe Barry speed-unparalyzes himself before Henry gets back to town.
Now, the episode better have a damned good explanation for why Henry left in the first place. It seemed like such a strange and awkward turn of events for both him and Barry, and possibly had something to do with Shipp behind the scenes. But regardless of real-world reasoning, the show needs to offer up an understandable reason for his spontaneous absence. And if that reason is “had to go and have sex with as many people as possible,” I’d understand. Prison is rough.
I like to think he’s just looking at a list of potential dates in the picture below.
Henry isn’t the only familiar face returning for next week’s episode. It’s called “Gorilla Warfare,” and it’ll obviously center on Gorilla Grodd and his ape-tastic form of villainy. He’ll kidnap Caitlin and give the others a hard time as they try to save her. We’ll also see the return of Kendra “Hawkgirl” Saunders, as well as Wells wearing a familiar suit from Season 1. Can't wait to see what that's about.
The Flash airs Tuesday nights on The CW. If you guys wanted to sing “Father Figure” by George Michael during the episode, feel free.
