Warning: Spoilers for The Flash Season 1 finale are ahead! If you have not watched it yet, use your super speed to run to another one of our fine articles.
To say that The Flash Season 1 finale was intense would be an understatement. From Barry Allen traveling back in time for a reunion with his mother to one of the main cast members meeting a tragic end, the show delivered its most high-stakes episode yet, and the adventure isn’t even over! In the final minutes of the show, Barry raced up to the unstable wormhole hovering above Central City to try to neutralize it before it destroys the planet. As the wormhole is sucking everything up, the final shot of the season is Barry heroically diving into its depths. Cut to black. That’s right, we have to wait 4-5 months for Season 2 to learn how all of this gets resolved. Flash writers!!! (*shakes fist*)
Much like the Arrow crew on its Season 4, the creative minds behind The Flash are being vague about what to expect when the show returns in the fall, aside from this particular threat being resolved somehow. Fortunately, enough information has come out over the last several months to paint a picture of what’s coming, like new characters being introduced and more sci-fi insanity to take in. Here are the big changes you should keep your eye on for Season 2.
A More Confident Barry Allen
When The Flash began, Barry Allen was just a normal forensic scientist living a normal life, excluding his escapade in Starling City on Arrow. One particle accelerator explosion and bolt of lightning later, followed by a nine-month coma, he became the Flash, Central City’s super-speedy protector. Over the course of 23 episodes, fans have watched him not only used his speed in unique ways beyond running fast, but also learn the ropes of being a superhero.
Although it will be a long time until the Flash on our TV screens closely resembles the Flash from the comic book pages, series star Grant Gustin hopes that when the show returns, Barry gets to be more cocky and confident with his powers. After a year of crimefighting under his belt, this will certainly work for character development, as Barry has enough experience to start being more bold as a superhero. Obviously he still has much to learn in the long run, but with the show taking a darker turn during Season 1’s final episodes, it will be nice to see the protagonist enjoying being himself again.
Multiple Timelines Will Become A Very Big Part Of The Show
Make one change to the past, be it big or small, and a new timeline is created. We’ve seen at lest two of these on The Flash - Eobard Thawne’s original timeline and the one where Eobard killed Cisco during Weather Wizard’s rampage - and next season will see multiple timelines being explored, which is good for people who like “What If?” scenarios. This may be the key to how we see Eobard Thawne return to the show, whether he is played by Tom Cavanagh or Matt Letscher. He may have been wiped out of existence in this timeline, but he could still be running around in another timeline where Eddie survived.
If other timelines weren’t enough for you, you’re in luck, because Grant Gustin also mentioned that parallel worlds will be touched upon, a.k.a. the multiverse. While alternate timelines are branching off points within our universe’s time stream, a parallel universe is where events went down a different way unimpeded from what goes on in our universe. We may have gotten a hint of this when that helmet (as seen above) came through the portal, which was a reference to Jay Garrick, the first Flash that lived on Earth-Two.
The Departure Of One Character, Another Oddly Remaining
In order to prevent Eobard Thane from killing Barry Allen, Eddie Thawne had to make the ultimate sacrifice: killing himself. Because he took his own life, the Thawne lineage doesn’t continue, meaning that Eobard is never born and subsequently wiped from existence (though I suspect it’s not as cut and dry as we’re led to believe). Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg confirmed to EW that Rick Cosnett will not reprise Eddie as a series regular, but wouldn’t go so far as to say he’ll never return to the series. With time travel always at work, not to mention flashbacks and hallucinations, it’s doubtful this is the last we’ve seen of Eddie.
Meanwhile, Kreisberg also stated that Tom Cavanagh will remain a series regular for Season 2, but wouldn’t elaborate beyond that. So now with the question of who exactly Cavanagh will playing when the show returns in the fall. Is he still the disguised Eobard Thawne? Is he the real Harrison Wells whose death has been negated because Eobard was wiped from existence? Is it a Wells from another timeline or world? Gah, my head hurts!
New Members Of The Flash Family
Barry Allen has been fortunate to have allies like Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon by his side this past year, but aside from the yellow-garbed maniac who was secretly manipulating him, he hasn’t met any other insanely fast people. That will change in Season 2, as Kreisberg told THR that “a few more speedsters” will be introduced. He wouldn't say who, but earlier in the year, his co-executive producer Greg Berlanti mentioned that Flash family mainstays Wally West and Bart Allen could show up as early as next season
In the comics, Wally served as Barry’s sidekick Kid Flash until (in the pre-New 52 universe) he eventually inherited his mentor’s legacy and became the new Flash, while Bart is Barry’s grandson from the future who travels back to the present to fight crime as Impulse, and later Kid Flash. Depending on what happens, we may only see one of them in Season 2, or maybe it will be someone like Jay Garrick or Max Mercury making an appearance. Whoever the speedsters are, Barry will finally have another quick-footed hero in his life.
More Flash Villains Are Coming Our Way
The Flash was impressively able to introduce a variety of his nemeses from the comics, like Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Gorilla Grodd, Trickster and more. There are still some members of his rogues gallery that haven’t appeared yet, but Kreisberg has assured fans that Season 2 will introduce “a bunch more villains.” Although he wouldn't reveal which villainous faces would be gracing Central City, Kreisberg did mention at WonderCon several months back that they’re hoping to introduce Mirror Master and Doctor Alchemy, so it’s not unreasonable to put them on the candidate list.
There was also a hint of one of Barry’s allies going to the dark side during the Season 1 finale. If you were paying close attention when Barry was traveling through time, you caught the quick glimpse of of Caitlin Snow as Killer Frost, which could foreshadow her eventual turn to villainy. It’s hard to picture sweet and kind Caitlin turning evil, but trust me, Killer Frost is not someone to take lightly. Oh, and do you know who Killer Frost’s main enemy is in the comics? Firestorm, one-half of whom is Ronnie Raymond, a.k.a. the guy Caitlin just married. Yeah, things may be getting weird between the two.
