Spoilers below, Flash fans. Be warned.
Hot damn, The Flash knows exactly how to welcome fans back to this comic book world after saying goodbye before the summer. Not only did the Season 2 premiere give us the death of Ronnie Raymond, which wasn’t a good thing so much as an important one, but we also got to witness a return of sorts from Harrison Wells, whose final (for now) message to Barry was actually extraordinarily helpful instead of horrible. Of course, as with everything Wells did, it also had a negative impact.
Barry was presented with a video that Wells made that was only to be watched by the young scientist upon the older scientist’s death, and in it, Wells confessed to the murder of Nora Allen, Barry’s mom. This wasn’t a big reveal for Barry or anything, as this is what spawned his grudge against his former mentor in the first place, but it gave Barry the thing that he’d wanted for so long: the chance to get his father Henry out of prison after years of being jailed for his wife’s death. Awesome, right? Not exactly.
By the end of the episode, Henry makes it clear to Barry that he doesn’t think his son can maximize his full potential while his pops is still around. Henry wants to get away from there, which I have to think isn’t just for Barry, but for the fact that he’s spent a huge chunk of his life behind bars while his son tells him about metahumans destroying shit, and he probably doesn’t want that to be the place he makes his readjustment to civilian life. Nothing was set in stone, of course, so it’s possible that Barry convinces him to stick around, but Henry seems like the kind of guy who would leave in the middle of the night without saying goodbye.
Of course, regardless of if he leaves or if he stays, he’s a free man now. Which undoubtedly means he’s going to become a victim of Zoom or some other Season 2 baddie later in the season, right? Henry was already put into danger by the Trickster in Season 1, and that was when he was still in jail. Now that he’s out on the streets, he’s literally always in harm’s way, although villains would have to realize that Barry is The Flash in order to make the connection.
When the credits were rolling, though, I was stuck wondering just how Wells (or Eobard Thawne, if we’re getting technical) was able to make that video ahead of time, if Eddie killing himself in the Season 1 finale wiped Eobard/Wells out of existence. But I already tried wrapping my brain around time travel once –and seriously, read the comments on this story for a brain-bending good time – so I’ll just go with the flow until the show’s creative team tells me the flow is actually coming from a different Earth. We just hope this isn’t the last time we see Wells.
Find out where The Flash is going next when it airs on The CW on Tuesday nights.
