The Flash
Pilot
Original Air Date: Oct 7, 2014
Ryan O – Associate Editor
ryano@thetwocentscorp.com
Welcome to The Flash! Barry Allen is the Fastest Man Alive! Personally, this is my dream show — The Flash is my favorite fictional character. I’ve had high hopes for the show since it was announced and the pilot did not disappoint! (Yeah, there are a bunch more exclamation points. I’m excited! And this show is off to a great start!)
Flash Facts
So, a quick recap of the episode.
As a kid, Barry Allen had great parents. Then, his mom was murdered when he was 11. Everyone blamed his dad, who went to jail. However, Barry saw a ball of lightning and a man in that ball and knew that’s who killed his dad.
As an adult, Barry is a forensic scientist with the Central City PD. He works with the guy who adopted him, Joe West, a detective who worked the case. Joe’s daughter, Iris, is Barry’s best friend. They go to watch the STAR Labs particle accelerator start, but there’s a problem due to a storm, so they leave. Barry goes into work at the lab. But, the particle accelerator goes haywire and explodes. Energy shoots everywhere into the sky. Lightning then strikes Barry through the window and there’s chemicals and stuff. HOSPITAL! BARRY IN COMA!
Barry wakes up in STAR Labs with two scientists excited he’s awake. He leaves and thinks, “Hey, what the hell?” It seems like everything is slowing down, which I guess, it is. But, SPEED! He gets tested by the geeks at an airstrip.
Bank robbery! Fog in the bank! What? Yes! FOG! Joe West doesn’t believe Barry when he says it’s Clyde Mardon, who Joe thought died during the lightning storm.
Barry gets a cool suit from his scientist friends. He goes after Mardon (who you might call Weather Wizard). Joe is already there with his partner, Eddie Thawne, who is secretly dating Iris. Mardon is creating an F5 tornado. The only thing Barry can do is run in the opposite direction. Faster and faster. The scientist friends are worried that Barry can’t do it. Then, Tom Cavanagh’s character, the head of STAR Labs, who is in a wheelchair now, tells Barry to RUN! Barry runs! AND RUNS! BAM! No more tornado! AWESOME!
Easter Eggs
John Wesley Shipp, who some of you might know as Dawson’s Dad, plays Barry’s dad, Henry, which is super-cool because way back in 1990, on CBS, he played Barry Allen.
GRODD! While walking through STAR Labs, there’s an empty cage with broken bars and a sign that says “GRODD.” Grodd is a gorilla. Who is super-strong. And can talk. And has telepathy. So, yes, he’s AWESOME! He has the potential to be an incredible foe on this show if they can make him look not-silly.
Ferris Air! The STAR lab folks do a speed test at Ferris Air, which is Hal Jordan’s employer. Oh, who is Hal Jordan? Only one of the Green Lanterns, so seeing him in the future is a possibility.
Barry runs to Starling City to talk to his friend, Oliver Queen. Oliver encourages Barry, telling his he can be a guardian angel to people in Central City, “Watching over people, saving people, in a flash.” And Ollie’s final words of wisdom: “Take your own advice, wear a mask.”
Linda Park is the reporter reporting about the storm. Linda Park eventually meets and marries Iris’s nephew, Wally West. Why is that important? In the comics, Wally was Kid Flash until Barry died in 1987 and after Barry’s death he became The Flash until just a few years ago when Barry wasn’t dead.
PS: Tom Cavanagh’s character? Is not wheelchair bound (Dun dun DUN!) AND! He has a secret chamber in the lab that has a machine that seems to get newspaper headlines from the future (they still have paper versions of newspapers in 10 years, so that should be a comfort to some people). The headline: “FLASH MISSING: VANISHES IN CRISIS” (That’s how Barry died in the comics in 1987, saving the universe/multiverse. (He was brought back to life just a few years ago. That’s comics.)).
PPS: Oh, and Eddie Thawne? Well, there’s more to him than there appears.
What did you find to be awesome and super in this episode? Did you think anything was bogus? Give us your Two Cents below!
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