The Flash S01E01 Recap: City Of Heroes

Barry asks for you to believe in the impossible as he blurs across the screen. He’s the fastest man alive. 14 years ago he ran from bullies. Sometimes he escaped sometimes he didn’t. He wasn’t always fast enough, but he did always have a good heart. One night his house is broken into, something scary happened. He woke his mother screaming, the liquid in his fish tank rises, looking like a lava lamp. He runs downstairs to find his mother surrounded by odd red and yellow flashing, his father telling him to run and him getting teleported out of the house.

Now, Barry runs to the current crime scene. The Martin brothers have struck again, and Barry is late to the scene. He’s late yet again. One of the detectives, Joe West, covers for him, and Barry gets to work. By the tire tracks he can tell what the getaway vehicle was, a Shelby. He takes a pen from the other detective, to pick up animal excrement, adding it to an evidence bag.

Iris arrives, she wants to see the Atom Smashing. Her father helped him out, and with the latest case he doesn’t have time to head over to STAR labs, even though its his nerdy dream to see the machine in action. She’s stress eating worried about school, and she doesn’t understand why the particle accelerator is so important. Barry gushes over what it could teach them. His scan is complete. Barry concludes that the Martin Brothers are hiding on a farm, and linked the manure to feed used at only three nearby farms, where there’s likely a sweet Shelby parked. Iris talks Joe into letting Barry head over to STAR labs, and he gets the OK.

Iris asked how his trip to Starling City was. It gave Barry time to think about relationships. They’re best friends and Iris misunderstands his bumbling. She tells him he can talk to her about anything, especially girls, not exactly what he was going for. They listen to Harrison Wells speech about the future. Someone snatches Iris’s bag, and Barry gives chase after the thief. He catches the kid, all he wants is the bag, but the kid hits him with it, and takes off running again. Detective Pretty Boy catches the thief.

Pretty Boy is a new transfer, Eddie Thawne. Iris reveals that her dad said he keeps scores for arrests. He is pretty though.

Joe and his partner, Fred Chyre, make it to the last farm on the list. Chyre doesn’t have confidence in Barry’s findings, but Joe wants to check it out anyways.

Barry watches the news report. It’s stormy, but the particle accelerator is still up and running. On Barry’s wall are news clippings of his mother’s death, and father’s arrest.

Joe finds evidence, and the two of them take fire from the Martin Brothers. Chyre is hit, and the Martins make a getaway on a crop duster plane. Joe watches them fly off as he looks after his partner, who dies from his injuries.

The news reporters are told to evacuate the area. The Particle accelerator has malfunctioned, possibly because of the storm. Barry sees a blast from where STAR labs is, and it ripples out towards him. Joe sees the same ripple, and it tears apart the Martins’s plane. The liquid in his beakers is doing that odd lava lamp thing. Barry moves to open the windows, and gets struck by lightning. Barry is taken to the hospital and his heart shocked when he flat lines.

STAR labs is a hazardous location after their little incident. Cisco and Caitlyn watch over Barry when he suddenly wakes up. He has no clue where he is, and Cisco fills him in on the details. Apparently getting struck by lightning gives him a six pack. Normally his muscles would have atrophied, but his are in a constant state of regeneration, they stay in a constant state of sexiness. Some guys have all the luck. Cisco tells him that he was in a coma for nine months. Harrison Wells welcomes him back, from his wheel chair. Barry is happy to be in STAR labs, he’s always wanted to meet Wells. STAR labs has been operational since the particle accelerator had an anomaly, some were killed, many injured, Wells among them. That anomaly caused the lightning bolt that struck him. Wells became aware of Barry and his condition because the hospital was having power issues whenever Barry flat lined, though he didn’t actually flat line, his heart just beat too fast for the machines to read. Wells isn’t so popular nowadays, but Joe and Iris gave them permission to bring him in. They want to do more testing, but Barry is quick to make his getaway and no one stops him.

Iris is busy serving coffee when Barry walks into the shop like nothing happened. She rushes into his arms, happy that he woke up. She thinks STAR labs should have called, but he literally just woke up. She watched him die many times, but he assure her that his heart is still beating. A waitress trips, and everything around him slows down for an instant as she drops her tray. Iris can’t wait to take Barry to her father. Maybe he should have let STAR labs do some more testing.

The Martin brothers are back, or at least one is. One hands a clerk a robbery note, and when she asks if it’s a joke, he shows her that it really isn’t. Barry isn’t the only one to gain powers from that little accident.

Joe is glad to see Barry back up and running. He gave everyone quite the scare. He looks okay, and Joe asks if he’s okay. He is. The robbery is called in and Joe is off with his new partner, Mr. Pretty Boy. Eddie makes eyes at Iris. Barry notices Chyre’s memorial. He died that night, and the Martins’s plane crashed. Barry watches a suspect getting booked, and sees that he’s about to go for the officer’s gun, Barry flashes to stop him. Moving at lightning speed freaks him out, and he has to bail on Iris. Outisde Barry’s hand vibrates, and as he tries to walk he moves way faster then he intends to. After a few mishaps, he puts his speed to the test and ends up in the back of a laundry truck. He’s gonna need some new shoes moving that fast he’d going to burn out his soles.

Caitlin isn’t sure she believes that Barry can run as fast as he says he can. Wells believes that she’ll be surprised. Barry got some new soles, and some snug duds. Not the Flash costume, but a red spandex suit that leaves nothing to the imagination. Cisco points out at least he’s going to be going so fast no one will see it. Wells will manage his energy output, while Caitlin monitors his vitals. Cisco makes the toys. Barry notices that Caitlin doesn’t exactly smile a whole lot. Her career is in the dumps, her boss in a wheelchair and her fiancé died in the accident. Smiles are not on her agenda. Wells cautions Barry for some restraint. Barry takes off, quickly passing 300mph. It brings back memories of the night his mother died. She told him to not let him touch him. Barry crashes into some water barrels, effectively stopping him, and possibly breaking his arm.

Joe and Eddie work the case. There are a whole lot of oddities. The teller tells Eddie that the windows suddenly blew in. The cameras are no good, they all shorted out, but some of the witnesses had cell phones and one even took video. It isn’t clear, but Joe is able to get a partial plate of the getaway Shelby.

Caitlin tells Barry that he had a radial fracture, but its healed in just three hours. She’s not sure how it happened, but they’re working on it. Cisco tells him that he really needs to learn how to stop. Wells asks what made him lose focus. Barry admits that he remembered something. When he was younger he heard a noise, and he saw what looked like a lightning man around his mother. She died that night, and his father was convicted of her murder, he’s still in jail for it. Everyone said what he saw was impossible, but Barry wonders what if the man was like him. Wells believes that he’s one of a kind.

Iris goes to meet with Eddie. She asks him what he wants, and he’d like her to stop pretending that she can’t stand him when her father is around. She kisses her boyfriend. Barry spies the exchange, and Iris pulls away. She tells Barry that he can’t tell her father. When Barry was in a coma Eddie covered Joe’s shifts so he could be by Barry’s side. Iris thanked Eddie, and one thing lead to another. Barry isn’t comfortable lying to Joe. A pair of cop cars speed towards them, chasing the Shelby. Barry’s quick reflexes save Iris, and he’s off chasing the car. Barry crashes into the car, but the Martin brother walks away with hardly a scratch. Barry climbs from the wreckage, and the Martin unleashes a fog around them. He fades into the fog. A car crashes into the Shelby’s wreckage hidden by the fog, and Barry uses his speed to move out of the way just in time.

The driver was killed who hit the Shelby. Joe yells at Barry for having Iris so close to the danger. Barry takes Joe aside. He tells him that it was Clyde Martin, that he survived the plane crash. He can somehow control the weather, and that all the crimes have taken place during freak meteorological events. He just confronted Martin, and the street was immediately enveloped in fog. Joe doesn’t believe him. He tells him that no one can control the weather, just like there was no lightning storm in his house that night. It’s just his brain trying to find a way to cope with something. Barry does not believe that his father killed his mother. Joe thinks differently, and so did the jury. He has always done his best to take care of Barry, and never asked for anything in return, but now he wants Barry to for once see things as they are. Barry walks away. Eddie brings the eye witness sketch of the bank robber, it looks strangely exactly like Clyde Martin.

Barry confronts Wells at STAR labs. He’s not the only one affected by the Particle Accelerator Explosion. Wells isn’t sure how many were affected. Barry asks what really happened that night. Unknown elements were released throughout the city, there’s no telling the repercussions. They’ve been searching for other metahumans who where created that night. Barry tells them about Martin. Cisco thinks its cool he can control the weather, but Barry is looking at the big picture, and Martin must be stopped. Wells tells him that that’s a job for the police, that Barry is only a CSI tech. Barry is too important to run around and play hero. Inside his cells could be the secret to unlocking many medical breakthroughs.

Barry runs, and he remembers. His father was lead away in handcuffs. He warned Barry not to go back into the house, even as he was placed in the back of the squad car. Barry didn’t listen, he went in and looked upon his mother’s still form anyways as Joe pulled him away. Barry runs, right out of the city, towards Starling City. He tells Arrow the whole story. He just ran 600 miles, not just to say hello to Arrow. Barry needs guidance. He wonders if he’s a hero or just some guy who got struck by lightning. Arrow thinks that he was chosen, that he can be better than him. Barry can inspire people, watch over his city. Arrow tells him to take his own advice and wear a mask.

Barry has been going over unsolved cases for the last 9 months. The metahumans have been busy wreaking havoc. He’s not blaming Caitlin and Cisco, he knows they lost a lot that night too. They’re onboard to do a little clean up. Cisco pulls an Edna Mole and gives Barry a cool new suit that can withstand his high velocity running and cut down on chaffing, while Caitlin has tracked where Martin is likely hanging out.

Joe and Eddie head over to the last farm that the Martin brothers made their hideout to see if the remaining Martin is still there. He’s there, and he’s waiting. After their plane went down, after he figured out what he could do he realized he was God. He uses his powers and knocks out Eddie. Joe asks him why God would need to rob banks. Clyde goes all twister on them, and Joe barely manages to get Eddie out of the building. Barry arrives in time to save Joe from falling debris. The twister is gaining speed, and heading for the city. Barry thinks the only way to stop the twister is to run the opposite way. He’ll need to go atleast 700 mph, which his body may not be able to handle. Barry takes off running, but Clyde blasts him while Joe watches it all in shock. Barry is off his game, doubting himself. Wells gives him a pep talk. He sees the folly of his actions he thought that of Barry as just another victim, but Barry can be great, he just needs to run. Barry takes off, and unravels the twister. Clyde thought he was the only one special, but sees that Barry is just like him. Barry isn’t, and Joe shoots Clyde. It’s over now, and Joe is definitely a believer now.

The farm is crawling with officers and firefighters. Joe still can’t believe what he saw. He apologizes for not believing him, for calling him crazy for chasing the impossible, but he really did see something that night his mother died, that his father is really innocent. Joe makes him promise to keep Iris in the dark, to keep her safe.

Barry goes to visit his father in jail. His father has been calling him slugger since he was eleven, and he finally got into a fight, even won it. Barry knows that he didn’t kill his mother, and that’s enough for him. Barry tells him that he won’t be in there for much longer, he thinks he knows a way to finally find him. His father wants him to stop worrying about him, to go out and live his life. He finally is. Iris sees the tornado wreckage, spots Barry and her father. Barry tells him that he’s finally made some new friends, he’s moving forward. Cisco crafts a new sensor, shaped like a lightning bolt, so its not boring. Barry remembers when his father told him to change his name so people wouldn’t know he was his dad, but he’s glad people know. He’s proud of his father. Aww the love.

Barry Allen is the fastest man alive, and now he’s the Flash.

Wells opens the door to a secret room, that’s never good. And more surprising, he can walk. He opens up a hologram of a newspaper from the future with the headline Flash vanishes during Crisis dated April 25, 2024.