The Flash S01E02 Recap: The Fastest Man Alive

There’s a big fire raging, and Barry speeds towards the fire at about 350 mph. He overshoots the fire, and double backs with Cisco’s help. He makes it to the fire, and Cisco gets caught helping him the whole superhero thing. Barry clears the building, and asks Cisco what else he has for him before Caitlin puts the kibosh on their fun. Barry feels a little woozy.

Caitlin isn’t so happy with Barry risking himself. Cisco wants to be the ears, and Barry the feet. Barry was suppose to be helping them against other metahumans, but Barry wants to help the people of the city where he can. Harrison points out that he should show some restraint, but Barry doesn’t think that Harrison has ever showed restraint to get to where he is. Harrison is also a pariah, so a little restraint can’t hurt. Cisco asks how Barry feels, the sensors were kicking back some odd readings, but Barry claims to never be better. Detective Joe calls Barry from a crime scene. He has everything he needs there working, except Barry. Barry runs off to his day job at super speed, but forgets his clothes.

He speeds into a nearby shop before he heads over to the crime scene. Detective Eddie has already pulled the security footage, it may only show one man, but there is evidence of six. The oddity is that all of the shoes are the same size. He manages to embarrass himself, Joe and the Captain all in one sentence. Barry and Joe both have a lot on their mind lately, and Joe sends him up to the lab.

Barry has been running for a long time. When he was a kid, he wanted to see his dad, but Joe wouldn’t let him. Barry knew that his father was innocent, and Joe protected and cared for the boy even when he told him he hated him.

In the lab, Barry processes the evidence, or he tries to, but his machine won’t work, so he uses his super speed to do it by hand. After a little speed, he’s feeling off again when Iris comes in ranting about taking journalism and being bored. He notices how nice she looks, and how he looks less than nice. He was supposed to do a lecture for her. Eddie comes to see where he is in his findings, and Barry has to sit idly by while the two get lovey dovey.

Barry translates the science lecture. Iris misses hanging out with Barry since he woke from the coma. She worried that he was avoiding her for dating her father’s partner, but that wasn’t why he’s been away. The party finally gets interesting when the gun store robbers crash the party. Iris cautions Barry from doing anything, but that doesn’t stop a security guard. The men take aim at the security guard, and Barry flashes to save the man from the bullets, and place him outside out of harm’s way. The men run to their getaway vehicle, and Barry goes after them, but runs out of steam and passes out.

Iris finds Barry outside. He tells her that he went after the guys to get the plates and fainted. Joe and Eddie asks where Barry was, and if he needs a paramedic. Joe overhears the security guard about thinking that he was dead, but he was suddenly saved. Joe takes him aside, asking what he planned on doing once he caught the culprits, he’s not bulletproof. He tells Barry to be more careful, and to come up with a better excuse than fainting for Iris. She’s smart, and she’ll figure out his secret.

Caitlin freaks out when Barry finally admits that he’s been experiencing dizzy spells. They’re his doctors and he needs to be more forthcoming. He should have known better. Cisco is surprised, no one has made Caitlin that angry since Ronnie. Now Cisco puts Barry to test. He’s Cisco’d a treadmill to handle Barry’s speed. Everything looks in order except his glucose levels. Before they can give Barry their findings he passes out on the treadmill.

Joe goes to Barry’s office to find him, but he finds instead the articles about his parents. He remembers when he Barry was younger and he could wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Both he and Iris knew where they’d find him, at STAR Labs.

Barry wakes after taking in 40 IV bags. He’s been getting dizzy because he’s not eating enough. They need to make him a new diet for his new metabolism. Joe pays STAR Labs a visit. He tells him about a report of a red streak around the city rescuing people. He already has a job with the police department, and Joe suggests he stick to that. Caitlin is agrees. Harrison only wants what is best for Barry, but Joe believes if he really wanted that he wouldn’t be helping him, but discouraging him from this hero business. Barry points out that he saw a man control the weather, and the police are not equipped to handle that. Joe tells him that he’s just a kid, his kid. Barry isn’t his kid, his father is in jail. He may not be able to save his father, but if he can save someone from a burning building then he’s going to. Joe knows that they aren’t all as smart as they think they are, and he hopes that they figure that out before someone gets killed.

Black comes to get more information on Stagg from his security advisor Java. He was fine with his employer dying at a public event, but can’t have him dying in his bedroom. Java punches Black, unfearful of the man without his army. He leaves Black on the ground, but Black is an army of one. He multiples, and rips apart Java.

Barry toils away in his lab. Joe brings him some skin samples from Java’s death, thinking that there is a connection. Barry wants to head over to the crime scene, but Joe is still angry with him, and wants him to stay put. Also on the angry with Barry list is Iris. She’s upset that Barry didn’t do her work for her. He missed their study date so that he could explain all the scientific stuff, and now she needs a new article or she fails her class. She has to be the most annoying character on this show. She wants to know what’s going on with him. Barry speeds up to spill everything to her, and she doesn’t hear anything. The skin cell tests give some odd results. They’re all stem cells, as in baby cells, able to become anything.

Joe tells Stagg that he believes him to be in danger. His head of security was just killed, but still Stagg isn’t so sure that he is in danger. Joe tells him that he thinks that Anton Black, a researcher that Stagg fired is behind the murder, but Stagg doesn’t believe it. The multiplied Black has arrived, and he opens fire. The police department goes on high alert with the call that Stagg Industries is under attack. Joe tells Eddie to get Stagg out of the building while he hold off the Black army. Barry arrives in time to save Joe and get him out. He tries to take on the many faces of Black, and he may be fast, but he’s no match for Black. Barry barely manages to get out of the building.

Caitlin patches up Barry. His contusions are already healing, and Cisco complains that Barry got blood on his suit. Barry is sure that it isn’t all his. Black was a researcher who was looking into cloning, and now he can clone himself. Captain Clone isn’t such a cool title, but it’s a work in progress, like Barry’s hero status. Barry thinks maybe he made a mistake, he got his butt handed to him, and he no longer thinks he’s made for tights. Barry runs the city.

Past. He visited his father in prison. He ran to see him, even though Joe wouldn’t bring him. He tells his father that he hated Joe, that he kept him away. It wasn’t Joe keeping him away, he asked Joe to do it. Barry knows that his father is innocent, but his father wants him to leave it be, and to return home with Joe and be good.

Eddie gets all the kudos for saving Stagg, and Iris rewards her hero with a kiss. She asks Barry if he came for caffeine for confession.

Stagg continues to refuse protection. Harrison pays Joe a visit. Joe now knows that Barry isn’t the only one with powers. Joe asks if Harrison knew when he came to help Barry in a coma, if he had powers. Harrison suspected, but couldn’t know for sure. But now that he does know, Joe doesn’t want to be a part of his super secret crime fighting group, doesn’t want Barry to be either. Harrison admits that Barry hung up his tights, but they both know he isn’t done. Barry will go into battle again, but next time he will lose, because he doesn’t have faith in himself, like Joe doesn’t have faith in him. Just as Joe is looking out for Barry, Harrison claims to be doing the same.

Barry puts away quite a few plates due to “stress” eating. He’s come to apologize to Iris for being a distant jerk. He thought he had to do something important, but he’s not good at it. He is good at being her friend, and he wants to help her with her article. She doesn’t need his help exactly, she has a sensational story. She’s hot on the Flash trail, from the fire to the security guard. Caitlin calls interrupting. She needs him to come to STAR Labs now, Black has arrived.

Barry flashes instantly to the rescue, but they don’t need help. Caitlin created the clone with a cell that she retrieved from his suit. The clones are an empty shell without Black. Just like Barry, Black has limits, he just needs to find the one that is showing signs of weakness and take that one out to stop them all. The clone begins to move, and Joe shoots it. It just received a call to action. Black is on the move, and Joe thinks he’s headed to Stagg Industries. Barry tells him to call for backup, but Joe knows that the police aren’t equip to handle Black. Only Barry can handle him, and he knows that now.

Stagg is working late, when company arrives. The Black army takes out his guards, but before they can kill Stagg Barry comes to the rescue, flashing Stagg out of there. Barry tells him that Stagg may have stolen his research, but it isn’t worth all this. Black didn’t want to kill Stagg over just his work, but rather because of Stagg’s greed his wife never got the heart that he was going to grow her. Stagg multiples and fills the room with clones, all tearing at Barry. He flashes out of there, needing another pep talk. He has no faith in himself. Caitlin reminds him that he only needs to find the prime. Harrison and Joe give him the added support, and Barry is able to dig deep to super speed though all the clones and find the original. Is he really going to need a pep talk every week? Lame. Barry disables Black, but of course Black has to give one last hurrah, and ends up falling over the side of the building. Barry tries to catch him, but cannot save him.

The news shows that Black was the culprit, and he died. Harrison tries to comfort him, that some people break and cannot be fixed, but Multiplex is at least no more. Barry may be the legs, but the group is the heart of this superhero.

Joe brings Barry his favorite pizza as an apology. Joe tells him that he was wrong. Barry said that one of his driving factors was not being able to help his father, but he can help his father. He may not be his father, but he did everything that a dad could. Way to get a few tears in the end. Barry may be a hero, but he still needs his friends and family.

Harrison pays Stagg a visit. Stagg is excited over Barry’s powers, thinking that he’s the key, and he plans to get him. Harrison tells him that the man in the red mask is called the Flash, or he will be one day. Harrison stands up and stabs a shocked Stagg. It’s nothing personal, but the man in the red mask must be kept safe.