The Flash Recap: "The Flash Is Born"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

I think I finally realized what I like about The Flash. The fact that this show manages to embody the best parts of every comic book we have ever read.  It's fun, it's action packed and most importantly it's relatable and last night's episode, "The Flash Is Born" combined all of those elements to make for one incredible episode.  

Last night, Barry finally went up against an meta human where his speed meant nothing and it just so happens this particular villain, was a true blast from his past, the bully that used to pick on him in grade school. What makes Tony Woodward so difficult for Barry to defeat? Only the fact that he can turn his body into pure steel and everything Barry throws at him, leaves him broken and wounded.  

As the team works to figure out how to defeat this man of metal (yes, the show made a Man of Steel joke) Barry is still having to deal with Iris and her love of blogging about "The Streak" despite the fact that the trouble he warned her could happen, at last comes to light as Tony comes to find Iris in an effort to get her to write about him instead. The team does finally figure out how to beat the metallic bully, and it turns out that in order to do it...Barry will have to travel at Mach One to knock the monster out.  It's a feat he manages to pull off and Tony is added to the menagerie at S.T.A.R. Labs.  Plus, Barry and Iris reconcile and at long last, The Streak is given a proper nickname...The Flash. 

In between all of this though, Joe is doing his best to figure out who really murdered Barry's mother and his work on the case manages to offend Wells and it brings forth the very mysterious yellow lightning man that Barry saw years ago to steal all the evidence CCPD ever had on the case and leave Joe with a warning.  Stop...or Iris dies.  

So when I said this episode combined the best parts of comic books, I wasn't kidding. There were laughs, there were some awesome battles between Barry and his bully and that storyline is what caught me by surprise the most.  It was just incredible to see Barry have to face a blast from his past one that haunts him and the fact that he has to find a way to overcome it whether he likes it or not.  That's what pulled so many of us toward our favorite comic characters over the years, they were men and women who faced their demons, their past and insurmountable odds to succeed, and we wanted to be that kind of person in our lives and I find it so refreshing to see it play out on television like this.  Another great episode and I can't wait for next week.  

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