In many ways, it ended just like how most people predicted. However, on this week’s episode of The Flash, titled “The Race Of His Life,” season two finally came to an end, and it was a bag of mixed emotions. There’s sadness because there’s a whole summer to get through before The Flash comes back for season three. There was joy because lives were saved, stories ended, and some people kissed. Then, of course, there was some confusion because the finale brought up so many questions that fans will be asking regarding the next season.
Last week's episode, "Invincible," ended with Zoom murdering Barry's father in front of him in his childhood home (where Barry's mother was also killed). It was a brutal ending, and one that would bring Barry and Zoom's ongoing battle to a head.
This week’s episode begins with the screams of Barry and the death of Henry Allen. A cold start to the end of season two. Consumed with rage, The Flash chases after Zoom in an effort to stop his for good. However, a time remnant of Zoom comes out of no where and causes Barry to hesitate. Out of no where, the present Zoom appears and kills his time remnant. “You’re almost ready,” he tells Barry before racing away from the scene.
At his father's funeral, Barry is clearly distraught, unable to give a eulogy. Team Flash stands around the grave and we all take a moment to weep for what Barry has lost. Back at the house, Barry and Wally have a brief conversation about his role as the Flash, but a very subdued one, for obvious reasons. The team try and talk about what they can do to stop Zoom. Even at Henry's funeral, Zoom is on everyone's mind.
Outside, Barry and Iris are getting some fresh air when an unexpected visitor zooms past their house. Barry runs after them. It’s Zoom. He proposes a race between the two of them to find out who the fastest person alive is. If Barry wins, it all ends. However, he refuses to give into anything Zoom wants to do. But Zoom plans to kill everyone Barry loves until he gives into his demands.
Of course, that's not the extent of his evil plan. Zoom also wants to use the stolen Magnetar designs from Mercury Labs as a pulsar to destroy the multiverse. To do so, all he needs is for Barry to race him — at which point, the energy Barry creates when he runs can power his device.
Despite knowing that Zoom is trying to use his speed to power his world-destroying device, Barry wants to accept his challenge. Not just to save the world, but to kill him. Talking to Joe, Barry seems on the verge of giving into his rage, and tells Joe that he can't be talked out of it — at which point, Joe and Wells shoot him with a tranquilizer.
Barry wakes up in the pipeline to discover that the team has deemed him too angry to take on Zoom — and they all agreed to imprison him. Obviously feeling betrayed, Barry rails against the walls of his prison, but the cells were built to hold any metahuman, including him.
Without the Flash, the team have decided to take Zoom on alone. Their plan is surprisingly simple — after tracking the Magnetar's location, the team rolls up to call Zoom out. With the rest hidden, Caitlin will distract Zoom long enough for Wells and Joe to use the "boot" on him (one of Cisco's gadgets that slows speedsters), and for Cisco to create a breach and push Zoom through. With him off Earth-1, the team will take down the Magnetar, thus removing the threat.
Unsurprisingly, the plan doesn't exactly go according to plan. It starts well, with Caitlin telling Zoom that she has changed her mind and wants to be with him. The two seem to be connecting, but Zoom is pretty much pure evil, so we can't expect him to be kind, even to a woman he used to love. He attempts to kill her, before realizing that it's not actually Caitlin — she's using the same hologram technology that let Barry continue to act as the Flash when he lost his speed.
Cisco manages to open a breach, Wells gets the boot on, but Joe's tranq gun misfires, and he has to race forward to tranq Zoom by hand — getting dragged into the breach along with him. On top of which, it turns out that Zoom has altered the Magnetar and they can't disable it without destroying the planet.
Back on Earth-2, Zoom has taken Joe to his lair as bait for Barry. In the grand tradition of super-villains, he kills some time by talking to Joe about his evil plans and his evil past. Jay Garrick wraps up everything we have learned about Zoom so far — how he got his powers, took over Earth-2, learned to cross the dimensional barrier, his addiction to Velocity serum, stealing Barry's speed, all of it. He adds one new detail, though: Earth-1 isn't the only Earth that Zoom visited. On another Earth, he found another heroic speedster. He brought him back to try and steal his speed, but failed. Instead, he stole his name and posed as that hero: the real Jay Garrick.
Wally, furious that the team are not going after Zoom, lets Barry out of the pipeline, and he immediately goes to confront the team.Although upset, it seems Barry understood why they did what they did. However, Barry is still confident he can beat Zoom. And with the help of Cisco, he reaches out to Zoom to accept his proposal
Barry and the rest eventually meet up with Zoom at his work site. Zoom then tells them what he’s been working on. As it turns out, Earth-1 is the focal point for all of the other Earths. Zoom plans to send out a multi-universal shock wave that would destroy all of the multiverse. This explains the visions Cisco has been having of Earth-2 being ripped apart. The race begins and things seem to go as planned. Moments later and another red streak of lightning can be seen. Barry made a time remnant. The remnant races off the track to free Joe while the present version takes Zoom down. The time remnant continues to run around the device set up by Zoom in an effort to phase it out of existence. Sadly, at the same time, the copy of Barry have to die in order to succeed.
Barry Finally destroyed Zoom,but right before he’s able to kill him, two time wraiths come flying out of a nearby rift, Barry caught their attention, and as they burst out of a portal, the wraiths descend on Jay, tearing him apart.
It seems that all has worked out well, but with ten minutes to spare (and as a season finale), we know that this won't stick. First, we finally get to take a look at the man in the iron mask — the real Jay Garrick. Some fans called it when Henry Allen revealed his mother's maiden name. Earth-3 Jay Garrick is the doppelgänger of Earth-1 Henry Allen. The sight of him rocks Barry to his core, as he struggles to cope with seeing his "dad" again. Back in his old uniform, Jay Garrick takes Zoom's helmet, and heads out to try and find his way home.
Harrison Wells and Jesse decide to head back to Earth-2 now that Zoom has been defeated, and after some emotional goodbyes, Cisco opens a breach to send Wells, Jesse and Jay (the real Jay) home. Back at the house, the remaining team members watch the news as it declares that Flash has defeated Zoom, but Barry seems unhappy.
He and Iris talk outside again, but this time, he tells her that he can't stop thinking about his dad, and his inability to find peace with this latest loss. Breaking the hearts of West/Allen fans everywhere, Barry tells her that he's not in a place where he can love her. The two confess their love for each other before sharing a single kiss.
However, Barry has a new plan, and it doesn't involve going back inside to be with the woman he loves and the friends that he cares about. Instead, he runs back in time to the night his mother was murdered. Again. Only this time, he stops it. He takes down the reverse flash and saves his mother, even though it means that he may never become the Flash. We see the earlier version of Barry who came back to stop it the first time fade to nothing before our eyes, as Barry tells his mother that she is safe now.
What next ? Season 3
There are no previews this week, and we have to wait months before we get to discover what this massive new twist means for Barry Allen. On the surface, it looks like Barry has completely re-written the timeline — saving his mother would mean that the events that made him the Flash never take place. Harrison Wells, Eobard Thawne, the particle accelerator explosion — it's possible that none of these will have happened when we get into Season 3, and that is going to mess with Flash fans' minds until then!
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