Top Ten Reasons to be Excited for Season Two of 'The Flash'
Elizabeth Morier ‘19 / Emertainment Monthly TV Staff Writer and Ellie Wells ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Movie Staff Writer
*Spoiler Alert for season one of The Flash*
After an immensely successful first season, The Flash is speeding its way into our lives once again next week. Emertainment Monthly thought it would be great to give a rundown on the top things you can look forward to on the show in season two.
The series’ first season was well received by audiences and critics alike, winning them the People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama in 2014 amongst many other awards. The season started off with Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) as a normal forensic scientist working for the Central City Police Department before an accident turned him into The Flash. Over the weeks, his powers have grown as he faced countless numbers of new foes and uncovered the mystery behind his mother’s murder. Audiences are still waiting to see how Barry emerges from season one’s cliffhanger as well as the list below of new things to come.
10. New Costume
Both Arrow and The Flash embrace their comic book roots in big ways this season. While Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) adds a certain adjective to his superhero identity, Barry Allen gets a small, but significant wardrobe change. The red circle on his emblem will become the iconic white and mark a big step forward for adaptations embracing the aesthetics of their counterparts on the page.
9. New and Returning Heroes
Many iconic characters have been announced to be getting the small screen treatment in the second season including the female Dr. Light (who played a pivotal role in the comic Crisis on Infinite Earths), female speedster Jesse Quick, mainstays Jay Garrick and Wally West, Hawkgirl and many others. Additionally, we will see the return of Linda Park and Firestorm. Fans can only wonder how the new and old will interact and what it will mean for the show.
8. New and Returning Villains
This season of The Flash introduces a whole new set of villains for Barry to face off with including notable fan favorite comic book villains Mirror Master and Atom Smasher.
In the last scene of season one’s finale, Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) was looking up as Barry started entering the singularity. Captain Cold has arguably been the most intriguing villain of the series, often walking on the line between good and evil. Something else to look forward to is his recruitment of all of the other villains into the “Rogues Gallery” and what new threats they will pose.
7. Cisco becomes Vibe; Caitlin becomes Killer Frost
Favorite sidekicks will get a whole new bag of tricks this season. The show is set to continue exploring multiple timelines and worlds. Viewers who caught the season one finale of The Flash already saw a glimpse of Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) as the comic book villain Killer Frost when Barry entered the speed force while traveling back in time to the time of his mother’s murder. In the speed force, Barry saw his past, present, and future — hinting that Caitlin will become Killer Frost in the near future.
In the same episode, Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh) tells Cisco (Carlos Valdes) that the reason he was able to remember the erased alternate timeline in which he was killed is because he was effected by the explosion of the particle accelerator too. In comic lore, Cisco also goes by Vibe: a superhero with the ability to manipulate sonic vibrations.
6. New Love interest
After a season of pining over his unrequited love for Iris, Barry finally gets a possible new love interest! Patty Spivot, played by One Tree Hill’s Shantel VanSanten, is Detective Joe West’s (Jesse L. Martin) new partner on the police force. Patty expresses an interest in helping the heroes stop the dangerous metahumans in Central City.
Patty’s character appears in the comic books as a forensic scientist and assistant to Barry in the Central City Police Department’s crime lab. Although she does not play the exact same role on the show, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg revealed at Comic-Con 2015 that she will still be a science enthusiast and will bond with Barry over that.
It will definitely be interesting to see how Barry maneuvers around his personal life and his life as The Flash again, especially when Patty eventually comes into the picture and joins his metahuman-fighting team.
5. Tom Cavanagh’s Role
For those who have seen the first season finale of The Flash, it is a mystery to see how Tom Cavanagh will be a series regular, because he didn’t just die, he was erased out of existence. Many fans have speculated that he will simply be playing the Earth-2 version of Harrison Wells that never had his identity stolen by the Reverse Flash.
Yet that seems almost too simple of a possibility, and Tom Cavanagh’s voiceover in an early Comic-Con Teaser seems too sinister. Cavanagh stated in interviews that his draw in signing on to the show was Eobard Thawne, and Harrison Wells was an extra element. Besides, Thawne has always been Barry Allen’s arch-nemesis, his literal opposite, and is too great of a villain for the show to do away with completely. It will be exciting to see what the producers have up their sleeves.
4. Wally West
In the comic books and animated series, the name “Wally West” is just as synonymous with The Flash as “Barry Allen” is. The character first appeared in the comics as the speedster Kid Flash and was Barry’s sidekick before taking over the mantle of The Flash.
However, the Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) in the show will be an ordinary teenager without powers. Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg shared that Wally will be introduced the same way Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) was introduced on Arrow as a rather wayward kid who will eventually join the team and challenge Barry to grow as a superhero and as a person.
3. Jay Garrick
While Barry Allen is the most recognized version of The Flash in mainstream culture, he was not the original iteration of the character.
That honor belongs to Jay Garrick, who first appeared with his winged hat and simple costume as a college football star involved in a freak lab accident that gives him super speed. The Flash was, of course, reimagined as Barry Allen, but eventually he was reintroduced as the Flash in an alternate universe–Earth 2. He and Barry eventually met, and has always been portrayed as older, wiser, more stoic version of The Flash.
As this will be the character’s first major screen appearance, it’s sure to be an exciting time for both casual and hardcore fans alike.
2. Zoom
“Zoom is coming” seems to be the premise of the whole upcoming season. From the teasers, Zoom is another powerful speedster with an appearance likened to that of a demon or monster. What makes Barry’s new nemesis even more intriguing is the fact that only his voice has been casted (Tony Todd) which means we will probably not get to see what he looks like until we get closer to the finale.
Zoom is potentially from a different world. Over the course of the season, Barry will discover that it was Zoom who sent the Reverse-Flash into the past to uncover the real reason behind his mother’s murder.
1. The Multiverse
Fans got their first tease of a greater universe when a familiar winged hat appeared in the season one finale. The Silver Age of Comics of the 1950’s saw the reimagining of several Golden Age characters of the 30’s and the introduction of new ones. Comic book writers eventually had a desire to write stories where these characters interacted. So, the multiverse was created, and what followed was infinite possibilities. It was explained that the Golden Age characters lived on Earth-2, while the Silver Age characters lived on Earth-1.
Shortly after the season one finale, the show’s producers confirmed that Earth-2 would be the vehicle behind new villains and other characters, much in the same way the particle accelerator had been previously. Though Earth-2 is only known so far though the introduction of magic in the latest season of Arrow and the leads that both shows will have this universe in new show Legends of Tomorrow, it is thrilling to think about what this means for not only The Flash but the entire Arrow-verse.
Watch The Flash starting Tuesday, October 6th on CW!