Barry races through Central City, chasing the man in the yellow suit who killed his mother.
-----
One day earlier, Joe and Barry are at home decorating the Christmas
tree when Iris comes in with eggnog. Joe steps into the next room to
take a call from the DA, and Iris convinces Barry to exchange Christmas
presents early. He gives her a replica of her mother's wedding ring, the
one that she lost in the fifth grade. Iris apologies for only getting
Barry a new microscope, and he assures her that it's fine. Eddie comes
in to see Iris and notices the ring that she's wearing on a chain around
her neck.
Later, Barry goes to S.T.A.R. Labs and gives his
three friends their presents. Harrison leaves abruptly and Cisco reminds
Barry that the dark-matter explosion happened a year ago, ruining
Harrison's holiday.
Eddie and Iris stop at Jitters to get
coffee, and Eddie wonders if Barry is in love with Iris. Iris doesn't
believe it but Eddie points out that most friends don't get wedding
bands for their other friends. He then gives Iris her own early present:
a key to his apartment. Iris accepts and they hold hands.
As
Caitlin goes to her car in the nearby parking garage, she notices a
figure watching her from the shadows. She goes after the man and corners
him in a hallway, and is shocked to see that it's Ronnie. Ronnie bursts
into flame without hurting himself, and Caitlin runs away, shocked.
At Mercury Labs, a scientist emerges from the superluminal lab and
tells the security guards that he's working on the future. The alarms go
off and the guards order the scientist back into the lab. Once he goes
in and seals the door, the yellow Blur speeds in and kills the guards.
He goes to the lab door and stares in at the scientist, and then
searches the rest of the building at superspeed.
Once the
scientist calls the police, Joe, Eddie, and Barry arrive at the crime
scene. Barry tells the detectives that something moving at high speed
killed the guards. Eddie talks with the scientist, who describes the
killer as a man in a yellow suit moving at superspeed. Barry figures
that he's the same man who killed his mother, and Joe admits that he has
already encountered the Blur when the killer stole his files and
threatened to kill Iris if he continued his investigation.
The
next day, Joe and Barry tell Harrison and the others about the killer.
Harrison explains that Mercury Labs and S.T.A.R. Labs were competitors
until the explosion, and since then Mercury Lab has taken the lead. The
head of research is Dr. Tina McGee, and is developing prototypes for the
future. When he hears about the superluminal project, Harrison realizes
that Tina is working with tachyon particles, which move faster than
light. Barry suggests that since the Blur wants the superluminal
generator, they use it as a trap, and Harrison agrees.
Caitlin
goes to Jitters to see Iris and asks her about her blog story about the
"Burning Man." Iris promises to send her what she has and wonders if
Barry is keeping any secrets. Caitlin says that he isn't as far as she
knows of but suggests that Iris ask Barry.
Barry and Harrison
call Tina to the police station and ask to use the prototype as bait.
Suspicious, Tina wonders why Harrison is involved and he says that he's
working as a scientific consultant. Believing that he's trying to get an
edge on her, Tina refuses to assist them and leaves.
At
S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco and Caitlin are creating a force field to trap the
Blur. Caitlin finally tells Cisco that Ronnie is alive. He doesn't
believe it but Caitlin insists and asks for Cisco's help finding her
fiancé.
At his lab at the station, Barry reviews his files on his mother's death.
Nora
tucks Barry into bed and he worries about being in the dark. She tells
her son that his fear will go away when he realizes that he's never
alone. Henry comes in and kisses Barry goodnight, and the boy asks them
to turn off the light. A few minutes later, the house shakes and the
water rises out of the fish tank. Barry goes downstairs and sees bursts
of red and yellow energy around his mother as she's stabbed to death by
the Blur.
Iris comes in and tells Barry about Eddie's
offer, and tells Barry that Eddie thought he might feel weird about it
because he has romantic feelings for Iris. Barry assures her that he
doesn’t and claims that he's just surprised at how fast Iris and Eddie's
relationship has moved along because he was in a coma.
Once
Iris leaves, Barry glances out the window and sees the Blur standing on a
building across the street. He speeds after the Blur, who runs through
the city and finally stops. Barry demands to know why the Blur killed
his mother, and he says that Barry will have to catch him if he wants
answers. The chase continues and the Blur runs into a football stadium.
Moving much faster than Barry, the Blur easily defeats him and boasts
that he'll always be one step ahead of Barry. Barry demands to know who
he is, and the Blur--calling him Flash--says that Barry always knows,
and it's always Barry's destiny to lose to him. With that, the Blur
speeds off.
The next day, Barry tells his friends what
happened. Harrison assures Barry that the force field will hold the
Blur, and Joe and Barry go to the station to call Tina in and have her
hand over the superluminal prototype. She realizes that their court
order is a bluff and refuses, but Barry claims that he'll go public with
the scientific secrets that he saw there during the police
investigation earlier if she doesn't cooperate. Angry, Tina tells Barry
that he's much like Harrison but has no choice but to give in. Once she
leaves, Joe congratulates Barry, who walks off. Eddie comes over to Joe
and tells him that he knows Flash is involved with the Blur, and insists
on having his task force there when they set the trap. Joe reluctantly
agrees and leaves.
Cisco creates a device to track the ionized
particles that Ronnie gives off. He and Caitlin go back to the parking
garage and Caitlin warns Cisco that Ronnie has changed. They finally
locate Ronnie, but he insists that he's now Firestorm and tells Caitlin
to go away. He then bursts into flames again and runs off before they
can stop him.
At S.T.A.R. Labs, the team sets up the prototype
inside of the force field generator. Harrison and Joe both tell Barry
that they want him out of the building because he's emotionally too
close to the situation. Barry doesn't like it but they insist and he
leaves. Meanwhile, Caitlin goes into the pipeline and Cisco finds her
there. She worries that he's turned into another metahuman freak and
even if they do find him again, they'll have to imprison him like the
Mist. She admits that she wishes Ronnie had died instead of becoming a
metahuman, and Cisco hugs his friend as she breaks into tears.
Barry goes to see Henry and explains that Nora's killer escaped him. He
blames himself for failing, but Henry says that he knows what Barry is
going through. He's realized that Barry is in love with Iris, but he
hasn't done anything because he's been too busy trying to find the
killer to have his own life. Henry tells Barry not to let the Blur take
his life from him along with his mother.
When Barry returns
home, he hugs Iris and makes it clear that he loves her romantically. He
tells her that he didn't say anything because he was afraid of losing
her like he lost his parents. However, he's finally had enough of lying
and decided that she deserved the true. Iris cries a bit and Barry
apologizes for upsetting her and leaves.
At S.T.A.R. Labs,
Harrison, Joe, and the task force watch the chamber with the prototype
as Cisco activates it. The Blur speed in to get it and Cisco activates
the force field, trapping him. They enter the chamber and Joe demands to
know why the Blur murdered Nora 14 years ago. The trapped villain
ignores him and tells Harrison that he knows him, and that he wants is
beyond the scientist's comprehension. Confident that he has contained
the villain, Harrison says that he created the trap based on his
knowledge of Flash. The Blur says that he's the opposite of Flash, a
Reverse Flash.
In the control room, Cisco notices a fluctuation
in the capacitators and warns Harrison. The force field drops for a
second, long enough for Reverse Flash to grab Harrison and drag him back
inside. He then starts beating the scientist, and Joe has no choice but
to smash the generator to bring down the field. Caitlin calls Barry as
Reverse Flash kills the SWAT team in less than a second. He then moves
to Eddie, but hesitates, staring at the officer. When Joe tries to shoot
the villain, Reverse Flash speeds toward him but Flash speeds in and
smashes the villain through the skylight and into the street outside.
The two speedsters fight and Reverse Flash easily defeats his opponent,
ripping off as his mask. As he starts to administer the death blow,
Firestorm steps out and blasts Reverse Flash away. Surprised, the
villain says that he'll see Flash again and speeds off. Caitlin runs out
and Firestorm tells her not to look for him again and then flies off on
a blast of fire.
Later, Eddie wonders why Reverse Flash didn't
kill him, and Joe admits that he doesn't know. Eddie wonders what Joe
is keeping from him, and Joe tells him that metahumans exist and that
they can't tell anyone for fear of spreading a panic. Eddie agrees to
keep the knowledge a secret, and asks Joe if he knows who Flash is. Joe
notices Barry enter the station and tells Eddie that Flash is the hero
who saved both their lives.
Caitlin is banding Harrison's
injuries and Cisco insists that the capacitators shouldn't have failed.
They've told Harrison about Ronnie, and Caitlin apologizes for keeping
it a secret. She says that she wanted to find a way to restore her
fiancé, and Harrison promises that they'll find a way to cure him.
Joe approaches Barry in the police lab, and Barry admits that his fear
of his mother's killer kept him in Central City for 14 years. Joe tells
his foster son that when he first took Barry into his home, he didn't
know if he could handle a young boy traumatized by loss. However, Joe
assures Barry that he brought a life into his life and that he doesn't
want to lose that light, or see Barry lose it because of fear. They go
home and find everyone but Harrison there, and Joe admits that he called
them there to cheer Barry up. After his beating, Harrison wasn't in a
celebratory mood.
Barry congratulates Eddie on iris moving in
with him, while Cisco talks privately to Joe. He says that during the
fight he saw red and yellow lighting merging together, and remembers
that Barry described the same thing when he saw Nora's murder 14 years
ago. They figure that there were two speedsters in the house on the
night that Nora died. Iris calls everyone to the tree and Joe puts the
Christmas angel on the tree. As he does, Barry smiles and Iris, watching
him, smiles back.
At S.T.A.R. Labs, Harrison enters his hidden
chamber, unlocking it with a ring with the Flash insignia on it. Inside
is the Blur's yellow suit, and Harrison attaches the stolen prototype
to its chest. Smiling, he speaks in Reverse Flash's distorted voice,
saying "Merry Christmas."
Written by Gadfly on Jun 23, 2019