Flash whisks Iris up to the roof of Jitters and asks her to stop
writing her blog about him. She refuses, insisting that the people of
Central City need to know that he exists. When she tries to question
him, Flash insists that he isn't there for an interview and asks how
Barry would feel if she was endangered because of the blog that she's
writing because of him. Iris says that she isn't doing it just for
Barry, but to give other people hope. Sirens go off in the distance and
Flash returns Iris to the coffee bar and then runs off to investigate.
Tony Woodward is driving in a stolen Humvee and the police are pursuing
him. Joe and Eddie try to block him off, just as a young boy crosses
the street. Flash gets the boy out of the way and Joe and Eddie open
fire on Tony when he refuses to stop. Both of them see the bullets hit
Tony in the face and bounce off as the thief's skin turns to metal. Tony
drives through the road block and Flash orders Tony out. Tony agrees
but then rips the door off of the Humvee and throws it at the hero.
Flash easily dodges and tries to punch Tony, only to break his hand on
his metal skin. Tony smashes Flash to the ground and slams his fist
down, only for the hero to run off.
At STAR Labs, the
scientists return to the main lab and find Flash lying on the floor.
Caitlin treats his injuries and warns that he'd be dead or crippled
without his accelerated healing. Barry explains what happened and admits
that he remembers Tony from somewhere, but can't place his face.
Harrison tells him to worry about Tony later and for the time being
focus on healing.
The next day, Joe is at the station watching
an interview of Barry describing the man in the yellow suit that killed
Nora. Barry arrives and tells Joe what happened with Tony, and Joe tells
him to work with Eddie on the case and give him a scientific
explanation for what they saw, and then heads out to work on another
case. Barry finds Eddie in Singh's office and they've confirmed who Tony
is. He disappeared ten months ago after he was in and out of juvie, and
now he's back and stealing Humvees and ATMs.
Barry remembers being in school with Iris, and Tony beating him up and insulting Henry, calling him a killer.
After the meeting, Eddie tells Barry that he saw Tony turn into metal.
Barry tries to come up with a believable explanation, but Eddie isn't
buying it. Iris arrives and Eddie explains that Barry is helping him
with the case. She asks if the Streak was there but Eddie points out
that he can't discuss an investigation with her. Once she leaves, Eddie
points out that things were cool between Iris and Barrie and asks Barry
what's going on. Barry makes a quick exit.
Joe goes to STAR Labs and asks Harrison to help find Nora's killer.
When Barry returns to STAR Labs, he tells Caitlin and Cisco about how
Tony bullies him as a child. Cisco has set up a metal fighting dummy,
nicknamed "Girder," and tells Barry that he has to learn how to focus
his speed to injure a metal opponent. The training doesn't go well and
Barry manages to dislocate his shoulder. Caitlin pops it back in just as
Eddie calls to tell Barry that they've found the stolen Humvee. As she
works with Barry's arm, Caitlin wonders if Barry has been visiting Iris
again. When he claims that he isn't, a skeptical Caitlin viciously pops
his arm back into place.
Once he's healed, Barry meets Eddie,
who asks him about Iris. The detective admits that he felt threatened by
Barry because of his friendship with Iris, and points out that good
friends are hard to find.
Joe and Iris take Barry to the
park to teach him how to fight. Once Joe gives Barry some rudimentary
training, he has Iris start sparring with the boy. She knocks Barry down
with ease, and Joe tells his adopted son that the best way to fight is
to not start one. If Barry can't avoid a fight then the smartest thing
to do is run away.
As they examine the stolen Humvee,
Barry and Eddie find empty kegs in the back. Barry figures that Tony got
drunk and stole the Humvee. The kegs are from a brewery in nearby
Keystone City, and Eddie heads off to question the workers. Before he
goes with him, Barry finds and bags some gravel from the floor of the
Humvee.
Joe describes Barry's claims about a man in the yellow
suit, and asks Harrison if someone with Barry's abilities could have
killed Nora 14 years ago. Harrison says that it's highly unlikely.
At the brewery, a tattooed worker gets nervous when Eddie asks
questions. He runs off when Eddie flashes a photo of Tony, and Eddie
runs after him. Barry speeds in front of the man, but the runner catches
him by surprise with a punch. Eddie tackles the man and demands
answers, and the worker says that Tony worked at Keystone Ironworks ten
months ago. They were laid off and Tony, furious, attacked their boss
and felt into a vat of molten scrap during the fight. Everyone assumed
that he was dead, and the worker is surprised to hear that Tony is still
alive. Eddie wonders how Barry of him and Barry claims that he took a
shortcut.
Iris is working at Jitters when her fellow waitress
Stacy asks where Barry has been, and says that he's cute. Tony comes in
and tells Iris that he's been reading her blog, and asks if she knows
who the Streak really is. She says that she doesn't, and Tony announces
that the Streak is a coward who ran off. He then invites Iris out for a
drink, and she says that her boyfriend is a cop. Behind Tony, Stacy
gestures at the TV where there's a news story about Tony stealing the
Humvee. Tony notices it and crushes Iris' phone so that she can't call
the police. He then pays for the damages with the stolen money and tells
Iris that they'll meet again as he goes.
At the lab, Cisco
identifies the gravel as coming from Keystone Ironworks. Caitlin checks
Iris' blog and sees a message from her to the Streak, saying that she
knows where Tony is and inviting the hero to talk with her.
That night, Flash goes to Jitters and confirms that Iris is okay. She
warns the hero that Tony is fixated on him, and realizes that Tony is a
metahuman. Flash points out that her blog is putting her in danger and
then runs to Keystone Ironworks. Cisco and Caitlin try to talk to him
over the radio but he ignores them. At the plant, Flash finds a heap of
metal slag, long hardened, and fresh beer bottles. Tony attacks the hero
and knocks him to the floor, and then pulls a rack of shelves down on
him. Cisco and Caitlin go there and pull Flash free, but Tony is long
gone.
When they get back to the lab, Harrison complains that
Barry went off on his own again. Frustrated and angry with himself,
Barry says that he still can't stop tony. Cisco tells his friend that
they've analyzed Tony's metal structure and confirmed that he can be
damaged. However, Barry will have to exceed Mach 1 to do it. To go that
fast, Cisco has calculated that Barry will have to run 5.3 miles in a
straight line... and if he miscalculates then he'll break every bone in
his body.
The next morning, Joe asks Barry what happened at
Jitters. Eddie comes over and says that Tony has left they've spotted
Tony in a stolen car. Tony has left Central City and the state police
are handling the case. When Barry regrets not having the chance to bring
in Tony himself, Eddie leads him up to the workout room to let off some
steam. As he hits the bag, Eddie says that he knows about Barry's
history with Tony in school, and admits that he used to be bullied as a
child. He learned that the key to fighting is patience, and instructs
Barry in how to focus his energy into one punch. Barry hits the bag but
doesn't make much of an impression. Eddie tells him to do it again and
this time Barry manages to split the bag, and quickly dismisses it as
frayed.
Harrison and Joe go to a bar for a drink, and Joe
speculates that someone had built a particle accelerator 14 years ago,
accounting for the killer's superspeed. Harrison points out that there
were no recorded dark matter explosions in Central City when he moved to
town, and Joe not-so-casually asks Harrison when he moved to Central
City. Realizing that Joe suspects him, Harrison admits that it was a
month after Nora's murder, and he was just starting over. He then pays
for his drink, tells Joe to look up Tess Morgan, and leaves.
Two policemen are watching the west house while Iris is inside. She
hears something and goes outside to discover that Tony has turned over
the cop car and knocked the officers out. Iris turns and finds Tony in
the living room with her.
As Eddie continues showing Barry
fighting moves, Officer Doyle comes in and tells them that Iris's guard
officers have been attacked. Eddie heads out immediately and Barry tells
him that he'll call Joe. However, he calls STAR Labs and tells Caitlin
and Cisco to have them track Iris, just as Joe arrives.
That
night, Tony takes Iris to their old elementary school and orders her to
write about him instead of the Streak, since he's now the toughest human
in Central City. He threatens to kill Iris if she doesn't, and admits
that she likes him. Realizing the opening, Iris starts flirting with
Tony... and manages to hit the fire alarm behind him. Furious, he shoves
her away.
At the station, Eddie and Singh tell Joe that
they're doing everything they can to find Iris. The fire alarm warning
goes off at Barry's old school and Barry realizes who is responsible.
Tony drags Iris to the trophy case and looks at a photo of himself as a
wrestler in high school. As he tells Iris that he's not going out
without a fight, Flash arrives and tells him to let Iris go because it's
between the two of them. Tony shoves Iris down and transforms into
steel, and then attacks Flash. Ignoring the attack, Flash slides between
his attacker's legs, grabs Iris, and moves her out of the way. He then
attacks Tony, trying to exhaust him while avoiding his punches. However,
Flash makes the mistake of hitting tony with a flag pole, and Tony
grabs it and smashes Flash into the lockers. Remembering what Joe told
him, Flash runs out the door.
Caitlin and Cisco monitor Flash
and realize what he's going to do as he comes to a stop 5.3 miles away
from the school. Flash then turns around and runs back in a straight
line, hitting and passing the sound barrier. He slams into Tony,
stunning both of them. Shocked out of his metal state, Tony staggers to
his feet only for Iris to punch him unconscious.
Later, Tony
wakes up in a cell within the particle accelerator. Barry confronts him
and says that he gained his powers the same way that Tony did, and now
tony won't hurt anyone again. As Tony rages, Barry walks outside and
thanks Caitlin and Cisco for helping him.
Joe goes to STAR Labs
and offers Harrison a bottle of scotch by way of an apology. Having
checked Harrison's story, he offers his condolences on the death of the
scientist's wife Tess. Tess died in a car accident and Harrison came to
Central City to get away from memories of their life together. He tells
Joe that he had just conceived of the particle accelerator when Nora was
murdered. Joe, thankful that he's made amends, asks Harrison to help
him, vowing to get the killer.
Barry goes to Jitters as Iris
cleans up, and they admit that they've missed each other. He says that
he doesn't know what he'd do if Iris was hurt, and she tells him that
she now has a guardian angel. As they talk, Iris says that her hero came
and went like a flash, and then gets an idea. That night, Iris writes a
new blog and christens the scarlet speedster "Flash."
At home,
Joe is going over the files on Nora's murder and crosses Harrison off
as a suspect. Someone cuts off the power and the yellow speedster runs
into the living room, moving so fast that he's nothing but a blur. When
the lights come back up, Joe discovers that all of the files have
gone... and the intruder pinned a photo of Iris to the wall with a
knife. Written next to the photo is the message "Stop or else."
Written by Gadfly on Jun 23, 2019