The Race of His Life
- Episode aired May 24, 2016
- TV-PG
- 40m
With Zoom's true plan revealed, Team Flash fears Barry's resolve to do whatever it takes to stop him.With Zoom's true plan revealed, Team Flash fears Barry's resolve to do whatever it takes to stop him.With Zoom's true plan revealed, Team Flash fears Barry's resolve to do whatever it takes to stop him.
- Zoom
- (uncredited)
- Man In The Iron Mask
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe real Jay Garrick says that he's from "Earth-3," while during the Supergirl crossover, Barry describes Earth-2 as the "one where we're all evil." This is something of a reversal of the comic books, where Earth-2 is the home of Jay and an elderly Justice Society of America, and Earth-3 is the home of the evil counterparts of Barry and other members of the Justice League.
- GoofsA Magnetar is a collapsed star, not some kind of small object that can be stored in a warehouse on Earth. Magnetars cannot be created here on Earth, and are not precursors to other objects or phenomena.
- Quotes
Barry Allen: What are the rules?
Hunter Zolomon: One lap around the inside of this loop will produce about 1 gigawatt of energy, and I need 500-plus to power the Magnetar enough to do the job. Once it's full, I win, because there is no stopping it.
Barry Allen: So, all I have to do to beat you is stop you before that happens.
Hunter Zolomon: Yep, it's that simple - but if, at any point, you decide you don't want to race anymore, dear old dad number two is a dead man, as well as your little fan club.
Barry Allen: They're not my fan club. They're the reason that I'm running, why I'm gonna beat you.
Hunter Zolomon: Let's see what you're made of, Flash.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Allied: The Invasion Complex (The Flash) (2016)
The episode begins with a somber after math considering the events of the epilogue in the previous episode, then the pace starts kicking in and we get a remarkable action sequence between the Flash and Zoom that surely makes up for the shoddy CGI and action scenes that came before this episode. The only things that hold this episode back from maybe being on par or a little bit better than the previous finale is the short run time and at times the bad acting. The 43 minute run time surely wasn't enough to suffice everything they needed to do but they did it either way, thus making some reveals or sequences feel too fast or too convenient which gives way for underwhelming scenes and a desire for a little bit more. Nonetheless, it delivered what it could within the run time and there are a lot of good things to go for in this episode. Another thing that was quite bothering was the acting and dialogue in this episode. It was repetitive and clichéd, at this point saying things like "Zoom is still out there" or "I can't let Zoom kill you guys" or "I have to stop him(Zoom)" gets really tiring to hear. There's also a scene with Caitlyn in which her delivery of lines were odd and cheesy, but it might be forgivable for some people considering Grant Gustin and the others were serviceable to say the least.
Now let's go in to the goods. This episode did a great job at being smart and at first and letting Barry's emotions not get the best of him. Although it might affect people for not seeing Barry for a portion of the episode, I believe it was a smart and more reasonable move. The final showdown between The Flash and Zoom was outstanding and the visuals really did shine as this show has practically already perfected the speed run fx. It was also nice to provide some call backs to the Crisis on Infinite Earths story line with the final show down that will sure be appreciable for the fans. The reveal of the man in the iron mask was also really satisfying and it pretty much what most of the fans were speculating on, but not quite enough as the episode reveals much more than what fans were probably hoping for. It's a shame we didn't get more of him interacting with Barry as the run time was limited. Lastly, they finally god damn did it. Most fans were speculating it would happen in season 1 finale but it finally happened here, and it was well earned. You can fully understand Barry's struggle and emotions as to why he did what he did in the final minutes of this episode and this leads to an exponential number of ways to go considering Supergirl is now in CW, they can easily connect everything and these few minutes can literally affect all the next seasons of the CW shows and it will be an unprecedented change for comic book TV shows.
Verdict: 9.3/10
- SpoodermanDerp
- May 24, 2016