The Flash is back, and while the season 2 premiere isn’t quite able to keep up the momentum from the season 1 finale, there’s no denying that it effectively sets the stage for what’s to come in the hit CW series this year.
Perhaps a big part of why the episode – titled “The Man Who Saved Central City” – doesn’t quite click is the decision to resolve the Singularity a third of the way in rather than right from the very start. Instead of picking up where things left off with that huge cliffhanger, we instead spend some time with a Barry Allen who has isolated himself from his friends and family in the hope of keeping them safe.
While it feels strange to tell the story in this quite disjointed fashion, it all ends up tying together quite well, and The Flash ultimately makes good use of this six month time jump, finding a convincing way of bringing the team back together by the time the end credits roll. It’s also important to note that the premiere definitely offers a satisfying resolution to the Singularity with a moment which is tinged with a tragedy that may seem somewhat random now, but is sure to pay off when we visit Earth-2.
The main focus of The Flash‘s season 2 premiere, though, ends up being Atom-Smasher. An effective villain brought to life with convincing special effects, he makes for a great opponent for Barry Allen to square off against in the premiere, and the show makes clever use of the fact that he’s from an alternate reality to start laying out what that could mean for the series moving forward.
He could have done with a little more screentime to emphasize just what a threat he is to Central City (especially as Team Flash end up taking pretty drastic measures to bring him down), but Adam “Edge” Copeland does a fantastic job in the role. It’s a must that we see him return in a future episode, even if the way his story wraps up makes that appear unlikely.
