Yesterday brought the good news that Jesse L. Martin will return to The Flash a little later on this season. The fan favorite actor, who’s played beloved father figure Detective Joe West from the show’s pilot onwards, has been absent from The CW series ever since the fourth episode of the fifth season, but he’s now back at work, beginning with episode 5×15.
Thanks to co-star Danielle Nicolet’s Instagram, we have our first look at Martin back on set in the familiar location of the Central City Police Department, where Nicolet (Cecile Horton) and Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen) reintroduce us to their on-screen love interest and father, respectively. “Look who’s here,” the pair tease before the much-missed actor appears in the shot.
During last summer’s filming hiatus, Martin suffered a bad back injury. He attempted to soldier on with the show, with his scenes in the first few episodes being rewritten to allow him to sit down, but it soon became necessary that the star take some much-needed medical leave. Unfortunately, we won’t see him back straight away when season 5 resumes, as the midseason premiere is episode 11, meaning we’ve still got a month or so to go until Joe West is back where he belongs.
As for how his vanishing act will be explained within the show, producer Todd Helbing has promised that there’ll be some complex answer to the question of where he’s been. “I’ll just say there’s some technology that S.T.A.R. Labs has [via which] he’s gone and he’s not gone at the same time,” Helbing teased. Nope, we have no idea what he’s talking about, but we’ll soon find out.
In the meantime, be sure to catch The Flash season 5×11, titled “The Flash and the Furious,” this Tuesday, January 15th on The CW.
