- "I see you. I see you, Martin."
- —Clarissa to Martin Stein when he was superficially unidentifiable, telling him she was still able to recognize who he was inside.[src]
Clarissa Stein is the wife of the late Martin Stein and mother of Lily Stein.
Biography
Early life
Clarissa was born on December 7 sometime in the 1950s.
Clarissa meets Martin Stein, her future husband in October, 1975
In the original course of history, back in October 1975, Clarissa, whose uncle was a professor at Ivy Town University, accompanied him to the faculty mixer; it was at this mixer she met and fell in love with her future husband, Martin Stein.
However, when Martin of 1975 met his future self as well as Sara Lance and Jefferson Jackson, they stole his particle tracker and he skipped the mixer to track his stolen tracker to the Waverider. Rip Hunter went to young Stein and convinced him to go to the university where he reunited Stein with his future wife Clarissa.[1]
In 1987, Clarissa went with her husband Martin for the nuclear peace summit in Washington D.C. In the original timeline, Martin had acquired reservations at a fancy restaurant that took him months to get and they celebrated her birthday. In the new timeline, Martin had blown Clarissa off for a chance to speak with Damien Darhk about making the President aware of his research. Unknowing to her, Martin was stabbed and Jax had gone to her and told her that Martin had been stuck at work so he couldn't celebrate her birthday. The next day, she went to the political dinner at the White House to see if she would run into Martin but instead ran into his future self. They shared a dance and Clarissa had a feeling that she knew her future husband from somewhere. When a bomb there had been triggered, Firestorm went and quickly took her to safety.
In a new version of 1992, Clarissa went to welcome Jefferson Jackson when he arrived with a Beebo doll for her daughter as a Hannukah present. Clarissa recognized Jax from their last meeting and told him that he hadn't aged a bit. He smiled and said that she hadn't either.
After the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator's explosion
Portrait of Clarissa and Martin Stein still on display even though Martin had been missing for over a year.
When her husband, Martin Stein, first went missing, Clarissa was determined to search for him and printed flyers of missing person in the hopes of whatever kind of news. After a year without any luck, she seemly accepted the worst-case scenario, that Martin wasn't coming back, until Barry Allen, Dr. Caitlin Snow and Dr. Harrison Wells from S.T.A.R. Labs showed up on her doorstep. When the subject of Martin's successful career was brought up, Clarissa expressed that she sometimes thought her husband loved his theorems and experiments more than he did about her. Although the statement showed signs of marital problems, Clarissa still clearly loved and cared about her husband, consequently playing the key role of persuading Martin to go to S.T.A.R. Labs for checkups.[2]
The Steins' romance rekindled after Martin and Ronnie Raymond was successfully separated. Inevitably, because of General Wade Eiling's obsession with Firestorm, both men decided to once again merge and leave for Pittsburgh. This time, however, the departure was met with understanding and without regrets.[3]
Six months after the singularity incident, Clarissa and Martin went to the Flash Day rally to show support.[4]
Time traveling husband
When Rip Hunter came to recruit Martin Stein to be in his team, he neglected to say goodbye to Clarissa. Due to removing his infant self from the timeline, the next time they saw one another Clarissa didn't seem to recognize who Martin was though she felt as if she knew him. When Martin returned to 2016, the two played a game of trivia and she was astonished to see that Martin was answering every history question correctly. She saw that he seemed a little distracted and he told her that he had left something undone and he needed to see it to the end. When he returned after the Legends defeated Vandal Savage, she and Jax had a talk and confronted Martin together into convincing him to continue his journey aboard the Waverider. She told him that she would be here waiting for him to get back but she wouldn't live with herself knowing she kept him from doing the good he was meant to do.
Clarissa and Martin's new daughter, Lily.
Due to the time travel-related events of her birthday in 1987, unknown to her, Martin had lectured his younger self to show more affection to Clarissa. Because of this, her husband spent more time with her and this resulted in a new timeline where they had a daughter, Lily.
At one point she became infuriated at her husband for giving Lily coffee when Martin was helping her with her seventh grade science project, using coffee to sustain her all night.
In 2017, her daughter Lily became pregnant from her boyfriend and went on to give birth to her first grandson, Ronnie.
She went to Jitters for Barry and Iris' rehearsal dinner with her daughter and sat with Jax while they waited for her husband. He arrived a little late but Clarissa said that was how he usually was when their daughter pointed out that he had a time machine. He called her out as being drool. She then attended the wedding which came under attack by Nazis from Earth-X.
Jax came by their house and Clarissa became heartbroken at learning of her husband's death. Jax embraced her as she wept and they were soon joined by Lily. At Martin's funeral, she had asked Jax to say some words. Jax went to both her and Lily and apologized for what happened but Lily reminded Jax that there will always be a part of Martin living on through him. Clarissa then went and dropped some dirt on his grave, bidding goodbye to her love.
Personality
Clarissa loved her husband dearly. After they were separated for a year, she refused to let him out of his sight. By 2016, however, she had grown comfortable with his life as Firestorm; she took his five month disappearance time travelling with Rip Hunter in her stride, and told him to continue those adventures if it would make him happy.
She was devastated by her husband's death, and during the funeral told Jax that he would always be a part of their family.
Appearances
The Flash
Season 1
- "The Nuclear Man"
- "Fallout"
Season 2
- "The Man Who Saved Central City"
- "Family of Rogues" (mentioned)
- "The Fury of Firestorm" (mentioned)
Season 3
- "Invasion!" (mentioned)
DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
|
Supergirl
Season 3
Behind the scenes
- In the DC comics, Clarissa Clemens, formerly Clarissa Stein, is the ex-wife of Martin Stein; unlike her live-action counterpart, she was unwilling to play second-fiddle to Stein's career and filed for a divorce.
References
- ↑ "Pilot, Part 2"
- ↑ "The Nuclear Man"
- ↑ "Fallout"
- ↑ "The Man Who Saved Central City"