- "Looks like you were born to take a beating."
- —Tony taunting Barry
"The Flash Is Born" is the ???th episode of The Flash. It aired on November 18, 2014. "The Flash Is Born" is the sixth episode of the first season of The Flash. It aired on November 18, 2014.
Synopsis
The Flash faces a new meta-human named Tony, who can turn himself into girded steel at will. While Dr. Wells and Caitlin are concerned about Barry's safety, Cisco comes up with a plan to take Tony down. Meanwhile, Iris's blog on The Flash gets her into trouble, and Eddie witnesses Tony's abilities firsthand and begins to ask questions that Joe doesn't want answered. Joe asks Dr. Wells to help him solve Nora Allen's murder.[1]
Plot
Iris is blogging about "The Streak" again. The Flash stops by and tells her once again to stop writing about him. When he says he does not like the name "The Streak," Iris asks what name he wants, and he responds "anything but The Streak." The Flash then saves a boy who is almost run over by a man in a Humvee. Eddie tries to shoot at the man but fails to stop him, an we see his face change into steel. The Flash confronts this new meta-human, a fight ensues and Barry is severely injured. He is found on the floor of S.T.A.R. Labs, and has thirteen fractures and other symptoms (which is a new record). When asked what did he ran into, Barry stated it was a man who can turn to steel, and that he sounded familiar.
The next day, Joe asks Barry what happened and he is told that Barry got beat up by a steel-plated sociopath, stating he is another meta-human. A meeting ensues in CCPD and the man from the day before is identified as Tony Woodward. Barry has a flashback during his younger school days when a bully picked on him for being the son of a murderer, noting that it happened after his father was arrested. At S.T.A.R. Labs the team comes up with a steel dummy for him to practice his fighting skills. Barry dislocates his shoulder because of the steel dummy, and Caitlin fixes his shoulder painfully.
Tony visits Iris due to her blog and asks about knowing anything about The Flash. When he realizes he can't get any information, he crushes her phone and leaves her unable to contact Eddie. Caitlin unhappily tells Barry about Iris's new blog post of Iris recounting her visit with The Streak. Later, Barry gets beaten up by Tony again.
Back at S.T.A.R. Labs Wells is angry with Barry for putting his life in danger. Barry was frustrated that he is helpless no matter while he was young, powers or no powers. Cisco calculated the speed Barry needs to reach in order to bring down Tony, and states that it would be fun to be faster than the speed of sound. But Barry says he can't achieve that speed - but Wells implies "yet."
At the station, Eddie steps in after Barry tells Joe how bad he feels about Tony, and asks him to join him in blowing off some steam. After throwing some punches with Eddie on a punching bag, he punches a hole in the bag.
Joe and Wells have a conversation that doesn't end well, with Joe implying that Wells knows more about meta-humans than he is admitting. Meanwhile, Iris is been kidnapped by Tony and asks her to post about The Streak's death and and to name Tony the "new man on campus". Iris breaks the emergency glass to notify the police. The Flash rushes to the scene but is unable to bring down Tony. Barry decides to try Cisco's theory and, with some inspiration by Joe, he runs out until he is 5.3 miles away. In the meantime, the team in the lab realizes what is going to happen, with Cisco happily cheering on Barry and Caitlin obviously not happy with the idea. After the punch, both the Flash and Tony goes down, and Tony stands up again only to receive another punch in the face by Iris.
Tony wakes up in the S.T.A.R. Labs prison and Barry shows himself to him and tells him he can't hurt people anymore. Cisco cheerfully asks whose childhood bully they should go for next. Barry goes to visit Iris and makes amends with her. After Barry dropped some hints naming the "The Streak" into "The Flash," we see Iris updating it on her blog and her viewer's counter increases. Meanwhile Joe brings wine to Wells.
Joe is seen at home continuing his search for the real murderer on Barry's mother. Reverse-Flash pays a visit and takes most of the evidence and case-related items away, only leaving his notebook. Joe is shocked to see a picture of Iris with a warning for him to stop his search or his daughter will be hurt.
Trivia
- Dr. Wells refers to Girder as a "man of steel" upon hearing of his power. In DC Comics, the nickname largely refers to Superman, a Kryptonian superhero known for his great strength and durability. It also refers to the 2013 Superman movie, Man of Steel.
- Iris mentions getting posts about a man on fire who doesn't burn up. This likely refers to Ronnie Raymond, known in the DC comics as Firestorm.
- A sign can be seen on the brewery in Keystone that says "Garrick's Wharf", a reference to the original Flash in the comics, Jay Garrick who subsequently appears in the show's second season.
- To break through Tony's metal skin he had to reach a velocity of Mach 1.1 which is faster than sound (Mach 1), but when Barry broke the sound barrier and created a sonic boom, the sound arrived to Tony's ears before the Flash did which doesn't make any sense since Barry was travelling faster than sound.
- Caitlyn asked Cisco if he wanted Barry to travel at 800 mph when he said that he would have to travel at Mach 1.1, and Cisco corrected her and said 837 mph when in actuality Mach 1.1 is 844 mph.
Gallery
Promos
References
| The Flash season 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Pilot" • "Fastest Man Alive" • "Things You Can't Outrun" • "Going Rogue" • "Plastique" • "The Flash is Born" • "Power Outage" • "Flash vs. Arrow" • "The Man in the Yellow Suit" • "Revenge of the Rogues" • "The Sound and the Fury" • "Crazy for You" • "The Nuclear Man" • "Fallout" • "Out of Time" • "Rogue Time" • "Tricksters" • "All Star Team Up" • "Who is Harrison Wells?" • "The Trap" • "Grodd Lives" • "Rogue Air" • "Fast Enough" | ||||