- "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."
"They're not my fan club. They're the reason that I'm running, why I'm gonna beat you." - "Let's see what you're made of, 'Flash'".
"Just say when, Zoom."
"Run, Barry. Run!" - —Hunter Zolomon and Barry Allen
"The Race of His Life" is the twenty-third and final episode of the second season of The Flash, and the forty-sixth episode overall. It aired on May 24, 2016.
Synopsis[]
| After Zoom reveals his true plan, Barry vows to do whatever it takes to stop him.[src] |
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash
- Candice Patton as Iris West
- Danielle Panabaker as Dr. Caitlin Snow
- Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe
- Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West
- Tom Cavanagh as Dr. Harrison "Harry" Wells
- Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West
Guest starring[]
- Teddy Sears as Hunter Zolomon/The Flash/Zoom/Black Flash
- Violett Beane as Jesse Wells
- Michelle Harrison as Nora Allen
- John Wesley Shipp as Dr. Henry Allen and Jay Garrick/The Flash
Co-starring[]
- Gary Hetherington as Pastor
Uncredited[]
- Ryan Handley as Zoom
- Tony Todd as Zoom (voice)
- Lucas Wolf as Man in the Iron Mask
Plot[]
Having just witnessed Hunter kill Barry's father in front of him, Barry is sent into a blind rage. Barry chases after Zoom, now faster than him, and is able to beat him up. However Zoom manages to create a time remnant, which is what Barry ends up catching instead. While Barry is moments away from killing Zoom's time remnant, the real Zoom appears and kills the remnant himself.
After Henry's funeral, Hunter challenges Barry to a race to determine who is faster, threatening to kill everyone Barry loves if he refuses. Harry discovers Hunter is in possession of a Magnetar, a device that will destroy every Earth in the Multiverse except Earth-1, which requires both their speeds to power. When Barry refuses to back out, the team locks him in the pipeline and forces Hunter back to Earth-2 themselves, but Hunter abducts Joe in the process. Wally discovers this and frees Barry, who agrees to Hunter's race. As Barry and Hunter race around the Magnetar, the former creates a time remnant to free Joe and destroy the machine, but at the cost of dying while the prime Barry defeats Hunter, who is then taken away by Time Wraiths for his crimes against the timeline.
Barry rescues the man in the iron mask, who is revealed to be the real Jay Garrick, Henry's Earth-3 doppelganger. He decides to requisition Zolomon's kettle helmet, and use it from now on to inspire hope on his world. Harry, Jesse and Jay return to Earth-2, from where Jay plans to return to Earth-3. Barry, still feeling broken and defeated, travels back in time and stops Eobard Thawne from killing Nora.
Trivia[]
- To promote the episode, a short comic was released.
- Nora Allen's grave is in a completely different place than it was just two episodes prior, in The Runaway Dinosaur.
- Cisco refers to his Vibes of Earth-2 being destroyed as like "watching Transformers in 4D", but more realistic and with better acting.
- Discussing Zoom's plan, Cisco states, "One pulse to destroy them all", a reference to the infamous phrase "One ring to rule them all" from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
- Hunter comments on how he'll have "a Flash from two worlds" to keep him company. This is a reference to The Flash of Two Worlds story, which featured the Barry Allen and Jay Garrick Flashes crossing over for the first time. Interestingly, this is also the name of an episode earlier in the season ("Flash of Two Worlds"), with both Hunter (masquerading as "Jay Garrick" and the Flash of Earth-2) and Barry teaming up to stop Sand Demon.
- Cisco mentions that Harry will do his "best Frankenstein", referring to the titular scientist of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, Frankenstein.
- The way Barry's time remnant dies is similar to how Barry died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths comic, running so fast he disintegrates while saving the multiverse from destruction by the Anti-Monitor. It would be referenced again later in the Arrowverse's "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three".
- When Zoom is pulled into the portal by the Time Wraiths, his appearance resembles that of the pre-New 52 Black Flash.
- This episode picks up immediately where the events of the previous episode left off.
- The real Jay Garrick adopts Zolomon's helmet in order to take something from him for once. In the comic books the helmet was always part of Jay's iconic design, inspired by the Greek god of speed Hermes, who wore an identical helmet.
- This episode is the last time that Barry and Team Flash are in the original present-day timeline, before the aberration of the timeline and the events of "Flashpoint".
- Despite airing one week before this episode, the DC's Legends of Tomorrow season 1 finale "Legendary" includes events that happen after the creation of the Flashpoint timeline. At the end of the episode, Rex Tyler visits the Legends, which is later revealed in "The Justice Society of America" to be a result of Eobard Thawne altering the timeline after Flashpoint.
Gallery[]
Promotional images[]
Videos[]
References[]
| The Flash season 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "The Man Who Saved Central City" • "Flash of Two Worlds" • "Family of Rogues" • "The Fury of Firestorm" • "The Darkness and the Light" • "Enter Zoom" • "Gorilla Warfare" • "Legends of Today" • "Running to Stand Still" • "Potential Energy" • "The Reverse-Flash Returns" • "Fast Lane" • "Welcome to Earth-2" • "Escape from Earth-2" • "King Shark" • "Trajectory" • "Flash Back" • "Versus Zoom" • "Back to Normal" • "Rupture" • "The Runaway Dinosaur" • "Invincible" • "The Race of His Life" | ||||