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FLASH: Pilot Summary

The Flash (1×01) –
“Pilot/City of Heroes”
Written by: Greg Berlanti, Gardner Fox, Geoff Johns, Andrew
Kreisberg and Harry Lampert
Directed by: David Nutter
The episode opens on Central City while a voice over from
Barry Allen (Series star, Grant Gustin,) introducing the series.  This monologue (likely an early version of
the pre-cap monologues that the CW Network is fond of) declares Barry “The
Fastest Man Alive” before he asks the view to believe in the possible.
The story then goes back in time fourteen years, as a boy
wearing a red backpack runs away from bullies. 
The boy is quickly revealed to be Barry; he had attempted to stop the
other kids from mocking a boy, which earned him a beating.
Next we see Barry at home with his mother, receiving some
first aid and affection.  Barry laments
not being fast enough to escape the other kids but Nora Allen (Michelle
Harrison) tells him “It’s better to have a good heart than fast
legs.”  Barry’s father arrives home
and the three share a family moment.
The scene then moves forward to that night.  Barry is shocked out of his bed by a noise
only to see strange things happening to the water in his fish tank and the
lights flickering.  Barry heads
downstairs to investigate where he finds his mother enveloped in a bright
yellow blur.  As Nora tries to warn Barry
away while begging for mercy, Henry Allen (John Wesley Shipp) arrives then
tells Barry to run.  The yellow blur surrounds
Barry before he finds himself outside and several miles away.
In the present, an adult Barry Allen is running down the
sidewalk while weighed down by equipment. 
We are introduced to Captain David Singh (Patrick Sabongui) and
Detective Joe West (Jesse L Martin) on the scene of a bank robbery.   West and his partner discuss the Mardon
brothers, a pair of notorious bank robbers that recently got out of prison
Barry arrives and is reprimanded by Singh before West covers
for his chronic tardiness.  Barry then
shows off his prowess as a forensic investigator, identifying the get-away car
with a quick visual inspection of the tire treads.  He also displays a streak of social
awkwardness by using the pen of Detective West’s partner to take a sample of
cow manure.
The scene shifts to the Crime lab, where Iris West (Candice
Patton) arrives to first banter with Barry then pick him up to see the
activation of the STAR Labs particle accelerator.   Detective West arrives to check on Barry’s
progress and he receives a list of possible hideouts for the Mardon Brothers.
Iris and Barry arrive at STAR Labs where Barry recaps his
recent trip to Starling City.  He then
tries to express romantic feelings for Iris before she cuts him off gently
before she states that she sees Barry like a brother.  
We are then introduced to Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanaugh,)
in his speech he explains that the particle accelerator is his life’s work but
before the audience can learn much more Iris’ laptop bag containing her college
dissertation is stolen and Barry chases after the thief.  The thief overpowers Barry and nearly escapes
before he is stopped by Detective Edward Thawne (Rick Cosnett.)
Barry then returns to his lab and watches a news report on
the particle accelerator while he attaches a newspaper clipping to a cork board
full of evidence of strange happenings.  Meanwhile,
Detective West and his partner arrive at the last address on Barry’s list. They
find Clyde Mardon hiding in a haystack. 
He fires on the pair, fatally shooting West’s partner in the throat
before he boards an escaping plane.  At
that moment, the particle accelerator loses containment.  It destroys Mardon’s plane, at the same time
it creates a lightning bolt that strikes Barry and knocks him into a shelf full
of chemicals.
Nine months later, Barry awakens suddenly at STAR Labs under
the care of Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) and Cisco Ramon (Carlos Ramon.) Harrison
Wells arrives in a wheel chair and explains to Barry that STAR Labs took over
his care while he was comatose his body was reacting strangely after the
lightning strike.  Barry also learns that
seventeen people died when the accelerator exploded and hundreds were injured,
STAR Labs was also shut down in that time.
Barry leaves and finds Iris at the coffee shop she still
works at.  During their reunion,
everything around Barry seems to slow to a crawl for a moment.  He and Iris then go the police station; while
at a bank in Central City Clyde Mardon is still alive and robbing banks with a
newfound ability to control the weather.
Barry’s reunion with Detective West is cut short when word
of the bank robbery reaches them.  West
leaves with his new partner, Thawne. 
After he’s left alone, Barry sees a suspect attempt to grab an officer’s
gun and when he rushes to stop the man he moves too fast for the eye to see.
After telling Iris he needs air, Barry leaves the station
through the back alley and reveals his hand is shaking so violently it’s
blurring.  Barry then runs down the alley
with super speed before crashing into the back of a laundry truck.  He and the STAR Labs team take a lab truck to
a Ferris Air Field for a control test of Barry’s abilities using some custom
equipment from Cisco.  During the test,
Barry flashes back to the night his mother was killed before he crashes into a
group of crash barrels and breaks his arm.
Back at STAR Labs we learn Barry’s arm healed completely in
three hours before he tells the team about the night his mother was
murdered.  Detectives Thawne and West
manage to get a lead on the bank robbery before Thawne meets up with Iris
outside a café.  The two share a kiss
before Barry arrives.  Iris asks Barry
not to tell her father that she’s dating Thawne but before she can convince him
not to the pair are nearly hit by a police car in the midst of a high speed
chase.  Barry sees that it’s Mardon the
police are chasing and he gives chase, he crashes Mardon’s car and sees a
display of his weather powers.
When Barry tells Detective West, he accuses Barry of being
delusional since the night his mother was murdered.  Barry then goes to confront Wells and learns
that huge amounts of strange energies were released and affected people all
over the city.  Barry tries to convince
Wells that they need to find those people but Wells refuses.
Barry storms out of the lab and runs all the way to Starling
City where he speaks with Oliver Queen. 
Oliver encourages Barry to use his new abilities to become a hero and
inspire the people of Central City. 
Barry enlists the help of Ramon and Snow to stop Mardon, Cisco then
provides Barry with an experimental suit designed for fire fighters while Snow
track Mardon back to the barn he was hiding in the night Barry was struck by
lightning.
West and Thawne are already at the farm and have found Clyde
but when Thawne attempts to subdue him Mardon uses his power to knockout Thawne
and create a tornado.  Barry arrives and
saves West and Thawne before attempting to unravel Mardon’s tornado
unsuccessfully at first. Wells returns to give Barry some words of encouragement
(even mirroring his father’s final words of “Run, Barry. Run!”) Barry
unravels Mardon’s tornado before West shoot him down.
Barry and West are still on the scene the next morning and
he convinces Barry to never reveal his powers to Iris or involve her in any
way.  Barry then visits his father in
prison to tell his father he’s never doubt that he killed his mother and that
he’s proud to be his son.  Barry then
embarks on his new career as The Flash.
That night at STAR Labs, Wells enters a secret room.  He then gets out of his wheel chair and
activates a holographic display of the Central City Citizen dated April 25th,
2024.  The headline reveals that Barry
has gone missing during some sort of “Crisis.”
Three Things We’ve Learned:
1)     
The yellow “blur” Barry saw is
decidedly human shaped.
2)     
The STAR Labs team is still struggling to understand
the night of the storm.
3)     
Barry blogs about the strange phenomenon he
encounters.
Three Questions:
1)     
How much future knowledge does Wells possess? 
2)     
Why does Thawne know about so much Barry? 

3)     
Where is “Grodd” and just how changed
is he?

The Flash airs on the CW Tuesdays at 8pm Eastern and is available on various streaming services.

 

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