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Arrowverse: ‘The Flash’ Season Finale Recap — Zoom, The Iron Mask, And A Shocking Ending

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 02:51 PST, May 25, 2016

A lot of questions were left unanswered heading into the season finale of The Flash on Tuesday night: Is Henry Allen really dead? Do Barry and Iris still have a future together? Is The Flash faster than Zoom? The CW answered all of those questions, but left fans of the DC Comics-inspired show asking a few more before the season finale ended.

When we last saw The Flash, Zoom had just killed his father right in front of him, in the exact spot Barry’s mother had been killed years before. Zoom wanted to prove that he was the fastest man alive — on any Earth. Barry was trying to cope with the fact that both of his parents had been murdered. And everyone else just wanted Zoom sent back to Earth-2, never to bother them again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUvV2eqizAU

Note: The following includes spoilers for Season 2, Episode 23 of The Flash, “The Race of His Life,” which originally aired on The CW on May 24. This episode served as the season finale.

The Flash Vs. Zoom

Zoom and The Flash have a race/battle almost right away. It looks as though Barry is about to win, but then a second Zoom shows up and kills the “time remnant” Zoom. Zoom says The Flash will always be inferior because he isn’t willing to kill himself. Then he zooms away.

While mourning his father’s death, Barry is taunted by Zoom, who agrees to leave Barry and his world alone if The Flash can beat Zoom in a race. As it turns out, Zoom really has an ulterior motive. The speed from their race will power a machine that destroys every Earth in the Multiverse except for Earth-1.

When Barry goes back to STAR Labs in a furious mood, wanting to race Zoom, the rest of the team locks him up. They think they have a better plan. Unfortunately, their plan results in Joe being sent to Earth-2 with Zoom as his captive, along with the mysterious man in the iron mask, who we learn was the real Jay Garrick before Zoom assumed that identity. Wally busts Flash out of his STAR Labs cell and they send a message via Cisco that Flash will race Zoom if Joe is returned unharmed.

In the final showdown, The Flash produced a speed remnant of his own. The Flash raced Zoom while the remnant made sure the device wouldn’t work gave his own life so that Joe would be saved. While Barry’s purity of heart wouldn’t allow him to kill Zoom, some angry speed wraiths were more than happy to take care of it now that Zoom was pinned down.

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The Man In The Iron Mask

Finally, it was revealed who Zoom had been holding in a cell all this time, the victim simply known as “the man in the iron mask.” It was Jay Garrick from Earth-3. But that’s not all.

As it turns out, Jay Garrick from Earth-3 — their “Flash” — was also Henry Allen’s Earth-3 doppelganger. This was a little too much for Barry to handle, who had to excuse himself from the room. Since Harry Wells and daughter Jesse were heading back to Earth-2, they agreed that Jay could go with them, and they would try to send him back to Earth-3 from there.

Barry’s Mom

After all that drama, Iris and Barry had another DTR conversation, in which Barry told her that he was too broken inside for a relationship (two murdered parents will do that to you). They shared an adorable CW kiss, and it seemed like Season 3 would begin with a forlorn Barry still missing his mom and dad, unable to move on to a relationship with the love of his life. But Barry wasn’t planning on just sitting around and “getting over it.”

Iris West/Candice Patton
[Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for iHeartMedia]
Like any good show with another season already lined up, The Flash managed to provide an ending to the Zoom drama before unloading a bomb that will have fans guessing and theorizing until Season 3 in the fall.

After his conversation with Iris, Barry speeds off into the past, to the night his mother was murdered. In the finale from Season 1, Barry got to this place and didn’t save his mother. This time, he prevented Reverse Flash from killing Nora Allen, and the version of Barry/Flash from Season 1 (who was there watching the whole thing) simply faded from existence as the show ended.

Next Season On The Flash

Between now and the premiere of Season 3 of The Flash, DCTV fans have at least a few concepts to contemplate until all of the Arrowverse shows start up once again. For starters, how does The Flash’s most recent actions affect everyone else in Central City? Going back in time to prevent Reverse Flash from killing Nora could change everything. Barry could never turn into The Flash. Henry might never go to jail. The original Harry Wells on Earth-1 may not get murdered. It could even mean the return of Iris’ ex, Eddie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5f_3m0pbpE

And of course, Supergirl is moving from CBS to the CW, and the CW isn’t shy about hinting towards some serious crossover action in the Fall. Barry has already visited National City. Could Supergirl find her way over to Central City? Also, “Captain Cold” Leonard Snart died in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. But Wentworth Miller signed an extension with the CW, his LOT character originated on The Flash, and both shows deal extensively with time-travel. The possibilities for Season 3 are vast, to say the least.

Where To Watch

The CW aired The Flash on Tuesday evenings at 8/7c. Replays of the most recent episode of The Flash can be streamed on-demand at the CW’s website beginning Wednesday. Current episodes of The Flash (including “The Race Of His Life”) can also be streamed with a Hulu Plus subscription the day after it airs on the CW.

[Image via The Flash/CW]

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