“The Flash” season six episode two “A Flash of the Lightning,” resumes right after Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) learn about Barry’s impending death after the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) pays him a visit. However, much to Barry’s dismay, he tries to fix things on his own, only to find out it’s going to be worse and he must prepare the team for the crisis.
Barry is not one to be shy of his heroism and the idea that he’s meant to save everyone around him with everything that he has. But that idea is not as easy to think about; he learns that he will die in the crisis. His optimism and positivity precedes him, especially with Iris by his side. So Barry decides it’s best to get a second opinion and speeds into time travel all the way to December 11, the day after the crisis, to see what can be done, or at least prevent it. But as he travels, he crashes into a wall of anti-matter and injures himself, which is a rare site to see because The Flash hardly ever gets injured like that.
DC Comics Cheat Sheet for anyone that might be wondering who’s behind the anti-matter: It’s the anti-Monitor. He’s behind the crisis and is, of course, the opposite of the Monitor — good vs evil.
Barry decides to go and see Jay Garrick (John Wesley Shipp), his fellow speedster in Earth-3, to pick his brain about all of this. He is then also introduced to Jay Garrick’s wife, Joan (Michelle Harrison), who is the doppelganger of Henry Allen’s wife, Nora, aka Barry’s mother. Barry looks at her in an endearing way and it tugs at you, because the loss of his mother at an early age will always be something he will never forget. But he brushes the feeling aside as she helps Jay put him in the chair and into Jay’s mind, which will allow Barry’s mind to somewhat get past all that anti-matter to get a glimpse at the future.
This is where Barry sees the worst of the worst: his whole world crashing, dying. It’s horrible. He sees Iris, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and pretty much all of Team Flash die right before his eyes, and he feels it too, which then leads to him seeing himself die. However, the only way to prevent their deaths is if Barry sacrifices himself instead.
Cue the heartbreak, the horridness of it all. It clicks to him. The Crisis WILL happen, and there’s no way of going around it.
“Now I know the Monitor is right. I have to die.” Barry now understands the severity of it all and must find a way to warn everyone else. Shaken by the experience, it weakens him so he can barely even walk. Seeing Barry like this breaks my heart. He’s not one to slump over in defeat just like that, but he knows there is no way around this. The moment he shares with Iris next is one that is hard to watch, and it’s hard for Iris to accept.
“The Barry I know wouldn’t stop running. He would find another way to fight.”
It’s a bit frustrating to hear Iris say that when, clearly, Barry knows he won’t just stand down. But he’s starting to understand his purpose and why he was gifted with his powers in the first place. He needs time to process it. He then has another talk with Joe (Jesse L. Martin), and Papa Joe always knows what to say to make Barry feel better.
“When we hear the call of duty, we’re willing to make that sacrifice. That’s not giving up; that’s what you call resilience.” Joe’s pep talks are the best.
What’s next is that Barry needs to tell the Team about the crisis; he needs to prepare the team for a world without The Flash.
Meanwhile, Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) does her best being a defense attorney for metas, but realizes that she wants to specialize in defending them specifically. I always appreciate her presence on the show and how much help she brings to the team. Her gift of reading people’s emotions head-on is a great thing to have and makes her such an asset to all their crime solving. Allegra Garcia (Kayla Compton), a metahuman who controls radio waves, is accused of murder, but Cecile senses that is she is in fact innocent. She works on finding her innocence in the end. Allegra wants to be a reporter and Iris recruits her to be the newest intern at the Citizen. Looks like Iris has her first staff member.
Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker) or, shall I say, Frost has a hard time trying to act like normal. She has some work to do of course, but she’s trying. Danielle Panabaker does a great job playing the roles of Caitlin and Front simultaneously. Oh, and Dr. Ramsey Russo (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is getting himself into more dangerous stuff.
What did you think of this episode of “The Flash”? Share your thoughts with us in the comments. “The Flash” airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
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Featured image credit: The CW Network
Shadia Omer is an entertainment writer, pop-culture enthusiast, and an aspiring TV writer. She’s based in San Diego, CA but will always rep being from Houston, TX instead. She watches way too much TV for her own good. With her passion for the TV/entertainment industry, Shadia is working to change the American-Muslim narratives on TV, pushing for authentic and inclusion representation in the media. When she’s not writing, obsessing over her love for pizza and traveling, you can find her on Twitter tweeting about her favorite shows one tweet at a time.