The Flash Season 1, Episode 9 Synopsis – The Man in the Yellow Suit
By Nick Tylwalk
I have to confess that when The Flash set things up right off the bat to have Barry Allen’s mother killed by the Reverse Flash, I thought the mystery as to who the villain was and why he bore a grudge against the Allen family would play out over the entire first season.
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It still might turn out that way, but Barry is going to get up close and personal with his opposite number this week during the show’s midseason finale. We’ve also got the return of a familiar face from the first time the Flash zipped onto our television sets and some further developments with another DC hero we saw for the first time last week.
What, those weren’t enough hints for you? Well, we can always go to the official synopsis for episode 9 of Season 1 from The CW, which is exactly what we’re going to do:
"Barry (Grant Gustin) finds himself face-to-face with his nemesis, the man in the yellow suit, a.k.a. Reverse Flash, who killed his mother. Barry is frustrated when the Reverse Flash escapes, but Dr. Wells (Tom Cavanagh) and Cisco (Carlos Valdes) come up with a plan to trap him. All they need is bait, so they turn to Dr. Tina McGee (guest star Amanda Pays) from Mercury Labs to help.“Meanwhile, it’s Christmas at The West household and Iris (Candice Patton) is in full holiday cheer. Eddie (Rick Cosnett) gives her a surprising gift but also leaves her with a question that could change her life. Joe (Jesse L. Martin) joins the search for the man in yellow and ends up in the crossfire. Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) finds Ronnie (Robbie Amell). Ralph Hemecker directed the episode written by Todd Helbing & Aaron Helbing (#109)."
My guess is that Flash will be able to win only a temporary victory over Reverse Flash, leaving him in play for the second half of the season. I also seriously doubt we’ll find out who’s behind the yellow mask, though obviously Eddie Thawne and Harrison Wells are the leading candidates at this point.
I’m also pretty curious about where the Caitlin/Robbie story is headed. Robbie Amell has made comments about the fact that Firestorm will not necessarily be a friend or even in control of his abilities when he first encounters the Flash, hinting that he’ll be disoriented — and he certainly looked that way during his initial appearance. Could Caitlin’s relief at finding out that Ronnie is still alive cloud her judgment? After all, she’s usually the levelheaded voice of reason.
Barry joked during the Arrow crossover that fighting Oliver Queen was literally like fighting someone standing still, but he’s not going to feel that way after he first tangled with Reverse Flash, who we can surmise has more experience with super-speed than our hero. See if the Flash comes out relatively unscathed by tuning in at 9 pm on Tuesday for “The Man in the Yellow Suit.” Then come back here for our Fastest Recap Alive and check out The Flash After Show from theStream.tv, a show that lets you get in on the discussion by using the hashtag #TheFlashAS on Twitter.