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The Flash Recap: Season 1, Episode 13 – The Nuclear Man

By Nick Tylwalk

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We’re about to get as much Firestorm as we can handle. The mystery about what has happened to Ronnie Raymond took another turn last week, one that comics fans have been expecting.

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The question is whether the Flash and his friends can do anything about it. Let’s find out as we speed into “The Nuclear Man.”

Not-So-Fast Recap: How does a super hero get ready for a date? The same way as everyone else. After finally picking out clothes, Barry Allen meets up with Linda Park, and their date goes well. Linda is better at tolerating spicy tacos than Barry, and even though both of them are interrupted by work — Linda is a reporter, while Barry gets guilted into stopping a robbery by Cisco Ramon and saving a jumper by Joe West — the night ends with a kiss and plans for a second date.

Ronnie Raymond is busy tracking down a classmate. Only it’s clearly Martin Stein in charge of Firestorm, looking for one of his classmates, because he needs help. Obviously, since he explodes in flames.

Cisco, Caitlin Snow and Iris West all get the scoop on Barry’s big night out. Surprisingly, it’s not Barry but Cisco who gets a call and has to leave. Meanwhile, there are reports about the “burning man” on TV, and I don’t think they’re talking about the festival.

It’s actually Joe who called Cisco, looking for help to dig into the night of Barry’s mom’s murder. Joe also tells a half-truth about why Harrison Wells and Caitlin can’t be involved. As it turns out, the old Allen house is now inhabited by a divorced woman named Sherry (like the drink!) who sees something she likes in Joe.

At S.T.A.R. Labs. the discussion is about why Stein is driving Raymond’s body as Firestorm. Harrison wants to know if Caitlin is down with what they might have to do, and she is. Barry mentions that he doesn’t even know what Stein looks like, but we see in a flashback that they have met before: on a train the night of the particle accelerator activation.

Alas, Stein is carrying some of his research with him, something that looks like an oversized nuclear matrix of some sort, when he’s hit by the wave of energy from the accelerator.

Barry, Harrison and Caitlin go and speak to Stein’s wife Clarissa. She’s seen Ronnie before, after getting the feeling that she was being watched. Another flashback shows us she was correct, that Firestorm visited her speaking as Martin and freaked her out enough that she threatened to call the police and he took off, though not before uttering the soon to be classic line, “Where is my body?”

Deciding that Firestorm was likely to try to visit the Stein home again, Harrison decides a stakeout is in order. Never fear, though, Barry can still go on his second date with Linda.

After turning down an offer of wine from Sherry, Joe and Cisco dig back into the old Allen house. They stumble upon a vintage mirror backed with silver nitrate, the same substance used in old film. I’m not sure about the science here, but Cisco says he might be able to develop images of the night of the murder because of the “flashes” given off by the speedsters. Uh … okay.

Linda shows up at Barry’s pad, which is actually the West residence, for date number two. Barry has the whole night planned out, but she has different ideas. Use your imagination here.

Outside the Stein house, Harrison and Caitlin have fast food while the former depresses the latter about Ronnie trying to come home to her. The not-so-good doctor does promise that his work isn’t done until both Martin and Ronnie get to go home to their women. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s Firestorm flying in! Does Caitlin have Barry on speed dial?

She does, but he’s kind of busy on the way to getting busy. Impressively, he’s able to pull away from getting hot and heavy to see the word “Firestorm” in a text from Caitlin. Awkwardly, he tells Linda he has to go.

The Flash tries reasoning with Firestorm, but that doesn’t go too well. Neither does their brief fight, which leads to Flash holding on for dear life as Firestorm soars way up into the air and drops him before swooping in and smashing him off a car. Better than splatting on the ground. He’s about to crispy fry our hero when Caitlin steps in, getting Firestorm to pause before flying off.

Joe has sent Sherry to the movies, so the two men get back to work. Not only can Cisco get pictures from the mirror, he can turn them into 3D holograms. Wicked, if a little unbelievable. Examining them frame be frame leads to the revelation that there are blood spatters under the newer wallpaper in the room.

As for Barry, he’s trying to apologize to Linda at the newspaper office when he gets called away again. After seeing him run out, Linda asks Iris what’s up with Barry since she knows they are close friends. Iris responds that Barry had an unrequited love situation and … silly Iris, Linda can see right through you!

The S.T.A.R. Labs team brings Clarissa Stein to see Firestorm in his squatting place under an overpass. With her help, they manage to convince him to let them try to help.

Can they actually separate the two men? Even Harrison isn’t so sure. They have, however, stabilized Firestorm with meds, to the point where they can have normal conversations with Stein. Barry has other problems, namely a call from Linda saying she knows he’s still hung up on Iris. Who told her? Barry knows what happened, and he confronts Iris about ruining his love life, explaining that he no longer has feelings for her.

Joe and Cisco find two blood samples in the house, and Detective West asks if they can be run against Wells’ blood. Cisco balks at that, storming out at the suggestion that the doctor could be a murder suspect.

While monitoring Firestorm, Caitlin asks to talk to Ronnie, though he responds that it doesn’t really work like that. He does have Ronnie’s memories though, including one of the night he proposed to Caitlin. She gets called out of the room so that Harrison can deliver bad sciencey news: Firestorm is running hot because Ronnie’s cells are rejecting Martin’s, and the Firestorm matrix (comic reference!) is unstable. That means he could go nuclear. Hence, the episode title, I suppose. Ever the cheerful one, Harrison says they only have a matter of hours and might need to kill Ronnie to stop a nuclear explosion.

Privately, Caitlin tells Harrison that she’s not going to lose Ronnie again, and he better use the hours he has left. Cisco sees Wells in the hall but is told to stay put.

Barry tries to keep Firestorm’s spirits up, but Stein says he heard what they were arguing about and suspected the truth anyway, as the experiments with molecular rearrangement had a history of becoming unstable. After that talk, Barry goes to the newspaper office and impresses Linda with his willingness to eat a ghost pepper if she won’t go out with him again. She’s won over, but Iris sees the stunt and looks sad.

(BECAUSE EVEN IN THE LEAD-UP TO SOME EXCITING STUFF, WE HAVE TO MAKE TIME FOR THE LOVE TRIANGLE! Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to yell there.)

In his future room, Harrison gets out a gun and is rightfully mocked by his AI. He asks Gideon if his tachyon prototype could be reconfigured into a quantum splicer and is told that it would work but would set back his timetable. Wells responds that his timetable is meaningless if Central City goes up in a mushroom cloud. Hard to argue that.

Unfortunately, Firestorm has fled in the interim, heading over 30 miles away in case he blows. The quantum splicer is finished, but they’re down to mere minutes, and Flash has to speed it out to Firestorm to get him to try it out. Caitlin decides she’s going too. Cisco gets a call from Joe and has some stunning news for the detective: one of the samples is from Barry, but as an adult. Time travel alert!

Flash and Caitlin reach Firestorm just as he’s contemplating shooting himself to prevent a meltdown. They’re able to convince him to try the splicer, and Caitlin says that if Ronnie is in there, she loves him. Firestorm kisses her, with Stein explaining, “That was from him.” She says she’s looking forward to meeting the doctor in person, and the whole thing is kind of uncomfortable but touching at the same time.

Will it work? It doesn’t look like it, so Flash speeds Caitlin away right before the blast goes off. Only Firestorm is still there when it finishes, so … partial victory?

Finally, our old pal General Eiling is informed about a nuclear detonation 30 miles outside Central City. He tells his subordinates to bring him Firestorm.

Favorite moment: The looks between Cisco and Joe when Sherry was eyeing them up were priceless, as was Cisco saying, “I won’t judge you.”

Final thought: Anyone who thinks The Flash is too much “Villain of the Week” should have liked this episode, which existed specifically to serve the show’s mythology and overall narrative. Lots of developments this week made it a good one even without a bad guy to punch, and we got forward motion with Firestorm, Wells and the revelation that Flash was trying to prevent his own mom’s murder. Non-comics fans, are you confused yet?

Next: Previously on The Flash ... our recap of episode 12, Crazy For You

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