I’ll cut right to the chase. Ronnie was lost in the black hole vortex that almost consumed central city. And everyone think’s he’s dead, except me. I’m betting he comes back at some point transformed. That’s how comic book stories usually work. But in the here and now, Professor Stein is dying without the other half of the Firestorm Matrix. The solution it seems is to find someone else to fill the bill.
But not just anybody can be Firestorm. It has to be someone who was affected by the particle accelerator explosion. And it has to be someone with latent abilities that match Professor Stein’s. By checking medical records online of people affected that night, they find two candidates. One is the reluctant hero, Jefferson Jackson, or Jax, who lost out on a college football scholarship after his injuries due to the explosion. And there’s also the eager scientist, Henry Hewitt, who seems like the perfect match. But he has a bad attitude and a hidden checkered past.
Caitlin Snow is a big fan of Hewitt, a fellow scientist. And Jackson just plain doesn’t want to do it. Hewitt tries the merger, but he’s not a match, and leaves bitter and angry. But the attempt did unlock Hewitt’s latent meta-human ability. And he decides to go the villain route with it. He can spark up like Firestorm, but without the control.
Iris meets up with her estranged Mom, Francine, at Jitters and pretty much kicks her to the curb. She’s still bitter about the whole twenty-year-absence thing. But then Francine reveals to Joe that she’s dying, so Iris gives her one more chance. But their second reunion is short lived as well when Iris reveals to Francine that she knows the secret she’s not telling. Francine had a baby, eight months after she left Joe. And Joe doesn’t know he has a son. They don’t say his name, but it’s pretty obvious it’s Wally West, aka the Kid Flash of comic lore. (Keivnan Lonsdale has already been cast as Wally West.)
This is a show that seems to like secrets. So of course, Iris doesn’t tell Joe that he may have a son. Her rationale is that the truth might be too painful. Well last season Barry and Joe wouldn’t tell Iris that he was the Flash. And Joe never told Iris her mother was alive. So I guess what goes around comes around. And Cisco isn’t telling anyone he has a secret superpower, for whatever reason. Come clean people. The truth is going to come out sooner or later. Cisco, we all know you are going to be VIBE, so deal with it already.
Caitlin goes to the Auto Shop Jax, a mechanic, is working at. She explains what happened to Ronnie and gives him a pep talk about potential, and being a hero. But before any of it can sink in, Hewitt attacks them. Caitlin and Jax are almost killed, but get away. And Professor Stein is minutes from death. Then Jax, realizing that Caitlin was right, merges with Stein and becomes the new Firestorm.
The Flash and Firestorm defeat the sparky, Henry Hewitt. And now all is right in the world. Professor Stein and Jax leave Central City to explore and train. At least that’s what they say. But in actuality, they’re part of the new spin-off, Legends of Tomorrow. Though we may see them in the big Flash/Arrow crossover event before that show premieres.
Lastly, Barry speeds off to finally hit on Joe’s partner Patty. Since she’s been trying to give him her number for two episodes now. But before he can get his mojo going, he’s attacked by King Shark, a half-man half-shark. And it looks like both The Flash and Patty are going to be shark bait, until they are saved by Harrison Wells. What, what? Nobody saw that coming. Stay tuned.
