The Flash

**Type:** | Superhero
Drama
Action
 **Created by:** | Greg Berlanti
Andrew Kreisberg
 **Main Cast:** | Grant Gustin
Candice Patton
Danielle Panabaker
Rick Cosnett
Carlos Valdes
Tom Cavanagh
Jesse L. Martin

## Summary

After witnessing his mother's supernatural murder and his father's wrongful conviction for the crime, Barry Allen is taken in by Detective Joe West and his family. Allen becomes a brilliant but socially awkward crime scene investigator for the Central City Police Department. His obsession with his tragic past causes him to become an outcast among his peers; he investigates cold cases, paranormal occurrences, and cutting-edge scientific advancements that may shed light on his mother's murder. No one believes his description of the crime—that a ball of lightning with the face of a man invaded their home that night—and Allen is fiercely driven to vindicate himself and to clear his father's name. Fourteen years after his mother's death, an advanced particle accelerator malfunctions during its public unveiling, bathing the city center with a previously unknown form of radiation during a severe thunderstorm. Allen is struck by lightning from the storm and doused with chemicals in his lab. Awakening after a nine-month coma, he discovers he has the ability to move at superhuman speeds. Dr. Harrison Wells, the disgraced designer of the failed particle accelerator, describes Barry's special nature as "metahuman"; Allen soon discovers that he is not the only one who was changed by the radiation. Allen vows to use his gifts to protect Central City from the escalating violence of metahuman and other criminals. As the Flash, a costumed superhero, Allen accumulates a number of recurring enemies known as the Rogues, whilst pursuing his mother's superhuman murderer the Reverse-Flash; played by Cavanagh while disguised as Wells). He is aided by a few close friends and associates who guard his secrets.

Six months after the events of the first season, after a singularity event, the Flash is recognized as Central City's hero. However, the event brings a new threat to Central City from a parallel earth in the form of Zoom, a demonic speedster who seeks to eliminate all metahumans connected to the Speed Force throughout the multiverse. Harrison Wells' parallel universe counterpart, and his daughter Jesse, work to help Barry and his friends stop Zoom. Their presences motivate the Team Flash to explore the multiverse. Joe and his daughter, Iris, struggle with their shared painful past related to their family, especially after the arrival of Iris's brother Wally West, whom Francine West gave birth to shortly after abandoning her family. After Zoom kills Barry's father, the season concludes with Barry traveling back in time to save his mother's life from the Reverse-Flash.

By changing his past, Barry drastically alters the entire timeline, resulting in the so-called "Flashpoint" timeline. Though he is able to restore the timeline to something resembling its usual state, this inadvertently creates new threats as well, including the emergence of Savitar, who somehow linked to Barry. After Harry and Jesse return to Earth-2, the gang recruits another Wells doppelgänger from Earth-19, although "H.R." Wells aspires to be a novelist and not a scientific genius. Meanwhile, both Wally and S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Caitlin Snow begin to manifest metahuman abilities as a result of Barry's "Flashpoint" excursion. Wally suits up as Barry's speedster partner, Kid Flash, while Caitlin is forced to suppress her powers for fear of becoming evil like her Earth-2 counterpart, the ice-powered Killer Frost. When Barry accidentally travels to the future and sees Iris killed by Savitar, he is desperate to change the future to prevent that from happening, ultimately discovering that Savitar is a twisted time remnant variant of the Flash.

## Character

**Main Characters**

* **Barry Allen / Flash**: A Central City assistant police forensic investigator. Moments after an explosion at the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator, Barry is struck by lightning in his laboratory and doused by chemicals affected by the accident. When he awakens from a nine-month coma, he has superhuman speed.
* **Iris West**: The daughter of Detective West and Barry Allen's fiancée. She works at Central City Picture News as a journalist.
* **Dr. Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost**: A highly intelligent bioengineering expert, Caitlin believed her fiancé, Ronnie Raymond, was killed during the particle accelerator explosion at S.T.A.R. Labs, until he returned part way through first season. Ronnie and Caitlin get married in the first season finale.
* Eddie Thawne: A recent transfer to the Central City Police Department, Eddie's past is a mystery and he harbored a dark secret. He was partner to Detective Joe West and Iris West's love interest.
* **Cisco Ramon / Vibe**: A mechanical engineering genius, Cisco is the youngest member of the team of scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs and a metahuman.
* **Harrison Wells**: The mind and money behind Central City's S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator, Wells becomes a pariah after the lab explodes.Mentoring Barry to get faster, he is eventually revealed to be the Reverse-Flash, *Eobard Thawne*, a descendant of *Eddie* from the future with a grudge against the Flash.
* **Joe West**: A police detective who acts as a surrogate father to Barry, after his mother's death and father's imprisonment, and who is the father of Iris and Wally.
* **Wally West / Kid Flash**: The son of Joe and brother of Iris, born without their knowledge after his mother left Central City.

## Cast

**Stars**

* Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / Flash
* Candice Patton as Iris West
* Danielle Panabaker as Dr. Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost
* Rick Cosnett as Eddie Thawne
* Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon / Vibe
* Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells
* Jesse L. Martin as Joe West
* Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West / Kid Flash

**Recurring cast**

* Robbie Amell as Ronnie Raymond / Firestorm
* Victor Garber as Stein / Firestorm
* Michelle Harrison portrays Nora Allen
* Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory / Heat Wave
* Wentworth Miller as Leonard Snart / Captain Cold