The Flash Producers Todd and Aaron Helbing Talk Tonight's Episode

10/13/2015 09:03 pm EDT

Tonight on The Flash, the concept of DC Comics' multiverse was (officially) introduced for the first time, with Jay Garrick and Earth-2 taking center stage.

It's one of the most mind-bending concepts yet introduced on the hit primetime series, and one that's likely to have huge ramifications throughout the rest of the life of the show.

Executive producers and writers Todd and Aaron Helbing recently joined ComicBook.com and other reporters during a screening of tonight's episode to give some insight into tonight's episode and what it means for the bigger picture.

This episode brings in a lot of the comic book mythology with Earth 2 and with Jay and Zoom and everything. How do you deal with balancing fan expectations versus the show's universe which sometimes can't be exactly like the books?

Todd Helbing: I think it's always a balancing act. I guess the way we approach it with every episode is we want people that have read all the comic books to get all the joys that they got from reading those but we also want people that aren't comic savvy to get that same experience. We just try to make them as cool as possible and swim for the fences every episode.

What were the things, as you looked at the source material, that you knew you wanted to figure out how to translate for the show down to that great little homage to the cover...

Todd Helbing: Obviously the cover was the most iconic thing. Right? That was a pitch from the beginning that if we could figure out a way to recreate that that was definitely something that we wanted to do. Other than that, I think we always go from a story sense first. It just has to fit in the story. There's obviously going to be a lot of things in the comics that we can't do that are a little bit, I think the reality of shooting some of those is not going to play very well on screen so we just have to pick our moments and go with those.

You definitely see that Caitlin has little crush on Jay. Does that develop into anything? Is Jay aware of that or is that just more for laughs in this episode?

Aaron Helbing: I will say that there's sort of connection that these two have. I don't know, a comfort level, sort of an instant comfort level. That wonderful thing you don't get with too many people in life, that I believe these two experience. I think they're going to explore that a little bit. Jay and Caitlin are part of this bigger team at S.T.A.R. Labs and they're going to have a series of interactions that I think we're going to explore a little bit.

Can you talk a little bit about the decision to kill off Robbie Amell's character and tease possibly what's going on with Victor at the end of this episode?

Aaron Helbing: The decision that wasn't, we really didn't have any part with that. That's more of an Andrew Greg decision. We obviously love Robbie, he's amazing as Firestorm. There's a Legends aspect that we're also taking into consideration. We just love working with Robbie. I can't say really any more than that.

He is dead or he could be on Earth 2?

Todd Helbing: We're in the Flash-verse so anything's possible. There's Earth-2, there's multiverse, so ... there's always a possibility to see Robbie come back.

Will we see more universes than Earth-1 and Earth-2 since there's so many breaches this season?

Todd Helbing: Right now, I think it might be a little too confusing to have Earth-17 so I think right now we're just going to go keep it to Earth-2.

Aaron Helbing: I was just going to add, I love that the possibility of an Earth-17 exists, or an Earth-49. What does that look like, with 52 different choices. We're in season two but the possibilities really are kind of limitless....It's a lot of fun things to explore down the line. Potentially.

What is Jay's goal? Does he want to get home? Obviously last season Harrison's big thing was he wanted to get home. He doesn't have his powers, maybe not his family?

Aaron Helbing: Jay's biggest rival is Zoom and he needs Barry's help to defeat this guy and I think we see him, he arrives without his speed and he knows what Zoom is capable of. He very much needs Barry, he needs to enlist Barry and he needs to I guess have Barry harness these powers and these depths that he didn't really know he could reach. He needs Barry to achieve these things in order for him to defeat Zoom. It's that wonderful mentor/mentee thing we start to see develop. His larger goal? I don't know it's just that I think he just wants Zoom gone and he certainly can't do it by himself.

What can you guys say about Cisco's secret, obviously, now that Martin is, at the moment, offline? How is that going to effect the team dynamic and how would you see that escalate?

Todd Helbing: I think just like what we saw him say to Stein is he's, what Wells said to him, Wells gave this power to him and Wells was very evil. He's just a little freaked out so I think as the season goes on you'll start to see him deal with that problem of how do I tell these guys? When do I tell them? Then figure out this power that he has and how to control it more.

We got a little tease at the end of Harrison Wells. How much are we playing with the Earth-2 and will that be making it's way to series beyond and ... say about that?

Aaron Helbing: I think since we introduced Earth-2 there's always a possibility we'll go there. Not necessarily early on but ...

Todd Helbing: You'll see more of it.

Aaron Helbing: You'll see more of it, yes.

So far we've gotten Earth-2 villains of the season but pretty much every Earth-1 villain that didn't get killed last year is out and about. Besides Cold and his team are we going to be seeing any villains from last season coming back as well? Shake things up?

Aaron Helbing: There'll be some villains that you saw last year. Different combinations, there's a lot of new villains. There's still metahumans running around Earth, or Central City that we didn't get to last year. There's going to be some people that you'll be introduced to soon.

Did Barry kill a villain this episode? Is that like a box of glass?

Aaron Helbing: That's a good question. I think he was there. Zoom has sent all these guys over to kill Barry so it's more of a self-defense act. He's also saving the life of Patty, so...

In the episode that introduced Patty, can you talk a little bit about how you wanted to introduce her and the impression you wanted her to make on the audience and the rest of the cast?

Todd Helbing: I think we wanted to make her this very strong, hardcore, this female cop who has a clear purpose and the Mark Mardon story behind it. We just also wanted to make her somebody that was ... Originally we had talked about, she's kind of like Felicity, but the second we started writing her we felt like we had to make her quite a bit different. We wanted to have her feel part of the show and part of the universe that we've set up but somebody that was in this for the right reasons, hell bent on stopping Mardon and metahumans and somebody that could feel like she was part of the metahuman task force and hold her own.

Does Patty think there are two Flashes now?

Todd Helbing: I mean, she saw them.

So far we're seeing Zoom bring people through the portal to kill Barry. Are there any good people that might come through the portal? Jay's not necessarily a villain at this point, but could other people come in that could actually help the team?

Aaron Helbing: Right now, Zoom is the only one that's able to bring people through so he's not going to bring somebody that helps the team. He's just going to help somebody that does want things specifically for him.

Speaking of Zoom, is there a reason he's just not going there and killing him himself? What's stopping him from just killing Barry?

Aaron Helbing: There is a reason but you'll learn that down the line.

Can you give us some hints about Zoom, as far as he's a speedster but how is he different from say last season's Reverse-Flash?

Aaron Helbing: I mean, I think...you want to?

Todd Helbing: Go ahead.

Aaron Helbing: He's a speed demon. I think Reverse Flash Wells had to hone Barry to get what he wanted but Zoom is just like your worst nightmare. He's going to come in and if he doesn't get these guys to do what he wants he's going to eventually show up and try to take him down himself. He's the scariest speedster own the planet.

Todd Helbing: I think where Wells had a bit of conscious now and then when it came to Barry, Zoom is just, he wants to kill Barry.

Fans kind of freaked out when they saw that glimpse of Killer Frost in the season one finale. How long are we going to have to wait to explore a little bit more of that storyline?

Todd Helbing: You'll see, your answer will be questioned down the line a little bit. I can't tell you exactly when you're going to see it but that question will be answered pretty soon.

Aaron Helbing: We thought about it and we definately talk about it and we revealed it and it's just everybody's power is manifested at different times so...

Are we letting Cisco kind of ...

Aaron Helbing: We're going to focus on Cisco for a little bit.

How off the chessboard is Barry's dad at this point, story-wise? Are we not going to see him for a while or should we expect him to still be part of the fabric of the show?

Todd Helbing: He's still part of the fabric. He still provides an emotional support that Barry needs. He will make and appearance down the line.

Can you talk about what brought Francine West back to Central City?

Todd Helbing: She came back to see her daughter and re-establish this family that she once had.

I want to go back to that scene where they're explaining Earth-1 and Earth-2, and the multiverse. That must have been a big burden on you guys to explain that, which comic book people understand. That's nothing. Whatever. You guys had to process that for the general audience who watch the show, so can you take us through, did you go through many drafts of that of how you explain and how much did you hold back?

Todd Helbing: I think whenever we write scenes like that, our mother is a huge fan of the show.

Aaron Helbing: She's never read a comic book.

Todd Helbing: Yeah. Something as complex as that is just sort of mind-blowing, so we have her and Myra when we're writing those scenes.

Once we said Earth 2 she's like, "What?!" Yeah, it went through a couple drafts. We're so close to the show now and it makes a lot of sense to use but then when you read it, you take a couple days off and you read a script and you're like, "Whoa, nobody's going to get that." It went through a couple iterations, but we also have a lot of help with Greg and Answer and Gabby, and the rest of our staff. Everybody reads it and if anything jumps out as a little bit too complex or a little bit too esoteric then we take another pass at it.

Victor Garber is probably the best explainer in the planet, so getting him up there in front of a whiteboard, it just makes sense.

Was it a foregone conclusion at the end of last season that you wanted to keep Tom Cavanagh and Harrison Wells around and in play or did you have to bat it around the room and decide how and when you wanted to bring him back? How soon, you wanted to delay it?

Todd Helbing: If it was up to me I would have Tom Cavanagh in every show.

Aaron Helbing: Every season.

Todd Helbing: He's amazing. I think it's such a unique opportunity to have a character that everybody fell in love with and that everybody hated at the same time and try to reinvent him in a different way. I think that was also the plan. It was just a challenge to figure out how to do that and have it be satisfactory.

I was pleasantly surprised that you guys went for the hard water origin story. What was it for you to put that in there? What was it for you to sell that line with a straight face? Super-speed from hard water experiments.

Aaron Helbing: There's two stories. There's a heavy water and a hard water.

Todd Helbing: There's a heavy water and a hard water. It changes depending on, it was a hard water in the earlier comics and then they changed it to heavy water.

Aaron Helbing: Which doesn't make any sense either really.

Todd Helbing: I don't think it makes sense either but the hardest thing honestly is it's not heavy water or hard water, it's saying particle accelerator exploded. It's saying that, we all laugh about how that's sort of a hard combination of sounds to get out of your mouth. When the particle accelerator exploded, that's the harder sell. It wasn't too difficult. Just imaging this is who I was in my former life and something happened and now I'm this. It wasn't difficult to internalize it and sell it, for lack of a better word. It was just, there's a wistfulness that comes from that. Also an excitement and a confusion and I just imagined what would that be like if you were sitting outside one day, or sitting inside one day, and then suddenly something happens and then your whole life's different? That's not too difficult to imagine even in modern day. I think once upon a time, in the actual comics, he was having a smoke break or something. He was having a smoke break and something happens and then he becomes the Flash.

Aaron Helbing: I think that's a joy from a writer's perspective is because you know some of these lines are going to be difficult for these guys to ...

Todd Helbing: Particle accelerator exploded.

Aaron Helbing: Say and to sell, but Teddy does it just as amazingly as the rest of our cast.

Is there anything else you can say about the West family dynamic? Specifically how Francine's return is going to effect the dynamic?

Todd Helbing: Yeah, I mean, Iris obviously has this conception about her mother and her being away from her her whole life and I'm sure you can imagine learning that that is not the case could sort of turn your world upside-down. That's the jumping off point and what she's going to be struggling with.

Iris and Barry obviously have history but in this episode you can clearly see that he as a spark with Patty. Can you talk about some of what you're hoping to explore with that relationship and balancing it with Iris and Barry?

Todd Helbing: I would say, Iris is always Barry's lightening rod. Best friend, first love of his life, but she just lost Eddie. As she is dealing with this and Barry and Iris are going back, slipping into that friendship mold I think it just leaves an opportunity to explore a relationship with Patty and you'll see how that develops. Iris and Barry, they're childhood friends and loves and that's always going to be there in both of them.

Can you guys talk about, would you mind talking about all the breaches? There's 52. The biggest one is at S.T.A.R. Labs.

Todd Helbing: Yeah. It's not good for them, but they figure out a way to control it. I don't know how to explain it. It's very bad. There are 52 breaches and Zoom can come through any of them with whoever he wants. They have to figure out quickly how to manage the biggest threat to them, if that makes sense.

Since Zoom can come from Earth-2, into Earth-1 what are the possibilities that anyone on Earth-1 could go back through into Earth-2?

Todd Helbing: Right now, theoretically you could do that but Zoom is the only one that's figured out how to.

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