The Flash Recap With Spoilers: The Man Who Saved Central City

10/06/2015 09:00 pm EDT

The episode opens on The Flash battling Captain Cold and Heat Wave. He dispatches the Rogues quickly, with a little last-minute help from Firestorm.

The pair head back to S.T.A.R. Labs, where everyone is delighted by their performance. Iris and Joe are there…but then so is Eddie, and even Wells. He isn't evil, but he gets out of the wheelchair and praises Barry.

Of course, its' all in Barry's imagination. In reality, he's alone in S.T.A.R. when an alarm goes off and he gets into costume and heads off to work…alone. Along the way, you see signs for Flash Day, celebrating the man who saved Central City.

At a murder scene, Barry meets Joe. Al Rothstein has been murdered. He's a welder at the nuclear plant, and it looks like he was strangled by someone very strong and very large — but Barry's sure it wasn't Grodd.

Joe asks Barry if he's going to go to Flash Day, where the mayor wants to give him a key to the city, but Barry is reluctant, suggesting he doesn't deserve it.

Behind a wall, a mysterious man takes a photo of Barry.

At Central City PD, Cisco is helping Joe put together tech for a task force to take down metahumans. Try as he might, though, he can't convince Captain Singh to give him a badge.

After the Captain leaves, Cisco and Joe talk about how weird Barry is being, and Joe suggests that Iris should talk him into going to Flash Day.

That night, Barry is using his super-speed to rebuild Jitters, one of a number roof local businesses damaged during the singularity event. This is something he's been doing a lot, as Iris has heard about it and figured it out. She tells him that even though Eddie had to sacrifice that day, Barry was still a hero, and he should go to the event. She says she believes in The Flash.

Cut to a flashback, when Barry manages to stabilize the singularity but can't close it. Professor Stein tells Ronnie that the only way to save the world is for Firestorm to fly up into the eye of the singularity and separate. Ronnie kisses Caitlin, saying he has to try, and then Firestorm merges, flies up and separates. On his way down from the Singularity, Barry manages to rescue Professor Stein but can't see Ronnie anywhere. Both Caitlin and Stein look around for him, but all Barry can do is tell them he's sorry.

At the Flash Day event, Cisco is surprised to see Caitlin. The mayor presents the key to the city to an (absent) Flash, with Barry showing up a little late. Shortly after he does, a man shows up and starts throwing large objects around. Cisco tries to use his "boot" on the metahuman, but the masked man just grows out of it, breaking the device. Before he does, though, Cisco has a quick vision of the villain standing in a large room with blue lightning around him.

Barry and Joe manage to turn the man back, but not stop or capture him. Before he goes, though, he briefly unmasks and Joe recognizes him as Al Rothstein.

After Rothstein makes his escape, Cisco confirms that the body remains in the coroner's office — and that he wasn't even in town when the particle accelerator went off.

Iris comes to ask Cisco whether anything he did might have taken out a number of machines at the hospital nearby where the fight happened. Cisco leaves to be sure he didn't do it, and Iris tells Joe that they need to stop letting Barry push them away.

Cisco goes to visit Caitlin at her new job at Mercury Labs; he wants her to rejoin Team Flash, but she's not up for it. He asks her instead to at least look at some evidence from the murder scene of Al Rothstein — an ID badge that appears to have no data on it.

At the police department, a lawyer comes to see Barry. He gives him a thumb drive with a video message from Dr. Wells, and says that Barry will lose S.T.A.R. (which was willed to him by Wells) if he doesn't watch it. Barry says he won't, and the lawyer leaves. An alarm goes off at S.T.A.R., attracting Barry. Iris, Stein and Cisco are there figuring out how the villain's power works when Stein names the baddie Atom-Smasher.

The team uses traces ofradiactive energy to find Atom-Smasher. Barry suits up and heads out, leaving his communicator behind so they can't reach him.

At the building where they expected to find Atom-Smasher, there he is — soaking in radiation from barrels of waste. Flash asks why he killed Rothstein, and why he looks like him, and Atom-Smasher tells him he wouldn't believe him. The two fight briefly and when Barry starts to lose, Cisco manages to hack into the building's systems and create a diversion to get Barry away.

He runs to S.T.A.R. and collapses, where he dreams about his childhood. Joe tries to get Barry to eat, and to deal with his emotions in a productive way. The two hug.

When Barry regains consciousness, Joe is there. He tells Barry that he needs to stop blaming himself for what happened — that everything that happened was Wells' doing, and that both Eddie and Ronnie understood the choices they were making to help. He tells Barry that he needs to focus his late-night rebuilding on things that matter.

Barry heads to Mercury Labs to see Caitlin; they have a brief conversation, and Caitlin reinforces that Barry is a hero, that she doesn't blame him for Ronnie's death. She blames herself for not going away with him months before, when he wanted to. She couldn't be around S.T.A.R. because those memories tortured her. Barry pulls out a handkerchief for her when she starts to cry and the jump drive of Wells' message falls out. They decide to watch it together so they can face it.

On the message, Wells, tells Barry that he's going to give him what he wants, but it won't matter because Barry is never really happy. He gives Barry a video confession that he killed Nora Allen.

Barry calls Joe and tells him to assemble Team Flash at S.T.A.R. Shortly after that, Joe is on the phone with the district attorney, who thinks it's enough to get Henry out of jail.

Barry turns to the team, asking them how to deal with Atom-Smasher. Caitlin suggests they try to overload Atom-Smasher with radiation.

In order to lure him out, Team Flash shines a Bat Signal-style light against the clouds. Barry runs and Atom-Smasher chases; eventually they come to a facility where Barry lures Atom-Smasher into a radiation chamber and then blows past him and out of the reactor core as Cisco fills it. Atom-Smasher can't absorb all the radiation and eventually collapses, now at normal size. Barry goes in to check on him, apologizing for the seemingly-lethal force, and Atom-Smasher tells him that someone named Zoom had sent him after Barry, promising to let him go home if he killed The Flash. He succumbs to the radiation.

At Iron Heights, Barry walks Henry to the car; his father is a free man. They head home, where Team Flash is having a welcome home party for Henry. Cisco even gets his honorary badge, before Stein makes a touching toast.

The joy is short-lived as Henry tells Barry he plans to leave town rather than trying to resume his life in Central City. He says that Team Flash needs Barry and the city needs The Flash, not Henry Allen's son.

Back at S.T.A.R. the next day, Barry has put Henry on a train and comes to check in with the team. Cisco has upgraded the suit and Caitlin brags about the new security system and the fact that people will finally stop dropping in unexpectedly…which is proven wrong immediately when a man calling himself Jay Garrick arrives to tell Barry "your world is in danger."

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