Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates, TV | Tagged: barry allen, entertainment, oliver queen, superheroes, The Flash, Tommy Merlyn, tv

What We Learned From DC TV Last Week – Flash's Three Dads And Ominous Reappearances

By Hilton Collins

The Flash has multiple daddy issues, and Tommy Merlyn's back! But is Barry Allen fast enough to juggle all those chaotic father figures? And does Oliver Queen's best friend's reappearance mean a lot more than it seems? Let's see what questions and lessons DC TV had for the viewers last week.

1. The Flash has three dads—kinda—and one of them is EVIL.

Henry Allen, Joe West, and Harrison Wells are each playing the mentor or father figure to Barry in different ways. Henry's the biological father who was wrongfully incarcerated for a murder he didn't commit, which heightens Barry's longing to have him in his life and see him in other ways besides prison visits, and Joe's also a father figure as the man who raised Barry after Henry's arrest. Harrison serves neither of these functions, but he's the scientist who oversees Barry's development as a superhuman and provides guidance in the use of his powers, which is pretty mentor-like, and he's an older male, so… y'know. But he stabbed a guy to death in the "Fastest Man Alive" episode, pretends like he can't walk when he totally can, and he knows more about what's going on with Central City's rise of the superhumans than he lets on, so I'm getting a sinister vibe from him, which means he probably won't still be a mentor to Barry by the time the season ends.

2. Tommy Merlyn's reappearance may usher in an era of many happy—and unhappy—returns.

Tommy Merlyn showed up in Hong Kong this season on Arrow in those five-year flashback sequences. This is how the character has "returned," so to speak, since the sequences take place back in time before the present day. As all we loyal Arrow viewers know, he died at the end of Season One as a victim of the quake that rocked Starling City. He was Oliver's best friend who perished after rubble fell on him during the disaster. The angst! The tears! The drama! But guess what? Ra's Al Ghul's showing up on the show later this season, which means we may see the Lazarus Pit, and it brings people back from the dead in the comics. So maybe someday we'll see zombie Lazarus Pit Tommy come back on the show! And maybe Moira! And SARA! Let's just hope those bodies weren't cremated…

Writer and videographer Hilton Collins loves sci-fi and fantasy wherever he finds it, whether it's in comic books, movies, books, short stories, TV shows, or video games. On the video side, he studies filmmaking, motion graphics, and animation; and on the writing side, he covers what he loves for Bleeding Cool and on his own blog, Imagination Unplugged (www.imaginationunplugged.com), a website about entertainment and self-help for creative professionals. He is @HiltonCollins on Twitter

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