"Every kid dreams of being a superhero. Having powers. Saving people. But no kid thinks about what it's like when you're a hero and you're not saving people. Truth is... not much else changes. You still hurt. You still love. You still wish and hope and fear things. And you still need people to help you with all of it. In some ways, that's the best part."

—Barry Allen

"Fastest Man Alive" is the second episode of the first season of The Flash, and the second episode overall. It aired on October 14, 2014.

Synopsis

Barry escorts Iris to a university gathering honoring scientist Simon Stagg. When six gunmen storm the event, Barry changes into The Flash and tries to stop them. While he does save a man's life, he passes out before he can capture the robbers, which frustrates him. As Dr. Wells, Caitlin and Cisco scramble to find out what's wrong with Barry, Joe comes down hard on Barry for taking the law into his own hands and risking his life. Barry realizes that it wasn't six gunmen but a meta-human named Danton Black, who can make multiple copies of himself. Meanwhile, Iris becomes even more intrigued by the "red streak".[src]

Plot

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With help from Cisco, Barry begins using his abilities to stop minor crimes and help citizens across the city. As Barry begins to push himself more and more, he begins to develop debilitating side effects. While assisting Iris on a school assignment, Barry witnesses a robbery by a crew of men, but faints while trying to stop them. The S.T.A.R. Labs team determine that Barry is becoming hypoglycemic from the use of his abilities due to a sped-up metabolism and needs to ingest more calories to maintain his energy level. The team eventually learns that the robbers are actually one man, Danton Black, who has the ability to create clones of himself. Black wants to kill his former employer, Simon Stagg, who stole Black's cloning research. With encouragement from Joe, Barry goes after Black and successfully stops him from killing Stagg. However, Black commits suicide to prevent being captured. Afterward, Barry accepts Joe's help in finding out who really killed Barry's mother. Later, Wells visits Stagg, who has already become obsessed with the Flash after witnessing his powers and plans to exploit him as he did to Black. To protect Barry, Wells gets out of his wheelchair and kills Stagg.

Cast

Starring

• Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Streak
• Candice Patton as Iris West
• Danielle Panabaker as Dr. Caitlin Snow
• Rick Cosnett as Detective Eddie Thawne
• Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
• Tom Cavanagh as Dr. Harrison Wells
• Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West

Guest starring

• Patrick Sabongui as Captain David Singh
• Michael Christopher Smith as Danton Black/Multiplex
• William Sadler as Simon Stagg
• John Wesley Shipp as Dr. Henry Allen

Co-starring

• Michasha Armstrong as Java
• Evelyn Chew as Woman
• Emily Delahunty as Paige
• Amina Elkatib as Young Iris
• Eli Gabay as Fire Chief
• Suzanne Ristic as Tenant
• Patrick Roccas as Prison Guard
• Ronald Patrick Thompson as Samaritan
• Seth Whittaker as Security Guard
• Logan Williams as Young Barry

Trivia

• At S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco built a treadmill designed to handle Barry's speed. This is possibly a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Cosmic Treadmill built by Barry in the original comics to travel through time.
• Barry's metabolism weakness is first seen in this episode. Much like the 1990s TV series The Flash and the comics, Barry needs to eat massive amounts of calories to replace the energy he uses while running. Failing to do so will cause dizzy spells and eventually shock from low blood sugar.
• Stagg Industries and Simon Stagg played a part in the origin of the superhero Metamorpho in the comics.
• Hex's Gun Shop is probably a reference to Jonah Hex, a hero who uses guns. Jonah Hex later appear on DC's Legends of Tomorrow, another Arrowverse show.
  • Alternatively, the word "hex" is the Greek word for "six", a probable reference to the plot point that six men (Multiplex and five clones) rob the store.
• At the start of the episode, the CCFD firemen who report that they're en route to the burning building respond as "ladder 52". This is likely a reference to the DC New 52 comic book line (a universe resulting from the Flashpoint story line), which The Flash is largely based on.
• The blue lines on the ski mask Multiplex wears is reminiscent of his original mask from the comics.
• Wells tells Barry he's become a cripple in a wheelchair and a Pariah. This is a future reference since in 2019-2020 and for Season 6, six years later in the Arrowverse crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths, a version of Wells actually become the character known in the DC comics as Pariah.
• This is the first episode of the Arrowverse in which Stephen Amell does not appear as Oliver Queen at all, after his initial appearance in "Pilot" to promote Arrow after its Season 2 backdoor pilot/s "The Scientist" & "Three Ghosts".

Goofs

• At the end when Wells is sitting in front of Stagg, he takes off his glasses. When camera angle changes to the back of Wells, facing Stagg, Wells now has his glasses back on. When the camera changes to face Wells again, he's holding his glasses in his hand again.
• While Team Flash explains how Danton can clone himself, they never go into how Danton can clone his clothes and shoes, but not a gun.
• Cisco says that Barry will need to eat the equivalent of 850 tacos, which would be somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000 calories a day. However, in "Worlds Finest", Barry states he needs to consume approximately 10,000 calories a day.
• While in most scenes in Barry's lab there are notes on the map of Central City covering the City Centre, later when Iris asks Barry why didn't meet her at Jitters, the notes disappear for some scenes.

Gallery

Videos

References

The Flash season 1

"Pilot" • "Fastest Man Alive" • "Things You Can't Outrun" • "Going Rogue" • "Plastique" • "The Flash is Born" • "Power Outage" • "Flash vs. Arrow" • "The Man in the Yellow Suit" • "Revenge of the Rogues" • "The Sound and the Fury" • "Crazy for You" • "The Nuclear Man" • "Fallout" • "Out of Time" • "Rogue Time" • "Tricksters" • "All Star Team Up" • "Who is Harrison Wells?" • "The Trap" • "Grodd Lives" • "Rogue Air" • "Fast Enough"