*Spoiler alert*

After a month-long hiatus, The CW’s “The Flash” is back and at an all-time high. With only a few episodes left in its first season, this last one set in motion some major events for Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and his team at STAR Labs, making fans eager to see where the story of DC’s speedster superhero will go from here. 

When we left off last month, the show spent a lot of time on Barry’s adversary-turned-ally Ronnie Raymond/Firestorm (Robbie Amell). A nicely executed storyline involving this character’s struggle to separate his mind and body from that of Dr. Martin Stein (Victor Garber) made for a solid couple weeks. This arc also helped set the stage for DC’s recently announced spinoff series, which will also coincide with “Arrow.” 

Now the main narrative has shifted back to the identity of Barry’s arch nemesis the Reverse Flash, who made his debut in the show’s midseason finale. We now know that Barry’s mentor Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) is indeed the man in the yellow suit and that his real name is Eobard Thawne. That scene between him and Cisco (Carlos Valdes) in this episode really had me hooked. 

As soon as Wells revealed that he hails from the future, went back in time to murder Barry’s mother and is now trying to use him to get back to his own time, I knew the writers would delve into time travel before the episode ended. 

Sure enough, when Barry shared a moment with Iris (Candice Patton) and revealed his identity to her, his battle with the Weather Wizard forced him to run so fast that he ended up breaking the space/time continuum going back about a day or two in the past. This particular moment felt like a nod to the classic Richard Donner “Superman” where the man of steel goes back in time by flying around the Earth at lightning speed. 

Some might argue that this is too over the top, but that’s what I love about the show. Unlike “Arrow,” which tries to mimic the gritty tone of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, “The Flash” fully embraces its ridiculousness and makes for a high-adrenaline comic book adaptation that can only be described as pure fun. 

With a roster of metahuman villains that includes the Weather Wizard, Captain Cold and now Gorilla Grodd, “The Flash” is evidence that not every superhero story in this day and age has to be inexplicably cynical. While Nolan no doubt changed the way people look at superheroes and comic books, it’s irritating to see every other writer and filmmaker working in this genre feeling the need to follow in his footsteps. 

Another thing that’s great about this show is how it bridges the gap between an episodic format and an interwoven series of episodes. The main narrative centers around Barry’s mission to bring justice to his mother’s murderer, but more often than not each episode is its own story. 

My only concern here is that the show is moving too fast (pun intended) with its Reverse Flash arc. It took “Arrow” almost two seasons before we got to see Slade suit up and become Deathstroke, which worked great. It gave the writers time to build the relationship between Ollie and Slade before turning them against each other. 

Here, I was surprised to see Wells set up as the villain right from the pilot. I would’ve thought Greg Berlanti and the other showrunners would’ve waited till at least the end of the season to reveal this. Nevertheless, with how good the show has been so far, I trust that they have plans for what’s to come in season two. 

While I could do without some of the melodramatic romantic subplots, I can’t get enough of “The Flash” as a whole. Each week delivers a string of action sequences, intriguing characters and comic book storylines that captivate every fan boy.