"The Flash" episode 2 is met with better reviews compared to the premiere episode, with a flashback of young Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) questioning his father's imprisonment and Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) acting like his second father. Moreover, the superhero fights a villain who can make an army of clones.
Entertainment Weekly says that "The Flash" is adapting the same flashback style as "Arrow," the series where Allen's character was introduced. According to the article, the flashback is integral to letting viewers understand the tense relationship between Allen and West in the present. In the second episode, entitled "Fastest Man Alive," fans are treated to a younger Allen who wants to visit his father in prison for killing his mother. Allen goes as far as running away to go to prison despite West's refusal.
Back to the present and Allen is dealing with smaller, duller, events while a metahuman is not in sight. Buddy TV explains, "Barry is a red-suited crime-fighting crusader, running around Central City to rescue people from burning houses and robberies, but he's still working out the kinks with his team."
Things start to heat up when Allen rescues a security guard from being shot at a robbery, though he has one of his dizzy spells and faints afterwards. Back at the lab, Superhero Hype mentions Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) mentioning her fiancé named "Ronnie," who is predicted to be Firestorm. After hearing that he needs to eat more to catch up to his metabolism, Allen has West scolding him for his "recent activities," which makes West worry. Allen repeats what he has said as a child, that Joe is not his father.
Elsewhere, Danton Black (Michael Christopher Smith), the villain of the episode who can clone himself, meets with Simon Stagg (William Sadler) who apparently stole his research. Eventually, Stagg meets with West and Eddie (Rick Cosnett), but not before long Black is in the scene multiplying and intending to kill. Barry comes just in time to remove West from the scene, returns, and "gets his ass handed to him," relays Entertainment Weekly.
Allen finds himself with confidence problems, which is remedied by West telling him that the police cannot handle Black, but he can. Allen finds the "alpha clone" after some difficulty, which ends in Black falling to his death despite Allen trying to save him.
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