[Author’s note: I apologize for the uncharacteristic lack of pictures in this episode review, as there are not many screen captures available and I was not able to take my own.]

The Flash Season 2 premiered on Tuesday! Eek!

I quickly became a fan of The Flash last season and even though it’s not a flawless show, it’s definitely a fun ride. Season 1 left us with a little bit of a cliffhanger, so how did the premiere of Season 2 go?

Well…it was okay. Not bad, even. Maybe not as splashy or as punchy or exciting as I’d hoped it would be, but I’m not really sure what I was expecting.

The episode begins where it’s obvious that Barry is going through what many superheroes go through at some point or another: they realize that their loved ones will get hurt when they do what they’ve gotta do. In this case, Barry managed to save the day at the end of season 1…but at the expense of Ronnie’s life, which was a crippling blow to Caitlin, who had of course just gotten him back. So Barry is still doing his whole Flash thing, but as a one-man-band now.

Obviously the rest of his crew is not really down with this. While Caitlin is throwing herself at work, Sisco is working closely with Joe at the police station and naturally Wells/Thawne and Eddie are no longer in the picture due to last season’s events. Iris…well, she’s still Iris. Gosh I hope she’s less annoying this season, but I’m not holding my breath.

After some trepidation, Barry decides to go to this Flash day thing the town is holding but ends up in a serious situation with a new bad guy that’s shown himself: it’s none other than the Atom Smasher, Albert Rothstein. He’s very powerful and very strong and makes quite a show of laying The Flash out. Sisco’s gear isn’t able to touch him, either.

There’s also a bunch of other crap going on, like the aftermath of Wells/Thawne’s death. S.T.A.R. Labs now belongs to Barry and to top it off, Wells left some pretty solid evidence of his murder case behind, freeing Barry’s father (who promptly decides to exit the picture…what?)

The crew slowly assembles to help Barry beat the Atom Smasher, there are some vague references to Zoom, and at the end of the episode Jay Garrick randomly walks into S.T.A.R Labs with a strange declaration.

So…this episode raises a ton of questions, obviously. Why did Ronnie die? Why did Dr. Stein live? Who is this Zoom guy and why does he have it out for Barry?

Even bigger questions: Where’s the impact or drama with Barry’s dad (like seriously? Dad gets released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit and just kinda skips town?) It explains why he won’t be in every episode but I feel like there were much better ways to accomplish this. It basically has zero impact on Barry right now and…it just seems like such an important thing!

The next big question of course is what kind of impact Jay will have, since he also has Flash powers (canonically speaking.) How is that all going to work?

Finally, we know now that Caitlin is Killer Frost, and Sisco is Vibe. When are we going to see them develop their powers this season? That part is kind of exciting.

I guess…we’ll just have to wait and see. Which is kind of the same thing I was saying at the end of the Season 1 finale.

I’m going to give this episode a B. It’s great to have the Flash back, but I really wish some points of the execution had been better thought out.