Who’s Zoomin’ Who on The Flash?

(With all due respect to the great Aretha Franklin!)

We’ve been waiting all season for answers about Zoom on Season 2 of The Flash, and we finally got some in this week’s new episode, “Versus Zoom.” As The Flash After Show host Adam Kruger so distinctly put it,”This dude is one messed up dude.”

Complete with a tragic back story, no less. Young Hunter Zolomon saw his mother killed in front of him just like Barry Allen. But unlike the Fastest Man Alive, whose dad was unjustly framed for his wife’s death, Hunter’s father actually did the deed.

Kruger’s co-host, Jack Hind, summed it up like this on this week’s edition of The Flash After Show:

Hunter Zolomon is what the Flash would be if his dad did actually kill his mom. So technically on Earth-2, Hunter Zolomon is the Flash, is Barry.

His origin certainly shocked the hosts (as well as his name tongue-tying Jack), with his family members turning their backs on him after having to bear witness to his dad’s unpseakable crime. But that was far from the only revelation about Zoom we got.

He’s Fast, but Not Four Times Faster Than The Flash

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A constant theme of The Flash through almost two complete seasons is that Barry needs to get faster. The idea that our hero isn’t really the Fastest Man Alive yet is something we’ve discussed in this space and seems to be Pet Peeve No. 1 for The Flash After Show host Devon Stewart.

Thanks to the tachyon accelerator, the Flash boosted his speed in “Versus Zoom” to the point where he was running four times faster than his previous best. Our hosts still had a problem with the internal logic of the series — launching into a semi-off topic debate about the speed of light — but at least we discovered it made Barry faster than Zoom.

So what’s Zoom’s top speed? No one had a radar gun on him, but we do know that it’s less than four times as fast as Barry without the tachyon device. And that’s something.

Of course, as a viewer pointed out during the live show, Zoom took 100 percent of Barry’s speed in the final segment of “Versus Zoom.” That means Barry may need to get faster still before the end of Season 2 — and that a calculator and/or slide rule may be required to keep track of all this soon!

He’s Not Going Back to Undo His Origin

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When Barry first became the Flash, his primary mission was to find some way of clearing his dad’s name, and later, to actually get a chance to go back and prevent his mother’s death. Zolomon? Uh, no, not exactly.

Zoom revealed that he has enough speed and knowledge to travel through time when he explained to Barry and friends about how he fooled Caitlin Snow with “Jay Garrick.” Specifically, he grabbed a leftover time remnant version of himself and persuaded him to go along with his scheme,

So as out hosts pointed out on The Flash After Show, Zolomon could go back and prevent his dad from killing his mom. He just doesn’t give a … well Carolina Bonetti stopped herself from saying it on the live show, so we won’t say it here either.

Here’s how Adam summed up Zoom:

He’s not going back in time to try to stop the murder, because then he doesn’t end up becoming Zoom, he doesn’t end up with the powers. He’s a total sociopath. He wants to murder people, he just wants to be as fast as possible and do what he wants to do. I don’t think he’s trying to save anybody.

Jack disagreed, but either way, Zolomon is one scary guy. More straight up evil than Eobard Thawne in Season 1, for sure.

He May Have Some of the Black Flash About Him

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One of the more interesting ongoing theories about Zoom that The Flash After Show hosts have discussed this season is that he may be somehow combined with the Black Flash. There are visual cues about his costume that obviously suggest that, and then Zolomon did the creepy, “You can’t lock up the darkness” thing this week on top of that.

Let’s back up a half step. In the comics, Black Flash is essentially Death for speedsters, like the Grim Reaper for people with a connection to the Speed Force. He’s a primal force of sorts that shows up when it’s time for a speedster to die, ushering them into a Speed Force afterlife.

All of the hosts seem to agree that this could be the additional element that makes Zoom who he is, an aspect responsible for his tremendous speed and his weird, almost dual personality. Could there be some humanity left inside Zolomon that is fighting for control against an aspect of Death itself — which is attracted to Hunter precisely because he’s responsible for and around the dead so often? It’s a fascinating question.

It’s also one that isn’t likely to be revealed until Season 2 has completed its run. “Versus Zoom” answered a few questions, but it raised just as many. Hold on tight for the next few weeks.

Do you think Zoom is a victim or a monster? Were you as upset as the hosts about the nearly complete dismissal of the Supergirl crossover? What is the correct numerical value of the speed of light anyway? Be sure to tweet your questions and comments with the hashtag #TheFlashAS to make your voice heard!

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @theStreamtv and The Flash After Show hosts:

Adam Kruger – @TheAdamKruger
Devon Stewart – @DevonDStewart
Jack Hind – @JackHind
Carolina Bonetti – @CarolinaBonetti

theStream.tv Fan Show Network presents The Flash After Show. Tune in each week, live or on demand, for review and conversation about CW’s The Flash! At the helm of the show are writers & producers Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and DC Comics CCO Geoff Johns who help bring this DC Superhero to life. The series is produced by CW and is a spinoff of their popular DC Superhero show, Arrow. The Flash, tells the story of Barry Allen after witnessing his mother’s strange murder and his father’s wrongful conviction for the crime. Allen becomes a brilliant but socially awkward crime scene investigator for the Central City Police Department. After being struck by lightning from a storm and doused with chemicals in his lab, he enters a nine-month coma, and when he wakes up he discovers he has the ability to move at superhuman speeds. Harrison Wells, the disgraced designer of the failed accelerator which caused the storm, describes Barry’s special nature as “metahuman”. Allen soon discovers that he is not the only one changed by the radiation, vowing to use his gifts to protect Central City from the escalating violence of metahuman criminals. In the series, The Flash will face metahumans from the DC universe including Weather Wizard, Multiplex, The Mist, Captain Cold, The General, Girder, and Blackout. Barry Allen is aided by a few close friends and associates who guard his secrets.
If you’re a fan of the DC and the show then tune in each week for the live after show. #TheFlashAS

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