Not only is the CW's The Flash on a month-long hiatus(!), it leaves us with one mystery resolved (ish) and another outstanding. On last week's episodes, we finally saw the true face of Zoom, this season's big bad speedster, and it's Jay Garrick...maybe. But ever since we met the supposed Earth 1 Zolomon Hunter (who in the comics is Zoom's alter ego), it was not necessarily a shock to find Jay Garrick's face under that mask. The more intriguing mystery is the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask in Zoom's lair. Kudos to the writers of the The Flash for creating an ancillary mystery that somehow supersedes the season's main mystery. The show continues to be really smart about doling out enough information to keep audiences hooked.
At this point because we don't have all the information the Zoom reveal is frustrating and confusing for a couple of reasons. First, since we are dealing with alternate universes, most of our characters have at least one doppleganger running around. All season, we had a supposedly heroic Jay Garrick visiting from Earth 2 working with our Star Labs crew and helping to mentor the Flash. This Jay was apparently killed by Zoom when the last breach was closed and last week we saw his body dumped unceremoniously in Zoom's lair. We know that Zoom's killing of this Jay Garrick is consequential to Zoom's plan for some reason. So, unless there is a third Jay Garrick running around due to being a twin, being from yet another universe or time travel, it is likely that Earth 1 Zolomon Hunter is Zoom, who is somehow based out of Earth 2 in his efforts to steal the speed force from the multiverse's speedsters. Perhaps he was drawn to Earth 2 because its resident speedster is his doppleganger.
So, was Jay Garrick actually Zoom or Team Zoom the whole time? I hope not as this would essentially be a replay of last season's awesome Reverse Flash reveal. I doubt that they would do this exact story again. Despite the fact that they have seeded the story with some doubts as to Jay Garrick's honesty and integrity, I think Jay was who he said he was: the heroic Flash of Earth 2. I do think that sometimes when we were seeing Jay Garrick on Earth 1, it was actually Zoom pretending to be him, probably to manipulate Caitlin into creating Velocity 9. It would probably be worthwhile to rewatch some of Jay's episodes to see if there are some hints of Jay not actually being Jay. This would explain Zoom's line about how Jay's death "complicates" his plan. If he can no longer pretend to be Jay on Earth 1, he will have a harder time getting the Velocity 9.
Then, who is the Man in the Iron Mask? There is evidence that it is a blond Caucasian man. I'm wagering that since his face is covered it is someone we would recognize, so the suspects are likely yet another Jay Garrick, a version of Eddie Thawne, or Henry Allen. The only reason it would be Eddie Thawne would be that we have not yet seen his doppleganger but other than that there is no reason to suspect it might be him.
The iron mask might be a hint to Jay Garrick as the literary story of The Man in the Iron Mask features a wicked brother who keeps his good twin in an iron mask and this character does spell out the name "Jay" in a military code. The MitIM also seems really frustrated about something relating to Jay Garrick. This seems to be where it is going but, man, another Jay Garrick?
The more interesting option is Earth 1 Henry Allen, who has been awol after mysteriously and uncharacteristically taking off after being released from prison at the beginning of the season. I would like to think that this plot point is leading to something and not just the bad writing that it seems to be. Also, when Barry and company were traveling to Earth 2 through the multiverse portal, one of the images was of John Wesley Shipp in his 1990 Flash costume which cements something hinted at for a while: the continuity of the 1990 show actually exists in the CW Flash multiverse (as I assume would all of the various DC movies and TV shows from over the years). This is why Mark Hamil and Amanda Pays are playing essentially alternate versions of the same characters they did in the old show. So, if Zoom is collecting speedsters from the multiverse, it is possible that the Man in the Mask is actually the 1990 show version of Barry Allen played by Shipp and that Henry Allen's disappearance is somehow linked to the fact that he is the doppleganger of this version of Barry Allen (for all we know, Henry Allen's first name could actually Barry).
But it's probably another Jay Garrick.
Patrick Garone
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