It's been six months after Barry's Final Battle with the Reverse-Flash and the Singularity, he is now hailed as the hero of Central City. However, a new threat is emerging from the depths of another world.
For recap, see Recap.The Flash 2014.
Tropes in The Flash (2014) Season Two:
- Anvilicious: Episode 16 (Trajectory) is partially a cautionary example of the dangers of recreational drug use.
- Arch-Enemy: Zoom, for Barry. While Season 1's Reverse-Flash was a more personal enemy that shaped Barry's life ever since he killed Barry's mother and framed his father for it, the things Zoom does to Team Flash make his crimes against them look like playground disputes. By the end of the season, it's safe to say that Barry Allen hates Hunter Zolomon far more than he hates Eobard Thawne.
- Batman Gambit: Zoom created a time remnant to take his "Jay Garrick" persona and killed him to motivate Barry to become better in his honor. That was just to get a better Barry so Zoom can heal himself after robbing Barry's speed.
- Battle Trophy: Zoom took the real Jay Garrick as one after defeating him, holding him in a carbyne cell and with a mask that dampened his powers. He planned to do the same to Barry as well, until Barry defeated him.
- Break the Cutie: What this season ultimately accumulates when after Zoom's defeat, everything Barry's been put through, particularly losing his father to Hunter, Barry is left so broken and decides to finds some peace...by saving his mother.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: The Hunter Zolomon in Central City is never called Zoom or the Reverse-Flash...because his Earth-2 counterpart is the actual villain.
- Darker and Edgier: To Season 1.
- Doppelgänger: The theme of this season, which introduces the multiverse to the Arrowverse. The doppelgängers of several already-known characters play pivotal roles in this season.
- The Dreaded: Zoom. Every meta on Earth-2 is absolutely terrified of him, and he's already conquered his Central City, to the point that not even the police will oppose him. Earth-1 also came to fear him in similar fashion, especially after he decimated the Flash in their first fight
- Evil Twin/Evil Doppelgänger: Several doppelgängers from Earth-2 are evil versions of their Earth-1 counterparts, including Zoom. Played With in regards to Harry — while he certainly wasn't evil like last season's Wells, that Wells wasn't even the real Earth-1 Wells to begin with. Even then, he was much nicer than Harry.
- Failure Hero: The first season is tough on Barry in this regard. By the end of it Captain Cold has released all the Metahumans that Team Flash had captured, Barry is unable to defeat Reverse Flash and stop the singularity on his own resulting in Eddie and Ronnie respectively having to perform Heroic Sacrifices. This all takes a toll on Barry by the start of the second season.
- Foreshadowing:
- Everything regarding "Jay" and Zoom's history as enemies, specifically the inconsistencies, foreshadow The Reveal that they were really one and the same.
- The reappearance of the Reverse-Flash introduced the concept of Time Remnants, which would later on explain how Zoom could exist in two places at the same time.
- "Jay" mentioned that some people had different names from their counterparts on other Earths. While that wasn't the case for him (he simply lied about his name), it was the case for the real Jay Garrick, who is the Earth-3 counterpart to Henry Allen, Barry's father.
- In the comics, Hunter Zolomon/Zoom is the Reverse Flash of Wally West and wears a costume almost identical to Thawne's. Here he wears an all black costume with a mask. Foreshadowing his eventual fate as The Black Flash.
- Half-Arc Season: Roughly half of the episodes in this season's first half (both here and on Arrow) right up to the second annual crossover, sets up the plot of Legends of Tomorrow. Threads covered here involve finding a new Fusion Dance partner for Martin Stein, Cisco's relationship with Kendra Saunders, and the gradual reformation of Captain Cold.
- Hate Sink: Zoom, who is arguably the most vile villain in the entire Arrowverse. By the end of the season, Barry was just about ready to kill him, and absolutely no one would have held it against him — even his family and friends, who initially tried to hold him back from their final confrontation, were more concerned about whether or not Barry was in the right headspace to beat him than the fact that Barry wanted to kill him.
- Knight of Cerebus: Zoom is this to an even greater extent than the Reverse-Flash from Season 1. Best example would be in the early episodes where it is discussed how threatening he is. Then when he finally shows up he winds up breaking Barry's back parades it all throughout Central City for them to see, thus leaving them all in shock.
- Recycled Plot: A beloved mentor and ally turning out to be the season's Big Bad, and also impersonating the namesakes of those that Team Flash believes them to be. As if to lampshade this early on (before the audience even knew the truth), Barry was initally distrustful of "Jay" due to what happened last season and was only pushed into asking for his help after Patty was taken hostage by Sand Demon.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: Barry's supposed to be the all-loving The Cape, in contrast with Oliver's dark and gritty The Cowl... but in the first two episodes of the season Barry confronts the two poor bastards Zoom kidnapped to Earth-1 and, without batting an eye, straight up kills them. Atom Smasher gets lured into a nuclear reactor and blasted with fatal radiation and Sand Demon gets blasted into glass and Literally Shattered Lives. Whereas the first season had a major plot point of saving the villains in the pipeline from death at Thrawn!Wells's hands in the reactivated reactor, no one even comments on the deaths of minor villains here in early season two.
- The Worf Effect: To show off how dangerous he is, Zoom outright crushes Barry in their first battle, to the point of paralyzing him. It isn't until the very end of the season (literally the last three episodes) that Barry is finally able to match him.
- Worthy Opponent: By the end, Zoom came to view Barry as this, especially after learning about their similar backgrounds.
