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"The Race of His Life" is the twenty-third episode and season finale of the second season of the American television series The Flash, based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, a costumed superhero crime-fighter with the power to move at superhuman speeds, and follows Allen, a crime scene investigator who gains super-human speed, which he uses to fight criminals, including others who have also gained superhuman abilities. It is set in the Arrowverse, sharing continuity with the television series Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow. The episode was written by Aaron Helbing and Todd Helbing, and directed by Antonio Negret.

"The Race of His Life" originally aired on The CW on May 24, 2016, and was watched by 3.35 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research. The episode received generally positive reviews.

Plot
Barry Allen, filled with anger after the death of his father at the hands of Hunter Zolomon, faces the latter. They fight through the streets of Central City with Hunter managing to escape Barry by creating a time remnant. After Henry Allen's funeral, Hunter challenges Barry to a race to determine who is faster, threatening to kill everyone Barry loves if he refuses. Harrison Wells discovers Hunter is in possession of a magnetar, a stolen Mercury Labs device that will destroy every planet in the Multiverse except Earth-1 which requires both Barry and Hunter's speeds to power. When an enraged and vengeful Barry refuses to back out, the team locks him in the pipeline and decide to force Hunter back to Earth-2 themselves. The rest of the team (minus Wally West) decide to fool Hunter, who is still in love with Caitlin Snow, with a hologram of the latter to distract him while Cisco Ramon creates an opening to send him back through a vibe breach to Earth-2. The plan goes wrong and Hunter abducts Joe in the process.

Wally discovers this and learns that the team will not do anything to save Joe since they had promised to deal with all the consequences of the operation without looking back. Wally does not agree, and frees Barry, who decides to race Hunter. With Cisco's powers, Barry gets in touch with Hunter from Earth-1 and tells him he accepts his challenge, but as long as Joe is freed. The latter returns to Earth-1 with Hunter. As Barry races Hunter around the magnetar, he creates a time remnant of himself who frees Joe and destroys the machine, but at the cost of his life. The "prime" Barry defeats Hunter, who is then taken away by Time Wraiths for his crimes against the timeline. Barry rescues the man in the iron mask, who is revealed to be the real Jay Garrick, Henry's Earth-3 doppelgänger. Wells and Jesse return to Earth-2 with Jay, who plans to return to Earth-3 from there.

Barry and Iris West, confess their feelings and kiss, but nevertheless Barry decides that he is not ready to be in a relationship after everything that has happened. Iris grants him his space, and tells him she will wait for him until he's ready. Barry, still feeling broken and defeated, travels back in time to the night Eobard Thawne killed his mother. Barry attacks Thawne, and stops him from killing Nora Allen. After saving his mother, Barry sees his old self from season one (when he previously had the opportunity to save her but did not) disappear due to the changes to the timeline that Barry has now created. Barry turns to his mother, who is in a state of shock over what has happened, and reassures her that she is safe.

Development

 * Comic sneak peek:
 * http://ew.com/article/2016/05/20/spoiler-room-scoop-flash-blindspot-wayward-pines-spoilers/?xid=entertainment-weekly_socialflow_twitter
 * http://www.tvguide.com/special/finale-preview/spoilers/
 * http://www.eonline.com/photos/18668/2016-tv-finale-spoiler-rama/693616
 * http://tvline.com/gallery/may-sweeps-spoilers-2016-finale-episodes-photos/#!12/flash-may-sweeps/
 * http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/flash-season-2-finale-showrunner-teases-epic-showdown-what-expect-upcoming-episodes-1557571
 * http://www.eonline.com/news/767493/grant-gustin-warns-the-flash-s-season-2-finale-is-about-to-break-your-heart
 * http://tvline.com/2016/05/19/the-flash-season-2-finale-grant-gustin-video-preview/
 * http://comicbook.com/dc/2016/05/19/grant-gustin-promises-the-flash-wont-lose-his-optimism-after-dev/
 * http://www.cbr.com/barry-will-maintain-his-optimism-in-the-flash-season-3-says-grant-gustin/
 * http://www.ibtimes.com/flash-season-2-finale-spoilers-grant-gustin-promises-emotional-ending-teases-barrys-2371821
 * http://ew.com/article/2016/05/02/flash-season-2-finale-spoilers-carlos-valdes/
 * http://tvline.com/2016/04/27/the-flash-man-in-the-iron-mask-identity-season-2-finale/
 * http://ew.com/article/2016/04/12/flash-zoom-hunter-zolomon-teddy-sears-spoilers/

Casting
Main cast members Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Keiynan Lonsdale, Tom Cavanagh and Jesse L. Martin all appear in the episode as Barry Allen / Flash, Iris West, Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon / Vibe, Wally West, Harrison Wells, and Joe West, respectively. In addition, guest cast for the episode include Teddy Sears as Hunter Zolomon / Zoom, Violett Beane as Jesse Chambers Wells, Michelle Harrison as Nora Allen, and John Wesley Shipp as Henry Allen; all are recurring characters for the series. Shipp also portrays Jay Garrick from Earth-3.

Filming

 * April 7, 2016
 * http://www.whatsfilming.ca/2016/04/09/the-flash-season-2-finale-filming-with-barry-allen-and-iris-west/
 * concluded on April 18, 2016
 * ADR: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFhkNebAVHJ/?taken-by=grantgust

Ratings
It was also the 11th most watched of the week in the 18-49 demographic and the 47th most watched overall of the week. Within a week of its release, the episode was watched by 4.85 million U.S. viewers, and had a rating of 1.9 in the 18–49 demographic.

Critical response

 * http://ew.com/recap/the-flash-season-2-finale/
 * http://nerdist.com/the-flash-season-finale-review-the-race-of-his-life/
 * C: http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/uneven-season-flash-comes-messy-end-237174
 * 3/5: http://collider.com/the-flash-season-2-finale-recap-the-race-of-his-life/
 * https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/05/25/the-flash-season-2-episode-23-review-the-race-of-his-life/#50927ed237c9
 * 8.3/10: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2016/05/25/the-flash-the-race-of-his-life-review
 * 3/5: http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/the-flash/255684/the-flash-season-2-finale-review-the-race-of-his-life
 * http://screencrush.com/the-flash-season-2-finale-review-flashpoint/
 * http://television.thedigitalfix.com/content/id/2990/the-flash-223-the-race-of-his-life.html
 * http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/05/25/the-flash-review-2.23-the-race-of-his-life
 * 3.5/5: http://www.nerdhq.com/the-flash-the-race-of-his-life-review/
 * 4/5: http://www.vulture.com/2016/05/flash-recap-season-2-episode-23.html
 * http://www.polygon.com/tv/2016/5/25/11768906/the-flash-season-2-finale-recap

Accolades

 * http://collider.com/tv-performer-of-the-week-grant-gustin-the-flash/

Analysis

 * http://www.spoilertv.com/2016/05/the-flash-season-2-finale-post-mortem.html