Chapter Summaries

Joe uncovered a suspicious link between Harrison Wells, Tess Morgan’s sealed car accident, and Nora Allen’s murder, then left for Star City to investigate. As Mark Mardon threatened Central City with a tsunami to draw out Barry, Yang Ming forced Barry to wear a dangerous heart-rate device before he raced to stop him, and Yang Ming followed.

• Joe learned that Harrison Wells moved to Central City shortly after Tess Morgan died in a deliberately erased Star City car accident, one month before Nora Allen was murdered.
• Joe obtained three days’ leave from Singh and headed to Star City to investigate the accident.
• Wells questioned Yang Ming about his unusual handling of explosives, and Yang Ming deflected the probe while advising Wells to exercise his legs.
• Mark Mardon attacked a Central City mall, declared that he was Clyde’s brother, and demanded that the runner in red face him or the city would be buried.
• Yang Ming warned Barry that his elevated heart rate made him unfit to face Mark and gave him a device that would paralyze him if his heart rate exceeded 120.
• Barry put on the device and raced toward the tsunami, while Yang Ming asked Cisco for its center’s coordinates and prepared to follow.

Barry mastered a calmer use of the Speed Force, stopped Mark Mardon’s tsunami, and captured him. In Star City, Joe West discovered that bones buried at the scene of a fifteen-year-old crash belonged to Harrison Wells, suggesting the man posing as Wells was the real murderer.

• Barry steadied his mind as the tsunami approached, and the ring’s heart-rate restriction switched off.
• Barry used his transformed Speed Force to break apart Mark Mardon’s tsunami, then knocked Mark unconscious and caught him.
• Joe West obtained the file on Tess Morgan’s and Harrison Wells’s crash from Captain Quentin Lance and found it had been stripped of evidence.
• Joe and Lance dug up a skeleton at the crash site, and Joe recognized its pelvic features as male.
• Lance gave Joe DNA results matching the skeleton to Harrison Wells with 99.99% certainty, and Joe concluded that the man in Central City was the real murderer.

Joe West learned that Harrison Wells was an impostor named Eobard Thawne, and Yang Ming explained Thawne’s plan to use Barry to return to the future. Yang Ming arranged a covert plan to protect Barry by keeping Joe’s suspicions hidden and leading Barry to uncover Wells’s lies, while Yang Ming considered where to go next.

• Joe West rejected Sheriff Lance’s plan to send federal agents after the speedster and went to seek Yang Ming’s help.
• Joe showed Yang Ming the report proving that the real Harrison Wells had died fifteen years earlier, and Yang Ming revealed he had long suspected the impostor.
• Yang Ming identified Wells as Eobard Thawne, a speedster from the future who had killed Nora Allen and was raising Barry to use his Speed Force to return home.
• Yang Ming warned Joe that Thawne would kill anyone who threatened his plan and instructed him to behave normally while secretly guiding Barry toward evidence against Wells.
• Yang Ming gave Joe files showing that Wells had approved the Particle Accelerator despite known risks, and planned to let Barry uncover Wells’s deceptions himself.
• After Joe left with the files, Yang Ming wondered whether to visit Green Lantern next.

Barry discovered that Harrison Wells had rejected a safety committee’s warning about the Particle Accelerator, and the evidence pushed him to investigate rather than confront Wells immediately. A hidden note in the report revealed that the lab had planned to observe Barry if an accident occurred.

• Joe let Barry examine a safety report showing a 74.3 percent risk of accelerator destabilization and Wells’s rejection of the recommendation to suspend the project.
• Barry made a copy of the report and brought it to S.T.A.R. Labs, where Cisco and Caitlin reacted to the findings.
• Yang Ming urged Barry to verify the evidence and gather more records before judging Wells, so Cisco searched old emails and Caitlin checked medical records.
• Barry’s forensic scan confirmed the report was authentic and uncovered an impression reading, “In the event of an accident, prioritize observation of test subject: Barry Allen.”

Barry investigated evidence that Dr. Wells may have faked his paralysis and been connected to Nora Allen’s murder, while Joe and Yang Ming guided his suspicions. Wells discovered Barry was investigating his past and realized the timeline had begun to shift, ending with Wells preparing to confront Yang Ming.

• Barry preserved encrypted copies of records showing Wells had marked him as a test subject before the Particle Accelerator accident.
• Yang Ming explained that Wells’s preserved leg muscles after fifteen years in a wheelchair suggested he was pretending to be paralyzed, and Joe gave Barry records about Wells’s Star City accident and move to Central City.
• Barry connected Wells’s accident to Nora Allen’s murder and questioned why Wells had changed his research focus after moving to Central City.
• At S.T.A.R. Labs, Wells noticed Barry’s guarded behavior and learned that Barry had searched old vehicle-transfer records from Star City.
• Wells secretly entered the Time Vault, where Gideon warned that Barry’s changing understanding of history was destabilizing the timeline.
• Wells blamed Yang Ming for helping Barry uncover the clues and vowed to test whether Yang Ming’s blade or his Speed Force was faster.

Barry confirmed that the man posing as Harrison Wells was an impostor, then confronted Reverse-Flash, who said his goal was to make Barry run faster. Reverse-Flash targeted Iris, and Barry arrived just in time to stand between them.

• Barry’s skeletal comparison software showed that the crash photograph and Wells’s profile matched only 12.4 percent, and Reverse-Flash confronted him in the forensics lab.
• Reverse-Flash destroyed the computer, escaped through a window, and lured Barry through Central City while naming Iris, Joe, Cisco, Caitlin, and Yang Ming as people on his board.
• Barry used construction materials in an unfinished subway tunnel to slow Reverse-Flash and landed a blow that forced him back half a step.
• Reverse-Flash raced to the Central City Daily and confronted Iris, disabling her phone when she tried to call for help.
• Barry reached Iris without his Costume and faced Reverse-Flash, while Iris recognized him and asked how he could run so fast.

Barry used Yang Ming’s training to wound Reverse-Flash, who revealed that he had been testing Barry so he could use his speed to return to the past. Reverse-Flash offered to help Barry travel back fifteen years and save his mother, leaving Barry to consider a deal with the man who killed her.

• Barry created a dust cloud, hid Iris behind a pillar, and used stationary objects to track Reverse-Flash’s movements.
• Iris tried to record the fight, and the light from her recorder distracted Barry as the black ring shocked him and disrupted his Speed Force.
• Barry used pain to overcome the paralysis and kicked rebar into Reverse-Flash’s side, wounding him even as Reverse-Flash struck Barry in the back.
• Reverse-Flash declared that Barry had passed his test and explained that he needed Barry’s speed to open a way home.
• Reverse-Flash offered to help Barry return fifteen years to save Nora Allen, and said they both wanted to return to their real home.

Reverse-Flash offered Barry a chance to save Nora Allen in exchange for help returning to the twenty-second century, leaving Barry torn over whether to accept. After telling Iris the truth about his powers and Doctor Wells, Barry went to Joe and Yang Ming for help and asked whether he should change the past.

• Reverse-Flash offered to help Barry save Nora Allen if Barry used his speed to stabilize a wormhole, then threatened him and vanished.
• Iris emerged from hiding and took Barry to Joe's house, where he told her about the Particle Accelerator, becoming the Flash, and Doctor Wells.
• Eddie arrived, and Barry learned from him that Joe and Yang Ming were at the Police Station working on something new.
• Barry ran to the Underground Autopsy Room and overheard Joe and Yang Ming discuss how he had discovered Wells's identity.
• Barry entered the room and asked Joe whether he should take a chance to change what happened fifteen years earlier.

Barry told Joe and Yang Ming that Reverse-Flash had offered to help him save Nora Allen if Barry helped him return home. After Yang Ming treated Barry’s wound and challenged him to consider the consequences of changing the past, he asked whether Barry had truly been tempted by the offer.

• Barry told Joe and Yang Ming that Reverse-Flash offered him a chance to save Nora Allen in exchange for helping him get home.
• Joe angrily warned Barry not to trust Reverse-Flash, while Barry pleaded that he wanted to save his mother and free his father.
• Yang Ming treated Barry’s back and explained that Reverse-Flash had only used him as a tool, not offered him an equal deal.
• Yang Ming asked Barry to imagine saving his father at the cost of his mother, then warned that changing the past could endanger many people.
• Yang Ming asked Barry to set aside his duties and expectations and say whether he had truly been tempted.

Barry struggled with whether to accept Eobard Thawne’s offer to return to the past and save Nora, then chose to confront Thawne rather than flee the present. At S.T.A.R. Labs, Wells revealed his true identity and activated the plan to send Barry fifteen years back.

• Barry admitted to Yang Ming and Joe that he wanted to go back in time to save his mother, and Yang Ming urged him to visit Henry before deciding.
• Henry warned Barry that Thawne would demand a price and reminded him not to sacrifice his present life or the people he had saved.
• After leaving Iron Heights, Barry decided to go back not to escape the present but to discover what Thawne wanted from him.
• At S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry agreed to help Wells open a way home, surprising Cisco and Caitlin.
• Wells stood from his wheelchair, revealed that he was Eobard Thawne from the twenty-second century, and admitted he had orchestrated the Particle Accelerator explosion.
• Thawne opened the hidden time-travel device and told Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry what roles they would play in sending Barry fifteen years into the past.

Thawne forced Cisco and Caitlin to stabilize his time machine so Barry could enter the past, where Barry witnessed Nora’s death and met his future self. The future Barry began to warn him about Yang Ming before flickering away, leaving the warning unfinished.

• Thawne revealed his identity and coerced Cisco and Caitlin into stabilizing the time machine as it threatened Central City.
• Yang Ming prepared Barry with a neuroprotectant and a black Ring, and Barry promised Joe he would come home for dinner.
• Cisco activated the device, and Barry ran into the time tunnel and arrived at his childhood home on the night Nora died.
• Barry’s future self rescued young Barry but warned the present Barry not to interfere; Barry stayed with Nora as she died and told her about his family.
• Future Barry returned badly destabilized and tried to warn Barry about someone dying, then began saying Yang Ming’s name before flickering away.

Barry destroyed Thawne’s Time Machine rather than rewrite his past, then worked with his friends to capture Thawne. A week later, Yang Ming left for Coast City after Barry revealed that his future self had warned him to stop Yang Ming and not let someone die.

• Barry returned from the past and destroyed the Time Machine Core, while Yang Ming redirected its runaway energy into an unused quarry.
• Thawne attacked Barry, but Cisco’s Inversion Oscillator briefly slowed him, allowing Yang Ming to inject him with a Neural Blocker and Barry to lock him in the Containment Chamber.
• Barry told Thawne he chose his life with Joe, Cisco, Caitlin, and Yang Ming, then cried in Joe’s embrace after Thawne was contained.
• A week later, Yang Ming prepared to leave Central City for Coast City and said goodbye to Cisco, Caitlin, Joe, and Barry.
• Barry told Yang Ming that his future self had warned him not to let someone die and to stop Yang Ming, then promised he would get there first when the future came.

Yang Ming arrived in Coast City to find Hal Jordan, but Abin Sur’s dying Green Lantern Ring chose him instead. After Abin Sur died, Yang Ming hid his body, Power Battery, and Spaceship Core and decided to deliver the ring to Hal the next day.

• Yang Ming arrived at the Bay Hotel, where the Green Lantern Ring seized him and carried him to the coast.
• Abin Sur crashed his spacecraft near Coast City while fleeing Parallax, and his ring initially searched for Hal Jordan before changing course to Yang Ming.
• Yang Ming examined Abin Sur, refused to keep the ring, and listened as Abin Sur warned that Parallax had escaped and threatened the universe.
• After Abin Sur died, Yang Ming stored his body, the Power Battery, and the Spaceship Core, then escaped through a pink doorway before the military arrived.
• Yang Ming returned to his hotel, wrote down Hal Jordan’s name, and planned to give him the ring the next day.

Yang Ming went to Ferris Aircraft to find Hal Jordan and deliver the Green Lantern Ring, then discovered Wade Wilson was waiting outside Hal’s home to kill him over his resemblance to Ryan Reynolds. The ring rejected Wade as mentally unstable, and Yang Ming was left facing Wade’s demand that they kill Hal.

• Yang Ming learned Hal Jordan had been suspended after a dangerous test flight and used a police document to get Hal’s address.
• The Green Lantern Ring recognized the address, and Yang Ming traveled to Hal’s home after reviewing fragments of Abin Sur’s warning about Parallax.
• Yang Ming found Wade Wilson hiding in a tree and learned Wade had come to kill Hal because Hal had the face Wade wanted.
• The Green Lantern Ring scanned Wade and warned that his abnormal mental structure made an energy connection inadvisable.
• Wade drew his swords and demanded that Yang Ming help him kill Hal, but Yang Ming told him to put them away.

Yang Ming stopped Wade from killing Hal and hired him to torment Hal into accepting a Green Lantern Ring. After Hal put on the ring and recited its oath, the Green Lantern Corps officially recruited him.

• Wade tried to kill Hal, but Yang Ming defeated him and paid him one million dollars to frighten Hal instead.
• Wade haunted Hal for three days, keeping him from sleeping until Hal hired an exorcist.
• Yang Ming gave Hal a Green Lantern Ring and power battery, claiming they would protect him from Wade.
• Hal recited the Green Lantern oath, and the ring assessed his willpower and fear before issuing him an official recruitment notice.

Hal Jordan was recruited to the Green Lantern Corps and transported to Oa while carrying Abin Sur’s corpse, which Yang Ming had sent through a portal. On Oa, Hal resisted a burst of Parallax’s fear energy and became a new recruit, but Sinestro ordered him to explain Abin Sur’s death and Yang Ming’s involvement.

• The Green Lantern Ring summoned Hal and carried him away from Earth after Yang Ming sent Abin Sur’s body into his arms.
• Hal arrived on Oa with Abin Sur’s corpse, and the Green Lanterns restrained him while confirming Abin was dead.
• Hal told Kilowog and Sinestro that an Asian exorcist named Yang had put the corpse in his arms.
• Sinestro exposed lingering yellow energy in Abin Sur’s wound, and it forced Hal to relive his father’s fatal crash.
• Hal acknowledged his fear and used the Green Lantern Ring to crush the yellow energy.
• Sinestro made Hal a Sector 2814 recruit and ordered him to explain Abin Sur’s death, Parallax’s trail, and Yang Ming’s role.

Hal struggled with fear and failure during his first week of Green Lantern training, then resigned and returned to Earth. Back in Coast City, he found that the ring could not analyze Yang Ming and warned him not to make contact.

• Hal met Tomar-Re on Oa and learned that his request to resign was denied.
• At Abin Sur’s memorial, Sinestro challenged Hal’s worthiness and criticized his impulsiveness.
• During training, Hal’s fear of his father’s crash disrupted his constructs, and Kilowog and Sinestro repeatedly defeated him.
• After a week of failures, Hal decided he did not belong in the Corps and used the ring to return to Earth.
• A wisp of yellow energy from Abin’s wounds slipped into the darkness behind Sinestro.
• Hal crashed through his repaired roof in Coast City, then asked his ring to locate Yang Ming; it classified him as a high-risk life-form and advised Hal to avoid contact.

Yang Ming confronted Hal Jordan about the Green Lantern Ring and revealed that a fear-feeding monster called Parallax was heading for Earth. After Hal broke down over his failures, Yang Ming showed him Parallax consuming a planet and challenged him to rise and use the ring to protect Coast City.

• Hal complained that the ring could not locate Yang Ming, and Carol asked him about his trip to Oa.
• Yang Ming arrived at Hal’s home, where Hal attacked him with a giant green fist and Yang Ming struck Hal in the abdomen first.
• Yang Ming explained that he had arranged for Hal to get the ring because he needed Hal to become a Green Lantern and help defend Earth.
• Hal said he was too afraid and unworthy to wield the ring, while Carol tried to comfort him.
• Yang Ming showed Hal and Carol footage of Parallax devouring a planet and told Hal to prepare to protect Earth or watch it fall.

Yang Ming confronted Hal Jordan with the truth about his fear and challenged him to choose whether to act as a hero. After Hal saved a cruise ship from a gravitational vortex, he regained his resolve and left for Oa to warn the Green Lantern Corps about Parallax.

• Yang Ming told Hal that his failures stemmed from his father's crash and that courage meant acting despite fear, then left Hal to make his own choice.
• Hal's ring warned that a gravitational anomaly was pulling the Neptune and its 342 passengers toward the reefs, and Yang Ming challenged him to respond.
• Hal flew to the ship and used enormous green hands to lift it clear of the waves and set it down safely offshore.
• Hal returned to Yang Ming and Carol, thanked Yang Ming, and said he had learned how to hold on to his ring's power.
• Hal announced he would return to Oa to warn the Green Lantern Corps about Parallax and prove that Earthlings were not deserters.

After leaving Carol Ferris with a message for Hal Jordan, Yang Ming went to Fawcett High School to find Billy Batson. He rescued Billy and Freddy from bullies and introduced himself as a doctor.

• Yang Ming left Carol Ferris a phone number and told her to have Hal Jordan repay him for a house call and contact him if Earth faced trouble.
• The next day, Yang Ming arrived at Fawcett High School looking for Billy Batson and learned that Billy was being bullied near the field.
• Billy intervened when Brett attacked Freddy Freeman, but Brett knocked Billy down and prepared to punch him.
• Yang Ming stopped Brett by pressing a nerve point, knocked down his accomplices, and warned them not to bully anyone again.
• Freddy excitedly questioned Yang Ming about his fighting, and Yang Ming said he was a doctor.