Impulse: Fast Forward season 2
| Impulse: Fast Forward | |
|---|---|
| Season 2 | |
| Showrunners | Noah Hawley Freddie Goodwin |
| Starring |
|
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Disney+ |
| Original release | September 18 – October 23, 2028 |
| Season chronology | |
The second and final season of the American television series Impulse: Fast Forward is based on DC Comics featuring the character Impulse. Continuing from the events of the series The Flash (2014–2023) by The CW. The season is set in its own universe, seperate from the Arrowverse. It was produced by Mob Productions, with Noah Hawley and Freddie Goodwin serving as showrunner.
Jordan Fisher reprises his role as Bart Allen / Impulse from the first season, other members of the first season that are returning include Sadie Sink, Timothée Chalamet, Giancarlo Esposito, Zendaya, Dacre Montgomery, Mads Mikkelsen, Sophie Thatcher, Tessa Thompson, Jacob Elordi, William Dafoe, Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, and Mark Strong. Hawley and Goodwin have stated that the second season will have a much darker theme than the first season.
The second season premiered on Disney+ on September 18, 2028 and concluded on October 23, 2028. The season was praised for its darker tone and overall theme whilst some disliked the season having the same plot as the first season.
Episodes[edit | edit source]
| No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Afterimage" | Noah Hawley | Eric Kripke & Tom King | June 15, 2028 | |
| Six months after Valerie’s death and Thawne’s disappearance, Central City drowns in grief and distrust. Once symbols of hope, speedsters are now branded “Time Bombs.” Bart Allen, guilt-ridden and powerless, isolates himself, tormented by echoes of Valerie’s voice and flashes of crimson lightning that defy explanation. Cisco Ramon, reinstated as CCPD Captain, rebuilds the force from the ruins of the Meta Crimes Division and secretly develops Project Afterimage—a vault engineered to trap speedsters at the molecular level. Meanwhile, Wally West and Irey discover dormant Speed Force energy within Bart’s bloodstream; Irey warns that reactivation could fracture time itself, but Bart is consumed by vengeance. While observing an underground tech auction, he witnesses a masked speedster massacre the crowd in seconds. The killer’s energy signature matches Reverse-Flash, but the suit is altered—its lightning jagged and corrupted. Later, at Jay Garrick’s grave, violet lightning splits the sky as a scarred, half-phased Thawne materializes, smiling through distortion. The ground trembles as he taunts Bart, and lightning engulfs the city, reactivating dormant Speed Force nodes across the globe. The Speed Force stirs once more—broken, unstable, and alive. | |||||
| 2 | "Paradox Engine" | Hiro Murai | Noah Hawley & Lauren Schmidt Hissrich | June 22, 2028 | |
| Days after Thawne’s return, Central City suffers from escalating temporal distortions—clocks rewinding, calls looping endlessly, and people glimpsing versions of themselves moments ahead. Cisco determines the Speed Force has fractured into overlapping timelines that feed into one another, destabilizing reality. Bart, convinced restoring his speed is the only solution, ignores warnings from Wally and Irey that any reactivation will multiply the fractures. With help from Max Mercury, he locates an abandoned Speed Force accelerator once designed by Cisco and Jay Garrick. When activated, the machine overloads, splitting Bart’s consciousness into two entities: one retaining his humanity but suffering unstable speed, the other a detached duplicate calling itself Impulse Zero. The surge triggers new metahuman mutations, including Linda Park-West, who experiences episodes of lost time and reveals that Thawne may not be acting alone. As Bart confronts his counterpart through a collapsing city frozen between seconds, their collision disrupts the local power grid and deepens the temporal rifts. In the aftermath, the Speed Force flickers across multiple planes, and Thawne watches unseen from a parallel frequency, the fractures widening as time itself begins to unravel. | |||||
| 3 | "Ghost Frequency" | Cathy Yan | Tom King & Lauren Schmidt Hissrich | June 29, 2028 | |
| In the aftermath of the Paradox Engine explosion, Central City becomes a nexus of collapsing reality—structures flicker in and out of existence, citizens freeze mid-motion, and spectral replays of past events haunt the streets. Bart begins hearing fragmented voices within the Speed Force, overlapping echoes of Barry Allen, Jay Garrick, and Eobard Thawne, all trapped within its fractured frequency. Cisco and Irey trace the disturbances to a dimensional rift near the ruins of the Allen residence, where energy readings match those once produced by the Cosmic Treadmill. Cisco concludes that Bart’s speed reactivation unintentionally awakened the Treadmill’s chronal matrix, creating quantum echoes of every speedster who ever used it. As Bart’s connection deepens, visions of Barry warn that the Speed Force has been infected by an ancient entity known as the Chronarch, a multiversal parasite feeding on unstable temporal energy. Meanwhile, Impulse Zero gains strength, freely traversing timelines and ambushing Wally in Keystone City, absorbing kinetic energy during their confrontation. Cisco attempts to stabilize Bart’s molecular state using fragments of the Speed Formula, but the experiment triggers visions of an alternate Central City ruled by Thawne’s regime. Bart then loses control of his vibration and vanishes into the Speed Force, leaving behind a storm of residual lightning as reality begins to unravel. | |||||
| 4 | "Speed Force War, Part I" | Leigh Janiak | Noah Hawley & Bryan Edward Hill | July 6, 2028 | |
| Trapped within the Speed Force, Bart awakens in a fractured dimension of frozen lightning and collapsing worlds, where fragments of forgotten timelines drift like debris. There he encounters Jesse Quick and Avery Ho, long-lost speedsters who have survived within the storm since Crisis on Infinite Earths. They reveal that the realm has become a war zone ruled by The Chronarch, a temporal entity feeding on dying timelines and corrupted speedster remnants. In Central City, Cisco and Wally fight to preserve reality as time storms escalate. Using data from the Cosmic Treadmill, Cisco attempts to anchor Bart’s signal, but every synchronization deepens the fractures. Impulse Zero, now allied with Thawne, begins erasing alternate versions of Central City across divergent timelines, each erasure triggering destructive temporal shockwaves through Prime Earth. Within the Speed Force, Bart uncovers spectral remnants of Zoom, Savitar, and Godspeed, imprisoned as Chronarch’s living power sources. When the entity detects Bart’s presence, it manifests as a colossal form of lightning and bone, declaring him the final paradox necessary to reconstruct the Speed Force in its own image. As Rei Donovan returns from the 31st century to warn that Bart’s death will trigger a multiversal reset, Cisco activates the Treadmill to retrieve him. The episode concludes as Bart unites the trapped speedsters against Chronarch’s approaching army, their silhouettes blazing across the storm in preparation for the coming war. | |||||
| 5 | "Speed Force War, Part II" | Cathy Yan | Tom King & Bryan Edward Hill | July 13, 2028 | |
| Within the shattered core of the Speed Force, Bart, Jesse, and Avery unite the remaining speedsters—echoes of both heroes and villains—against The Chronarch and its army of corrupted manifestations. The battlefield fractures across centuries, with lightning bridges linking divergent eras as time folds in on itself. Using the Speed Formula, Bart synchronizes the group’s vibrations, allowing them to move as one across collapsing timelines. In Central City, Cisco and Rei Donovan stabilize the Cosmic Treadmill long enough for Wally to phase into the Speed Force, joining the fight. Impulse Zero, fully indoctrinated by Thawne, seizes the Treadmill’s signal and drags both himself and Thawne into the storm. Thawne, his body glowing with fractured energy, proclaims his intent to merge with the Chronarch and become the living embodiment of the Speed Force. The ensuing conflict spans countless temporal planes, from ancient worlds to future ruins. Bart realizes that Chronarch’s strength comes from paradoxes—the instability he himself caused—and that to end it, he must merge every version of himself into one. As Wally defeats Impulse Zero using a containment gauntlet, Bart confronts Thawne in the void. Their battle ends with Thawne’s disintegration as Bart unleashes his full power, triggering a blinding shockwave that splits the Speed Force open and engulfs reality in light. | |||||
| 6 | "Final Run" | Noah Hawley | Noah Hawley & Tom King | July 20, 2028 | |
| Time collapses and space fractures as the Speed Force contracts into a singularity of memory and motion. Suspended within its core, Bart witnesses fragments of every speedster’s legacy—Barry’s sacrifice during Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wally’s redemption, and his own erased deaths—each universe forming and dissolving within a heartbeat. In the crimson skies of Central City, Cisco, Wally, and Rei realize the shockwave will erase all chronal energy, ending every speedster’s existence unless one anchors the new timeline by absorbing the singularity. Cisco determines it must be Bart, whose actions began the collapse. Within the core, the Chronarch manifests in its final form, a being of velocity fused with Thawne’s fractured essence. As it declares resistance futile, Bart stops running, embracing his guilt and the weight of every life shaped by the Flash legacy. Reciting the Speed Formula as a vow, his lightning turns white, stabilizing the storm as he draws Chronarch into the singularity. A blinding surge resets the timeline, reforming the Speed Force in balance. When the light fades, Central City stands restored, Bart’s signal lost. A final streak of white lightning crosses the clouds, and decades later, a young girl in crimson inherits the run beneath a reborn sky. | |||||
Cast and characters[edit | edit source]
Production[edit | edit source]
Development[edit | edit source]
For the second season of Fast Forward, Noah Hawley brought Freddie Goodwin on board as co-showrunner. While Hawley had led the first season’s creative direction, the decision to include Goodwin was made to further expand the scope of the series. Goodwin, known for his experience in large-scale storytelling and character development, was seen as a strong addition to help shape the next chapter of Bart Allen’s journey. The collaboration aimed to introduce new narrative elements while maintaining continuity with the established world of Impulse: Fast Forward.
Season 2 was designed to be notably different from its predecessor, with a shift towards a darker and more intense tone. The first season had established Bart as a hero-in-the-making, but the second season would place him in more complex and morally challenging situations. The writing and story structure were adjusted to reflect these changes, with a stronger emphasis on character dilemmas, higher stakes, and a more serialized approach to storytelling. Hawley and Goodwin worked together to develop a season that would challenge Bart in new ways, pushing the series toward a more mature and intricate narrative direction.
Following the sudden conclusion to the first season, Hawley announced that the team would conclude the first seasons story with the second season whilst writing it as the original idea for the second season.
Release[edit | edit source]
The second season premiered on Disney+ on September 18, 2028 and concluded on October 23, 2028. The season was praised for its darker tone and overall theme whilst some disliked the season having the same plot as the first season.