'The Flash' season 2 spoilers: Zoom and the masked man's identity linked

The Flash - ZoomThe CW

The last episode of "The Flash" season 2 ended with a shocking revelation: Zoom was in fact Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears), or at least a different version from the Jay Garrick that everyone identified as Earth-2 Flash. According to a recent report from TVLine, the origin of this Jay Garrick is linked to the identity of Zoom's prisoner, the man in the iron mask.

"The mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask will play out over the rest of the season with some clues being layered in along the way," explainedshow runner Andrew Kreisberg. "When you do find out who it is, everything will make sense in a very satisfying way."

Kreisberg continued to state that the Jay Garrick Team Flash had befriended, the same Jay Garrick that Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) had fallen in love with, may have not been telling the truth or at least the full version of the truth.

The report points out that Jay had been absent during one critical moment in the series and Jay's only excuse was that he was napping in order to regain his strength after exhausting his powers. This was when Jay used the Velocity-9 formula to fix the device that would allow Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) to return to Earth-1.

It is speculated that the man in the iron mask is another version of Jay Garrick, although it is unknown if this is from Earth-2 or Earth-1. One theory is that the man in the mask is the twin brother of the benevolent Jay or that he may be connected to Jay's Earth-1 doppleganger, identified as Hunter Zolomon.

The standing theory is that Zoom is Jay Garrick from the future, a version that has grown addicted to the Speedforce and to Velocity-9. 

According to a report from Variety, the showrunners intended for this twist to happen despite it mirroring the same event in season 1, where the mentor figure turned out to be the villain. In season 1, Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) turned out to be the Reverse-Flash, and now in season 2, one version of Jay turned out to be Zoom.

"The Flash" season 2 episode 16 will air this March 22, potentially with more revelations regarding Zoom and his connection to his masked prisoner.