When Barry Allen was eleven years old, he saw a tornado-like blur sweep through his house, in the middle of which he could see a figure. His father went to fight it and soon after Barry went to help. Somehow instead, he was swept twenty blocks away from his house. He soon discovered that his mother had been murdered and that his father arrested for it and incarcerated with a life sentence, despite his witness accounts of the blur. Since he was so far from the crime scene, officials believed he was merely covering for his father. This motivated him to study criminology in the hopes of proving that his father is innocent.

Barry is described as someone who complements Felicity Smoak's intellect level both when it comes to forensics as she claims it's not her strong suit and science in general. He is also someone who is regularly late as he missed a train, boarded a late train, and misses a cab all to get to Queen Consolidated's warehouse and missed the last train back to Central City. He is also considered a comic geek.

Much like Oliver, he has a strong sense of justice, due to the fact he knows his father is innocent of a crime he was convicted of and is still serving a life sentence. He joins the forensics department to both learn how to investigate crimes, and study cases with unexplained elements, to prove his personal account of his mother's murder true, and ultimately, free his father. Barry is very intelligent, and like Felicity he is socially awkward, and sometimes gets nervous and babbles.

Barry also seems to have romantic feelings for Felicity.


Abilities:

* Genius-level intellect: Barry is shown to be very intelligent, as evidenced by His many accurate theories about The Arrow, believing that he trained in a tropical environment because of his green clothing, and that he has one or more accomplices, including one with a background in computer sciences, Barry is very well aware of all the foes Oliver has gone up against as The Arrow, including The Dodger, The Huntress, The Dollmaker, and Count Vertigo. This was shown when he was able to cure Oliver Queen after he was injured by Cyrus Gold and consequently poisoned.

* Forensic expert: Despite just being a Forensic science assistant, Barry is shown to be a highly skilled forensic examiner.