The CW's original plan was to introduce Barry Allen in a recurring role on Arrow and reveal his alter ego Flash in a late-season backdoor pilot before launching The Flash next fall.  The Arrow team shot episodes 8 and 9 with Barry Allen---response was positive enough that The CW will forego the backdoor pilot process and start prepping a traditional Flash pilot that is all but guaranteed for a series order.

The network has released a clip of Barry Allen's introduction from episode 8, "The Scientist."  Grant Gustin makes a good first impression.  I can already see in the minute-long clip how Gustin could turn this into a memorable character, which is a great sign for The CW's very valuable property.  Watch the clip after the jump.  "The Scientist" airs Wednesday at 8/7c.

Here's the episode synopsis for "The Scientist":

BARRY ALLEN COMES TO STARLING CITY — A seemingly impossible robbery at Queen Consolidated’s Applied Sciences Division brings Central City police scientist Barry Allen (guest star Grant Gustin) to town. Citing a similar case back home, Barry offers to help Oliver (Stephen Amell) and team with the investigation. Oliver senses there is more to Barry than meets the eye, but he’s distracted by the similarities between this current case and something that happened on the island. Meanwhile, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) takes a liking to Barry, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Oliver. Sin (guest star Bex Taylor-Klaus) asks Roy (Colton Haynes) for help when a friend of hers goes missing. Roy is surprised when Thea (Willa Holland) not only encourages him to help, but joins the search. Unfortunately, Sin’s friend is connected to Brother Blood (guest star Kevin Alejandro), and their search ultimately gets one of them seriously injured.

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