If you did not understand all of the complex, timey-wimey Zoom information The Flash threw at you in “Versus Zoom,” you would be forgiven. (Especially because it is so wildly different from the Jay Garrick we know from the comics.) When talk of time remnants becomes a throwaway line, it’s probably time to slow your plot down and explain what the heck is happening (or, you know, devote an entire episode to showing, not telling).

Luckily, you have your friendly neighborhood blogger to help explain all of the exposition that went down re: Zoom/Hunter Zolomon/Jay Garrick. Here are nine things we learned about that many-named character in last night’s ep, including potential plot holes we really hope The Flash has a plan on filling...

Zoom started life on Earth-Two as Hunter Zolomon.

Talk about a tragic origin story. The Flash was really pushing the Barry/Zoom parallels in “Versus Zoom.” Zoom began life as Earth-Two’s Hunter Zolomon, a boy who saw his father kill his mother before killing himself. It’s implied that James Zolomon, Hunter’s dad, is some kind of soldier, wearing the helmet that Hunter would go on to wear as Earth-Two’s Flash and yelling about having fought for his country as he attacked his wife. Yep, pretty dark stuff for an episode of The Flash.

He grew up in the foster care system. (Because he didn’t have a Joe West).

Unlike Barry, who went to live with parent extraordinaire Joe West (seriously, when is this guy going to write a guide to parenting already?), Hunter had no one after he lost his parents. Instead, he went to live in a Dickensian orphanage, before growing up in the foster care system. Great Expectations, however, this is not...

He became a young, strapping serial killer.

Rather than go the orphan-turned-hero root, Hunter went in a different direction to become an orphan-turned-serial-killer. Harry explains that Hunter Zolomon is notorious on Earth-Two for having killed 23 people — and for having a really bad haircut. Confusingly, though Hunter Zolomon seems to be recognizable to the people of Earth-Two (including Harry), no one recognizes him as Jay Garrick. Like, I know it was a bad haircut, but come on guys. That chiseled jaw is distinctive.

He became a speedster when the particle accelerator exploded.

Hunter was captured and thrown into Earth-Two jail, which seems to have a lot in common with Earth-One’s jails circa the 1950s. Hunter undergoes electroshock “therapy” and is in the process of receiving a “treatment” when Harry’s particle accelerator explodes. The combination of the two forces gives Hunter his super speed.

He became Earth-Two’s Flash for kicks — and made up the Jay Garrick persona.

In what is the first part of Zoom’s backstory that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, Hunter decides to pretend at being the hero because he thinks it is fun to give people false hope. It would have been cool to see this part of Zoom’s backstory explored with more ambiguity? Like, maybe, Hunter was actually trying to be a legit hero before he realized that he was dying? Maybe he didn’t want to be a “monster” like his father? At this point, however, we’re just going to have to take Zoom at his word: “It’s so fun pretending to be a hero.” Um ... OK, Jay.

This also seems to be the point when Hunter decided to adopt the Jay Garrick persona as his non-Flash alter-ego. (You know, to keep people from realizing he was notorious serial killer Hunter Zolomon…). This is seemingly why there is no Jay Garrick on Earth-One because it is just a name Hunter made up. But where did the name come from? Is The Flash really going to use such an iconic comic book character in such a arbitrary way?

Hunter got the idea for The Flash after seeing Barry’s version.

Hunter claims that he decided to become The Flash after seeing Barry on Earth-One, but the portals between the worlds didn’t open up until the end of Season 1 and it’s implied in this Earth-Two flashback that Jay has been Earth-Two’s Flash for much longer than that. Jay tells Harry: “Everything’s that happened to this city over the past two years is because of you. You created us metas.” Did Hunter sometimes vibe between worlds, perhaps with the help of Reverb, before Team Flash opened the breaches? Or is this just a plot hole?

Velocity-9 is killing him.

OK, so we already knew this going into last night’s episode, but it seems worth repeating because it is, apparently, the main motivation for Zoom being a multiverse-class jerk. As we learned in previous episodes, Hunter took Velocity-9, a drug that enhances one’s speedster abilities, but it came at a terrible price: it’s killing him. Unless Hunter can get extra speed — i.e. Barry’s — then Hunter will die. Even though Caitlin developed a cure for the condition, it is only temporary, which is why Hunter is so desperate to steal Barry’s speed. Rude.

He convinced one of his “time remnants” to die for him.

Here’s where things get pretty plot-holey. We saw Zoom kill Jay, right? Well, apparently, that was a time remnant version of Hunter that Zoom convinced to die for him. We learned from the Reverse Flash’s visit earlier this season that speedsters can travel from alternate timelines that no longer exist. This is where the Jay Garrick who died came from. Except, here’s the thing: if the Hunter Zolomon we know is so motivated to prevent his own death, then would another version of him really go along with this plan? Probably not.

Furthermore, this complicates the emotional logic behind Zoom deciding to steal Caitlin. It’s implied that Zoom cares for Caitlin, despite being an evil super-villain, because of the time they shared together when he was infiltrating Team Flash. But, if that was his time remnant and not him, then why would he care? The only way this would make sense is if Hunter threw his time remnant doppelganger in there right before his planned death. If so, how would Time Remnant Hunter even know enough to fake being Jay Garrick? Team Flash is pretty complicated. This was the most throwaway line in a long, string of Zoom’s backstory exposition monologue, and it was very confusing.

The Man in the Iron Mask is somehow tied to this complicated backstory.

We still don’t know who the mysterious Man in the Iron Mask is. Hunter claims: “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” This seems a weird thing to say in the same speech that mentions your time remnant doppelgänger, but whatever. Keep your secrets, show. It’s a lot of pressure to put on one reveal, but could The Man in the Iron Mask fix some of the plot holes in the Zoom backstory? Because that would be great.

In the Season 1 finale, when Eobard Thawne sees the iconic Jay Garrick helmet, he says it is his cue to leave, implying that he knows who that version of The Flash is and that he’s afraid of him. Does this mean that there is a good version of Jay Garrick somewhere out there — possible from a universe other than Earth-Two? Could he be The Man in the Iron Mask? He did tap out the letters J-A-Y (that spells “Jay”) to Barry when they were both being held hostage in Zoom’s lair. We’ll have to wait and see, but the reveal of a good Jay Garrick would go a long way in saving this iconic comic book character from a pretty blasphemous TV adaptation.