The Flash Discussion Post
Last night was the season finale of The Flash. I’ve enjoyed this show a lot, in part for its sense of fun, its wholehearted embrace of comic book tropes, the relationship between Barry and Joe, and of course, Tom Cavanagh.
At the same time, the writing has sometimes been a bit clunky, and the overall track record with female characters is rather poor. (With that said, things improved greatly for Iris’ character in the last few episodes.)
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS
I was disappointed in the penultimate episode last week. The whole “enlist Captain Cold’s help to move the metahumans” storyline was…dumb. Just dumb. If you can gas the prisoners to knock them unconscious, can’t you set up an IV to keep them unconscious long enough to get them to the Secret Island? (I’m glad they finally addressed the whole Secret Prison thing, though!)
This was one of many problems … but then we got the showdown we’ve been waiting for between the Reverse Flash and The Flash. Plus Green Arrow and Firestorm. There were a few questionable parts in that battle as well, but some good moments too, and it was really damn satisfying to see the Reverse Flash get taken out. Even though you’re wondering the whole time if getting captured was all part of the plan.
And that brings us to the finale. Barry can go back in time and save his mother, and send Eobard Thawne Back to the Future. But at what cost?
Much of the episode was surprisingly quiet as Barry anguishes over an impossible question. He reaches out to Joe, to his father, to Iris … whether or not you agree with his decision to go back in time, you felt his struggle to find the right answer. And then to have future-Flash tell him no … to see Barry hold himself back, and then that conversation with his dying mother?
And while I’m looking at a pic of Tom Cavanagh, can we get a round of applause for this man’s acting chops? I loved his portrayal of Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash this season. I loved the charisma he brought to the role of such a brilliant and sociopathic supervillain. You know he can’t be trusted, and you know when he’s talking about how fond he’s become of everyone, how he loves them, he’ll still kill them in a heartbeat if he has to. It leaves me wondering if the character actually believes he cares about these people?
But then when Barry comes back and busts up the time machine, it’s full-bore kill-em-all Reverse Flash, and he’s still too fast and experienced for Barry to beat him.
And so Eddie shoots himself. I’d wondered if that was where they were going from the moment they revealed Eddie to be Eobard’s ancestor, and I’m disappointed it came to pass. I’m wondering why Eddie didn’t just shoot the Reverse Flash while he was preoccupied with beating the crap out of Barry. (“Because he’s fast enough to catch or dodge bullets.” “Except he didn’t catch or dodge an arrow in the last episode.” “Shut up.”)
I still thought it was a good ending. Not a great one, maybe, but good. Eddie seemed to be at peace, which was nice to see.
And then the random singularity of paradoxical WTF shows up, and Barry decides to run into it and try to counter a freaking black hole by running in the opposite direction like it’s an oversized tornado, and my suspension of disbelief throws up its hands in disgust. Because no. Just no. I’m going to pretend the show ended a minute or so earlier.
Other thoughts:
- Lots of nice Easter Eggs, particularly in the wormhole. (It’s worth slowing it down to see the different shots.)
- They’ve certainly opened up a lot of possibilities for season two, haven’t they.
- “So long and thanks for all the fish!” 🙂
- Cisco is officially a metahuman. Cool!
What did you think?
Tsuki @ Tsuki's Books
May 20, 2015 @ 2:40 pm
I wrote this big long post on my blog trying to explain to the multitudes of people how the Flash seems to be approaching time travel. I thought that was interesting. The black hole thing was kind of weird but I figure they’ll rectify that somehow whether Barry is successful (!) defeating a black hole or whether more time travel shenanigans are employed to counteract the whole thing.
Overall it was a decent finale.
My time travel post is here: http://tsukibooks.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-flash-time-travel-and-what-it-all.html
Jim C. Hines
May 20, 2015 @ 3:20 pm
The timelines as you’ve laid them out make sense to me. No idea where they’re going to go next, but they’ve certainly given themselves a lot of room to decide…
Heather
May 20, 2015 @ 3:30 pm
I had the first two favorite things that you did: Cavanagh’s acting (wow!) and Barry’s relationship with Joe. Also Joe himself, because he just had so much personality and the actor is great.
I really want to find out about Cisco’s metahumanity.
Kate
May 20, 2015 @ 6:37 pm
My emotions while I watched the finale made me wonder if I’d forgotten to take my mood stabilizer. Barry’s future self warning him off? I am going to be plaugued with curiosity all summer. Love the scenes with Joe (I’m a Jesse L. Martin fan via Law & Order and Rent), Kaitlin needs more to do, and I like there was a little time for Cisco to deal with his own emotional upheaval.
So can I hibernate in the summer?
Jeff Xilon
May 21, 2015 @ 9:04 am
You pretty much hit all my nails right on the head. Except the annoyance at the black hole bit, at that point they’d so tremendously won me over that I just couldn’t be bothered to care at this point. The only thing that really annoyed me in retrospect was having Caitlin ask what a singularity is. That was ridiculous. Give that line to one of the non-brilliant scientist characters! Not the only brilliant scientist woman present!
Really though, this has been, with out a doubt, my favorite thing to come out of the modern comic-based boom time we are in. My only really big concern with the Flash going forward is that Cavanagh’s acting and “the secrets of Dr. Wells” were so far and away my favorite things about this show that I worry the lack of them as regular features will make future seasons pale in comparison. But, as long as the show is willing to continue to be the most comic-booky comic book show going I’m going to be there watching.
Allison
May 21, 2015 @ 10:40 am
Thoughts, in no particular order of importance:
Barry had some fantastic conversations with Joe, his dad, Iris, and Eobard/Wells about the consequences of time traveling. Those were the highlights of the episode. However, it lost me when they introduced the possibility of a black hole, because up until that point the potential negative consequences were confined to Barry getting killed. The wider consequences, to me, should have been a sign to them all that this should not be attempted. But they went and did it anyway, without really justifying the added risk to millions of innocents.
Just when we’d settled into a fairly reasonable “every time someone travels in time and changes something it creates an alternate reality” explanation of time travel, they went and threw in a time loop. If Eddie kills himself to make sure the Reverse Flash never comes into being, then everything the Reverse Flash does to mess up the past is erased, including Eddie killing himself. Just…ugh. They were doing so well. I hope they figure out a way to explain this in season 2 that isn’t too brain melting. I also agree with Jeff that the “what is a singularity?” explanation for the audience line should have been given to a non-scientist. It made no sense that Cailtin would ask that question. Even I, who am definitely not a scientist, know what a singularity is (though I admit I’ve watched too much Star Trek not to).
I totally agree about where it ended. Just, no. I would have bought the black hole sucking them all in and them then finding themselves in a reality where Eobard never meddled–which is where I thought they were going when the black hole suddenly generated after Eddie killed himself. But why then did Eobard disappear but nothing else changed? What caused the black hole to come back at that exact moment? And reversing a black hole by running around it…just, no.
Nice tease on the helmet, and the flashes in the time tunnel. Need to go back and watch that again to make sure I caught everything.
I liked season 1 overall. The characters were fun and well cast. Cisco is the best. Tom Cavanaugh has done a great job building a complex villain. That smug “I know more than you” smile never wavers. I think he has genuinely come to care for these folks in his own twisted way, especially Barry and Cisco, but he refuses to let that get in the way of what he wants. Barry can be irritating with his naivete and occasional poor decisions, but he exudes such sweet, boyish charm that it’s impossible not to like him. You can totally believe even a villain like Eobard, who hates another incarnation of Barry, would be hard pressed not to be charmed by the well-meaning-ness that radiates out of him. I really disliked keeping Iris in the dark for most of the season when even Eddie gets brought in on the secret before her but they eventually did address that and didn’t hand-wave it away, so I can live with it. I hope they don’t erase everything again for season 2 and have to start from scratch on who’s in on the secret and who isn’t. I am looking forward to season 2, but I feel like Agents of SHIELD had the stronger season finale and it’s hard not to compare the two episodes.
Nick
May 21, 2015 @ 12:23 pm
That moment near the end between Joe and Barry? “Bye, Dad.” “Bye, son.”
Too many feels.
Amanda June Hagarty
May 21, 2015 @ 12:42 pm
My husband and I have also been watching the season with a kind of bemused enjoyment, both laughing at and with the show. We criticize here and there as we watch but we do it with a smile and keep watching.
I think Tom Cavanaghs performance was excellent. From the first episode, before even a hint of who he really was, he had this creepy aura. Something about the way he smiled, like he already knew everything and he was bemused at watching the rats run in the maze, yet knowing their final fate. As the season went on we learned more about him but we also saw how much he cared. I kept thinking he’s got to be a bad guy….he’s got to be a good guy…he’s got to be a bad guy….no for sure he’s good….oh my god he’s totally bad! But wait he just did this thing that make me think he’s good again. That was both well acted and well written.
As for the final episode I have to say….huh? What made Barry change his mind? Just cuz his future self waved him off? But we still enjoyed it. And I must say everyone had really nicely written long speeches 😛
Madeleine Robins
May 21, 2015 @ 1:25 pm
Can I just say that the shout out to Rip Hunter made me make a sound that startled the hell out of the dog?
Quinalla
May 21, 2015 @ 4:38 pm
Thank you, I was super annoyed by that too and it took me out of the show for several minutes. Seriously, your brilliant scientist woman is not going to ask that question. Don’t give that question to a woman at all because it plays into sexist tropes, but definitely not a scientist, geez. I do get they wanted to have an audience stand in ask the question, have one of the non-scientists ask it, preferably not Iris.
I really enjoyed Cavanagh as Dr. Wells/Reverse Flash!
I totally did not see Eddie shooting himself coming, though I should have because its such an obvious time travel trope. Especially since it was foreshadowed by the weird conversation he had with the scientist half of Firestorm about coincidence, where I think he was setting him up to make this choice if necessary? Hmm.
I honestly was fully expecting Flash to save his Mom so they could “reset button” it for next season and have Reverse Flash mwhahaha it back to the future, so I was surprised by the ending. I am super curious why future-Flash waved him off from saving his Mom too.
I fully agree with Jim about the singularity at the end and Barry is going to run on/in it? What? This does not make any sense whatsoever. And honestly, I found myself feeling it was kind of a pointless cliffhanger, I mean we know that world doesn’t get destroyed and I don’t have a lot of confidence that the “science” they will use to explain how they get out of it is going to be very rewarding, but who knows. Maybe Cisco will be able to do something with his undiscovered meta-human talents that will save the day? That would be interesting.
I really want to watch the finale again as I was somewhat distracted and I think I missed some things in Cisco & Well’s conversation especially and probably elsewhere. That conversation was great what I caught of it, where Wells is like “Oh I sorry.” and Cisco assumes he’s apologizing for killing him in the alternate timeline and he’s like “No, I sure I had a good reason to kill you, NBD!” LOL
I hope they do more with Iris & Caitlin next season, those characters just aren’t fleshed out enough. I always feel like the women characters on Flash are way behind Arrow (not that Arrow is perfect either, but its so much better in that regard).
Marie
May 21, 2015 @ 9:07 pm
That’s a shoutout linking to the new series starting next midseason. A trailer is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MubNoWQiSc
Bundy
May 21, 2015 @ 9:46 pm
My first comic books were my dad’s. He was born in 1941, so his books were from ’46 to ’50. My reaction when that helmet came flying out of the wormhole made me squeal like a little kid at Christmas.
I’m enjoying this show. I’m not a writer, so I can’t judge it on those merits. I can only say that I like the show and I hope it continues to do well.
Jim C. Hines
May 22, 2015 @ 8:29 am
I’m hoping and trusting that will be part of the season two storyline 🙂
Jim C. Hines
May 22, 2015 @ 8:32 am
I remember cringing at the singularity/black hole bit, yeah. I get that they wanted to explain it for the audience, but Caitlin was not the character to use for that.
Jim C. Hines
May 22, 2015 @ 8:33 am
That conversation was great what I caught of it, where Wells is like “Oh I sorry.” and Cisco assumes he’s apologizing for killing him in the alternate timeline and he’s like “No, I sure I had a good reason to kill you, NBD!”
I loved that bit! It so perfectly illustrated that even in the midst of trying to be all warm and fuzzy, Wells is an evil, scary dude.
Jim C. Hines
May 22, 2015 @ 8:35 am
I think Barry was pretty torn all along, to the point where he was looking for people (Iris) to make the decision for him. So I can believe seeing his future self warn him off was enough to tip the balance.
Jim C. Hines
May 22, 2015 @ 8:38 am
And Rip Hunter is Rory Williams from Doctor Who, which is just fun 🙂
Jim C. Hines
May 22, 2015 @ 8:40 am
Yeah, their willingness to risk DESTROYING THE EARTH should have been a clear NOPE. Even if you have complete trust in the bad guy, that’s just not a chance you take.
Amanda June Hagarty
May 22, 2015 @ 10:55 am
I could see that. But maybe a little more than a finger wag would have been a little more obvious. Everyone else got 5 minute speeches lol. And plus his dad told him not to and then Joe told him the only reason he told him to do it was he didn’t want to be selfish. I think it would have worked better if he had already decided not to save his mom before he went (but this was withheld from the audience) –but he went back for another reason, to retrieve something, to change a smaller thing, to say goodbye to his mom. And then when he went back reveal that he had already made the decision etc.
brian ledford
May 22, 2015 @ 2:17 pm
a (very) weak defense of Caitlin asking the question. She’s a biologist (PhD)/MD, I think? So it’s not impossible to believe that physics is not her thing. If it were a bioweapon, I’d expect cisco to be the question asking one. Additionally, of the nonphysicists, she’s the one that could reasonably expect to understand the answer and be able to contribute meaningfully. There have been a couple of bioweaponish villains (the mist, the anger inducing guy (?)) and I don’t remember who was fixing what, so this [very weak] defense might get chucked. But structural engineer ronnie was the one to recognize the problem with the tungsten tiles, so maybe this works?
Amanda June Hagarty
May 22, 2015 @ 6:34 pm
I had a hard time with that because I suck at physics, and yet I could have answered Caitlin’s questions. That is one of the problems with the CW shows in general. They get over explain in shows. Its a phenomenon I usually see in what I call “old lady shows” where their viewer demographic is heavy on the 50+ women, and they feel the need to spell every little thing out. I guess the CW does it because their target audience is young, teen to college age kids and they just assume the education system has failed most of them? Every time I hear the opening “My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive…” I want to shout at the producers: “I know this already! I got it the first dozen times I heard it!” It feels like a web page that’s been SEO’d to death lol.
Amanda June Hagarty
May 22, 2015 @ 6:42 pm
Yeah. As soon as even the remote possibility of destroying the dearth came up, Barry should have been like….yeah, no! Considering he has been very selfless during the season and serving the powers of good. I find it hard to buy the 180 to the nth degree. This isnt just him choosing his ow happiness over a few others…its over everyone. And u would think Barry had learned about trusting bad guys with the last episode lol.
Amanda June Hagarty
May 22, 2015 @ 6:43 pm
Still love it this lol