SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
It looks like Barry finally, truly understood that he monumentally screwed up when he created Flash Point. I thought that realisation had come to him a long time ago, but it seems to have sunk in a lot deeper in this episode. It opened with him thinking about how it impacted the lives of everyone on Team Flash and how big of a mistake he made.
I was very pleased that the speed force was pissed at him for creating Flash Point. I expected that his time there would have been spent with him being punished by it for doing so…but that’s not what happened. I will say that by this point in the season it’s unnecessary to confront Barry with the colossal mess that was Flash Point, but, the speed force was the last entity that needed to confront Barry about it and it did that for all of one sentence. It didn’t spend any of it’s time with him admonishing him for what he’d done, instead it was trying to build him up and give him back his confidence.
Eddie, Ronnie and Captain Cold (I’m going by what the speed force said in his case because I don’t watch Legends of Tomorrow) were all people who gave their lives in a last heroic act because Barry inspired them. On the surface it looked like the speed force was reminding him of the deaths he’d caused, but what it was doing was reminding him of his heroism and what an inspiration he’d been. All so that he’d come to realise that he couldn’t put the task of saving Iris’ life on someone else and needed to do it himself.
It did remind him, though, that he can’t escape the consequences of his actions. And the biggest consequence of Flash Point is Savitar; the same person who is going to kill the woman he loves. So in that way, I guess, the speed force was pushing Barry to take responsibility for what he had done. He has to be the one to save Iris and by extension defeat Savitar, because his emergence is a direct result of Barry’s actions. By saddling Wally with that responsibility he was running away from the problem he had created.
The speed force also very aptly explained why it is that not a single speed wraith went after Barry when he created Flash Point; it felt sorry for him because his dad died so it just let him screw everything up…again.
It’s entirely unfair that Jay had to take Wally’s spot in the speed force. Why do they even need to have a speedster trapped in the speed force in the first place?
Jesse was insufferable this week. She was impatient, rash and reckless, which is usually Wally’s schtick so I guess he was rubbing off on her. She herself acknowledged that one speedster alone couldn’t take on Savitar and then preceded to go after him anyway! Beyond that stupid plan her entire attitude and behaviour was just deplorable. I was disgusted by the fact that she punched HR when all he was trying to do was keep her from getting herself killed. She was an ungrateful brat and a down right bitch for the majority of the episode.
Her little speech of being “the real Flash” on her earth held no weight at all because she abandoned her responsibilities to be with Wally. It was only when HR “insulted” Wally that she showed any sort of care for Earth-2, which she didn’t even return to at the end of the episode when she left. Earth-3 does need a Flash, but so does Earth-2 Jesse! What are her priorities even?
What did she even hope to achieve by going after Savitar? She didn’t have much of a plan beyond just using the piece of his armour to find him. Speaking of, why did that thing only just start moving when it’d been trying to get back to him the entire time? That didn’t make any sense.
I was hoping she wouldn’t fall into the trope of the girlfriend (super powered or not) of the hero, who refused to do what she was told and entered the fray, only to end up endangering not just herself, but everyone else. She didn’t do that, but only because she got help from HR; the same person she so rudely punched. Jesse was utterly lost before he stepped in and tried to help her. If not for him, she would have died and she would never have thought of using the piece of Savitar’s armour to stab him.
It was also because of HR that Team Flash realised that Savitar is a person under the armour…which I thought they already knew, so I’m not sure why they acted like it was a surprise. Sure, Savitar calls himself a god but they never indicated that they believed that. I’m sure that on at least one occasion someone on Team Flash told Savitar that’s he’s not a god. Plus, in episode nine – after Savitar made his first appearance – Jay told Barry that every story he’d ever heard about Savitar said the he was the first man to be granted speed. Jay did follow that up with “he became a god”, but I feel like Team Flash always knew and acknowledged that he titled himself a god and that it wasn’t actually true.
Iris was so cold to Barry in this episode. He got it the worst when she took five million years to say “I love you” back. Maybe if she hadn’t been so cold and actually talked to him and took the time to have a chat with him about where they were in their relationship – as I think she should have, considering she didn’t know whether or not he would come back to her – they wouldn’t have broken up. I really don’t understand why Barry broke up with her and what it had to do with embracing the future. It was a crappy thing to do just when she’d forgiven him and given him the time of day.
And is anyone on Team Flash ever going to acknowledge that their plan to change the future by changing the headlines on the news crawl didn’t work? Ever? Because it looks like Barry has given up on that plan now and that little fact would have been a very good reason to do so.
Random thoughts:
- High fives to HR for the tether idea. That was brilliant.
- But you haven’t changed the future Barry…
- Do you want to die Jesse? Because going after Savitar is how you die.
- Someone actually thought to check the byline on the article in the time fault! Thank you, Iris. Thank you.
- Calm down, Jesse. Geez.
- The CGI used in the fight between Barry and the Black Flash was awful.
- Did she really think that throwing lightning and Savitar would work?
- Golden Age reference!
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 PM on The CW.
