Season two of the Flash ended last night with a pretty spectacular episode. This entire season (of course) has been dominated by Zoom who managed to be much scarier than Reverse Flash in season one. As far as villains go, he was a pure psychopath willing to destroy infinite Earths (and all the people on them) as a trophy to his greatness. I think that sets the bar pretty high as far as evilness goes, and I suppose its appropriate that the Speed Force got rid of him for Barry by sending out the Time Wraiths. I love that the Flash doesn't directly kill people. It says something about his unsullied character that I really like, however, it obviously means that certain villains never get their comeuppance.
It's that cliffhanger ending though that I ultimately want to talk about. First off, Barry and Iris are doomed to forever stay apart. She gave him permission to go wherever he needed to go and do whatever he needed to do to address the hollowness inside him and said she'd wait for him right there. The only thing is, she had no way of knowing that Barry would race back into time and stop Thawne from killing his mom. Barry seeing his younger self wink out of existence (in the Flash costume) is probably a good sign that the future for the entire CW universe has now been rewritten.
In Flashpoint, a limited run comic book series, the Flash essentially wakes up in a dystopian universe. Everything is kind of turned on its heel and nothing is as you'd expect. Blogger P.T. Dilloway shared with me via email that he thinks this is where the Flash may be headed, and I tend to agree. Of course Barry does have his mom alive, but his dad died (I think) of a heart attack. So there's really no version of the present in which Barry gets to keep both of his parents.
If the CW wanted to, they could make huge changes to all of the timelines. Legends of Tomorrow killed off Captain Cold so he could be back and in charge of Central City. Laurel from Arrow could be back (or some version of her) as we've already seen there's a different Earth version of her that has even more fantastical powers than the one in Arrow that got killed. Not to mention the introduction of Supergirl season two (which I think will fit nicely into the whole expanded universe thing). However, the season finale of the Legends of Tomorrow teased the formation of the Justice Society of America, so that may also be what's going on. Either way, the season finale of the Flash opens up almost endless possibilities that the CW can explore, and I think that's a good thing.
Now I've got the summer to trudge through, but at least AMC's Preacher looks very promising.
I'm leaning toward it leading into Justice Society.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, they are doomed to stay apart forever. He really killed that chance last night. A bit frustrating.
What I was thinking is probably too ambitious but it would be neat. At least in the animated movie it was strongly implied that in the alternate universe Barry is gay. Imagine the possibilities.
ReplyDeleteArrow has an advantage over most shows in its ability to hit the reset button and last night they showed they weren't afraid to use it. I'm not sure who is signing on for season 3 but it wouldn't shock me if Catelyn has powers like Killer Frost. The reset seems to mean the setup for Jesse Quick / Wally West was a dead end as well (at least for now).
ReplyDeleteI'm a little sad that Barry did this. What he did was similar to Bran in GoT as the butterfly effect ripples through the world, changing the world for many people he never met. Isn't that evil? And in that sense did Zoom's plan succeed to turn Barry to his way of thinking?
The most evil part is now needing to wait 4 months to see what happens next.
Arrow has an advantage over most shows in its ability to hit the reset button and last night they showed they weren't afraid to use it. I'm not sure who is signing on for season 3 but it wouldn't shock me if Catelyn has powers like Killer Frost. The reset seems to mean the setup for Jesse Quick / Wally West was a dead end as well (at least for now).
ReplyDeleteI'm a little sad that Barry did this. What he did was similar to Bran in GoT as the butterfly effect ripples through the world, changing the world for many people he never met. Isn't that evil? And in that sense did Zoom's plan succeed to turn Barry to his way of thinking?
The most evil part is now needing to wait 4 months to see what happens next.
Sorry, I don't watch these shows, but I'm happy that I caught last night's final episode of The Night Manager. It really was superb and the pacing in the episode was perfect. Some critics are grumbling that the semi-happy ending was out of character for John le Carre (the script was based on his novel), but hey, I liked it.
ReplyDeleteI had to skip this as I am behind on my TV shows. I just watched The Flash finale (and my DVR cut off that last little bit... Ugh!) I like how shows now routinely do this--go in and tinker with the set up of the show. It makes for more interesting storytelling. So, a dystopian season? I'm in.
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