The Flash ended its fun, action-packed first season on a high note. “Fast Enough” is centered around Barry Allen’s complicated decision: Should he go back in time and save his mother?
It’s revealed Harrison Wells killed Barry’s mom because he needed Barry to become The Flash, whose running energy could create a wormhole and help Wells go back to his own timeline. Barry agrees to do so to save his mother. He’s given a limited two-minute window to do so, otherwise the wormhole could destroy the world. Barry goes back to the day his mother was killed by Wells, but surprisingly doesn’t save her after his future-self gestures not to do it. He sits with his mom, revealing his identity to her as she passes away.
Barry then returns to his timeline and tries to stop Wells from going back. But he still can’t defeat Wells. With Barry about to be killed, Eddie Thawne — Wells’, or Eobard Thawne’s, ancestor — shoots himself, causing Wells to disappear from the timeline. But the wormhole doesn’t close as planned. Everything is ready to go to hell, with the wormhole continuing to engulf our heroes’ timeline and The Flash attempts to stop it.
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What an absolutely thrilling episode and a great wrap-up to season one.
My favorite part of the finale was the show providing glimpses into what’s next for fan-favorite characters Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow. Cisco is shown throughout season one as remembering being killed by Wells in an alternate timeline. While in conversation with Wells and talking about seeing himself die, Wells lets Cisco know that he may have been affected by the particle accelerator and that his detecting of other timelines will lead him on a “great adventure.”
This is clearly a tease to Cisco becoming the superhero Vibe, whose eventual superpowers — specifically the ability to interact with multiple timelines through vibrational planes — will be a great way for the show to explore those alternate timelines, stories and characters, as it seems that’s the route the writers are setting up for season two.
“What’s fun about this show is that there’s going to be multiple timelines as we move forward,” Grant Gustin, who plays Barry Allen/The Flash, said to TV Guide. “I think we’re going to start showing Earth-One and Earth-Two in the near future. There will be kind of different dimensions going on.”
The last show I remember which successfully set up multiple timelines with different versions of characters was Fringe, and that grew a bit tiresome after a while. But the potential The Flash has with all of the characters writers and producers will have access to is endless.
Speaking of multiple timelines, while the wormhole is ripping through S.T.A.R Labs, we get a tease at Caitlin’s villainous Killer Frost character. For a brief moment, we get to see actress Danielle Panabaker in costume using her powers.
This is an interesting set-up. The more I grew attached to Snow as a character, the more I worried about her eventual transformation, as she becomes a villain in the Firestorm comic books. If she’s only villainous in an alternate timeline, it’s a great way of keeping the character as the same wholesome Caitlin Snow, while not entirely ignoring source material. Panabaker has faith in the show’s writers to properly bring Killer Frost to life.
“Absolutely. It’s in a constant dialogue,” she told IGN. “I trust them and they do an incredible job, as they have done all season just developing characters’ arcs and I trust that they’ll do that with Killer Frost as well.”
The season finale also included a nice little tease to Jay Garrick, the first (Golden Age) Flash, as his helmet pops out of the wormhole. I suspect we may see him in an alternate timeline.
The Flash doesn’t dick around when bringing up ideas that other comic book based series and films wouldn’t try. We got a psychic gorilla (Grodd), a campy Leonard Snart (Captain Cold, played by Wentworth Miller), great special effects that didn’t undersell characters’ powers but showed them off, and hints of multiple timelines — all in season one — which is amazing. To say The Flash was ambitious in its inaugural season would be an understatement. They didn’t hold back, and that made for an exciting watch.
But were there problems in season one? Absolutely.
A large part of Iris Allen’s arc was not letting her in on The Flash’s secret identity. The character wasn’t given all that much to do aside from being a love interest. I’m not going to be as harsh as Noel Murray of The AV Club, and say the role needs to be recast. I thought actress Candice Patton did as much as she could with what she was given by the writers, but Iris certainly needs more to do in season two. I suspect she’ll be given a much bigger role considering she now knows the truth about Barry.
Props go out to Gustin and Tom Cavanagh, who played Wells/Reverse Flash. Gustin was great all season and in the finale, his scenes with his mother were devastating. I was initially nervous about a former Glee alum being cast as Barry Allen, but Gustin has nailed the role down to the point where I’m nervous to see if Warner Brothers’ movie starring Ezra Miller as the same character can even come close to getting it as right.
Cavanagh totally embraced Wells, especially when he turned dark. His slow, creepy delivery of lines made the Reverse Flash one hell of villain. I hope it’s not the last we see of him, I suspect it’s not.
All in all, The Flash had a great first season. Its future is filled with limitless potential. To me, this first season was the best TV comic book adaptation ever — slightly over Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix. The Flash showed comic book adaptations don’t need to be gritty, and that it’s OK to have some fun — an attitude I hope other such shows start to follow.
