The Flash Season 3 Flashpoint Review — How much did Barry screw up?
SPOILERS! Ok, now that we got that out of the way. Last night we finally caught up our favorite Scarlet Speedster in the season 3 premiere of The Flash.
It’s three months after Barry (Grant Gustin) decided to save his mom and alter the timeline. Before we can settle into things, the first five minutes starts off with a bang. Barry follows a highspeed chase between Kid Flash and The Rival (Todd Lasance). It was surprising to see Wally (Keiynan Lonsdale) in a more active role than he was in Season 2.
So what has changed? In terms of Barry’s love life with Iris (Candice Patton) not much. The two share a tender moment as he musters enough courage to ask her out. It goes well and hey mom and dad are alive and well.
The episode picks up when he makes a visit to Reverse Flash (Matthew Letscher). RF dubs this timeline Flashpoint and warns of the repercussions. Of course, Barry shrugs it off. In another fight between The Rival and KF, Barry unmasks a knocked out KF to discover it’s Wally. So, invasion of privacy, unlawful imprisonment, timeline disruptor, and lets keep adding to the list!
The episode moves rather fast, pun intended,Wally tells the story of his origin and they seek out aid from Cisco but he’s definitely not our lovable geek. He’s egotistical, rude, and super rich. He quickly dismisses helping out. Things get worse in another intimate scene with RF. Barry asks Eobard Thawne why he was losing memories. Thawne confirms that the more speed he uses, the faster his memories are forgotten due to Flashpoint.
Team Flash is summoned to stop The Rival, and he spills the beans. Now, everyone finds his story hard to believe except Iris, d’aww.
They manage to pinpoint the villain’s location and move in. Wally goes in guns blazing and throws caution to the wind and gets mortally wounded. The Flash and The Rival fight it out. So, stop me if you’ve heard this before. Iris gives him a pep talk just short of: run, Barry, run. Before we can process the spectacular win, Joe shoots The Rival as he’s about to kill Barry.
The win is hallow because Barry realizes it’s his fault that Wally is hurt and his life is in danger. Before Thawne agrees to “fix” the timeline, he needs verbal confirmation. Barry then says with much pain, “I need you to kill my mother”. Thawne responds, “With pleasure”. The scene is delicious as Barry is again, at the mercy of Reverse Flash.
Shortly thereafter, RF kills Barry’s mom and he returns him home. He leaves with a warning of the present but Barry is happy to see his family. The episode ends as we learn that Iris isn’t part of their lives? What did Barry do? As questions set in, the final scene focuses on a disembodied voice summoning the human Rival to action.
The episode had a good amount of hero highs (not by Barry!) and tons of close moments. Another reason why this episode was so effective was that having comicbook knowledge here wasn’t necessary. It was well written and executed.
