The Flash S03E01 Review: Wally West, the Flash

The Flash, Season 3, Episode 1: Flashpoint

The Flash is back! The finale to the previous season wasn't the best finale, and in fact it's actually quite problematic on several levels, least of all juggling the Zoom plot and having Barry run back in time and just shoehorn the Flashpoint storyline in. I really wished that they didn't take half the season of Barry running around the Flashpoint timeline and moping about how everything is different and his buddies aren't all friends anymore (Iris, Cisco and Caitlin instead of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but still), and especially since they're not going to divorce the Flash from the shared universe with Arrow. But it's still entertaining enough to see the ramifications of this version of Flashpoint has to this version of Barry Allen.

It's really a story that's loosely based off the comic-book source material, and one that's definitely better enjoyed as a piece of the TV show's storyline. I could go on and pick apart the differences between the comic and the show, but I'm not quite gonna. Unlike the comic-book Flashpoint, TV Flash's Flashpoint is a far more personal challenge. There's no big world-ending crisis, no giant war that threatens the extinction of humanity, no big reboot to the DC universe (except maybe folding Supergirl into the CW fold?) and it's a lot more personal. And if there's one fault of the comics version of Flashpoint, it's that it's never really been a big Flash story, with the focus more on the crazy alternate-universe post-apocalyptic super crisis nonsense, while Flash's personal story is waylaid to the sidelines. There's no way that Arrow and Legends are going to waste several episodes going through an alternate-universe story for a plot twist that happened in a show that some viewers might not even watch, so keeping this close and personal to Barry is definitely a superior writing decision.

We get some awkward adorableness from Barry trying to hit on Iris (who doesn't know him), and a very touching moment of him just hanging out with his parents. His alive and breathing parents, who are wondering why for three months Barry has been hugging them every morning. He was absolutely happy, and honestly the scene at the end when he has to go with Iris and Eobard to return the original timeline back to how it should be, the goodbye that Barry had with his parents just blew the trippy heaven-talk-with-mommy scene in season two out of the water.

And while Barry himself has retained his speed, he's even freed from the responsibilities of crime-fighting, because in this Flashpoint universe, Wally West is the Flash (not Kid Flash, mind you. Flash!) and we get a pretty cool scene of him fighting new villain, the Rival, who's an adaptation of a Jay Garrick enemy. Kind of fair that Zoom (nominally Wally's archenemy) became Jay's nemesis in this one. But there's a bit of a hollowness in his life. Barry doesn't even know Cisco, Caitlin or Wally, he only approached Iris for the first time in this episode, and Joe is a drunk dick that his children hate. There's a bit of a desperation in all the scenes when Barry meets with his Earth-Prime friends as the episode goes along, how despite the outwardly happy atmosphere with Billionaire Playboy Cisco and everything else, there's a bit of a feeling that, yeah, this isn't how things should be. The episode is a bit ham-handed by shoehorning Barry's amnesia subplot, which I felt was a cheap cop-out, but eh.

The unease is exemplified with Barry keeping Eobard Thawne prisoner in what appears to be Zoom's anti-speedster cage (how did he make one?), and Eobard warns Barry that soon time will be their mutual enemy and Barry will be begging Eobard to kill his mother and return the timeline to normal. It's sinister but also a bit sad, definitely. It's very cool to see Eobard Thawne played by Matt Leschner, too, who's his "real" face. I've associated Eobard with Tom Cavanaugh so much that it should've been jarring, but it isn't. 

Both Joe and Cisco's actors totally nailed their roles as a washout and a hammy jackass Tony Stark expy, and seeing Wally finally in costume and running around beating up villains is a special treat to me, but Iris jut doesn't clinch it for me with random, unexplained sappy destiny lovey lovey talk. 

The Rival is a very, very generic villain that's all evil and shit, with a pretty hilariously dopey costume with those weird wing-tip things on his cowl and I really like his design! Barry and Wally, two Flashes, face off against the Rival in a pretty cool showdown with some fun Batman-and-Robin dynamic between the two, but Wally gets stabbed through the chest by the Rival and lie dying, while Barry just, well, re-enacts the climax of the first episode with the giant tornado and Joe shooting the villain in the back. The sight of a dying Wally, plus his memories disappearing, ends up causing Barry to finally decide that, yeah, sacrificing everyone's happiness for his own is a shit thing to do. It could've been explored a lot more, of course, especially since the ending of season two with the decision to run back in time still not really feeling like an organic storytelling decision in my head, but I'll buy it.

The ending had Eobard kill Nora again, but timeline's definitely changed since Eobard returned with Barry to the present instead of being stuck in the past without speed and turning into Harrison Wells, and when Barry heads into the house to hug a confused Wally... apparently Joe is very, very estranged with Iris. Well, there are some permanent changes to the timeline after all. Overall it's a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand I'm glad that we're not spending half a season suspending the disbelief that the Flashpointed timeline will stick, but on the other hand, Barry really needed some more time to grow through his emotions, three-month-timeskip notwithstanding... but eh. It's not the most exciting episode, to be honest, especially with the obvious parallels to the Earth-2 episodes last season, but honestly I don't care that much. I'm geeking out too much about Wally's Kid Flash.

There's also a stinger showing Edward Clariss (a.k.a. Rival, who revealed his real name in a weird hammy way during the battle) being confronted with 'Alchemy' scratched on a mirror. A Mirror Master/Dr. Alchemy team-up, perhaps? I certainly wouldn't mind the main villain as not being a speedster. I mean, Flash has a lot of non-speedster villains, you know?

But overall, it's a pretty decent opening episode, and I hope the season returns to the awesomeness of the first season instead of the mess that was the second season. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Wally West is the successor of the Flash mantle after Barry Allen's death in the comics, but his costume and his nickname as Kid Flash are both references to his pre-Flash career as Kid Flash, the sidekick to Barry Allen. 
• The Rival, a.k.a. dr. Edward Clariss, in the comics was enemy to the Jay Garrick Flash, and basically wore a costume identical to Jay, except with the lightning bolt upside-down. His costume here bears more resemblance to Black Flash.
• Flashpoint is an arc in DC comics that ran before its reboot of a new universe, New 52, caused by Barry and Reverse-Flash fighting through time and creating an alternate reality.
• There is a Flash villain known as Dr. Alchemy, or Mr. Element, but it's a bit too early to assume that Alchemy refers to him. (Oh, who are we kidding? We'll probably see Dr. Alchemy some time down the line)
• A quick google of the Flashpoint police chief, Julio Mendez, reveals that he was a supporting police character in the 90's Flash TV show.