This has been a great season for The Flash. There has been a lot going on this season for Barry and Team Flash in general. We have seen new additions, sad farewells, character reversals and relationships bloom. I have missed Harrison Wells, but the addition of H.R. was a nice touch. I love that they have kept Tom Cavanagh’s character around in some capacity or another in every season of The Flash. There was the addition of Julian Dorn’s character, played by Tom Felton, known for his work in The Harry Potter series.
Julian starts out as an enemy towards Team Flash, because of the influence of Savitar, but thanks to Caitlin’s belief in him, he comes around and becomes a valued team member. We saw the addition of Wally as KidFlash this season, as well as all of the consequences of FlashPoint–the alternate time line that Barry created when he went back and stopped his mother’s death.
All of the events that have happened since then have been consequences of Barry messing with time. Caitlin’s powers manifest themselves again and she battles to keep Killer Frost at bay. Villains are released. Peoples lives are changed, and not just those of Team Flash. We find out that even the lives of Team Arrow have been changed. Furthermore, Barry & Iris finally come together and after a lifetime of being together finally move in together and are engaged to be married. And while Barry can no longer go back and change the past because he has promised to stop messing with time, the last few weeks have been spent trying to change the future. A future where Iris is killed by Savitar. We recently found out that Savitar is actually a time remnant of Barry himself–not a huge surprise as an alternate version of Barry made the most sense in being his ultimate nemeses. Savitar is a twisted version of an evil Barry remnant, who has all of Barry’s memories but none of his morality. There is a reason why Savitar has been one step ahead of them for months, its because he has lived all of Barry’s life events before, he knows exactly what is going to happen.
However, in the Season Finale there were a few surprises that I don’t think everyone saw coming. We all assumed that Iris would die all along, no matter how Team Flash tried to stop it. And she did. Except she didn’t. In the season finale it is revealed that who we thought was Iris, was actually H.R. looking like Iris. Feeling that he has failed the team in letting Savitar know Iris’ whereabouts, H.R. selflessly takes her place in case Team Flash’s plan to stop Saviors doesn’t work, which it doesn’t. So while Iris gets to live, H.R. is killed. In some ways, I think I was more sad about H.R. because I was surprised. We had been expecting Barry to lose Iris. H.R was a smart twist. He wasn’t really an essential part of the team, but we had grown to love him this season. In the final defeat of Savitar, Caitlin sides with Team Flash.
Caitlin is no longer Killer Frost, but she is not Caitlin either. She leaves Team Flash to figure out who she is now. Despite H.R.’s loss, all seems to end well for the Team. Savitar is gone. They bid a fond farewell to H.R. And Iris & Barry are finally going to be wed. Then just as we saw on Supergirl last week, super heroes don’t usually get the Happy-Eve-After ending. Although it is Mon-El who leaves in Supergirl, in a shocking turn of events, it is Barry who must leave this time–separating him and Iris. The Speed Force starts to break down without a prisoner. The Speed Force must have a Speedster and Barry’s time is up. He has been running for so long and now they have come to claim him. The only way to save everyone is for him to take his place as a prisoner of The Speed Force.
What this means for the coming season we are not exactly sure. How will Team Flash be Team Flash without Barry? Yes they still have Kid Flash, but let’s be honest, Wally’s presence is endearing because of his family connections, but he is definitely not a hero or main-character worthy. Barry’s disappearance reminds me of the season of Arrow when Oliver was missing for a while and Team Arrow had to go on without him. They did it, but the episodes without him lagged in purpose and entertainment value. Not sure what the writers are up to, but if The Flash is going to continue, then they had better find a way to write Barry back in…. AND quickly!
