RANT -- The Flash (CW) - Season 6

The sixth season of the American television series The Flash, which is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, premiered on The CW on October 8, 2019, and consisted of 19 episodes. The season follows Barry, a crime scene investigator with superhuman speed who fights criminals, including others who have also gained superhuman abilities. It is set in the Arrowverse, sharing continuity with the other television series of the universe, and is a spin-off of Arrow. The season is produced by Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television, and DC Entertainment, with Eric Wallace serving as showrunner.

The season was ordered in January 2019, and was originally planned to have 22 episodes. Filming began that July, and ceased in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic so the last two episodes were not filmed, and another could not complete filming, bringing the season down to 19 episodes. Grant Gustin stars as Barry, with principal cast members Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Hartley Sawyer, Danielle Nicolet, Tom Cavanagh, and Jesse L. Martin also returning from previous seasons, while LaMonica Garrett was promoted to series regular from his guest status in season five. They are joined by new cast member Efrat Dor.

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At first I was only going to rant on the last half of this season, but I'm going to lump in a few comments and remarks on the first half too before the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover that turned the entire Arrowverse upside down.

Killer Frost Forced To The Sidelines

Caitlin Snow and Killer Frost's duality was one of the best inclusions to the show following Caitlin's struggles with her own metahuman powers over the last few seasons. Frost gave Danielle Panabaker another angle to approach Caitlin's character while at the same time allowed her to play multiple roles on the same show. While I was glad that they retired the recurring joke from the previous season(s) of figuring out various means to upset/piss off Caitlin to make her transform into Frost, I was concerned that Caitlin was getting pushed to the sidelines more than she should. The problem with Season 6 was the fact that both Caitlin AND Frost were getting regulated to the sidelines. Caitlin and Frost had a prominent role in the first half of the season while Team Flash dealt with the threat of Bloodwork/Ramsey Rosso. She had a connection to Rosso as a former colleague and confidant to his research. I thought her involvement in that storyline was fine.

What followed after that was pretty underwhelming as Frost was regulated to the sidelines for the remainder of the season, despite the fact that Barry Allen stressed heavily that he wanted her to continue following in his footsteps as a heroine for Central City in the result that he would perish during the events of Crisis. Ralph would get a bigger role in the latter half of the season with his investigation into his (Sue) "Dearbon" case while Frost/Caitlin wouldn't be brought up for much of the season outside of Caitlin's expertise on medical matters. She would be sidelined with an injury following Team Flash's encounter with the new Dr. Light (post-Crisis) that would require her to go with Frost/Caitlin's mother for proper treatment. From the way that this was done, it seems like she's being written out of the remainder of this story arc. I could be wrong, but I hate to see Caitlin Snow nor Frost be taken away from the limelight.

Sue Dearbon & Ralph Dibny's Budding Romance

In the comics continuity, Sue ends up being Ralph's wife. In 2004, she became a flashpoint for discussions of women in comics when a highly controversial storyline was published (set in the post-Zero Hour continuity) in which she is murdered and revealed to have been raped by Doctor Light in the past.

While I'm sure that the CW will steer FAR away from that controversial storyline, especially when Dr. Light has had an extremely minor role in the Arrowverse continuity and has been gender-swapped to be depicted as female in all of her appearances in this continuity, it's up in the air on what the CW will do with this character following Hartley Sawyer's firing for his racist, misogynist tweets coming to surface. She was framed for the murder of Eva McCulloch's husband, even though that was the real reason why she joined the Black Hole organization in the first place.

I loved Hartley Sawyer and Natalie Dreyfuss' on-screen chemistry together as these characters, but I don't fault CW's decision to fire Sawyer amidst of the #SpeakingOut movement. He shat in that bed and now he has to lay in it. Dreyfuss shouldn't be punished for his fuck up. I think they should recast Ralph's role for the next season (much like they are going to have to do for Batwoman following Ruby Rose's departure) and continue with whatever plans they have in stone for this character. Sue Dearbon was a joy in every episode that she was in over this season and one of the VERY few bright spots in an extremely lackluster season.

I have my fingers crossed that the CW finds a solution to this problem that wouldn't cause all of the hard work they put into establishing Sue Dearbon's character into the Arrowverse be for nothing.

No More Of This CGI-Bullshit Please...

The fight against Bloodwork was fucking embarrassing in this season. If it weren't for the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event, I think I would have stopped watching at that point. That's not saying the ordeal with Eva McCulloch was much better...

All that I'm saying... or rather asking is to show as much love and compassion to crafting this narrative as what Geoff Johns and his team working on Stargirl.

Given the circumstances from how this season ended, it's painfully obvious that Bloodwork will appear again in Season 7. I'm fine with that too since we finally have not one but two of the main antagonists for this season not being evil speedsters, despite the fact that Godspeed has a constant presence in this season. He's not going away either, so you know he's going to have a hand to play in the next season, along with Reverse Flash/Eobard Thawne.

The Iris West Problem

Let's be honest here. This isn't an unique problem for Season 6. It has been a glaring problem more and more as this series continues to roll on. 

Unlike the vast majority hate that Iris West and her actress, Candice Patton, get on social media, I don't necessarily hate Candice Patton as a person. I just hate how her on-screen character is presented on this show with a passion. Time and time again, I would joke with friends about who the hell is she humping backstage among the writers to land Iris West these positions of power and lengthy amounts of screen time over the main cast - hell, even more than the one the show is named after The Flash himself in most occasions this season! That was the name of the problem for Season 6 here. This was essentially The Iris West Show instead of The Flash. The fact was hammered home even more when Barry Allen was losing his connection to the Speed Force in the latter half of the season following his actions during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

I'm fine with Iris having her old side adventures with her budding independent journalism outfit - Team Citizen, but when it takes up majority of the main plot for the course of the season, that's when it became a problem. The writers were painting the picture as if Iris' independent journalist project was the equivalent of the Daily Planet for Superman and she was literally Lois Lane. To be fair, Lois Lane is a bad ass in her own right, but some of the stuff they've had Iris West doing here was undermining what the hero of this show was capable of in more situations than not.

This was amplified even more when Iris was portrayed to be competent than the actual scientists and doctors on Team Flash. Barry Allen himself even came off as a colossal dumb ass over the course of the last half of this season when he couldn't tell the difference between his actual wife and Mirror Iris until it was too late. I can't blame all of that on Candice Patton either as she's not the one writing this crap where Barry is regulated to the sidelines or just standing around, feeling sorry for himself since he's losing his powers and not doing much of anything. It creates a lot of boring and lackluster television, especially when the narrative is dwelling too hard into this Iris story. Eva McCulloch made for an interesting



Oh my FUCKING God, this sequence got so many eye rolls from me. I get that Barry's at the end of his tether when it comes to his reserves on his powers but he couldn't beat this T-1000 knockoff? Between getting powers last season and a sequence like this where she flat out beats up the titular hero in a convincing manner has to have Candice Patton feeling herself to the moon and back.

I swear, I'm so fucking done with this show if they are setting Iris up to permanently gain some sort of powers from her extended duration in the Mirror Dimension and have her beat Eva McCulloch/Mirror Master (or rather Mistress?) in Season 7. That's where it seems like the direction for this show is going for the next season, but with Season 6 ending prematurely, I'm guessing we're going to get some sort of a resolution in those terms since the last few episodes were cut off during this season order since the cast and crew couldn't resume filming once the coronavirus pandemic grew widespread around the world. Between Iris' group of females brought together as Team Citizen and Eva McCulloch's Black Hole organization lackeys, it seems like we're heading towards a girl fight of sorts to end this conflict properly, especially if it means that both The Flash and Frost are sidelined for the remainder of this story arc. Cisco Ramon already gave up his powers in the previous season, so don't forget about that too along with the fact that Barry's plans to use Nora's notes to build his own artificial Speed Force seemed to get thrown to the wayside by the end of this season. I thought that plan should have taken priority over everything else, especially with Barry wanting to ensure the safety of all of his loved ones.

My only knock against Candice Patton though is the fact that while Hartley Sawyer's firing was deserved and swiftly executed, but absolutely nothing came under fire for the accusations against her back in December by JR Smith's wife, Shirley "Jewel" Harris, for trying to steal her husband. JR Smith would then give her a shout out on Instagram for Valentine's Day of this year as well with the incident never really getting much media attention. While I applaud Candice Patton for standing up for proper representation of black women in media and what not on television, I can't give her a pass for this shady behavior. Some role model for all of the positive shit that you're trying to sell when you're doing dirt behind closed doors, y'know? Shame on the CW for completely ignoring and sweeping this ordeal under the rug too. In Candice Patton's defense though, JR Smith claims that he has been separated from his wife for months now, so there's that.

For The Flash Season 7, the only thing I want is more of The Flash that we know and love and less of The Flash playing second fiddle for what has been essentially The Iris West Show for this entire season. Is that too much to ask?

REVIEW -- The CW Presents Arrowverse Crossover: Arrow/Supergirl/The Flash/DC's Legends of Tomorrow - Crisis on Earth-X (Parts 1-4)

Crisis on Earth-X is the name of the upcoming 4 part crossover event between Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. The crossover will air over two nights from November 27th to November 28th, 2017.

The episodes that are involved in the crossover are:

"Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1" (Supergirl)
"Crisis on Earth-X, Part 2" (Arrow)
"Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3" (The Flash)
"Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4" (DC's Legends of Tomorrow)

Plot Synopsis:

In a parallel world, Earth-X, Nazi regime rule the planet, where a dark hooded archer known as Dark Arrow is the latest to succeed Adolf Hitler's place as führer, and personally hunts the American loyalists and other resistances. On Earth-1, Barry Allen and Iris West's friends, including Kara Danvers and her adoptive sister Alex from Earth-38, come to Central City for their wedding. Harry Wells, Cisco Ramon, and Caitlin Snow develop a solution to separate the Firestorm matrix from Martin Stein and Jefferson Jackson; however, Jefferson is reluctant on giving up being the superhero Firestorm. Inspired by Barry's happiness with Iris, Oliver Queen re-proposes to Felicity Smoak for her hand in marriage, but she is not ready to marry Oliver. During the wedding ceremony, the event is interrupted by Earth-X invaders, led by Dark Arrow and his wife Overgirl. After Kara injures Overgirl during the fight, the Nazis are forced to retreat, and Alex and Sara Lance capture Dark Arrow's partner Prometheus-X. As Dark Arrow, Overgirl, and a dark yellow speedster regroup and discuss their next step, Dark Arrow and Overgirl are unmasked to be parallel universe doppelgängers of Oliver and Kara, and the yellow speedster reveals himself as Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash, Barry's nemesis who was thought to be erased from existence.

In S.T.A.R. Labs, Prometheus-X is revealed to be a doppelgänger of Oliver's deceased friend Tommy Merlyn, and commits suicide out of loyalty to the Nazi regime. Harry reveals that, through his exploration of the multiverse, he discovered Earth-X is a dystopian world where World War II was not won by the Allied Forces. Dark Arrow, Overgirl, and Thawne steal a power source known as the Prism from a research company; the heroes believe that Dark Arrow seeks to build a neutron bomb with it. After a series of battles, most of the heroes are captured; Oliver's team, along with Harry, Caitlin, Cisco, and Mick Rory, are in captivity at S.T.A.R. Labs after the Nazi forces infiltrate it, and Oliver, Barry, Sara, Stein, Jefferson, Kara, and Alex are transported to Earth-X's concentration camp, but Kara is moved to S.T.A.R. Labs. The villains reveal that Overgirl is dying and Dark Arrow plans to use the Prism to create artificial red sunlight that would weaken Kara's invulnerability, preparing a heart transplant for Overgirl but killing Kara in the process.

In the concentration camp, the heroes are rescued from execution by Ray Terrill and Citizen Cold (Leonard Snart’s Earth-X doppelgänger). Thawne prepares to operate on both Overgirl and Kara, and Iris and Felicity work to rescue their friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, leading the latter to confront Dark Arrow. After they struggle with both Earth-X’s resistance fighters and the Nazi forces, the heroes eventually made it back to Earth-1 after hijacking the Nazi’s dimensional projector at the cost of Stein mortally wounded. Iris, Felicity, Kara, and the others are eventually rescued by the returned heroes and The Legends.

The Verdict: 

I'm NOT going to split this up into parts to cover this properly, so bare with me as I talk about this in its entirety from start to finish. I might jump around a bit, so I apologize now. 

This whole thing starts off with everyone being invited to Barry and Iris' wedding, something goes awry and we get the Nazi invasion from Earth-X. Before all of that though? We get a cool montage of every set of these heroes in one of their individual adventures. Supergirl is dealing with a Dominator (last year's crossover villain as noted by Kara's cute remark), Team Flash is dealing with King Shark, Arrow is fighting ninjas, and the Legends are in medieval England, getting their "Robin Hood" on. Everyone is scrambling with last second details for the wedding and/or RSVPing their seating for we can see everyone come together. As much as I've been annoyed this season of The Flash with the heavy focus on Barry and Iris' relationship (I had my fill of that during last year's storyline against Savitar with Iris' life in the balance...), I thought the focus here set the stage for a lot of great things here. The last few Arrowverse crossover events can be best described as muddled up in terms of narrative storytelling, with the one for 2016 was merely an afterthought at the cost of promoting  Arrow's 100th episode and Supergirl not even tying into the event until the last two minutes to tease it. As a result of this get-together of all of these friends from other realities and time periods, we get a lot of fun moments from this episode. Sara Lance/White Canary and Alex Danvers hook up Wedding Crashers-style in a one night stand. Fans of Legends could see that one coming a mile away given the character's history with her random misc. flings of both sexes. It served as a wonderful departure from Alex's pining over her break-up from Maggie for the last few episodes.

Prof. Stein making Jefferson welcome with his family was a nice moment here.

Martin Stein and Jefferson bond with Stein's family at his home after Cisco and "Squidward"... err Wells (Earth-2 version) cooked up a means to destabilize their connection as Firestorm. For those who don't watch Legends, this has been an ongoing dilemma this season as Jefferson wants to break Martin Stein from their bond for Stein could return home to his family.

In typical soap opera fashion (much to chagrin that these CW DC Comics-based shows are written), the wedding gets crashed - literally - and we get a Nazi invasion while the heroes take action. What surprises me here is the lack of concern for the sake of maintaining secret identities. The Central City police are in attendance for the wedding, but Barry Allen uses his powers in plain view while Oliver Queen takes arms as the Arrow without a second thought. At least the Legends, Supergirl, and Alex Danvers have an excuse as the Legends are usually time displaced most of the time anyway while Kara and Alex aren't from this reality anyway. Still, that just seemed a bit odd for me here.

I don't want to sell the church battle short, but wow, that was one of the best choreographed action sequences ever (from what I've seen anyway...) out of any of these Arrowverse shows. If you don't watch anything else in this crossover, just watch that sequence in its entirety.

They cover all of the bases here: Cisco gets to do some breaching action to help Oliver out and invites Caitlin's "angry roommate" out to play, Barry and Wally protect the civilians, Kara takes the heavy hitting matters outside and away from everyone else, Alex and Sara dance once more - this time with hand-to-hand combat, and Mick just enjoys all of it.

I'm with Mick here. I'm all for more Killer Frost. The ongoing joke was that he was going out of his way trying to piss Caitlin off to bring Frost back out while he was around.

My thoughts exactly... It's up there with Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's from Spider-Man: The Animated Series from the impromptu team-ups that it created.

Shortly after this ordeal, the heroes are confronted with the lead metahumans in charge of this invasion - Overgirl, Dark Arrow, and Reverse Flash. The first two are obviously dopplegangers from Earth-X, with Eobard Thawne somehow surviving the events of the Season Two finale of Legends. At this point, I'm done trying to keep up with this shit in terms of how many times he's been killed off and/or revive due to time travel, the Legends, or Barry's fuck-ups due to Flashpoint in The Flash Season Three, so I'm just like whatever at this point. Barry just killed his doppleganger in Savitar during The Flash Season Three finale so there was no point to bring him back again. That would have been hella redundant, so Thawne was a nice call, even more so for him to wear Wells' face again. I thought Tom Cavanagh was always a better choice for playing Thawne over Matt Letscher who took over in the role in The Flash Season Two and Legends Season Two. I personally don't watch Arrow (but I love Felicity Smoak though...), but I thought the Dark Arrow (Dark Archer would make a better name but I'm not getting paid to name these characters... that's Cisco's job) and Overgirl (Haha, I get it a spin on Overman's name from Earth-X) were clever opposite reflections on Oliver and Kara's characters. I visibly cringed when Kara tried to reason with her evil doppleganger while Barry and Oliver were straight to business when the fighting started. I thought it was cool that Metallo was included in the set of villains from Earth-X but he didn't get nearly enough screen time for my taste. I guess they had to limit his scenes as they were already pushing it on terms of the visuals for this crossover.

Exactly how exciting I'm picturing the rest of the Arrowverse seasons will be after the SFX budget has been blown in this crossover... 

I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the Arrowverse shows look like the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers fighting the Putty Patrol with the mid-season finales right around the corner next week. There's no way that they haven't blown their special effects budget from how great some of these scenes looked here. I have to admit I was really impressed with a lot of the action sequences in this.

Always nice to see Wentworth Miller back in costume as Captain Cold/Leonard Snart.

In Part 3 of this crossover, the heroes found themselves captured and sent to a prison on Earth-X while Kara was held against her will at S.T.A.R. Labs as Thawne prepared to harvest her organs to replace those in the dying Overgirl from her overexposure to solar radiation. The heroes found themselves rescued by Earth-X's Leonard Snart/Citizen Cold and found themselves a new ally in Snart and one of their fellow inmates, The Ray. The Ray is supposed to make his Arrowverse debut in the upcoming straight-to-DVD animated movie, but damn, I had NO idea that they were going to debut him in this crossover. It was cool to see him around but much like Metallo, I kinda wish that he was given some more screen time to get established, but I understand why not, as this crossover was jam-packed enough as it was. The Ray is the homosexual partner of Snart in this continuity and if the looks on Barry and Oliver's didn't say it for everyone else, NO ONE saw that coming. This episode ends with Flash and Ray taking on Red Tornado while everyone else infiltrates the enemy stronghold to hopefully use their portal to get back home to Earth-1. We got another great sequence with Ray and Flash in action against Red Tornado, while the rest of the team fought against the other Nazi forces. Unfortunately, Martin Stein took a stray bullet shot and was mortally wounded. This episodes ends with a cliffhanger as viewers are left wondering Stein's fate along with the fate of Iris and Felicity back in S.T.A.R. Labs, who managed to rescue Supergirl, but were apprehended by Reverse Flash before they could escape.

I can't say that I didn't see it coming but the second Jefferson and Stein decided to separate from being Firestorm I thought it was a bad idea. As much as I was laughing at Iris and Felicity's exploits, it would have made the villains in this crossover pretty lame if they were foiled by them without any opposition. It's not until Part 4 where we learn that Stein's injuries are fatal and it would have killed him sooner if not for his connection to Jefferson. After a touching moment between the two characters, Stein severs their connection as Firestorm with the concoction that Cisco and Wells devised back in Part 1 and dies on the Waverider.

Rest in peace, Professor Stein. 

This was a sad moment for the Legends, especially since Martin Stein was a father figure to many of the heroes in this crossover and integral part of Team Flash and the Waverider crew since the first seasons of both Legends and The Flash.

If that couldn't be only great scene in this episode, we get another from Felicity Smoak as she finds herself in a hopeless situation as the Dark Arrow stood ready and willing to kill her for Supergirl to keep Overgirl alive. God, I love this woman...

Anywho, Professor Stein's sacrifice allowed the heroes to return in time to aid the rest of the Legends (who Felicity and Iris sent an SOS for help, along with some token members of Team Arrow, but you're crazy if you think I knew who all of those losers were supposed to be outside of Mr. Terrific...) in reclaiming S.T.A.R. Labs and forcing the Nazi's of Earth-X to retreat. The heroes mourn the loss of Stein with even Jefferson informing his family of the unfortunate news. My only gripe from this was that Jefferson's acting was fucking awful here.

From that loss, the heroes have their motivation to make a final stand against the invaders from Earth-X as we're treated to the crossover team-up group shot. Whoever filmed this had to be a fan of Power Rangers/Super Sentai as this was straight out of their MANY team-up episodes. I was half expecting everyone to do a roll call and do henshin transformation poses. I won't deny that I geeked out a little seeing everyone together like this. Bravo, Arrowverse, you did good on this one.

The only thing missing in the background here was that traditional explosion in the background and everyone shouting, "POWER RANGERS!"

Nothing much to write home about in the final fight. Supergirl fights Overgirl to a stalemate until Overgirl overheats and self-destructs. Flash beats Reverse Flash and just lets him go. Man, I don't even know anymore on that one. Hey Barry, do you need Iris to kill him too for you like she did Savitar? At least Oliver killed his own doppleganger and there wasn't even no second thoughts about it. Glad to see someone in this crossover has some balls when it comes to these damn evil doubles and know you can't leave these lunatics alive.

Killer Frost doing her best Iceman... err Icewoman, impression for the ladies from Legends

This crossover ends with not one but two weddings to end this on a happy note as Iris and Barry finally tie the knot while Oliver and Felicity finally decide to do the same within the same impromptu ceremony. What was fucked up is that they waited until Kara and Alex went back to their Earth before cooking up this idea. It would have been nice to have them around for this when they were already hanging around for the bulk of this crossover anyway. It's not like Alex and Kara had anything better to do.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

If you don't watch anything Arrowverse related this season, I HIGHLY recommend this season's crossover event. There's a lot of laughs, some great action, and a few heart-touching moments to enjoy from start to finish. This was actually a LOT better than the bulk of all three out of the four Arrowverse shows that I actually watch have been this entire season thus far if you ask me, if I'm perfectly honest. 

QUICKIE -- CW's The Flash - Season 3 Finale "Finish Line"

All roads have led to this point. Will Savitar succeed at his plans to break Barry Allen's will and make him into the villain that Savitar desires or will Barry be able to save his future self?

Or will viewers just facepalm their way through this episode from start to finish...? I guess we'll find out in this review, shall we?

Plot: 

It is revealed that H.R. swapped places with Iris, leading to his death. Savitar kidnaps Cisco and forces him to rebuild the Bazooka into an intradimensional quantum splicer so that Savitar could create fragments of himself to be dispersed throughout time and protect himself from the paradox. Barry tries to convince Savitar that he could be saved. Savitar returns to S.T.A.R. Labs, destroys it with the stone and orders Caitlin to kill Cisco, but Gypsy interferes. Savitar and Caitlin open a portal into the Speed Force; the Black Flash appears and attacks Savitar, but Caitlin destroys him with her powers. Savitar attempts to execute his plan, but it's revealed that Cisco actually modified the Bazooka into a skeleton key to free Jay from the Speed Force prison. Barry, Wally and Jay engage Savitar, while Cisco and Gypsy face off against Caitlin. Cisco convinces Caitlin to become benevolent. Barry phases through and destroys Savitar's suit before Savitar is shot by Iris, erasing him from existence. As Team Flash mourns H.R., Caitlin decides not to use Julian's cure, leaving the team in order to find her own purpose. A massive storm appears over Central City, created by the empty Speed Force prison, which has become unstable since it now has no occupant. Barry explains that he needs to accept his punishment for creating Flashpoint and enters the Speed Force prison himself, entrusting Central City to Wally and the team.

The Verdict:

This fucking show, man...

Hands down, the worst season and worst season finale for this series to date. The more I watch these CW DC-based shows, I wonder why do I even bother keeping up with this crap. Morbid curiosity always seems to win out as I wanted to see this train wreck to the end.

RIP H.R., thanks for being the Red Shirt for The Flash TV series... Pretty sure they'll have another replacement for you by the end of the Season 4 premiere.

The episode starts off with Joe West and Barry Allen reeling from the death of Iris West at the hands of Savitar, until she's revealed to be H.R. using one of his image disguising devices to swap his and Iris' identities. While I can respect that H.R. was allowed to have a hero's departure to close this final chapter of the novel that was his life this season, I felt that the shock was completely undermined by the fact that Team Flash was more relieved that H.R. died instead of Iris. The only person that seemed to care about his noble sacrifice was Tracy and that was swept underneath the rub the second they pulled Harry's leg to talk her into helping out Savitar.

Speaking of Savitar... This had to be the biggest dropped opportunity on this show to date. What could have been a great way to end this season with the hero coming face to face with the darkness within that could transform him into the villain of the future, they played the wuss out card and lamed it out. I couldn't fathom the depths of stupidity in the writing on this episode. It was to the point where it was blowing my mind on how low the writing went in this finale. Okay, Savitar knows and remembers everything Barry knows in present day, so what was stopping him from turning around and killing Iris once H.R. revealed himself of the swap or any point after that? If Savitar truly valued his existence, he could have killed Iris, Joe, Julian, and the rest of Team Flash right in front of Barry in the middle of STAR Labs when he brought him there and there would have been absolutely NOTHING that he could have done about it except cry about it like the whiny bitch that they've made Barry Allen in this show. Reaching his humanity is one thing, but his desperation to exist should have won over, especially with time against him as it was only a matter of time before the Black Racer/Hunter Solomon would come and erase him from reality like Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash during the Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 Finale.

Speaking of Hunter... That was straight up bullshit that Killer Frost was able to kill him like that so easily. I literally threw my hands up into the air when I saw that shit. While we're on the subject of Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost, I want to say that she was criminally robbed of the glory that should have been hers during this season. Season 3 barely scratched the surface of what she could have accomplished and shown off onscreen as Killer Frost and barely showed all of the layers of darkness that Caitlin has been bottling up and living with until this point. Instead, she's reduced to being Savitar's mere sidekick and lackey and we still have no idea on why she wanted to work for him in the first place. She could have disposed of Savitar herself any of those hundred and one times he took his armor off and took the center stage as the main villain of this season. Instead, we're robbed of the opportunity of possibly seeing how much further could she descend in this road as a villain for an impromptu redemption for her character as she aided Cisco, Gypsy, and Barry Allen against Savitar in the final battle.

To say that Barry had so much damn help here, that was a damn shame that for one almost all of those losers were pretty much unless and didn't make any real difference AND the fact that Iris West herself was the one who had to save Barry when it was all said and done. Iris of all people... Ugh, shouldn't Emo Barry/Savitar have had enough time to react and throw that bullet right back her? The thing I didn't get was that why didn't Barry phase through Savitar's armor in the first place during their first few encounters? It just seemed odd that they threw that strategy against the wall when Barry's future counterpart even said nothing he did worked.

There's just SOOO much shit here that doesn't make sense in the least:

Hell, where the fuck did Savitar get the damn armor from in the first damn place!!??

Why did Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost agree to work with Savitar anyway? What did he have to offer that made her so devoted to his cause? After all that has happened to her you would think that she would be against more tampering with the timeline...

You would think that would wrap things up and everything would be happily ever after, but nope, all of these Flash finales have a clusterfuck cliffhanger to set up the next season. In this case, the Speed Force is wrecking the city because there's not a prisoner within it to stabilize it and Barry Allen steps up more than willing to finally accept his "punishment" for tampering with the timeline by creating Flashpoint.

You got to be out of your fucking mind to expect me to buy into them keeping Barry Allen out of this show outside of maybe 1-2 episodes. Four to Five tops if they are pushing it. From the lack of screen time and effort to develop his character further this season, I cannot see them running with Wally West as the titular hero for long. Maybe Cisco steps up big time and we get to see him in action a lot more from here on out, but the CW currently has a hard sell on making me (or anyone for that matter) care on Season 4, despite their promises of no more evil speedsters as the main villain of the season.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

Don't even get me started on how much time fuckery went on in this season, let alone this finale that should fuck shit up going forward no matter what...  (Laughs) No wonder Rip Hunter doesn't want his old job back.

If you watched this train wreck of a season this far, you might as well see how it ends. For everyone else, stay far, far, away and spare yourself the headache. This show has so much potential for great things, but the lazy and ass-backwards writing hinders it from truly being great. It's the same thing that I had a problem with the entirety of Legends of Tomorrow Season Two and Supergirl Season Two where there's an interesting, new concept introduced to kick off the season but everything that follows leads up to a lackluster and unsatisfactory conclusion.

REVIEW -- CW's The Flash (Season Two)

Following the defeat of Barry Allen's arch-nemesis Eobard Thawne (aka Reverse Flash) at the end of Season One, Team Flash quickly turned their attention to the singularity swirling high above Central City, which fans last saw consuming everything in its path. Armed with the heart of a hero and the ability to move at super speeds, Barry charged into the eye of the singularity, but will he actually be able to save his city from impending doom?

Main Cast:

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash and Barry Allen
Candice Patton as Iris West and Detective Iris West-Allen
Danielle Panabaker as Dr. Caitlin Snow and Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe and Cisco Ramon/Reverb
Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West
Tom Cavanagh as Dr. Harrison "Harry" Wells and Professor Eobard Thawne
Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West and Joseph West

Recurring Cast:

Teddy Sears as Hunter Zolomon/Zoom and Hunter Zolomon
Tony Todd as Zoom (voice)
Shantel VanSanten as Detective Patty Spivot
Violett Beane as Jesse Quick
John Wesley Shipp as Dr. Henry Allen and Jay Garrick/The Flash
Patrick Sabongui as Captain David Singh and Singh
Victor Garber as Professor Martin Stein/Firestorm
Vanessa Williams as Francine West
Wentworth Miller as Leonard Snart/Captain Cold
Amanda Pays as Dr. Tina McGee
Demore Barnes as Dr. Henry Hewitt/Tokamak and Dr. Henry Hewitt
Ciara Renée as Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl
Malese Jow as Linda Park and Linda Park/Dr. Light
Michelle Harrison as Nora Allen
Rick Cosnett as Detective Eddie Thawne
David Ramsey as John Diggle/Spartan
Matt Letscher as Professor Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash
Robbie Amell as Ronnie Raymond/Firestorm and Ronnie Raymond/Deathstorm
Adam Stafford as Adam Fells/Geomancer
Tone Bell as Scott Evans
David Hayter as King Shark

Season Two Episode Listing: 

#	Episode name	Directed by	Story by	Teleplay by	Original airdate
1	"The Man Who Saved Central City"	Ralph Hemecker	Greg Berlanti &Andrew Kreisberg	Andrew Kreisberg andGabrielle Stanton	October 6, 2015
Picking up six months after the Singularity attacked Central City, Barry is still struggling to forgive himself for Eddie’s death. Concerned about putting his friends in danger, Barry has pushed everyone away and has chosen to protect the city on his own. When a meta-human named Atom Smasher attacks the city, Iris tells Barry that he needs to let his friends help him protect the citizens of Central City. Meanwhile, Cisco helps Joe with his Meta Task Force.
2	"Flash of Two Worlds"	Jesse Warn	Aaron & Todd Helbing		October 13, 2015
Jay Garrick, a mysterious man from Earth Two, appears at S.T.A.R. Labs with a dire warning about an evil speedster named Zoom, who is set on destroying The Flash. Barry and the team must decide if they can trust this stranger even as they face yet another powerful meta-human. Meanwhile, Joe must deal with a determined officer named Patty Spivot who wants to join his meta-human task force.
3	"Family of Rogues"	John Showalter	Julian Meiojas & Katherine Walczak		October 20, 2015
When Barry and the team find out Captain Cold has been kidnapped, they form an uneasy alliance with his sister, Lisa. However, Barry feels double-crossed when he finds out Snart is working with his father, Lewis Snart on a heist. Meanwhile, Joe is faced with a difficult decision.
4	"The Fury of Firestorm"	Stefan Pleszczynski	Kai Yu Wu & Joe Peracchio		October 27, 2015
Barry and the team look for another Firestorm match for Dr. Stein. When the team meets Jefferson "Jax" Jackson, Caitlin has her reservations about whether Jax is the right match for Dr. Stein. Iris surprises Joe Westwhile Barry and Patty Spivot grow closer.
5	"The Darkness and the Light"	Steve Shill	Ben Sokolowski & Grainne Godfree		November 3, 2015
Barry learns a new breacher, Dr. Light, has come through the portal and sets off to capture her. Jay tells Barry that Dr. Light was not a threat on Earth Two and that Barry can reason with her. However, during a fight with The Flash, she blinds him and drops some shocking news about Zoom. Meanwhile, Barry and Patty go out on a date.
6	"Enter Zoom"	J.J. Makaro	Gabrielle Stanton & Brooke Eikmeier		November 10, 2015
After recent events, Barry decides it's time to confront Zoom and comes up with a dangerous plan. Caitlin sides with Jay and deems it too dangerous for Barry to engage with the speed demon. However, Iris shows her support and brings forth a surprising ally. We see what Earth Two Harrison Wells' life was like before coming through the breach.
7	"Gorilla Warfare"	Dermott Downs	Aaron & Todd Helbing		November 17, 2015
Grodd returns to Central City and kidnaps Caitlin. Barry and team race to find her before it's too late. Meanwhile, Cisco plans his first date with the new barista at Jitters, Kendra Saunders and Patty begins to suspect Barry is hiding something from her.
8	"Legends of Today"	Ralph Hemecker	Aaron & Todd Helbing		December 1, 2015
Vandal Savage arrives in Central City and sets his sights on Kendra Saunders. After Vandal attacks Kendra and Cisco, they turn to Barry for help. Realizing how dangerous Vandal is, Barry takes Kendra to Star City and asks Oliver and team to hide her until he can figure out how to stop Vandal. However, things quickly go from bad to worse when a man with wings AKA Hawkman shows up and flies off with Kendra. Meanwhile, Harrison develops a serum to make Barry run faster and asks Jay to test it out.
9	"Running to Stand Still"	Kevin Tancharoen	Andrew Kreisberg		December 8, 2015
When Mark Mardon AKA The Weather Wizard returns to break Leonard Snart AKA Captain Cold and James Jesse AKA The Trickster out of Iron Heights, Barry must stop these rogues from taking over Central City during Christmas. Meanwhile, Joe and Iris meet Wally West.
10	"Potential Energy"	Rob Hardy	Bryan Q. Miller		January 19, 2016
Now that they've grown closer, Barry considers telling Patty that he is The Flash. Meanwhile, Joe and Iris try to get to know Wally, and the team hunts down a meta-human who can slow time itself.
11	"The Reverse-Flash Returns"	Michael Allowitz	Aaron & Todd Helbing		January 26, 2016
When Cisco gets a vibe of Eobard Thawne, Barry and the team don't believe it. But, after an attack at Mercury Labs, Christina McGee confirms that the Reverse-Flash is back. Meanwhile, Iris and Francine share a nice moment that brings Iris closer to her brother, Wally.
12	"Fast Lane"	Rachel Talalay	Brooke Eikmeier	Kai Yu Wu and Joe Peracchio	February 2, 2016
Barry teams up with Wells to figure out a way to close the breaches, but they are distracted by a meta-human nicknamed Tar Pit who can transform into liquid asphalt. Iris is concerned for Wally's safety after she finds out about his drag racing hobby. When he refuses to stop she makes a bold move that puts her in danger.
13	"Welcome to Earth-2"	Millicent Shelton	Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg & Katherine Walczak		February 9, 2016
Barry, Harry and Cisco journey to Earth-2 to rescue Harry's daughter, Jesse from Zoom. Barry is stunned when he runs into Earth-2 Iris and Joe, but nothing prepares him for meeting Killer Frost and Deathstorm. Meanwhile, back on Earth-1, Jay has to take over the Flash's responsibilities when a meta-human nicknamedGeomancer attacks Central City.
14	"Escape from Earth-2"	J.J. Makaro	Aaron & Todd Helbing		February 16, 2016
On Earth-2, the team races to find Zoom's lair and asks for help from the most unexpected source. Meanwhile, back on Earth-1, Caitlin rushes to perfect Velocity-9 so that Jay can stop the Geomancer.
15	"King Shark"	Hanelle Culpepper	Benjamin Raab & Deric A. Hughes		February 23, 2016
When King Shark escapes from an A.R.G.U.S. holding tank, Lyla and Diggle travel to Central City to warnBarry. King Shark shows up at the West house and attacks Joe, Iris, Wally and Barry.
16	"Trajectory"	Glen Winter	Lauren Certo & Lilah Vandenburgh		March 22, 2016
Deciding to blow off some steam, Barry and the team head out for a night on the town only to encounter an unexpected speedster who is up to no good. Iris is challenged by an assignment from her new boss, and is surprised when friction turns to flirtation.
17	"Flash Back"	Alice Troughton	Aaron & Todd Helbing		March 29, 2016
After the shocking revelation that Zoom is Jay Garrick, Barry is more determined than ever to get back to Earth-2 to stop Zoom forever. Desperate to find a way to increase his speed, Barry decides to travel back in time and masquerade as his earlier self in order to get his arch-nemesis, Dr. Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne, to teach him how to run faster. However, things don't go as planned and Barry is stunned to face familiar foe Hartley Rathaway, as well as old friend Eddie Thawne. Iris makes peace with her past in order to embrace her future.
18	"Versus Zoom"	Stefan Pleszczynski	Joe Peracchio & David Kob		April 19, 2016
Equipped with the tachyon device, Barry believes he is fast enough to stop Zoom and wants to open the breaches to catch him. Harry strongly advises against that plan but after Barry convinces him, Harry reveals that Cisco has the power to re-open the breach. Meanwhile, Hunter Zolomon's painful story on Earth-2 is revealed.
19	"Back to Normal"	John Showalter	Brooke Roberts & Katherine Walczak		April 26, 2016
A meta-human with super strength named Griffin Grey mistakes Harry for Earth-1 Harrison Wells and kidnaps him, demanding that Wells cure him from his current condition. Realizing another brilliant Wells could help track Griffin's location, Barry asks Jesse to help. Meanwhile, Wally corners Joe about The Flash.
20	"Rupture"	Armen V. Kevorkian	Kai Yu Wu & Lauren Certo		May 3, 2016
Zoom arrives back on Earth-1 intent on taking over Central City. Barry and Wells come up with a plan to stop Zoom once and for all but it's extremely dangerous. Unsure if he should take the risk, Barry reaches out to both fathers for advice. Henry is adamantly opposed to Barry risking his life again but Joe thinks he can handle it which puts the two men at odds with each other. Meanwhile, Cisco is shocked when he vibes the Earth-2 villain Rupture, who happens to be his brother Dante's doppelgänger. Rupture came to this Earth seeking justice for Reverb's death. Iris decides she's finally ready to open up to Barry about her feelings for him.
21	"The Runaway Dinosaur"	Kevin Smith	Zack Stentz		May 10, 2016
With Barry gone, the team must figure out a way to handle the return of an old enemy – Girder. Realizing Girder is retracing his steps from his last attack, Iris volunteers to act as bait to trap him in S.T.A.R. Labs. Meanwhile, Barry fights to return to his old life.
22	"Invincible"	Jesse Warn	Greg Berlanti &Andrew Kreisberg	Brooke Roberts & David Kob	May 17, 2016
After Zoom unleashes an army of Earth-2 meta-humans on Central City, Barry is shaken when he sees their leader is the Black Canary's Earth-2 doppelgänger, the Black Siren. Meanwhile, Wally takes to the streets to help The Flash stop the meta-humans, which worries Joe. Iris and Henry are concerned about Barry taking on Zoom.
23	"The Race of His Life"	Antonio Negret	Aaron & Todd Helbing		May 24, 2016
After Zoom reveals his true plan, Barry vows to do whatever it takes to stop him.

The Verdict: 

I really hate having to revisit my thoughts on this season as it’s just pissing me off all over again.
At the end of Season 1, I was pissed off. At the end of this season, I was more pissed off here than I was at the end of the first season and I couldn’t fathom that the series’ writers would dwell into this level of stupidity.

Wait, wait… I’m getting ahead of myself here, so let’s start at the beginning.

Hot off the heels of closing the dimensional breech from the cliffhanger ending to the Season 1 finale, Barry Allen is coming to grips of the pressures of living up to everyone’s high expectations of his heroism after defeating Reverse Flash (not really) and saving Central City (again not really). I say not really because in both situations, the world was saved due to forces outside of Barry’s control and he just happens to get the credit for the heroics. Eddie Thawne defeated Reverse Flash by “erasing” him from existence after killing himself and Firestorm was the one who saved the city by closing the breech. Barry starts off the season moping around until we’re introduced to the first of many dimensional breechers, Atomsmasher (played by WWE alumni Adam Copeland AKA The Rated R Superstar, Edge). After an anticlimactic battle, it’s revealed that Atomsmasher was working for another speedster known as Zoom. Soon enough, Barry is befriended by another speedster, The Flash of Earth 2 – Jay Garrett, along with the Harrison Wells (the REAL one) of Earth 2, who both are there to warn and assist Barry of the pending threat of a new evil speedster, Zoom.

Doesn't this sound familiar to the plot of Season One with Reverse Flash/Thawne? That's why this season frustrated me. It ultimately follows the same pattern. Jay Garrett isn't who he really say he is and ends up being the enemy in disguise - namely Zoom himself and was using Barry in the same fashion as Reverse Flash to gain his speed for his own purposes. The villains of the week end up being various "breachers" as dubbed by Cisco from Earth-2 that were recruited by Zoom to kill The Flash. Most of them prove to be only minor conveniences until the audience was treated to a trip to Earth-2 where everything is a bit "reversed" in comparison to the normal Earth that we've been used to this point. Barry's married to Iris, who is a police officer instead of her father, in that reality while the Flash support team are the supervillains Reverb (Vibe/Cisco) and Killer Frost (Caitlin) working for Zoom. Barry's Earth-2 counterpart doesn't have any powers either. Those two episodes proved to be one of the better standout episodes of that season.

Once Zoom exposed his identity of being an impostor and being really Hunter Zolomon instead of Jay Garrick and stripped Barry Allen of his speed, Barry found himself going down a path of self-discovery of his own worth as a person and as a hero. This ultimately led Barry to go to the extremes to regain his powers by recreating the experiment that gave him his powers in this first place. It seemed to kill him but instead it took him into the Speed Force itself. In a special Kevin Smith directed episode, Barry reunites with his mother and truly becomes one with the Speed Force after truly understanding the depth of his powers.

Between this episode, the ordeal where Barry went back into the past and altered the past to prevent the deaths of his allies in this season's crossover with Arrow and the heroes set to star in Legends of Tomorrow, and the Season One finale where Barry had a chance to prevent the death of his mother, one would think that Barry has come to terms with the death of his mother and how all of these events up to this point have shaped him into the hero he is today. Wells along with Thawne/Reverse Flash warned him about tampering with time travel, yet Barry tampers with it once again. Here's where my frustration with this show reaches its peak. Barry doesn't learn from anything. He makes the same mistakes time and time again - not because he is a nice guy or a genuinely good person. No, it's because he's a stupid person. That's the impression that the writers of this show have painted a picture of. Look, I can understand his pain of losing both parents due to the actions of Zoom and Reverse Flash, but what he's not realizing that every time that he or someone else tampers with time and the Speed Force it only creates another evil speedster - one more dangerous than the last. First we had Reverse Flash in Season One, then Zoom in this season and it looks like they have ANOTHER one set to debut in Season Three. Not to mention they teased and set up the potential origins for Wally West to become Kid Flash and Jesse Wells to become Jesse Quick down the road and a potential return of the other minor evil speedster in this season, Trajectory.

I have to mention the subplot where Barry Allen was hitting it off with Patty Spivot, then the show unexpectedly threw that relationship to the curb and put Barry back in the pursuit of Iris. It came off really awkward in that transition when Barry and Patty seemed to have a really great thing going and the show just wrote it off - pretty early in this season if I may add. I was left wondering if they were going to come back to this character later in this season but to no avail.

This situation sums up the season perfectly though. It seems great on the surface and potentially to lead to something wonderful in this series, but ultimately falls flat. This season gets your hopes up on something cool then immediately lets you down with the payoff. It's a recurring theme throughout this season from premiere to the finale.

Watch it or Don't Bother?

If you watched season one, you might as well see where things go from there. Everyone else, I suggest not bothering. This isn't a good point to jump into the show if you haven't been following to this point and if these CW DC Comics-based superhero dramas aren't your cup of tea then you might not become a fan after the poor writing in this season.

Ultimately, this show keeps running around in the same circle. Barry finds himself pitted against an evil speedster and finds himself along with his loved ones in the cross hairs no matter what he does. In the conflicting battle between the two speedsters, lives are lost, people are hurt, and someone dear to him dies. As a result, he tries to change the past despite the warnings and previous experiences of doing so proves to go horribly wrong. Barry does it anyway without heeding the warnings and goes through an absent-minded process where he doesn't realize the magnitude of his actions until it's too late.

I can't really put the blame on the cast for this show as even though there's times I can't fucking stand Iris West's character and can't fathom Barry Allen's stupidity at times, the actors are only working with what they are given. They do a superb job for what they given. Tom Cavanagh is still the best among the cast as Harrison Wells (again) this season with a rigid edge to his character in this season while Grant Gustin following a close second as you cannot help but love his performance as Barry Allen. Carlos Valdes' delivery makes Cisco's jokes and wisecracks stand out even more while there's moments where you want to give both Danielle Panabaker and Candice Patton a hug for their heart-felt moments and vulnerability. Teddy Sears really offers nothing major as a stand-out villain in this season compared to Cavanagh as Thawne/Reverse Flash in the first season. That alone makes me scratch my head why would they retread familiar territory when Sears couldn't live up to Cavanagh's impact as villain in the premiere season of this show.

After season one, I thought the series creators would learn from their mistakes and provide a better product after growing from what they have learned from the original season. Instead, the writers, much like Barry Allen/The Flash, refuse to learn from their mistakes and continue running into circles, destined to repeat the same mistakes and shortcomings time and time again. That being said, with the premiere of Season Three around the corner, I don't have much faith that they will do anything different with the television adaptation of the popularized Flashpoint storyline even though Barry's tampering with the fabric of time will effect every show in the CW's DC Television Universe in some shape or form going forward.