This review contains spoilers.
With a title like "Flashpoint," comic fans (and animation fans, too!) might be excused for their summer-long excitement over one of the Flash's most famous storylines. To be clear, fellow "Flashpoint" fanatics, you should have expected that it would not follow the comic book story exactly.
In this brave new world, Barry’s biggest villain seems to be his own nerves at asking out a certain Iris West who, in this reality, doesn’t know who he is. And even though he still has his speed, Barry doesn't use it, because this world already has a Flash. Looking good, Kid Flash!
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| Talk about dodging a bullet... |
I thought it an odd change for Barry that he doesn't concern himself with being a hero. He literally stands around while the Flash is busy failing. After moaning for a good chunk of season 2 about his lost powers and his inability to help people, I found it vaguely distasteful that Barry would just shrug off heroics. I guess the giddiness of having his parents back is just too distracting?
Well maybe Barry isn't totally against heroics. He does make a Herculean effort to save Joe West's job, as we come to find out that Joe is a drunk and loser (which I thought was a really nice callback to season 1, where Joe tells Barry that adopting him brought much-needed love and light into the West household. Joe wasn't lying).
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| I really, really need this service in my life, so I can sleep in every day. How much you going for, Barry? |
Anyway, in order to defeat the Rival, Iris decides they need to pay a visit to a "friend." Cisco Ramon turns out to be a too-cool-for-school billionaire who has cashed in on his intelligence to become the richest man in America.
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| Ohhh... man, wow, a sexy lamp at your side... how cliche of you, Cisco... |
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| Easily the best and cutest exchange of dialogue in the whole episode. |
This being Critical Writ, let's talk about the womenz.
I am not overly pleased. I mean, it's only the first of like 20+ episodes, so I am not writing off the entire season. But "Flashpoint" didn't do justice to a single female character: hell, it was so rushed to compress a complex time travel story into a 45-minute show that it didn't do justice to any character. Caitlyn had the best moments and the best dialogue, but poor Iris once again gets relegated to being Barry's cheerleader—and she ends up giving this atrocious speech about how empty her life has felt until the moment she met him, that this is why she totes believes him about his time travel story. I’m an Iris/Barry shipper, but—uggh.
I was underwhelmed, but I admit that I was coming in as a very excited fan of the comic book and animated versions of "Flashpoint." I do really wish they hadn't tried to compress it into a single 45 minute story, but then again, I suppose drawing out “Flashpoint” would have made writing for the other shows more complicated. Which brings us to:
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| Everything I know about time travel I learned from Doc Brown... |
In the first edition of CW Time Travel Science, let’s review:
- At the end of Season 1, Reverse Flash/Eobard Thawne is erased from existence by the self-sacrifice of Eddie Thawne, RF’s ancestor, who kills himself. Eddie Thawne, if you recall, was Iris’ beau at the time.
- At the end of season 2, Barry goes back in time to save his mother. While there, he knocks out, but doesn’t kill, Reverse Flash’s time remnant, and takes that remnant with him into the new alternate timeline he’s created.
- At the end of “Flashpoint,” Reverse Flash and Barry return to that pivotal moment in time, kill his mother, and then jump forward in time again to what should be the healed timeline, right? Wrong. Because suddenly Eobard Thawne exists again. That is already a huge change! What does this mean for Eddie and his sacrifice? He must be back, because how can Eobard exist if Eddie doesn’t? And what does this mean for the real Harrison Wells that RF killed back in season 1 to take his place? Is he alive? We already know that this timeline is different, because we find out that Joe and Iris are estranged.
Will the Legends of Tomorrow notice someone’s been mucking around with time? If they don’t, can they be fired for incompetence?
And what, if anything, does “Flashpoint” have to do with bringing Supergirl into this world?
I guess we’ll find out in the coming weeks!
What did you think of the season 3 premiere? Sound off in the comments below!
Ivonne Martin is a writer, gamer, and avid consumer of all things geek—and is probably entirely too verbose for her own good.
