The Flash

[BoloOfEarth]

I'm not positive, but I believe they think Barry deserves better than her, or at least someone more in line with his intellect and interests.  I know my daughter seemed okay with the thought of Felicity, or even Caitlin, as a romantic partner for Barry.

 

My daughter has pointed out that Iris doesn't seem to have any friends other than Barry.  (One time when Iris called Barry her "best friend", my daughter scoffed, "of course he's your best friend... he's your only friend.")  In fairness, I don't think we've seen or heard of any of Eddie's friends, or Joe's friends either.  Barry has Caitlin, Cisco, Felicity, Oliver... most of whom are also friends with each other apart from Barry.  Lately they've showed Iris and Caitlin being friendly (but not necessarily what I'd call true friends), but mainly Iris comes across as the fifth wheel. 

[Ternaugh]

I think you have Hulu plus, PG. Without Hulu Plus, The Flash is delayed by one week. 

 

La Rose. 

 

If you're able to load it, it's available now on the CW website.

[Pattern Ghost]

I'll add that Hulu Plus is totally worth it, even if you don't get the shows any faster.

 

We've cut the cable TV with the move. Went from the three in one TV/internet/phone to just internet. Using Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime to watch our shows. We're going to spring for an antenna when we're done unpacking. Apparently, the people who do the moves don't give you any grief about cutting back to internet only, so it seems like a good time to do it if you're planning on both moving and cutting the cable (as the cool kids say).

[zslane]

All I will say about the finale is that it confirmed my worst fear regarding this show: that it would embrace the very worst time travel tropes Hollywood can (and typically does) muster. I pretty much knew going in that The Flash would involve time travel, but I held out hope it might actually try to treat it smartly. But no, it pulled out every mind-numbingly stupid bit they could steal from every other mind-numbingly stupid time travel story ever told.

[Vondy]

While the time travel tropes were cliched, Barry's decision was significant and showed real personal growth on his part.

[Lord Mhoram]

I won't drop spoilers, but that is possible the best season finale I have ever seen; and one of the best hours of superhero television ever filmed. It felt like it came straight out of the comics. Tied up many plotlines, and dropped stuff to be followed up on in future seasons.

 

For the time travel - cross dimensional and cliched time travel is part and parcel of comics. It just made it feel all the more like it was lifted straight from the comic pages.

 

How I feel having seen this - the joy, the emotions, the sheer "Wait what?" that is generated - that is what I wanted from Age of Ultron and didn't get. I don't care about DC Movies anymore, the TV is where it is at.

 

 

and can you get more over the top superhero than the hero running up and punching a black hole?

 

[Lord Mhoram]

While the time travel tropes were cliched, Barry's decision was significant and showed real personal growth on his part.

 

Yeah, that was really great. I saw the big moment, and though "Barry you have grown up".

[zslane]

It was hard enough forgiviing the show for its neanderthal treatment of Iris ("we kept secrets to protect you, dear"). It was impossible for me to forgive the time travel nonsense, especially when they piled it on so thick in the finale. Mach 2? One hydrogen atom? One minute and 52 seconds? They were spinning out so many random nonsensical numbers it was dizzying (and mildly nauseating). The only good thing to come from the stoo-hoo-pid resolution to the Reverse Flash conflict is the implications it has for season two.

[Lord Mhoram]

Well, obviously you and I want different things out of our super hero TV.

[Vondy]

It was hard enough forgiviing the show for its neanderthal treatment of Iris ("we kept secrets to protect you, dear"). It was impossible for me to forgive the time travel nonsense, especially when they piled it on so thick in the finale. Mach 2? One hydrogen atom? One minute and 52 seconds? They were spinning out so many random nonsensical numbers it was dizzying (and mildly nauseating). The only good thing to come from the stoo-hoo-pid resolution to the Reverse Flash conflict is the implications it has for season two.

To each their own. If hyperbole, emotionalism, and melodramatic media criticism is your thing then more power to you.

 

It aint for me.

[FrankL]

I almost shed a tear when

 

 

 

Barry closed the door. I knew what it meant to him personally. He got closure, but at great personal cost.

 

 

 

Also loved when Jay's helmet clattered to the floor.

[Lord Mhoram]

I almost shed a tear when

 

 

 

Barry closed the door. I knew what it meant to him personally. He got closure, but at great personal cost.

 

 

 

Also loved when Jay's helmet clattered to the floor.

Agreed on both points.

"May the speed force be with you"

[Beast]

 

Eddie could have  gotten a vasectomy

 

[BoloOfEarth]

 

Eddie could have  gotten a vasectomy

 

 

LOL.  Kinda lacking in dramatic tension, though, isn't it?

 

 

 

Wells:  I'm going to kill you, Barry, and then I'm going to kill all of them...

Eddie:  (pulls out cell phone)  Yeah, Dr. Brown?  I'd like to schedule a procedure, sometime relatively soon...

 

 

[薔薇語]

If you're able to load it, it's available now on the CW website.

 

Thanks. I am finishing it up now. The CW website doesn't like my VPN quite as much as Hulu and glitches more. But it works well enough to watch The Flash.

 

La Rose. 

[薔薇語]

Wow. That was a good end to the season. The Flash has done a great job and I eagerly await season 2. 

General thoughts on the show as a whole:

Barry Allen has seen incredible growth and has been excellently well acted. There have been a few moments I disliked over the course of the first season but those are outweighed by the good. The tragedy he faced when his mother died and subsequent arrest of his father was a compelling angle. His eventual resolution of that was also intriguing and makes one wonder "Why?" but in a totally good way. It breeds a desire to learn more. I like that he is an actual Hero and not some cold blooded anti-hero. He really does care and shows it. 
 

That said, there were bad moments. The entire alternate love interest bit was badly handled. I don't know how many people agree with me but I am of the mind that he should have stayed with the the sports reporter. Iris already made her choice. I do not like seeing the 'friend-zoned' Barry giving up a good and healthy relationship for Iris - A girl who has done nothing to deserve that level of commitment (on screen). So when things went bust with the sports girl, I had a giant aching groan - I am almost wholly against the idea of Iris and Barry getting together - the future be damned! Maybe they will make her more compelling next season. 

 

Joe West is perhaps my favorite character in the bunch. He is realistic. Has a strong moral sense. Is emotional yet stoic. And Jesse Martin deserves an award for how well he has portrayed that character. I was worried he would just be a backdrop character and that Jesse was just being type-cast since he was a cop for so many years in Law&Order. BUT he has brought that character to life. He is also probably the viewing public's most relatable character and I think he does that job well. 

Dr. Wells was excellently portrayed. Probably the second best acting job in the series. Tom Cavanaugh is a great actor and I like being able to see more of him. His portrayal of both a guiding teacher and evil monster was complex and compelling. It makes one really want to know "why he did what he did". I hope we get more resolution to this in the second season. Maybe that is part of the "Legends of Tomorrow" plotline? But given the ending, maybe not. Who knows. It is running off comic book logic. ^^

The Scoobie squad was nice. I think Cisco was the fanboy's point of reference. He acting in much the same way I think many fan boys would react in that situation. He was well acted for what he had. But alas he didn't get much. Maybe his role will be expanded on given the little revelation we had in the final episode. Caitlin was equally well done. I was really dissappointed that they had the genius scientist asking things like 'what's a singularity' and such in the last episode but C'est la vie. 

Iris and Eddie were both meh level characters to me. I did like Eddie more than her, though. Both were well acted but not that compelling. I did think the relationship between them was a good thing to have and I would have liked it to not have gone the way it did. Perhaps at a later date that would be good, but not in season 1 and not the way it did. 

 

Thoughts on the final episode:

 

That was a great episode. He showed real personal turmoil for Barry. It showed great character growth for Eddie and Iris. I was so happy to see them holding hands. And I hoped that it would last. But since Reversy didn't disappear immediately, part of me knew it couldn't last. 

The final moments with his mom were great. I am curious why Future Flash warned Current Flash to not interfere. I get why that happened from the comic's side, but I would like it expanded on in the show. 

 

The show ended with an extreme Time Paradox. No Thawnes equal no Reverse Flash. No Reverse Flash equals no dead mother and no Particle Accelerator accident. So, how is everyone going about things the way they are? I think this will be where Cisco's new found power comes into play. But maybe I am wrong and they will completely ignore this point: wouldn't be the first time Time-Travel Paradoxes are resolved by never referencing them ever again. ^^

 

All in all, I look forward to the new season. 

La Rose. 
 

[Pattern Ghost]

The way time travel was handled in the finale makes me worry just a bit about the Rip Hunter spinoff, but they could still tidy things up on that front at the beginning of next season. The new show is going to be a mid-season start, so there's a chance Hunter will help sort it out himself.

 

I enjoyed the finale, but too much of it just made me go "huh?" and "why'd they do that this way?" I'm guessing some of the things were related to comic-book reasons and some were just the joys of watching Hollywood fumble around time travel.

[Balabanto]

I almost shed a tear when

 

 

 

Barry closed the door. I knew what it meant to him personally. He got closure, but at great personal cost.

 

 

 

Also loved when Jay's helmet clattered to the floor.

My favorite thing was after that. When Zoom saw the helmet and just said "It's time for me to go."

[FrankL]

 

Thoughts on the final episode:

 

 

That was a great episode. He showed real personal turmoil for Barry. It showed great character growth for Eddie and Iris. I was so happy to see them holding hands. And I hoped that it would last. But since Reversy didn't disappear immediately, part of me knew it couldn't last. 

 

The final moments with his mom were great. I am curious why Future Flash warned Current Flash to not interfere. I get why that happened from the comic's side, but I would like it expanded on in the show. 

 

The show ended with an extreme Time Paradox. No Thawnes equal no Reverse Flash. No Reverse Flash equals no dead mother and no Particle Accelerator accident. So, how is everyone going about things the way they are? I think this will be where Cisco's new found power comes into play. But maybe I am wrong and they will completely ignore this point: wouldn't be the first time Time-Travel Paradoxes are resolved by never referencing them ever again. ^^

 

 

 

All in all, I look forward to the new season. 

 

La Rose. 

 

 

Agree. I started disliking Iris and Barry sometime back and began actively rooting against her (and anyone) when she had the scene with Eddie where she told him "Barry gave a personally reasonably, logical, and good reason for you to keep your job secrets away from me." She was being so nice right then. And then the claws came out in the next sentence. "But I don't care. If you love someone, you tell them everything."

 

 

 

I've been thinking about the time paradox. I don't think they can completely ignore it. In my eyes, the wormhole reopened and was unstable because of that paradox. It is the timeline trying to right itself when such a major event so many years ago was undone. We saw what happened when Barry relived one single day and changed things. Maybe the changes here are so drastic that this timeline is now unstable.

 

Like the Stephen King novel, 11/22/63. From the wiki page:

 

 

 

After traveling back to Lisbon Falls, Jake finds that the Yellow Card Man has been replaced by a young, healthy-looking man whose card is green. The Green Card Man reveals that he is part of a group that monitors time anomalies and further explains that other portals exist in the universe, and that these portals are temporary "bubbles" that will eventually disappear as the physical environment in which they reside changes. He cautions that traveling back to 2011 does not "reset" the timeline, as Al believed, but instead creates alternate timelines. The more divergent timelines that are spawned and the greater the magnitude of the changes made to the original timeline, the more unstable reality becomes. The Green Card Man advises Jake to return to the future to see the damage his changes to the past have wrought.

 

I don't think I would have taken Eobard's offer in the first place. He's cold and manipulative. Anything he offers is going to benefit him more than anyone else. I wonder what would have happened if Barry2015 had ignored Barry2024 and fought RF that day. RF knew the moment Barry came back that Nora had still died. RF knew the dangers of messing with the timeline. Defeating him in the past would have major repercussions into the present. It would have saved the real Dr. Wells and Tess. The particle accelerator wouldn't have gone online until 2020. Barry wouldn't become the Flash until then. Did he just expect a trousers of time parallel universe to spawn? Or did he have more nefarious plans? Obviously, he intended to return to his timeline, but was that really an option if Barry succeeded?

 

We need to know more about how the writers are viewing time travel.

 

 

[薔薇語]

FrankL

Maybe Reverse Flash was thinking his time machine and the being in the vortex would cause him to survive the ripple effects. I am not sure, though. 

 

 

La Rose. 

[Pattern Ghost]

Agree. I started disliking Iris and Barry sometime back and began actively rooting against her (and anyone) when she had the scene with Eddie where she told him "Barry gave a personally reasonably, logical, and good reason for you to keep your job secrets away from me." She was being so nice right then. And then the claws came out in the next sentence. "But I don't care. If you love someone, you tell them everything."

 

 

I liked that scene. First, she does the unexpected. Instead of passively accepting the "for your own good" line, she gets angry, and justifiably so. She's a grown woman and doesn't like being treated like a child. She clearly has a sore spot about being lied to, and clearly has a bit of a temper. Oh, but she's a woman, so that temper is catty, right? ("...then the claws come out.") Bull. She has every right to be angry, and every right to express that anger. So, she takes a bit of her own agency back and lays down the ground rules for the relationship -- with everybody. Eddy gets it, Joe gets it, Barry gets it. Everyone gets the Wrath of Iris . . . and they deserve it.

 

Not only were they treating her like a child, they were actively endangering her by keeping her in the dark. They were also missing out on using her skills as an investigator and as simple moral support. They blew it. She let them know it. She still clearly loves them all, but being cut out of the inner circle for any reason, let alone the one she's given? That sucks. They all deserve a place in the dog house. 

 

Did she go a bit overboard in her anger? Was she a bit harsh? Sure. People do that when they get mad. She's not perfect. But she's also not some passive wallflower, which makes her a more interesting character. She has a strong moral center and she clearly knows Barry better than anyone. Seems like a good match to me. If Barry can stay out of the dog house.

[Hermit]

I think others have said 75% of what I'd say anyway, so let me just echo and blather (nothing new, right?)

 

Jay Garrick's helmet, and RF's reaction to it made me grin so wide I almost hurt my mouth.

 

The confirmation Cisco got made me fist bump the sky and while I don't want them to rush it, I look forward to it.

 

Barry is one selfless son of a gun, and I love him for it. He maybe one of the most profoundly decent guys on television

(Though I really think they need to get Iron Heights ready for metahumans already because the pipeline was setting off my civil Liberty alarms long before Joe admitted it was bothering him)

 

Iris needs better writing, like, yesterday. I don't mean girl power kick assery either. I mean I see a good and loving woman there, but  she's been portrayed as profoundly self absorbed, and even a touch spoiled and its not doing her any favors. Part of it is they took too long to get her in the loop which made her look like an idiot and a buttinski in turn, but they need to show that Iris gives a little in her relationships because (And feel free to disagree) Mostly it seems like she takes and then gripes if she finds she's not getting what she sees as enough.

 

Caitlin doesn't know what a singularity is? Oh my god, I don't even feel bad spoiling that because its better left ignored for your brain canon. She's not a sci-fi nerd, no big, but she is a physicist, she should know this ###. OTHER than that, She's been a gem all season, and I can see why Ronnie fell for her hard.

 

And it is her marriage being undone, which it just started, that makes me sadder than even Eddie's death

 

Saw Eddie's part coming a mile away. I approve. Yes, there were other ways to handle it, if he had time to think about it, I'm not sure he did. They can't all be as genre savvy as Cisco.

 

Oh, and the Timeline is now a ####ing mess

[Pattern Ghost]

 Mostly it seems like she takes and then gripes if she finds she's not getting what she sees as enough.

 

I agree with everything you said (especially Caitlin not knowing what a singularity is? HUGE WTF moment.) except this. I find it unsubstantiated. Even though CW shows like to dwell on relationship issues and Flash is no exception, they really haven't shown us enough to make that call, IMO. She's done some things that are bad/petty (sabotaging Barry's relationship with her coworker for example), and she's been stubborn and hard-headed (continuing the blog, with her name on it, despite the danger), and she's been (justifiably) angry and has probably been a bit harsh (but she's aware that she's being a bit unfair, just too angry to admit it right away).

 

But a taker? Not seeing it. "Profoundly self-absorbed"? I'm not seeing that at all. Maybe we have different definitions of these terms, but I've been in relationships with both, and she doesn't play that way to me. She clearly cares about the people in her life, and she clearly has a strong moral center. She clearly struggles with asserting her independence from Joe, and has huge amounts of empathy for Barry's plight when he confesses his love, and also the moral center to stay true to Eddie, despite having feelings of her own for Barry. She's hugely conflicted about that situation but handles it better than most women her age would IMO.

 

She's clearly a flawed character, but that's par for the course with the CW. She's a lot more likable than early Laurel was on Arrow (and current Laurel for that matter). In fact, they started out doing the same thing on Flash with Caitlin and Iris as Arrow did with Felicity and Laurel -- make the sidekick more likable than the canon love interest. The stuff with Caitlin and Barry was cute, meanwhile Iris was at odds with everyone in her life. I'm very glad that she figured out what was going on (and very glad she figured it out herself eventually, albeit the flashback bit was hokey; I'd rather see investigative skills applied), and glad they dropped that dynamic.

[Hermit]

Maybe I'm being too harsh.  I do agree she has a right to be angry about all the secrets (Seriously, it's like everyone else Barry talks to more than 2 shows learns his identity) that she's almost exclusively kept from. But it still seems that what we're mostly shown of her is a lot of "my my my" "My career" "My boyfriend" "My friend"  and seems to act (again, imo) like all is or should be in orbit around her. Yes, many women her age would handle something worse (For that matter, I would probably wet myself if kidnapped by Girder so props to her) but I still think she's not coming off very well to most viewers. Hopefully, now that she knows (If that remains constant given the finale) her reporting skills and contacts will prove as invaluable as any scientific advice the Star labs crew ever gave, showing that she's can indeed give if she's given a chance to and is a damn formidible force on her own.

 

I have a lady friend who found her line "Do it for me, Barry" in a past episode to be, well, eyerolling. Her belief was that Iris, having chosen Eddie, didn't get to play that card.  I thought that was a bit too rough, but I do think that moments like that sometimes, rather than making Iris look like she supports Barry, look more like she knows she's the center of his world and that's as it should be which comes across as kind of conceited.

 

Again, IMO

[Pattern Ghost]

I think she needs more quality screen time for sure. She's been given short shrift. As for the secret ID, it just occurred to me that she found out after Captain Cold . . . yikes.

 

I don't think the "Do it for me Barry" line really had anything to do with the romantic aspect. They're also best of friends and foster brother/sister. The reason she was so tenacious about the blog, despite the danger, was to prove that Barry's story about his mother's murder wasn't crazy, that there really was weird stuff going on. She was willing to put her life on the line for him before romance came into the picture.

 

I think they've done a good job lining up her character traits. If you just did a character profile on her on a sheet of paper, or wanted to write her psych limits up for Hero, you'd find a good balance of positive and negative traits to work with. However, I think there has been such a focus on both negative traits and negative reactions/behavior from her, that the good traits haven't been able to shine through. I'm hoping now that she's in the "in" group, we'll see more of her good side.