UGH. Okay. So last night I finished the Season 2 Finale of CW’s The Flash, and I have many issues. Now granted, I obviously very much enjoyed the show as I binged the entire series in three days, but that was due to its good superficial entertainment value. After an A+ first season, I hopped into the second season full of love for the characters, so I was already invested, but after the 23 episodes I was left disappointed and oh-so-annoyed.
Now normally my reviews are spoiler free, but not today, so I regret to inform you that if you aren’t looking for major spoilers, you’ll have to stop reading this post until you finish the show.
Season One of The Flash contained an excellent storyline. We viewers were dragged through intriguing twists and turns and everything made sense. Of course, the villain was given away a little too early, ruining any surprise. We knew Dr. Wells, or actually as it turned out Eobard Thawne was a sketchball from the beginning, but his character was still intriguing, and his villainy made sense. His relationship with Barry was so special which made his betrayal all the worse, but we were met with many believable relationships. It was encouraging to see Barry grow and accept things such as the fact that Iris wasn’t in love with him. Life happens. But in Season 2, it felt like they were trying to force this relationship to happen. Barry was very happy with Patty and Iris was genuinely happy for them, but midway through the season she starts questioning her feelings? Why? It honestly led nowhere and was quite pointless.
Speaking of forced relationships…Hunter and Caitlin. I was not buying that one bit. Oh no, evil villain destroying many worlds has a weakness because of his fondness for some girl. Hunter and Caitlin’s romance was cute at first, but once it was discovered that this so called Jay Garrick was actually Zoom, I couldn’t buy that his emotions of love were strong enough to influence his decisions as they did. In fact Zoom as a whole after his reveal didn’t really make sense and with this speedsters grabbing time remnants of themselves (these still confuse me) at their very whim made me wonder why Zoom’s grand plan was just to race Barry. That’s it? Zoom is honestly SO powerful and has apparently already ruined other Earths that he could’ve done better. It was REALLY hard to get invested in this season’s major storyline after the reveal. Here I was rooting for the team as they worked to try to stop Zoom and save Jesse (Omgosh, I’m still in love with Wells), but after that happened, everything sort of became blase. And Barry giving up his powers? Stupidest.Move.Ever.
And Barry running back in time to talk to Eobard Thawne/evil Wells? Another stupid move. Plus, he was sooo bad at not letting the timeline remain intact. He warned his team about things instead of letting them happen, and he didn’t even do a good enough job to fool me, so it’s no small wonder that Thawne/evil Wells, a brilliant man figured out something was amiss. I just wasn’t buying that. Plus the only repurcussion of Barry’s screwing with the timeline was that Hartley was around when he returned to the present and that creepy ghost thing followed him. No. There had to be many more changes. Speaking of altering the timeline…the ending. NO. In the season one finale, Barry had the chance to save his mother, but he knew he shouldn’t, especially with the help of other Barry shaking his head to stop him, but here soon after Barry finally comes to terms with his mother’s death, Barry goes back in time to save her. WHAT THE HECK?! Like honestly this is ridiculous. In stopping Reverse-Flash, Barry just destroyed the whole storyline of Season One, on which Season Two continued, so everything that just happened is gone. And Barry loves Joe. Joe is his dad. He’s said that. What is his problem? Yes, he’s shook up because his dad just died, but if he can travel back in time all willy-nilly, why not just save Henry? Also, won’t the Speed Force (which apparently is some deity-ish entity) be pissed about this? And Barry is integral to the rest of this DC Universe thing these CW shows have going…like Arrow. How much does this change everything? I know people have probably been complaining about all this for a couple months, but this decision was ridiculous. Barry can’t just be changing his mind like this.
Barry actually got a bit annoying in this season…second half that is. Iris didn’t seem to have as important of a role which was a little disappointing. Same with Joe. I missed his great mentoring from the first season. Cisco got an upgrade which was fun. And of course Wells was back!! As you know, from my ranting from the first season, I absolutely love Dr. Wells (or as he was in the first season Eobard Thawne). I needed to get used to the angrier and more brusque demeanor of Earth Two Wells, but it didn’t take long. His lovable intelligence was intact, and I loved Earth Two Wells’ seeming nonchalance and brisk responses when people would tell him things or compare him to evil Wells. That was a thing, although Wells had his secrets at first, he was a good guy. Yayy. Honestly, I have to throw appreciation to Tom Cavangh’s superb acting skills for part of my affection for Wells. I would even go as far to say is the best on the show. Unfortunately, I felt the season two acting was rather mediocre (other than Bae Cavangh of course). Teddy Sears was a bit monotone as Jay Garrick/Zoom/Hunter and Danielle Panabaker didn’t pull off evil very well. Honestly, the Earth Two doppelgangers were almost laughable. I mean, I loved the ideas behind those episodes, but it didn’t seem to work very well.
While I’m here bashing the season, I did enjoy it. I mean I did happily watch it all in three days. I’m not happy with the ending, but the first half of the season was honestly pretty engaging and the plots were going somewhere. Actually they were pretty good. Unfortunately, their appeal was lost after the Zoom reveal. Something just happened and it all went downhill. And there is just too much wrong with the time travel and questions surrounding these paradoxes that in a way helped ruin the second half of the show. Cisco and Wells were the true heroes of this season as they helped maintain engagement for the second half. I look forward to seeing how Season 3 deals with the epic time crisis Barry has created, and I hope for stronger relationships between the characters as well as a more engaging and intriguing storyline. Season 1 was SO good, Man. Season 3 better bring the attack this fall. I miss my good Barry. ALSO: one thing with the timeline crisis is that this totally means that Dr. Wells, the original, the real Earth One Wells can definitely come around in Season 3, and I will gladly accept his existence.
Reverie of a Glitter Aficionado 