“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.... or the one” in reality most people who say this all have one thing in common: They’ve never been the one. It’s easy to talk about nobility and self-sacrifice for the greater good but the truth is we all have people and things in our lives that mean more than the world to us. So that even when a hero has to choose between saving the world and saving a love one, sometimes even they will let the world burn if they have to. In the thrilling climax to this outstanding debut season of The Flash, Barry Allen faces his own choice between the many or the one. With the whole world set to change in a flash upon his decision, can Barry think fast enough to make the right call?
Fast Enough – The captured Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne lays his cards on the table for Barry, cards that he will show Mr Allen on how to travel back and save his mother from dying, while also giving him the chance to return home in the future. Saving his mother’s life could drastically alter the present timeline for better or for worse. What will Barry choose? Future or family?
This season has been one hell of a ride and the home straight certainly doesn’t let up. Yet as season finales go, this speedster offering is highly unorthodox. Save the last 10 minutes, it is entirely devoid of the typical big action effects sequence you’d expect from any action sci-fi final episode. The first 3 quarters of build-up should feel static but the truth is they’re anything but. The episode does a fantastic job of exploring the dramatic and emotional consequences or Barry’s central decision: whether or not to travel back and save his mother. In so many other shows, this debate would last barely a minute before the story moves on towards a set piece but this is The Flash. A show that’s consistently taught us that we should demand better than that from superhero shows, and this is no exception. This argument soon becomes flipped into not what Barry stands to gain by changing the past but what he’ll lose in the present if he does, never being raised with Iris and Joe as his surrogate family, never coming to STAR Labs to meet and work with the rest of the team, and maybe never even becoming The Flash. The script from showrunner Andrew Kreisberg and acclaimed Greys Anatomy writer (making her show debut) Gabrille Stanton does this with such greater efficiency that stops becoming bogged down in over-thinking. Points are sharp and efficient as we quickly establish what the decision and concept means to different members of the cast.
Yet it still reaches powerful emotional levels as Barry struggles to decide. The best of these come from the late 80's origins of My Two Dads. Barry’s exchanges with Joe as, valuing everything Joe has done for him is highly touching, “I was born with one father and that tragedy gave me another”. Although it’s The Flash’s great meta-casting ace up its red sleeves that really phases through to your heartstrings. The value and contributions of John Wesley Shipp to The Flash should never be understated. He has made what could have been a small forgettable role into the moral bedrock of this season. Here, he bows out for the year: an expected high as he becomes the surprise leading time opposition to changing the past. It's incredibly moving how he preaches the acceptance of natural order and destiny despite everything he himself stands to gain from it (okay, he gets to quote “the few verses the one”), least of all getting his wife back. Even more so, when he speaks with pride about the man his son has become powers or not, “you were always a hero”. It all compounds fantastically to place us right into Barry’s mindset. Even with our audience's desires for timey whimey shenanigans, we still sympathize with his inhibitions. The surprising yet very rewarding character decision arc is Eddie’s “wild card” casting. His rallying scene with Martin Stein helps bring the ideals of free will into the bigger Barry-centric picture while still being highly rewarding for his own character.
Although the action takes its time to start, it does not disappoint when it picks up speed. There’s so much to enjoy here form good speedster punch ups to some of the best special effects we’ve seen all season (and that’s saying something). In particular, Barry’s final supersonic moments will have you on your feet in symbolic salute with your spine tingling like a lost spider sense. This episode will earn several loud WTF's from you (one even rivals Gotham’s “Fish Eye” as WTF of the year). Even still, like similar episodes this season, the finale has a lot of strong themes. It still maintains a lighter edge to many scenes of even in heavy content that at times, it feels even Whedon-esque (“Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke”). More than expected, this comes from Tom Cavanagh as even lock-and-key, Harrison/Eobard never drops confidence or cockiness. The guest-starring Martin Stein is also great unexpected source of laughs, and in a very different manner, we usually get from the team with his refined speech pattern. You have to love his scientific breakthrough plan, “It’s at that moment I plan on shouting something like Eureka! Or excelsior! I’m uncommitted”. Yet as always our main man Cisco is the king of the comedic ring. It’s wonderful and completely in keeping with his character to discover he’s a Douglas Adams (Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy) fan, and his sudden moral switch when asked to build a time machine is the his best moment of the season.
Following the recent trailer, there’s a hell of a lot of Legends of Tomorrow teases and references going on here. We get a direct trailer snippet in Barry’s speed force past/future visions. Then, there’s Harrison’s brief mentioning of Rip Hunter being the first person to build a time travel device (presumably we’ll see Hunter using something similar in the show). Yet the most curious moment is the way Harrison describes him as “interesting”. If someone of his character classes Hunter as interesting, that would imply a darker side to East London’s finest time traveller that will be interesting to discover. Finally, there’s even a blink of the cameo first look at Caiara Renée as Kendra Saunders, aka Hawk Girl. The sho runners have already said that season two will feature new speedsters. It looks like we can safely add one in particular to the roster. There are also some very big nods to the future of Catlin and Cisco’s characters (even if one is a blink and you’ll miss it) that should please fans.
The ending may leave you screaming but for all the right reasons. The Flash finishes the season going at mach 2 with its hair on-fire and buzzing the tower all the way. This year, it’s done it all and done it with style. It’s successfully incorporated scores of great comics characters, created a main cast of fleshed-out and realistic individuals, maintained a great running narrative throughout its long term stories, taken treacherous topics like time travel in its stride, and once it even did karaoke. The question has been tentatively asked many times throughout the year but now (especially as Arrow stumbles in its ending) it’s official: The Flash is the best Comic book adapted series on television right now (before anyone starts, technically Daredevil is technically an online series so consider that bullet tactfully dodged). It will go into next autumn as the frontrunner waiting to be caught. Until then, may the speed force be with us, always.