CW The Flash: A great example that the quantity it's not what matters

May 28, 202313 min read

Updated: Jun 19, 2023

As many Arrowverse fans should know by now, The Flash series had come to an end, and with that, probably the end of all series in this great project. Many people may already know that most of these series had their ups and downs, but what I sadly have to say is that The Flash has the worst downfall. Let's take a trip back to the beginning and see, IMHO, where the show started to fall apart. To do that, I'll separate the story into different phases, and at the end, I'll leave a special section for some additional things that were in the show (like the crossovers...) and worth talking about.

Seasons 1 - 3: The mind-blowing phase

Season 1:

The series already starts off strong, they introduce the character by showing us that his mother was killed by something or someone impossible that no one would believe, and for that reason, the father was the only suspect and ended up in jail. So while living through this terrible event, after a long time, he dedicated his life to becoming a forensic scientist and trying to one day understand how his mother really died and who is responsible. In addition, in the first episode, Barry tells us directly and encourages us to believe in the impossible, something they were right about during the first seasons. As everyone should also know, Barry was struck by lightning due to a particle accelerator explosion at S.T.A.R Labs. In this way, after 9 months, he became a speedster: The Flash, which was masterminded by his arch-enemy Eobard. Thawne - The Reverse Flash, who took and stole the identity of Harrison Wells. For many people, it was somewhat intriguing to see how this mystery was revealed piece by piece in each chapter until they knew the entire origin of this first and probably one of the best villains of The Flash.

Thus, the other recurring characters at the beginning of the series are Joe West; who adopted Barry and took care of him like another son; Iris West, who is the daughter of Joe West and became Barry's love interest since they lived together; Harrison Wells/Eobard Thawne, publicly known as a brilliant scientist; Caitlyn and Cisco, who are scientists who have worked with Harrison Wells for years; and Eddie Thawne, who is Iris's boyfriend. Of course, there are many not-so-simultaneous characters in the series that was important, but I'll highlight them later, although I would say that, among the non-concurrent characters, the one who had the biggest effect on Barry's life is Oliver Queen (The Green Arrow).

There are a lot of things that were awesome in the first seasons, it's hard to remember all of them but I will try. First of all, what they did already well was that they show us each chapter the different things that a speedster can do with his powers like running through the water or buildings; moving at high speed to vibrate and exalt the cells and being able to pass through fixed things; and, of course, the reason of why the show had many mind-blowing moments - time traveled! It is amazing how they implemented this last power and made us understand the consequences that can happen by it. I would say that the most interesting parts are where they had to put a board and draw the timelines so we can learn how it works and be on the same page. That is something that it prevailed for these first three seasons.

At the end of the season, another mind-blowing moment is when Eddie had to shoot himself because he was the only one who understood in that moment, that if he dies, then Eobard Thawne would be erased from that timeline.

Season 2:

This season was probably the best. We were introduced to the existence of the multiverse and Zoom, a huge villain from Earth-2 who challenged Barry a lot and was actually insane. That guy made the series even darker. Zoom's identity is Hunter Solomon, but he stole the identity of Jay Garrick, who is the Flash on Earth-3, and what's interesting here is that even though he did a similar strategy to Thawne, we liked it because he used a new and relevant power of this season - a time remnant (it's using a version of him from the past). So for us to write him off as Zoom, it was a smart move to have him kill himself using his younger self. And so we ended up astonished again, where there were also episodes that try to explain to us, in a way that we can understand, how the multiverse, time remnants, and other timelines work, because in this season there is a reason why Eobard Thawne returns with his true face, and there's also another episode, where Barry travels back in time to ask Thawne for help.

New relevant characters this season are Wally West, Joey West's lost son; Harry Wells of Earth-2; Jesse Chambers Wells, daughter of Harry Wells and kidnapped by Zoom; Jay Garrick, who is The Flash from Earth-3 and is Barry's father's doppelganger, and of course, Hunter Zolomon.

This season, like the first one, also has many surprises such as the characters visiting Earth-2, the great reaction they had to find out who Zoom really is, the new power to shoot lightning bolts, and what Barry had to do to defeat Zoom.

Season 3:

This season is already off to a good start and got what many of us have been waiting for, the amazing new plot: The Flashpoint. The funny thing here is that I watched the animated film Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, and I was hoping that one day I would see another version of Flashpoint in this series. It was interesting to see and of course how they care to show us why after trying to fix things again, there would still be little changes to the original timeline, and also what they did very well is that it affected some characters as well from the other Arrowverse series. Because of that, we got to witness all the events and consequences that Flashpoint created, including the new villain Savitar. This speedster again awakens fear in Barry, because Barry mistakenly traveled to the future and saw Iris being killed by Savitar. So this was also interesting to see because they were trying to prevent other future events from the future to happen in order to change the timeline, but what's interesting here is that it all made sense at the time when those events were starting to happen. I would even say that by trying to avoid them, they actually caused some of them.

So this season was also big with a lot of amazing moments like when Barry traveled to the future to try to figure out who Savitar is or how amazing the explanation was after such a discovery was made, and also the new speedsters and how they got their powers. These speedsters are Jesse Chambers Wells - Jesse Quick and Wally West - Kid Flash (there was also a new villain and speedster named Rival but he didn't make many appearances on the show). Also, obviously, we can't forget that in this season Barry and Iris started dating and planning their wedding, and Cisco would use his powers as Vibe and Caitlyn would become his other metahuman persona called Killer Frost. Also, new characters this season are H.R., who is another Wells from earth-19, and Julian Albert (played by Tom Felton - Harry Potter), who, as a consequence of Flashpoint, appears as Barry's co-worker, and in the same department.

So, it's fair to say that these 3 seasons were an amazing phase, where they always maintain a mysterious atmosphere while trying to find out the identity and purpose of the villains. Each one was great and had its own originality.

Seasons 4-5: A different approach from their first seasons but they were still good

Season 4:

A new but interesting approach, where there is no speedster as the main villain, and if you ask me, I think they got it right because it was time to do something different, and even though he wasn't a speedster, The Thinker was a nice addition to the series. and the perfect fit for trying something new. Many people would say that other superpowers can be dangerous, but I think if someone has a great mind as a superpower, it can also be dangerous because it would predict every move you make and would always be prepared for it. And he actually told Barry, "I'm the fastest mind alive." The way he was able to calculate the creation of new metahumans in order to steal their powers and become unstoppable was amazing. But also, something they also did well, is that no matter how smart you are, you can never predict actions that are strongly attached to feelings, which makes sense to me, even a professor explained to me that technology and artificial intelligence cannot do or predict subjective things.

New characters this season are Clifford Devoe, who is the Thinker; Dr. Marlize Devo, who is Clifford's wife; Cecile Horton, who has appeared on the show before but has now become a recurring character; and Ralph Dibny, who is one of the metahumans created by Devoe and we would eventually learn was an old colleague from Barry's work. This last character would also become a member of the Team Flash and his superhero name is The Elongated Man. So I would say that everything in this season was also good, maybe not better than the first ones, but that doesn't mean that this season was bad.

Season 5:

Unfortunately, I would say that this is the last good season that The Flash series had. In the first episode of this season, we meet Nora (XS), who is Barry's future daughter and then we find out why that girl had her little cameos in season 4. Again, they hit the nail on the head with that and kept the mystery going until the end of that season. So the interesting thing here is how Barry with everything he has learned takes care of Nora and teaches her how to use her powers, remember that scene with the cup from S.T.A.R Labs?

Baary explains to Nora about Time Travel

The new villain this season is Cicada (the one who got away), whose identity is Orlin Dwyer but was originally supposed to be David Hersch. This change happened because Nora traveled back in time and created another type of Flashpoint. In this new timeline, Orlin Dwyer wants to kill all metahumans as he believes they are a danger because his sister died by a metahuman, and his niece named Grace Gibbons is in a coma after the events of season 4. This season offers a new point of view where many people see metahumans as a danger, which makes this another interesting and controversial plot. Also, we met a new Wells - Harrison Sherloque Wells from Earth-221, who dealt with Cicada before on other Earths.

Now we are going to point out the relevant part - the 100th special episode of The Flash, of course, was a great commemoration of the entire history of the series, where all the villains, including Cicada, made their appearance and we were able to remember some important events from the history. They did it at a good time because Nora was able to learn more about her father. Obviously, what was the surprise of this episode, and also of the entire season, was that Eobard Thawne was behind everything that Nora has done. And this was what intrigued me the most because you'll never know why he's helping her until the last episodes, so it makes you wonder if he really has changed or if he's just manipulating her. The facts of this are what ties everything together, how Barry would react when he finds out about Thawne, or how that will lead us to what happens at the end of the season and the big turn of events that it will have.

I would say that these two seasons are the last to have their good and surprising things. Everything must come to an end, and the need to always try to make long seasons would work against the series.

Seasons 6 - 9: The Iris phase...

I'll only talk directly about the entire 3 seasons because there isn't much to say about them. This is when The Flash started to fall apart. The essence that made the show great and amazing completely disappeared and I don't know why the solution in almost every chapter was the power of love. Don't get me wrong, it was good that they used it before, in the previous seasons they implemented it correctly, but the difference with these last seasons is that here they abuse it a lot. I don't really know what they were thinking by just justifying everything on the show with love, they used the same formula for basically everything.

I also have to agree with people when they say that Barry stopped being relevant, he lost his starring role on the show and Iris always became the center of everything most of the time in these four seasons. I think what annoyed me and the fans a lot is that they always played with us making us believe that Iris was going to die but in the end, she always survived. Again, they used the same formula every time, and it made some fans hate the character more. They could just do something else with other characters and leave Iris alone. I like that the other characters on the show have had their developments, but the problem here is that they went way over the top. Going back to Iris, it's good that she grows up, loses some fears, and becomes a leader, but I don't know why or if it's just me, the more development she had, the more expressionless she became. For me these last seasons she had the same face as always, like this:

Also, another thing that could have saved the show was allowing Hartley Sawyer to continue playing Ralph Dibny, he was fired just as I was starting to like the chemistry that Ralph and Sue Dearbon had. I really feel like I have to add that what they did to Hartley Sawyer was unfair because he was fired for some racist references he tweeted many years ago, but today there are actors in DC accused of doing worse and they will continue to have their scenes and roles in their respective films. Also, Hartley Sawyer appears to be a different person than the one who wrote those tweets, his only mistake was not deleting them.

After that, they had to improvise and they turned some non-concurrent characters into members of Team Flash these are Allegra Garcia; who has the ability to control the electromagnetic spectrum; and Chester P. Runk, who is an intelligent scientist who would fill the role of Cisco (because after many seasons Cisco fell in love with Kamilla Hwang, who worked for Iris as a photographer at The Central City Citizen Newspaper. They became a couple and their history led them to leave Team Flash). Additionally, another and final version of Harrisson Wells whose name is Nash Wells appears.

The main villains of these last seasons were Eva McCuloch (Mirror Monarch), August Heart (Godspeed), Eobard Thawne again (Reverse Flash), and Eddie Thawne (Cobalt Blue). Obviously, I have to mention that the Negative Speed Force was always a villain in the series. The Speed Force and the Negative Speed Force are two forces of nature that must coexist, and since they are opposites, if one attacks the other must always counterattack to exist and maintain balance. There must always be an avatar for both forces.

The final season was basically the same as it was said before, there were more unnecessary filler chapters and absurd events along with new powers that arose without reason or logic. There are only two episodes in this season worth watching. The first one is obviously episode 9 where Oliver Queen returns and here we learn that he is still the Specter. This was an amazing episode for me because I had always been a huge Arrow fan. Finally, an episode where Barry became a protagonist more than others. We are given closure with Diggle finally saying goodbye to Oliver. A lot went better in this chapter and it was amazing when Oliver explained how Ramsey Rosso (Bloodwork) was going to affect the new multiverse that Oliver/The Specter had created.

But the whole essence of the old Flash returns in episode 10, when we finally get the version of Barry fighting Eobard Thawne in his house when his mother is murdered. Here everyone's mind was blown and they even showed Barry's version from the first season. At the time, I was certain that they would not show this, but I was glad that I was wrong.

The Final Chapter:

Sadly and again, this excitement was only for that chapter, because after that they keep using the same formula. Yes, that's right, not even the final chapter of the last season was an exception. They made the worst ending we could imagine and perhaps the worst chapter of the series, they nerfed all our favorite villains and speedsters and they were defeated in a minute. The only thing I can take away from the last fight was how Nora took down Savitar, which was a creative way to use her powers that Barry might not have thought of. Barry always complains about everything he lost when he has a whole family supporting him on the other side, even Oliver didn't complain much before the last episodes of Arrow. What I found completely absurd is the way they were putting more abilities into Cecile's powers, I mean she defeated Godspeed just by waving her hands, and it seemed more like a musical choreography than a power fight.

Actually, this didn't feel like a final episode to me, it felt like a normal one, where a lot of characters like Ralph Dibny, Sue Dearbon, Cisco, or even Kamilla should appear.

Conclusion:

There are many things to talk about in The Flash series, and I think I was able to at least show the most relevant points. One of the main problems with these CW series is that they always tried to do a large number of episodes for each season. I think that's fine only in the beginning, because there you have a lot of material and character development to create, but obviously it's bad to try to have the same amount later. They focused more on quantity and less on quality and plot logic which makes this show fall apart after season 5 for me. Maybe others would say it fell off after season 3 or 6, but what we can all agree on is that The Flash suffered one of the biggest downfalls in the Arrowverse series.

Special section: some additional features to talk about:

Crossovers:

I think one of the reasons the Arrowverse could last long is because of the crossovers, I think everyone including me loves crossovers! And CW did a great job with that, obviously, there were some that weren't as good as others, but they were still good. There are many crossover events in many seasons and these are:

The Flash vs Arrow, and The Brave and The Bold
Heroes Join Forces: Heroes of Today, and Legends of Yesterday
Worlds Finest (A special episode in the Supergirl series)
Invasion
Duet (a special musical episode with Supergirl)
Crisis on Earth X (here Barry and Iris got married)
Elseworlds
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Armageddon

Many characters appeared in these crossovers but I will leave it for other posts.

Other villains that were not the main ones but are still worth to mention them:

Leonard Snart (Captain Cold) and Mick Rory (Heatwave), later both became members of Legends of Tomorrow (If you recognize the actors it might be because of Prison Break)
Captain Boomerang
Gorilla Grodd
King Shark
Ramsey Rosso (Bloodwork)
The Trickster
Killer Frost (later she became a good person and a member of The Team Flash)
Vandal Savage

And many more, The Flash has a great number of villains and many people like to debate who is the best one, I would say that it is a tie between Zoom and the Reverse Flash.