SPOILER ALERT!
Not exactly what I expected, which in this case is a good thing. This episode took away from the climactic battles that have become a staple of the superhero TV shows, and delved into the emotion of the situation and the characters, as a result however, up until the very end, it seemed like a soap-opera. Let’s explore…
Here is the brief episode summary courtesy of Wikipedia:
Barry visits Wells where Wells describes their relationship in the future, why he killed Barry’s mother, and why he ultimately had to help Barry become the Flash. Wells also propositions Barry, requesting help creating a wormhole where Wells can return to his time, while also allowing Barry to go back in time to save his mother. Barry and the team are conflicted, as this could alter the timeline in an undeterminable way. Barry decides to go through with it, so Wells informs him that he will need to turn the particle accelerator on and then super speed at the right velocity into a hydrogen particle to create a wormhole. Barry will have less than 2 minutes to change the past, or the wormhole will create a blackhole that could destroy the world. Barry successfully travels back in time, but his future self motions him not to save his mother. Instead, Barry identifies himself and reassures Nora that he is safe in the future before she dies. Barry returns and stops Wells from returning to his time. Before Wells can kill Barry, Eddie shoots himself causing Wells to be erased from existence. The team is unable to prevent the blackhole from being created, and Barry super speed into it in an effort to stop it.
My only complain about this episode, was that the writing felt like they were trying to cram a few episodes worth of 
emotion into 45 minutes…there were tears rolling down cheeks left and right, and all the conversations which were only hinted at throughout the season were finally being had. I have to say, it got a bit too much for me at times.
Especially with Cisco talking to wells about how he called him a son in an alternate timeline…The only good thing that came out of that was a suggestion that Cisco might be a metahuman, one of the many cool things about this episode. So let’s get to the good stuff!
Harrison Wells – The Reverse Flash, was made void as the villain last episode. That is when the true showdown happened, this was my only fan-issue with this season finale…Harrison Wells now as the captive of star labs, is forced to make a deal with Barry, which will finally allow Wells to go back to his own timeline, and give Barry a shot at saving his mother.
This makes sense narratively in terms of Barry’s arc, as this whole season has been about finding who killed his mother, and getting his father out of jail. And to see him at the same spot at which the series began, was a cool stroke…My favourite part of the whole scene though was when the future Barry, signals our Flash, not to interfere…
Even though the show has little to do with the philosophical and ethical underpinnings of time travel and alternate realities, this was a nice moment between the two Flashes, that makes you wonder exactly how much the character has/will change in the future timeline.
For Barry to not go through with saving his mother was expected, what wasn’t expected however, was him coming back through the wormhole and shattering Wells’ time machine, his only way home. (Awesome fan service if you are familiar with the comics, when Jay Garrick’s helmet was shot through the wormhole)
This was hands down the coolest scene in the finale, which immediately made me forget about the sappy tearjerker nature of the whole episode. Eddie shooting himself was an awesome addition and finally gave his character meaning, outside of just being Iris’ love interest.
The show did redeem itself from the previous episode thanks to the final scene and
I Am very interested to see where season 2 will take us, as the final shot shows Barry speeding into the blackhole that has shattered open in the sky…One of the possibilities, that I am excited for was that this space/time accident will lead to appearances from villains and heroes from the parallel universes, which would add another ‘dimension’ of wild sci-fi craziness to the mix.
But we shall see…
By:
Dhaivat Mehta
(Editor – ARTbop alternative)
Dhaivat Mehta is a film-maker and performance poet, and a member of the Tauranga Writers…Involved with many aspects of local creativity! As an organizer he was responsible for last year’s National Poetry Day event “Caught In The Act” He also raps and does spoken word under the stage name Mantra
