The problem that Flash has at times is logic, not necessarily the logic of the world itself, but rather, the logic of what the characters do. Seasons 02 and 03 have had a lot of “what the heck were they thinking?” moments, and not even in “blinded by love or pain” category. And though cool in some aspects, “Once And Future Flash” suffered from that same problem. Twice actually.
First off, Barry deciding to go to the future 5 SECONDS AFTER Killer Frost escaped Star Labs was pretty stupid. But hey, he justified it with….”I can come back to this exact moment…” yeah…not the point Barry! And also, while it’s true you have some control over how you move in the speed force, it’s also true that things have gone wrong when you’ve tried to return…why risk something going wrong and you being gone…say…5 days? Or a couple weeks? Logic…
Moving on, see the future as it is with Iris dying was very powerful in many ways. Cisco lost his arms in a fight with Killer Frost, who is in now in a cell with Julian as her caretaker. Wally was literally broken by Savitar. Joe is alone basically, and Barry is a recluse. Because of all of that, Central City is being wrecked by metahumans like Mirror Master and Top. It painted a very grim picture, one that Barry easily wanted to make sure never happened.
But…this picture came at the cost of some eye-rolling things. First off, future Barry DOESN’T know the identity of Savitar (which already paints a continuity issue based on what happens next episode…), all he “knows” is that Barry can’t save Iris. Which was so…freaking…LAME!!!! I mean seriously, the whole point of this was for Barry to figure out the identity of Savitar, and yet it didn’t happen? They have drawn this out way too far. Now, I’m really starting not to care who he is, because it’s getting annoying not knowing, and the payoff will likely not be worth it.
Which brings me to the other logic problem, Barry helping future Team Flash. While I get it that sentimentally he’d want to help them…if he DOES save Iris (and let’s face it…he will) then this entire future would be erased. And let’s face it…this future is getting erased one way or another. Both he and future Cisco should’ve known that and wanted him to get back to the past as quickly as possible to try and change things. But he didn’t, he stayed and brought the team back together. While it was VERY cool to see the classic Flash outfit appear…it was gratuitous at best.
Oh, and Killer Frost finding out who Savitar is before us? Not cool. Though it does raise some questions on who she saw that would maker her unquestionable join him. There’s only a few possibilities now, and one of them…is Barry…
In the end, “Once and Future Flash” was all…*sigh*…flash…and very little substance. Yet, seeing the grim future did put an urgency to change things for the better, and I pray that the final 4 episodes get better, because this season needs a pick-me-up bad.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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