TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Flash Season 03 Episode 23: Finish Line

The Flash has a weird way of doing cliffhangers. Season 01 had a very odd cliffhanger that resulted from the death of Eobard Thawne (which was an awesome death), and had him running into a singularity…and then the season ending. Season 02’s was much better as it showed that Zoom’s action caused him to break the rules and create Flashpoint. With Season 03, they pulled a lot of slight of hand…but fell back into Season 01’s habit of odd cliffhangers.

For what’s its worth, “Finish Line” was a solid episode, and everything up until the final scene was very different from Season 01 and Season 02. For example, they revealed right off that Iris was in fact alive and that HR had pulled a brilliant bait-and-switch that even though was called by some fans, I bet they didn’t have all these particular details explained. Seeing HR die like he did was tragic, but he did get to go out like a hero, which is how he wanted.

So with Iris alive, and Savitar realizing it, the question became…what next? Well, some obvious time travel logic flaws aside, time was literally running out for Savitar. But, he had a plan B, one that featured him fragmented himself in order to be in ALL of time…very grand scope, I approve. It was even revealed why he wanted Killer Frost at his side, because she was the only one who could stop Black Flash when he arrived to try and stop him.

I did like though that Barry (our Barry) did try and go the peace-filled way. By trying to help his future self, it’s something that our Flash would totally do, and it felt not only real, but beautiful in a way, and though you knew it would go to pieces, it was nice to think that future Barry wanted to try and live a peaceful life. He even dropped the name of DeVoe (The Thinker) accidentally as he recalled his adventures as Flash.

But…yeah…it wasn’t real, and I hated how quickly the illusion was shattered, especially after the now pointless Harry scene with Tracy about how HR would’ve wanted her to help. What was the point of that scene if it really didn’t go anywhere?

Which of course led to the final battle, which was pretty cool if not entirely epic. Seeing Jay Garrick free (YES!!!), and him teaming with Wally and Jay to face Savitar was cool. But again…it was short, and they were nowhere to be found when the final battle itself happened. Though I dug how our Barry took Savitar’s suit, then vibrated it to oblivion, only for Savitar to still try and kill him…only for Iris to do it first! Brilliant!

The funeral for HR was touching, especially HR’s words to Cisco via Barry. Oh, and Caitlin isn’t back…but she’s not Killer Frost either…this is really cool as in the current DC Comics, Killer Frost is now just Frost, and is part of Batman’s other Justice League (JLA), so could this be the path she now walks? One of true redemption?

Ok, onto the ending scene. It was cool how the Speed Force without Jay or Savitar had somehow become unstable. I get that. But…for Barry to be forced to go into it? Because it’s his “finish line”? Really? We know it’s not going to stick, and the solicistation for Season 04 has already come out (no spoilers given of course) and Barry Allen is still named as the main character…so why go this route? Why give ANOTHER painful goodbye instead of giving them a small cliffhanger to go with the happy ending? Comics do have happy endings you know!

In the end, “Finish Line” was a solid episode with a frustrating ending, hopefully we don’t have to wait too long before Barry “exits” the Speed Force. Because the show literally is not the same without him.