Enter Flashtime is probably the best episode this show is had in a while because it’s a classic The Flash plot straight out of the comics. A nuclear bomb detonates and Flash spends the entire episode figuring out how to stop it while the seconds slowly tick by.

The villain du jour is Veronica Dale, leader of eco-terrorist group, Eden Core. She gets next to nothing in terms of motivation or speaking lines in the show while her comic counterpart left more of an impact by killing Oliver Queen!

Assisting Barry is the returning Jesse Quick and Jay Garrick. I did love Barry’s little quip about Wally, since he’s now running around with the Legends (something I hope continues and he gets more to do in that show than he did here)

Jesse’s main reason for returning to Earth-1 is to get her dad to open up about her mother, the one we have yet to be introduced to though we do hear echoes of her voice via telepathy in a rather touching scene that demonstrates just how hard it is for Harry to talk about her death.

Flash Fact: The equation featured predominantly on the Speed Lab’s writing board, 3×2(9yz)4A, is an equation/mantra that Jesse’s comic counterpart inherited from her father, Johnny Quick, and allowed them both to access the Speed Force.

Jay’s presence is as an additional advisor and to cut Barry’s dumb ideas down, especially when they involve the destruction of the Speed Force. I don’t care how much you hate Thawne, Barry, Jay is not letting you take his speed, you little shit.

Using the technique he used in the courtroom a few episodes ago, Barry is able to communicate one-on-one with his closest allies and is a nice chance for some bonding and character pieces.

The solution to the problem is classic Flash; a hail mary pulled from the deepest part of his scarlet underoos. Grabbing the speed McGuffin that was tricking the Speed Force into thinking Barry was being held within it’s prison, Barry throws it at the nuclear explosion causing it to destablise and just vanish? Yeah, that’s a real old school comics way of dealing with a problem but given how it fits perfectly in with the episode’s vibe as a whole, I can forgive it.

Barry is laid up in the aftermath, his speed utterly spent and promising to take it easy so that sets up next week’s episode. Jay also announces his retirement but he won’t leave Earth-3 sans speedster, promising to train up a female replacement! To my knowledge, Jay never had children so it’s up in the air as to who this could be but there’s been a couple female speedsters debut in the past few years so maybe it’s one of them!

We also get another cameo from Mystery Girl, being decidedly more sinister than previous appearances. Not sure why, maybe she has beef with Frost and Wells? I guess we’ll find out eventually!

Overall, this was a pretty good, stand-alone episode that could have taken place anywhere in the season but allows a nice breather from all this Thinker nonsense. Next week, we go Freaky Friday as Iris and Barry’s “We’re The Flash” mantra takes on a whole new twist in Run, Iris, Run!

Well here we are, dear readers, the season finale of The Flash. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster this year; packed with thrills, chills, easter eggs aplenty and emotional whiplash — all of which are present in The Race of His Life.

With the death of Henry, Barry has completely lost the plot, much to Zoom’s glee and my chagrin. Barry is an emotional time bomb and will keep ticking long after the threat is dealt with but I’ll get to that in a bit. First things first…

Where the hell did this Magnavox/Magnotron/Stargate come from? I’m pretty sure Tina McGee didn’t mention it last episode (and she’s sadly absent from this episode) but she knew about it and now it’s the lynchpin to Zoom destroying the multiverse? What?

It’s also pretty cool that Team Flash recognise Barry is a loose cannon right now and all of them put him in the pipeline time-out while they try to deal with Zoom. And there plan would of worked too (shout-out to Tom Cavanagh for a sick diving shot) if Joe would have DOOOOOOOOODGED!

Naturally, Barry has to be let out to fix this immense fuck-up and proceeds to wreck Zoom’s shit, employing a time remnant to go full Crisis on Infinite Earths to stop the Magnavox machine and just before Zoom wins by getting Barry to kill him, the Time Wraiths show up and…

That’s going to come back and bite you in the ass Barry because no one fucks with the Black Flash! When I saw the tear in Zoom’s mask and then the Wraiths and then the subtle change in colours; I marked out super-hard.

Not as much as I marked out for THIS though! That shot of Shipp in his old Flash suit makes sense now, huh? As contrived and stupid as the reveal is, I had a smile on my face the whole damn time. I love that the suit is a mix of the New 52 Earth-2 suit and the busted-ass helmet.

It’s sad to see the real Jay, Harry and Jesse go (especially losing Cavanagh and Jesse never showing off her abilities/the cool frienship she had with Wally) but thems the breaks. We can only hope that these cats will be back next season at some point.

WestAllen gets off to a bittersweet start too and it feels very natural and good until BARRY FUCKS IT UP FOR EVERYONE.

Not only did we get shades of Crisis on Infinite Earths but now Barry has travelled back in time, saved his mother from Thawne, erased the Season 1 version of himself from existence and Flashpoint’d the entire CW universe. For fuck’s sake, Barry…

So when next season rolls around, we’ll be seeing a much different universe, probably a much worse universe and every other show in the line-up could be affected. Will the inevitable universe restart be how Supergirl is retconned into the CW universe proper? Will Rip Hunter have to fix Barry’s mistake? What effect will this have on Arrow?

Questions for next season unfortunately but for now, that was a satisfying, if a little dumb, finale and I thoroughly enjoyed the season overall. Have some thoughts of your own? Leave them in the comments and, as always…

Flash of Two Worlds is what fans have been clamouring for since the show started; Barry Allen, the novice hero and Jay Garrick, the elder statesmen joining forces to take down a villain so heinous that it requires two Speedsters to do it. Sand Demon.

Wait, who? No, I’m actually asking in the tone of Djimon Hounsou because who the hell is Sand Demon? If you were going for someone from Jay’s world or even from his rogues gallery, I’d have gone for Icicle. Not only because of the obvious parallels but because it’d make for some fun banter. But there’s a lot of introductions this episode so we must press on!

Patty Spivot, a character from the comics who, in the New 52 at least is Barry’s love interest, makes her first appearance and she’s clearly a fan of Barry’s work, sharing some good chemistry together. She’s eager, boastful but deep down, she wants to join the Anti-Metahuman Taskforce because the Marden brothers killed her father. She’s a fun character, I can’t wait to see more of her.

Zoom, The Flash’s true nemesis, makes his first full appearance. Clad in in a black version of the Reverse-Flash costume, a mask that looks like it’s suffocating the poor suit actor and with cobalt blue lightning, he makes an intimidating first impression by robbing Jay of his speed. He’s also voiced by Tony Todd, just in case you weren’t quite intimidated enough. I think they could have down more to make him seem more demonic, rather than just Reverse-Flash in black. The vibrating really bothers me.

Jay Garrick! A lot younger, buffer and attractive than I thought they’d go with Jay but just like Caitlin, I was swooning. He’s got a bit of Nathan Fillion about him and he’s incredibly charming throughout the entire episode, overcoming Barry’s suspicions to become his new mentor. He’s played Teddy Sears who I really know from Torchwood… Miracle… Day… Well, we won’t hold that against him. He’s too dreamy.

Flash of Two Worlds was an utter delight from start to finish. It established the mutliverse, it had a fun dynamic between our two heroes and set-up even more plot points to come but we’ll have to see how that goes next time with a whole Family of Rogues!

What?

What do you mean I forgot something? Oooooooh…

Yeah. I’m glad he’s back too :)