The Flash season 2 finale review (episodes 21-22) - Invincible/The Race of his Life

So, I've been fundamentally disappointed with this season of the Flash, will it pull out all the stops for its finale? Has any show been disappointing for 20 episodes and had a good finale? Let's just dive in

Invincible

So there’s a version of Laurel Lance called Black Siren, that’s nice…

So in this episode, Zoom sets an army of metahumans on Central City, Caitlin returns to the side of the good guys, McGee is brought into the Fray, Wally tries to help, sparking the ire of his father and Barry is feeling at the top his game.

Why is this the penultimate episode of the show? Nearly the entire episode is stalling, we’re no closer to finding out what Zoom’s actually doing (although he can create breaches at will now, go figure) and the majority of the metahumans are dealt with in a hand-wavy sticko-ex-machina.

Momentum is important leading into a finale, this show perhaps borrows one of Geoff Johns’ worst traits as a comic book writer, stalling for most of the episode then going for a big payoff only at the very end. And it’s equally as frustrating in a TV series.

But beyond that, aside from him being their Jay Garrick, we still know nothing about Zoom in the present. I don’t really know what he’s planning or why. His motivations are rather sketchy; his family was killed in front of him. That’s pretty much all we know.

Eobard Thawne last season had a clear endgame and motivations, I argue they really should’ve held off on revealing Thawne-Wells’ true nature till maybe episode 9 or something, rather than constantly teasing it, but as a villain, he’s much better handled than Zoom was. His motivations are clear, his plan is complex.

The problem is, if Zoom wants to take over the world, why is he wasting time driving an army of metahumans to attack one city? If he wanted to be the best speedster, why didn’t he ignore Caitlin and kill Barry the moment he lost his powers? If he wants to destroy the world, can he hurry up?

So as it is he has Black Siren, the Laurel Lance of Earth-2, destroy buildings in order to cover up something which they haven’t decided to share with us. So whilst the Flash can deal with metahumans left and right, he struggles with this one because she has an actual sonic scream. Yeah, sure, why not?

So Barry’s feeling overconfident because ‘the speed force is on our side’ give me a break show, I want to love this show like I did last season but dammit you’ve made it difficult. This should’ve been built up on an actual victory, instead it feels like this happened way too late, like a lot of recent plot-events.

I know it’s doing the classic, pride comes before a fall routine but it feels like it’s too soon after the last time Barry was at his lowest point, and yes they killed off Henry Allen, because, well he was dead in the comics anyway and he really doesn’t need 2 father figures and I guess it’s a tragedy or something. Look, I only care for him because Barry does. He has had no arc and I feel his death was ultimately preventable if Barry had just done something instead of pleading with the sociopath.

Another disappointment, why am I surprised at this point?

Rating 5/10

The Race of His life

So apparently the Race of Barry’s life is 500 loop-the-loops… F*ck this show

I’ve made my feelings on this season perfectly, the characters have acted dumb for no good reason, plot convenience happens, Zoom felt tacked on and had no proper narrative for 2/3 of the season and he wins more often out of luck than actual strategic planning

I’ll say this, they established Zoom’s motivations early on, he wants to be the only speedster so his endgame is fitting with that agenda but there are no stakes because we have no investment in any of the other Earths and it’s even made clear that this earth would be spared the cataclysm, even if it’s under Zoom’s tyrranical rule.

So, if you can’t rely on the high stakes, you need an emotional arc and with Barry it’s down to his violent reaction to his father’s death. It’s fair enough that he would have an emotional reaction like this, the problem is his inability to think when he’s emotional, leading him to rash choices.

Being angry and being stupid are not the same thing. Barry being angry shouldn’t cause him to underestimate what Zoom can do, or be completely oblivious when he discovers the potential danger of just doing the race. Anger can drive you to rash actions, even beyond thought but usually it’s more impulsive and the fact that he’s still straight to it after everything, it bothers me

As of course does all the time remnant bullsh*t that plagues this episode. In fact, the Flash’s engagement with time travel has always been one of its greatest weaknesses and the fact the solution relied upon ultimately makes it unsatisfying to me, although there is some poetic justice in the Flash using Zoom’s own tricks against him.

What can I say with regards to positives? I think the West family have, for the most part, been very good this season. I like the direction they’ve been going with Cisco, someone who I’ve largely ignored and honestly, for the most part, I like this different version of Harrison Wells and the whilst the conclusion might be a tad hackneyed, the door is open for him, and Jesse too, to return.

OK, so turns out the man in the Iron Mask was the real Jay Garrick, the Earth-3 version of Barry’s father. My reaction is one of… absolutely nothing, moving on

OK, the ending. I don’t like it, at all, but there might be some reasoning to it. When Barry went back in time in the season 1 finale, another version of himself stopped him from saving his mother and we don’t know why? Here he goes back and saves her and if you’ve ever read Flashpoint we know that can have dire consequences. On the other hand, though, I can’t help but feel this negates the entire point of ‘the runaway dinosaur.’

This show has disappointed me one time too many. I’ll be back for the 4-part super-crossover next year but otherwise I will not be reviewing the Flash.

Rating 5/10

For updates and exclusive extras click here to like my Facebook page

For more reviews click here

Images used in this review are from The Flash and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.