And thus ends the first season of The Flash. You have to hand it to the show for bucking the usual trend and not framing the finale around the big, climactic battle between hero and villain. We already got our showdown between Reverse-Flash and the proto-Justice League last week, where his super-speed was no match for Oliver Queen’s ability to shoot an arrow real good. This week’s conflict was much more emotional than visceral. It presented Barry with a terrific conundrum and really played on the various relationships the show has built up over the past year. I’ll take that over a superhuman slug-fest any day of the week.
Whether or not Wells actually intended to to wind up imprisoned last week, his incarceration in the particle accelerator prison set the stage for the final conflict this week. Barry was presented with a real Faustian bargain. He’d help Wells re-open the space-time continuum and allow him to return to the future, and in exchange Barry would finally have the chance to undo the defining tragedy of his life and save his mother.
This immediately opened up all sorts of juicy drama as Barry realized he’d effectively be erasing his current life and all the relationships he holds dear. Is having his mother and father back worth destroying his familial bond with Joe and Iris? Is it worth eliminating the close friendships he’s built up with Caitlin and Cisco? And while the characters never really touched on this, would he even be the Flash in whatever reality he awoke in? That’s the sort of existential crisis you build a season finale on. We’ve seen plenty of the “bad guy can’t let go of a grudge and holds the city hostage” approach on Arrow. This is something else, something that really exploits that unique combination of larger-than-life situations and fundamentally human drama that distinguishes this show.
Just about every actor was on their A-game in this episode as Barry and friends wrestled with the situation and its many implications. Carlos Valdes enjoyed one of his strongest episodes yet as he dealt with the lingering trauma of his death, his loss of faith in Wells, and the realization that he may have a grander destiny than he ever imagined. Tom Cavanagh continued to achieve that delicate balance with Wells/Thawne. For all his villainous deeds, there was still a clear sense of why Wells did what he did and what he was trying to achieve (even if we never did learn exactly how his hatred for Barry was born). Most importantly, the script reinforced the fatherly connection Wells feels for both Cisco and Barry. Jesse L. Martin (who, to be fair, is always on his A-game) was terrific during his multiple scenes with Grant Gustin as his character confronted the idea that he’d lose the only son he ever had and urged Barry forward anyway.
If any actor surprised me with the quality of their performance this week, it was Rick Cosnett. I wasn’t sure Eddie was even going to appear this week in the wake of his disillusionment. But as it turned out, Cosnett was given easily his most significant role to date. I was glad to see Dr. Stein give Eddie a meta-heavy pep talk and remind him “you’re the only one in this story who can choose his future.” That’s the upside of being unknown to history. And it set up Eddie’s denouement nicely, as he chose to defy the future and sacrifice himself to stop his descendant. A great exit for the character if that’s what this is, though it seems doubtful considering the last we saw of Eddie was his lifeless body being sucked into a wormhole. Presumably he’ll spend an episode or two hanging out with Matthew McConaughey and screaming at Iris from inside a bookcase.
Once more unto the breach.
The only character that didn’t shine this week was Caitlin, and that merely seems to be a case of the writers not knowing exactly what to do with her. Caitlin’s reunion with Ronnie was nice, but their decision to get married was a little sudden. It felt like the writers wanted to inject some brief moment of happiness to offset the drama when such a thing wasn’t really necessary. Also, are we really supposed to believe someone as smart and scientifically savvy as Caitlin doesn’t know what a singularity is? I found that much harder to believe than the idea of a guy in red underwear running fast enough to punch a hole in reality. It’s a minor thing, but it stands out, especially when laymen like Iris or Joe or Eddie could have been given the same line. On the plus side, we got a brief glimpse of her possible future as Killer Frost.
All these strong performances notwithstanding, this really was Grant Gustin’s episode at the end of the day, and he nailed it. It was one emotionally charged scene after another for Barry. He had two heart-to-hearts with his adoptive father, another with his biological father (kudos to John Wesley Shipp for another terrific father/son scene), and basically had to make an impossible decision about the course of his life. Again, I loved that Barry’s dilemma wasn’t about self-sacrifice this time. It was a purely selfish choice about whether the promise of a new life with his mother and father was worth sacrificing the life he had built for himself.
All of that culminated with a fantastic sequence as Barry raced harder than he ever has and successfully returned to that fateful night. Gustin continued to deliver in the scene where Barry witnessed his older self and was finally convinced that time had to be allowed to unfold as it was meant to. That look of anguish as Barry heard his mother being stabbed was gut-wrenching. The consolation for Barry was that he at least got the opportunity to say goodbye to his mother. That tearful goodbye was powerful, and a shining example of how much Gustin has grown into this role.
With all this talk about emotion and feels, it’s important to note that this episode did pack in some good special effects during its limited action sequences. Barry’s mad dash through the particle accelerator was cool, as was his Time Bubble-shattering return. But easily the most visually impressive sequence came at the very end, as the wormhole grew and began devouring all of Central City. Those final scenes couldn’t have been cheap.
As for the idea of the season ending on a true cliffhanger? I guess I’m in support of it. I would have preferred a more definitive conclusion like we’ve always gotten with Arrow’s season finales. On the other hand, there was too much immediate fallout from Eddie’s suicide and the re-opening of the wormhole to properly address in the few minutes remaining. Theoretically, Eddie caused some sort of paradox by killing himself, which caused a chain reaction where Eobard Thawne was never born and Nora Allen was never murdered and the Flash was never born and now the timestream is trying to correct itself. That leaves a giant question mark for the status quo of Season 2. What happens to Barry now? What kind of world will emerge from this disaster? Will Eddie or the real Harrison Wells still have a part to play? There are many burning questions now, and they’ll make the wait for the new season that much harder to bear.
THE VERDICT
In a season of many highs, this finale may just be the best. "Fast Enough" capitalized wonderfully on the character relationships that have been developed over the past year. It was anchored by a stellar performance from Grant Gustin and a script with many emotionally resonant scenes. Any quibbles about Caitlin's role or time travel logic or the desire for a more conclusive final scene barely register when measured against those strengths.
9.7
AMAZING
The Flash delivered in a big way in its Season 1 finale thanks to an emotionally charged story and strong performances.
0 comments