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"The Flash" Season One Finale Recap: Big Damn Heroes

The exciting conclusion of The Flash's first season brings surprise, strangeness and tears.

The Flash’s Season One finale was awesome. It hearkened back to the Arrow Season One finale. Let’s hope that is the first and last comparison we draw with the elder sibling of CW’s superhero shows. Because I can do without the annual slaughter. I’m just saying….

So the reason that Eobard let himself get captured (and he obviously did, even though he never really said that because that would have hurt Barry’s feelings) was because Barry is the key to his entire endgame. He needs Barry to open a wormhole in time so he can get Back to the Future.

In trade, Barry gets the chance to save his mom. Sounds like a fair deal, but really Barry, haven’t we learned you can’t trust villains? Even if they’re as sexy as Captain Cold, their hearts are totally filled with mischief and evil.

Professor Stein has taken over for Wellobard as Chief Nerd of Team Flash. He thinks the whole idea is neato and everything, but there is the problem of it having untold consequences for an untold number of people. So maybe Barry should think it over for a little bit.

In a stunning move I didn’t see coming. Joe immediately tells Barry to go for it. Huh. I thought he would be more like, “What kind of crazy would you have to be to trust two different super villains in two consecutive weeks?”

Since this decision could result in his death or perhaps the radical alteration of reality, Barry decides to talk to some folks and get their input on the possibility of their whole lives being altered. Iris is in the “yes” column because, I think, it increases her chances of boning Barry without the risk of guilt. Henry Allen is in the “hell to the no” column because he’s an awesome dad. My dad sure wouldn’t have been ready to sacrifice himself for me. I think he would have actually tried to figure out a way to frame me for the murder so he could get out of jail.

Regardless of the fact that it looks like nothing they do at this point matters, Ronnie and Caitlin decide to give getting married another chance. Talk about living in the now!

Barry decides that he’ll give Eobard’s nutty scheme a chance. And it turns out, all he needs to do is go Mach 2. Naturally, Caitlin chimes in with her standard, “You’ve never gone that fast!” line. And Barry just rolls his eyes because there is no speed he can’t reach when he puts his mind to it—except for the speed he needs to go to beat the crap out of Eobard.

Cisco is not on board with this plan but he wasn’t given a vote. His mood does improve when Barry says two magic words: “time machine.” Cisco is still not on board, but hey, gadgets. He can be on board with gadgets.

He has to consult with Eobard on the project, though, which does nothing to improve his mood. Oh man, Wellobard is beautiful in this scene. So utterly unrepentant, so evil, so vile and manipulative. He tries to explain that he really is impressed with Cisco, but my boy ain’t got time for that crap.

Then he mentions that he remembers being murdered by Wellobard and Thawne reveals then that Cisco is in fact a meta human with vibe powers. (Insert fanboy squee-ing here). Cisco doesn’t think that’s true, or so he says. I’m pretty sure he’s already coming up with costume ideas.

Professor Stein has a chit chat with Eddie about how he’s actually much more important than anyone thinks. This should have been a big red flag to me, but I was sailing down a river in Egypt and didn’t notice.

Stein is a Rabbi, it turns out. So he is the one to officiate the wedding. He and Ronnie have a wonderful snarky relationship with one another. I can’t wait to see it in Legends of Tomorrow. And since I now have an opening in my viewing schedule….

Caitlin makes a pointed speech about how everything is just perfect now and that really anyone would be downright stupid to mess with it. I think that made a tiny dent in Barry’s decision, but not enough to change his mind.

A bigger concern is the possibility that this plan could destroy the world. Seems to me the stakes are getting a wee bit high. Even Joe isn’t sure it’s a good idea anymore. Eobard thinks they’re just being nervous nellies. He’s helped save dozens of people, after all, and sure he’s killed dozens of others but the point is they can trust him. Sort of.

Barry just has to save his mom really fast and get back before the Earth gets swallowed by a black hole. So no pressure.

The one thing I’m not clear on is why they honor their deal with Eobard. Yeah, I know, there’s the whole hero thing. But Eobard is a murdering scumbag. Do we really care about breaking a promise to him? And do we really want him running around loose in any time?

Anyway, Barry hits Mach 2 quite easily. And soon he’s seeing all sorts of Easter Eggs visions of the future and past. Included in these are the Legends of Tomorrow and Caitlin as Killer Frost. If you hadn’t nerded out yet, this was your moment.

Barry at last makes it into the past, to that terrible night, arriving in his childhood bedroom. He peeks out and sees himself rescuing himself (it’s time travel, just go with it) and his future self gives him a signal to not do what he was about to do.

I really didn’t foresee this outcome, but it really shows the hero’s heart in Barry’s chest. As much as it kills him (and Grant Gustin dices your heart to pieces in this scene and then skewers it like a kabob) he lets his mother die.

He sits with her while she dies and…. Okay, now the kabob has been drenched in lemon juice, which may sound tasty but is really just painful. I think. I’m just too much of a mess for analogies right now. It’s really sad, is what I’m saying.

Back in the reality we know, Eobard is getting ready to head out. Cisco tells him to never come back. It’s like Cisco doesn’t like him or something.

Then Jay Garrick’s tin hat pops out of the wormhole/temporal gateway/fuzzy cloud of certain doom and the comic geeks who had just recovered from the last geek fest go down again.

Before Eobard can make his escape, though, Barry shows up and punches him in his evil face. This? So not the plan. Eobard is miffed. He’s downright annoyed, in fact. So much so that he’s going to kill, like, everyone in revenge.

Ronnie and Caitlin manage to shut down the fuzzy cloud of certain doom, which is good but also bad because now they’re trapped with an evil and very cranky super villain.

I was hoping that we would see Barry really trouncing Eobard here in the finale. I wasn’t expecting the big bad villain to be defeated by Eddie.

I’ve thought for a while now that the clearest way to stop Eobard was for Eddie to off himself. I didn’t think in a million years the show would actually do it, though, because that just doesn’t happen on TV. But just like Tommy, this unpowered guy saves the day just because he’s awesome.

“All I ever wanted was to be your hero,” he says to Iris.

And dies.

There’s no time to grieve though as Eddie’s well-meaning heroic sacrifice has brought about the end of the world that they were all hoping to avoid. So Barry has to rush off to try and stop it….

Does he succeed or fail? That’s for season two. Which I hope is as good as season one. Because as shaky as the writing was in places, I think Flash S1 put Arrow S1 to shame. I hope they keep it up. I know I’ll be watching.

But I won’t be recapping.

Ladies and gentlemen, my peeps, this is it for Tiger Cub. It’s been a wild ride, sharing these shows with you, hearing your feedback, laughing and grousing and theorizing with you all. I consider writing these recaps to have been a real privilege. But to all things there is an end. Thank you all for your support and your input. Feel free to come find me on Twitter as chrigercub or look me up as Chris O’Guinn on Facebook. Or, you could even buy my books, if you’re of a mind…..

/shameless plug.

So, one last time, sound off in the comments!

Tiger Cub, over and out.

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