SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!
Well that was a little underwhelming.
I was really excited about us getting Flash Point on the show. I knew it would be different because the show really doesn’t have much of any of the elements from the original story to stay true to it. But that was fine. I don’t read comics and my closest association with the DC universe has been the live-action and animated films. I did watch Flash Point, but it was only once and it was a while ago and I don’t remember much of anything that happened in it.
I was really interested in seeing how Greg Berlanti and company would adapt it to suit what they had. As the season drew nearer, however, and we got more news about exactly how it would happen on the show, I grew less excited about it. Especially when it turned out that Flash Point would only be one episode and not the planned four way crossover (which would have been perfect for this story).
But I digress.
Even with my lowered expectations and no baggage from existing material going into this episode I was still left pretty disappointed.
The episode on the whole felt rushed. They tried to do a lot in a short space of time and some if worked and some of it didn’t.
Nervous Barry trying to work up the courage to speak to Iris and ask her out was endearing. And the way he looked at her before he ran off to see the fight between Kid Flash and The Rival was adorable.
But it made no sense to me why Iris said yes when he asked her out. She doesn’t know him and he didn’t do anything to endear himself to her and he was so spazzy and awkward it was painful. But she did say she found that cute. There wasn’t really much of a visible reason for her to say yes other than Barry and Iris belong together…which is exactly how they explained her acceptance later; their love for each other crosses timelines and she said yes because she is already in love with him in another timeline. That was eye roll inducing levels of cheesy. But this is the CW. 
Other than killing the Reverse Flash, I don’t know what Barry could have done with him besides lock him in a cage. It was impractical though. Was he going to do that for the rest of his life?
It was believable that Barry would get out of the crime fighting business if there were another speedster around to take up the mantle. His face after being saved by Kid Flash was funny. After last season Barry really needed a break. But why is he all up in the fights anyway? And speeding around town without even a hoody on to hide his face?
I didn’t really appreciate alcoholic Joe. It would have been nice to get more of an idea of why he was an alcoholic in this timeline. Seeing him be mean to Barry, the same way he was mean to Eddie about dating Iris, was a cool little throwback and worthy of a brief chuckle.
What was worthy of outright laughter was Cisco’s introduction. The music made that scene. Carlos Valdes does an amazing job as Cisco and always manages to steal whatever scene he is in with his adorkable-ness. Even when Cisco is a douchey billionaire, he was able to make him lovable. Caitlin was hardly present but in her brief amount of time on screen she brought some some humour with her. And she didn’t mention Ronnie once!
The fact that Team Flash, even though they were separated in this timeline and didn’t know each other, still had the same chemistry and rapport brought some heart to the episode. Of course, the explanation for that is they’re meant to be together no matter what timeline they’re in.
All episode Barry was losing his memories of the former timeline because, as explained by the Reverse Flash, the current timeline was overwriting the former and the more he used his speed the faster it happened. So Barry continues to use his speed. And it gets progressively worse. But he doesn’t actually decide that he needs to go back and fix the timeline until Wally get’s stabbed during the final fight with The Rival. 
Wanting to spare Wally any suffering because of his choices was a great motivator for Barry to go back and let the Reverse Flash kill his mother. But because the episode was rushed and didn’t take the time to establish what needed to be in order for such moments to carry any weight, it just fell flat.
I do like that this version of Flash Point was far more personal for Barry and focused on him and his life and his struggles rather than a world ending event. The show relied a little too heavily on the audience’s experience with the other timeline to build the emotional side of the story rather than fully develop this story with these versions of the characters.
I see what the shows was trying to do and I like that idea, but to me they didn’t quite hit their target. This entire episode felt like filler.
And Barry still screwed up after trying to fix the timeline. Come on Barry!
Random thoughts:
- Why did Barry flash out of that coffee shop with so many people around?
- Barry: “So this is what it feels like to be a spectator and be saved by The Flash.”
- You’re being creepy Barry.
- Don’t get cocky Wally.
- Holy shit he got stabbed!
- Can we stop going back to the night his mother was killed?
- Ya dun goofed Barry.
The Flash airs Tuesday nights at 8 PM on The CW.
