All this week, we are taking a look back at the TV series that we covered during the year, and sharing our five favorite moments from each. We will be doing similar retrospectives in July, August, and September, focusing on different aspects of each show. Enjoy!
The Flash Season 2 was not nearly as flawless as its debut run, but that’s not a knock on the show, more than it is a marveling of just how great that first season really was. But this season still gave us a long string of fantastic moments, five of which I’ve listed below. Let’s hope the next season can bring back some of that year one mojo and restore the show to its rightful place atop the Mount Rushmore of comics TV.
5. King Shark
Now, let me be clear: King Shark was not a great character on the show. Did I enjoy his appearances? Hell yes, but he wasn’t a great character. And that’s ok, because while the King Shark from the comics had some depth, the one on TV didn’t really need to, because the character wasn’t about a dynamic, deep character. It was about showing us that the show could, and would, do anything. Having a shark in jorts was the sounding bell that this shit just got real, and we can expect anything and everything. What a world we live in that we got to see King Shark twice this season!
4. Patty Spivot
While Barry ended the season not romantically linked with anyone – but leaving the possibility for a relationship with Iris if his whole timeline changing shenanigans don’t work out – Barry’s most sincere romantic relationship of the season was with Patty Spivot, police officer and cutie pie. Shantel VanSanten is a beautiful woman, but the designation ‘cute’ is more about how she and Barry interacted.
She brought out this giddy, innocent side of Barry that had been somewhat obscured this season, due to the weight of the world on his back. When she and Barry were dancing, or having dinner, you saw what Barry as a middle school soccer player must have been like – laughing, joyous, free of the burdens of his regular life, just enjoying playing a game (note: I have no idea what sports, if any, in-universe Barry Allen played. Soccer just seems a Flash-appropriate sport).
While I get why the show has to make Iris his true love, it broke my heart to see Patty go, as she was both a great detective, a fantastic foil for Barry, and a member of the cast that was able to still be hopeful, and not beaten down by the world.
3. Dopples upon dopples
I’ve gone on and on in my reviews about how much I love watching Earth-1 folks playing Earth-2 folks, or vice versa. Nothing brought me more joy this season than seeing Cisco try to convince someone that he’s Reverb, or watching Harry try to trick Grodd into thinking he’s Harrison Wells. Something just tickles me about those moments, and we got a ton of them this year.
But we also got a lot of straight-up alternate versions of characters we know and love, and with the introduction of Earth-3 in the form of (the real) Jay Garrick, perhaps we’ll see even more of that next season.
Side discussion: it appears that Earth-2 is more like the pre-“Flashpoint” Earth-3, where the heroes are all evil (Cisco, Caitlin, etc), and Earth-3 appears to be more like the comics Earth-2, where the heroes are considerably older.
2. The development of Wally West
While Wally wasn’t the best part of this season, mainly due to the angst the show had to work out of him, by the season’s end, I really cared about him, and wanted to get more of him each week. His devotion to the Flash, and then to Barry, when that revelation came about, was handled really perfectly. Instead of getting jealous – as it was looking like he might be – Wally was inspired to be better – he did exactly what we do. We get inspired by these characters and try to live lives that are good. He’s doing the same, and that’s a great thing.
Continued belowNow, as for when we’ll see his powers develop, I’m not sure. But getting hit with dark matter will certainly unlock them at some point. I just hope they can find a way to translate the classic Kid Flash costume to TV and not look cheesy.
1. The Multiverse in all its glory
This has to be the best part of this season, doesn’t it? We see Barry run to Earth-2, and we see all sorts of amazing images – Supergirl, a Legion flight ring, the early 90s version of The Flash – and we realize that the show can be anything. This is the King Shark reveal, but infinitely more insane. We’ve already seen Barry interact with Kara over on Supergirl, and we know that Legends of Tomorrow has more time travel than you can say “Doc Brown” at, and so the show essentially has established its playing field as infinite. Mark my words: at some point, Barry (or some other DCtvU character) will wind up seeing himself on TV, as he has traveled to ‘our’ world.
This season, the show doubled down on the concept that anything was on the table, and it is much better for it.
