The finale of Season 3 of THE FLASH wrapped up the Flashpoint story line for the fans with a final showdown with Scarface Barry aka Savitar, in a way that probably satisfied most fans. First off, Iris West was saved and it was revealed that HR had died in her place in a switchero telegraphed in last week's show. With Iris alive, it becomes a race to kill Savitar before he puts his plan B into effect; a plan that hinges on Cisco reworking one of his do-hickeys so that the villain becomes a God. There is a sequence where it appears that Bad Barry might be having a change of heart, only to have it all be a fake out, before the showdown, where there is a neat bit of business when The Flash shoves his evil doppelganger from the Savitar suit and then shatters it. It's a real comic book moment brought to life the kind of thing us true fans love. But it is almost ruined when The Flash stupidly turns his back on the villain and has to be saved by Iris at the very last moment. I do like it that they didn't wrap up the Kaitlyn/Killer Frost plot line so neatly, although giving her one of those "Goodbye, I've got to go find myself" sendoffs has gotten to be a cliché. Even for a show that has become a little too much the CW and not enough DC Comics, the end of Savitar was satisfying.
So we got Barry and Iris back together, happy and in love and planning to get married, but there was still 15 minutes left in the show and I knew we were going to get the rug pulled out from under us. And sure enough, right on time, there was a Speed Force Apocalypse which can only be prevented by a sacrifice, one that Barry makes without batting an eye. To me, this rings totally false, as Barry Allen says his goodbyes to the people who mean the most in the world to him and calmly walks off with the avatar of his mother. This is switching emotional gears way too fast, not to mention ramming a lot of plot through a too small hole. I know the producers are setting things up for next season, but a plot turn such as this deserved at least a full episode of its own to work through.
Overall, Season 3 was something of a disappointment, my favorite episodes were the alien invasion crossover, and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we had another Big Bad who also a Speedster. This has gotten old, I know it's common to make the villain a mirror of the hero, but after Scarface Barry, this trope has gone as far as it can go. They've used the voices of Tony Todd and Tobin Bell in the past as the voices of Zoom and Savitar, how about giving these great actors roles in front of the camera.
So we got Barry and Iris back together, happy and in love and planning to get married, but there was still 15 minutes left in the show and I knew we were going to get the rug pulled out from under us. And sure enough, right on time, there was a Speed Force Apocalypse which can only be prevented by a sacrifice, one that Barry makes without batting an eye. To me, this rings totally false, as Barry Allen says his goodbyes to the people who mean the most in the world to him and calmly walks off with the avatar of his mother. This is switching emotional gears way too fast, not to mention ramming a lot of plot through a too small hole. I know the producers are setting things up for next season, but a plot turn such as this deserved at least a full episode of its own to work through.
Overall, Season 3 was something of a disappointment, my favorite episodes were the alien invasion crossover, and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we had another Big Bad who also a Speedster. This has gotten old, I know it's common to make the villain a mirror of the hero, but after Scarface Barry, this trope has gone as far as it can go. They've used the voices of Tony Todd and Tobin Bell in the past as the voices of Zoom and Savitar, how about giving these great actors roles in front of the camera.