The Flash Season 2 Episode 17 Review: Flash Back | Tell-Tale TV

The Flash Review: Flash Back (Season 2 Episode 17)

Jennifer Knutson Reviews, The Flash

The Flash continues to run Season 2 off the rails in a spectacular fashion with “Flash Back.”

“Flash Back” is an absolute mess. Barry is tirelessly working on becoming faster because thirty-nine episodes of the exact same character development isn’t enough for The Flash. They want to make it an even forty. This would be like two straight years of Oliver Queen trying to shoot straighter arrows. Enough already.

Barry is also beating himself up for making the same mistake twice. He trusted someone he shouldn’t have. At least The Flash can recognize they are repeating Season 1’s storyline verbatim. It helps. It provides a cushion against that brick wall I keep slamming my head against.

In fact, The Flash is so self-aware about its recycled plot they are returning to Season 1 to solve Season 2’s storyline. Since it is the same problem, then the same solutions apply. Eobard Thawne can teach Barry how to become faster. Honestly, it’s faster to hit replay on Season 1 after you finish it. You’ll get the general gist of Season 2. I promise. Also, you can keep Ronnie and Eddie and skip Jay Garrick. Win all around.

In order to make this work, The Flash has to play it fast and loose with logic. Essentially, Barry’s reasoning is, “Nothing bad happened when I watched my mom die, so time travel is always a good idea!” Barry… that math needs work.  This is how I do science Barry! I throw out every outlier that doesn’t support my hypothesis just to drive my science-loving husband insane. Except, I’m a communications major. You, Mr. Scarlett Speedster, do not have that excuse! You are a scientist.

Of course everybody on Team Flash says, “BARRY DON’T DO IT,” but does Barry listen? Nope. Great. At least he’s consistently obtuse.  That’s as positive as I can be. Barry promises he will not change anything, clicks his heels and away he goes.

Then Barry changes everything.

I’m not going to get into a litany of examples of all the ways Barry’s plan goes wrong. I’m not going to provide a list of ways he altered the timeline. You watched the episode. You know. 

The key to being a good hero is knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Barry is a terrible liar. He’s terrible at coming up with lies. He’s terrible at executing a lie. He’s terrible at undercover work. It’s mostly because he has the personality of a golden retriever puppy. However, lying is a life skill one needs to excel at with time travel.  It took Eobhard Thawne five minutes to figure out who Barry is.

Yet, when Barry returns to present-day nothing changes except for Hartley Rathaway. He’s a nice guy now who works with Team Flash. That’s it? Barry completely changes every interaction and every reaction to those interactions. We are constantly told how time travel has serious consequences. We are constantly told how important it is not to impact the timeline. But nothing happens.

The Flash’s use of time travel is unbelievably frustrating. They set up very specific time travel rules and then ignore those rules whenever they please. It’s lazy storytelling. There is absolutely no logic to the story The Flash told in “Flash Back.”  There are no consequences, so it’s difficult to be invested. Fifteen minutes in and I’m throwing up my hands saying, “This makes absolutely no sense.”  It is the very definition of contrived storytelling.

The only glimmer in this insanity is Eddie’s reappearance. Barry asks Eddie to make a birthday video for Iris. “Talk as if it’s the last thing you’ll ever say to her.” Subtle, Barry. Of course, Eddie gives a beautiful message to Iris. He tells Iris she deserves to be happy. Iris has a good cry and we’re officially a go for Iris moving on.

The issue is Barry. He should be less involved. While I appreciate the sweetness of the gesture, ultimately The Flash needs to crank up the heat on Barry and Iris. It’s getting extremely late in the season and Barry continues to exist heavily in the friend zone. Without a significant amount of build up, flipping Iris’ romance switch is going to be difficult to believe. Of course, we are all expected to remember Iris’ declaration from last season and the kiss. Underlying feelings deep within the subconscious that manifest in times of near death will only get these two so far. Same goes for doppelgängers. The Flash uses time travel as a crutch for many things, including Barry and Iris. At the risk of beating a dead horse, if Barry and Iris are the main romance, then The Flash should act like it in present day.

Stray Thoughts

  • “Nobody saw this coming.” Umm… except the entire Flash audience who has ever read a comic book ,Joe. Ask around.
  • If there are so many other speedsters why is Eobhard Thawne the only person who can teach Barry about his speed? How about we find a speedster in another timeline who isn’t evil? Just an idea.
  • Barry is not a big mystery. He’s practically wearing a sign that says,  “I AM THE FLASH. ASK ME HOW.” Thawne and Cat Grant are the only two people who seem to know that.

What did you think of this episode of The Flash? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

Wife, mother and TV enthusiast. She has a degree in Communications, a minor in English, a background in marketing, and a deep love for all story telling mediums. The TV obsession probably started from birth, but hit saturation level with Buffy The Vampire Slayer and hasn't dissipated since. She has a weakness for dark & twisty heroes and selfless love stories. When she's not working, raising her little human, or spending time with her spouse, she's writing, analyzing, tweeting, and obsessing about all things Arrow. You can check out her blog here: http://jbuffyangel.tumblr.com/ You can also follow Jennifer on Twitter: @jbuffyangel

3 comments

  • The Barry and Iris (with my beloved Eddie) scenes were the saving grace of this episode, but I agree with everything you’re saying. The Flash needs to stop rehashing old plot lines and refusing to let its characters move forward. And yes, they need to allow Iris to start falling for Barry instead of just relying on Candice’s excellent face and the audience’s memory of 1.15.

  • I’ll give the episode a bit of a pass. Yes, Barry is a terrible liar and not too bright but we knew that already. The time wraith was completely dumb. And who knows what havoc Barry wreaked with time travel this time. I believe we’ll see it down the line. But the actors had a chance to have some fun. It gets a little closer to the big showdown with zoom. We learned Iris tried moving on with her boss (are they sure this isn’t against company policy somehow) but couldn’t. Now that Barry gave her the video maybe she’ll start to think of what a nice guy he is, though supposedly she knew it all along. Who knows maybe she’ll give the guy a try. Not a great episode but not the worst. Let’s see what next week brings.

  • Forgot to mention even though I give the episode a grudging pass, Barry’s comment that nothing happened when he went back in time and saw his mom die ignores the fact that doing so caused the singularity that killed Ronnie and opened the portals through which Zoom came. Kinda forgetful, Barry. Also, did it seem to you Barry was old hat at time travel? The few times he time traveled were by accident or the season 1 finale with hello and a lot of maths from eobard thawne. There are always consequences when Barry messes with time and I believe the fallout from this time travel is coming but yet to be seen.

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