5 Ways The Flash Can Improve in Season 5

The Flash is set to return for Season 5 in just a few short weeks, and there are big changes in store for our favorite speedster and his friends.

After a season that saw Barry and company thwart a man who wanted to literally dumb down the world, Season 5 promises slightly lower, more immediate stakes. And that’s not a bad thing.

Thanks to the arrival of Nora, Barry and Iris’ daughter from the future, at the end of Season 4, it seems as though we’ll have to dig into the West-Allen family dynamic a bit more this year. Caitlin’s on a quest to regain her Killer Frost identity, Cisco’s reeling from a break-up, Ralph almost died, and Joe and Cecile have a new baby.

So it definitely looks like this might be a good year for some introspection, and maybe some stories that hit a little closer to home for our characters. Here are a few suggestions for where to start.

1. Go Back to the Beginning Again

The Flash really needs to get back to its roots in Season 5. Meaning, it needs to re-center itself on the characters and relationships at the heart of the show. That’s why we’re all here, after all.

Let everyone on Team Flash actually act like they’re friends with one another. Spend the time to fully integrate Ralph with the rest of the team, not just Barry. Remember that there’s a world outside of STAR Labs and that people should do things other than hang out there.

And, maybe most importantly: Have some fun again.

The Thinker plotline last season was a relentless, grimdark fest, featuring constant death and very little joy. Hopefully, the introduction of Barry and Iris’ daughter-from-the-future will provide a bit more heart and levity in Season 5.

After all, she’s a physical reminder of why Team Flash does what they do. She’s family, and she’s the future — and that’s what these guys fight for every day.

2. Iris West-Allen: Ace Reporter

Last year, we asked that Iris get her own storyline for once. Which, sort of happened in Season 4, but not really. Sure, she got to marry Barry (finally) and became the de facto leader of Team Flash (also, finally), but that was kind of it.

Towards the end of last season, Iris made noises about getting back to her journalism roots and even restarted her Flash blog. That story definitely needs to continue — and expand — in Season 5.

Iris is one of the few characters left on The Flash who doesn’t have superpowers. And, to be honest, she doesn’t need them. But viewers deserve to see her succeed without them, on her own terms, doing what she loves.

Let’s see her doing some real investigations, working to get scoops, even wheedling information out of her father or husband “for the good of the city.”

Sure, she’ll probably be pretty busy with the arrival of daughter Nora for a bit, but let’s be real — plenty of moms work. Iris can surely balance both.

3. Pick a Lane with Killer Frost’s Story

The Flash introduced Caitlin’s dark alter ego Killer Frost back in Season 3, but her story has been pretty much all over the place. She’s been everything from a split personality to a genetic abnormality to a completely separate being that somehow just share the same body.

The show could never seem to settle on an identity for Killer Frost or define how she and Caitlin are connected, so, as a result, it couldn’t seem to tell a story about her either.

Season 5 needs to determine for good and all what Killer Frost is, how she connects to Caitlin and how their powers work.

Let the women reconcile themselves to one another — whatever that means. (Will Caitlin and Killer Frost co-exist? Will the two integrate? Has Caitlin always had powers?)

Mostly, Caitlin deserves a real story and a chance to wrestle with the issues that Killer Frost has brought up for her.

The casting of Veronica Mars alum Kyle Secor as her father Thomas indicates that The Flash writers are at least thinking about ways to integrate the Killer Frost arc more fully into Caitlin’s story. That’s certainly progress, but we’ve got a ways to go.

4. Rebrand Ralphy Dibny

Season 4 introduced Ralph Dibny, also known as the Elongated Man.

A bus meta stalked by The Thinker for his powers of elasticity, Ralph eventually joined Team Flash after Barry taught him how to be a hero. (Over and over and over again.)

Ralph, however, wasn’t a very heroic person for most of the season.

He was frequently rude and condescending. And despite his many Team Flash pep talks, he backslid often, running away from problems, abandoning his friends, and refusing to help others despite repeated lessons to the contrary.

Oh, and he was also kind of a misogynist, frequently making sexist comments to and about women, both within and outside of Team Flash. Um. Gross.

So, needless to say, Ralph needs something of an overhaul as a character as we head into Season 5.

Luckily, he had a near-death experience at the end of last season, thanks to being absorbed into The Thinker’s consciousness. And that sounds like as good a reason to reevaluate one’s life choices as any.

On the plus side, actor Hartley Sawyer has wonderful comedic timing and genuine charm, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to nudge Ralph toward becoming a better version of himself this year. But The Flash also needs to acknowledge how awful he was, and precisely why he needs to change.

It also needs to give him the time and opportunity to build real relationships with the rest of Team Flash.

Part of the reason his “death” rang so hollow last season was that it felt like Cisco, Caitlin, and Iris barely even knew him in any real way. Let’s fix that this year.

5. Embrace Smaller Arcs

There were a lot of issues with The Flash’s main storylines last year. The show couldn’t figure out what to do with Killer Frost. Ralph’s arc turned out to be kind of terrible. Barry’s trip to prison fizzled. Wally disappeared to a completely different show.

But the biggest part of the problem was that The Thinker just wasn’t a villain meant to anchor a full 22-episode season. Yes, the show needs Big Bads that aren’t speedsters.

Unfortunately, Clifford DeVoe’s ultimate plan was a confusing and dragged out mess, and the show relied on the generally nondescript metas to carry the rest of the story load.

Downside: There were so many bus metas that we never really got the chance to care about any of them. Or even really learn their names. Of course, no one cared when they died.

The takeaway from all this is that maybe it’s time for The Flash to tell smaller stories. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with mini-arcs, monsters of the weeks, or rogue metahumans who just want to rob a bank or something.

Smaller arcs can work just as well as a full season Big Bad, and they offer more opportunities to do some of the character work that The Flash is in desperate need of.

Bring in the big guns for the end of the season — and spare us spending 20 episodes trying to figure out what the villain’s endgame is. We all win.

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What’s on your wishlist for the new season? Sound off in the comments below!

The Flash returns to the CW on Tuesday, October 9 at 8/7c.

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