It wasn’t much of a guess that The Flash would immediately begin tackling the end results of Flashpoint. After all, the Reverse Flash said there would be differences, and it seems most of them were bad. And whatever was up with Edward Clariss at the end of the last episode was going to touch down this episode.
Barry does, eventually, find out why Iris and Joe are no longer on speaking terms. The Francine situation played out far differently than it did originally. Namely, Joe never told Iris that Francine was still alive. She, obviously, took exception to that.
Barry, is hesitant to tell anyone what he did. Naturally, considering that the reason they’re all suffering for it was his decision to change the timeline. Cisco wound up with the biggest hit between Flashpoint and the restored timeline. He went from being a billionaire to living in grief over the death of his brother. Barry’s attempts to patch things up fall flat, mostly due to the fact that he refused to go back in time to save Dante. This gets worse when he finally fesses up to having time traveled in the first place.
Also, he now has to share his lab with Julian Albert, the CCPD’s new forensic analyst for metahuman affairs. Julian, played by Tom Felton, does not like Barry. At all. Which is only really surprising to Felicity Smoak, who is no longer wheelchair-bound (note: really need to catch up with Arrow). Everyone else has heard Barry complain about the guy a million times, to the point that they can preempt him.
Barry even tries to set things right by attempting to time travel once again. But just as he’s about to do it, he gets yanked into Earth-3 by Jay Garrick. Earth-3, as it turns out, is 90’s land; specifically 1998 (clever). They have a nice chat about how no amount of monkeying with the timeline will actually fix it. Barry protests that he knows all of it, but he still clearly thinks he’s going to be the guy that pulls it all off. Jay decides a visual aide is in order; using a ceramic coffee cup, he explains that every time you go back, you break something. You can fix it, but it’ll never be the same.
Edward Clariss, meanwhile, gets drawn to the sawmill where he fought Barry and Wally in the Flashpoint timeline. He meets <s>Dr. Alchemy there, who grants him the use of his powers in this timeline. It isn’t exactly explained how, though. He also got him the suit as well, because he has that when he goes to confront Barry by the river. That fight, in particular, blows open Barry’s time travel shenanigans to Iris.
Whatever Alchemy did to give Clariss his powers leaves the outer lair of their skin as a husk. Since this had been going on for a while, at least four others had the same thing done to them, according to Julian. And however he’s doing it, it doesn’t involve dark matter.
After a talk with Julian, Barry figures out that Clariss is hiding at the same mill. The problem is that Alchemy is there backing him up, to a degree. Barry almost starts out by getting his ass kicked, and things don’t really improve much. Well, until Cisco shows up and blasts Clariss with his sound gauntlets. They double up on they guy and deliver a beatdown that wouldn’t exactly look out of place in Dragon Ball Z.
Clariss gets locked up in Iron Heights, swearing revenge. He pleads with Alchemy at one point, though. They cut away without showing it, but whatever Alchemy does to him can’t be pleasant. He didn’t seem the type to take failure in stride.
Cisco isn’t quite ready to make the field team up just a thing, yet. But someday, and probably in a costume that doesn’t look like a Dancing with the Stars getup. As he’s leaving, Barry mentions to Caitlin that she’s the only one to remain fairly consistent across the timelines. But…
The Flash has clearly used Flashpoint as an opportunity to shake things up. And now I’m wondering who else is either dead/not dead or getting powers. Good on them, even though Flashpoint felt like it ran its course too quickly.
Final Thoughts:
- Still don’t understand how Caitlin got powers out of the deal.
- Those skin husks are super creepy.
- I wonder if Alex Desert is in Earth-3?
“The Flash has clearly used Flashpoint as an opportunity to shake things up.”
3.5/5
“Good”
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