All throughout this episode of the Flash, Eobard Thawne’s voice echoed in the background:
“Who’s the villain now, Flash?!”
Let’s face it, Barry Allen severely messed up. If I were friends with him in real life, I probably would not be okay with his actions. How many times are you gonna travel back in time to try to save your mother even though you know it’s going to mess up the present? Like Barry, I too am an emotional thinker, but even I wouldn’t do half the things he has.
‘Paradox’ showed us Barry trying to get Iris and Joe on good terms again, and also gives us a less than happy Cisco. The only element of this episode that broke my heart was how hurt Cisco was. He was mourning the loss of his brother, who we’ve seen Cisco to idolize, and he felt betrayed because Barry refused to go back in time to save Dante. Even though Cisco himself knows what time travel can cause, he’s so heartbroken over the loss of his brother, that he doesn’t care about the consequences – and that just hit me hard, man.
This week’s episode introduced Tom Felton’s character, Julian Albert. Julian is Barry’s “partner” in the crime lab, and he sees right through Barry. The two don’t get along at all, and I have to say that it’s pretty refreshing to have a character, that isn’t a villain (well, not yet anyway), dislike Barry Allen. Even though Felicity Smoak believes Barry is like pudding, it seems as though Julian isn’t a fan of the dessert. And I’m sure many Harry Potter fans were delighted to see the two worlds collide and get a taste of the Slytherin once more.
Once Barry tells Team Flash about him going back in time to save his mother and the alternate timeline he created, Iris decides to forgive Joe and gives a pep talk to the team. She talks them into forgiving Barry because they’ve all made mistakes at one point and that it’s Barry. Perfect reasoning.
So the team forgives precious Barry Allen as they realize that he’s in danger. Oh that’s right, the Rival is back, but with Doctor Alchemy this time. Clariss is upset because he believes Barry took his life away from him – the one created in the alternate universe. It’s still unclear why Alchemy is upset, but the two attempt to take Barry down together. While Barry’s getting pummeled, Cisco races to the scene and just owns being Vibe. I’m so happy Cisco finally gets to unleash his powers and just thinking about a Vibe/The Flash team up makes me extremely excited.
But by far my favorite part of the episode was when Jay Garrick stops Barry from making another stupid decision and taking him to the 90s. Ahh, the 90s. There’s no better way of slapping reality into your face by taking you back into the colorful decade. Jay, who just happens to be Henry Allen’s doppelganger, tells Barry to stop mucking around and trying to change the timeline. Using a tea cup to show Barry the potential damage of constantly changing the timeline, he chips the cup, explaining that even though you can put the piece back in it’s place, there will always be a crack.
The end of the episode reveals that all the metahumans from the alternate timeline, will return to the current with their powers once more. So that means we get Kid Flash back right? We have to. Wally needs this. I really do believe his character is in need of development and what better way to do that than to make him Kid Flash again?
After Barry informs Caitlin that she’s probably the one who was the most similar to herself from the previous timeline, she exhibits cryokinetic powers from her hands. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love Caitlin Snow, but let me just say that even if we see her as a villain again, I will still love her and probably defend her actions. Nevertheless, I’m excited to see where the producers take her character in this season!
While this week’s episode was significantly better than the first, both have proved that the entire team is going to have to deal with the consequences of Barry’s actions, and everyone (even us viewers) are in for a joyride.
