By Seun Olowo-Ake
Like many shows, The Flash hadn’t completed its season before production shut down because of the pandemic. This means that us Flash fans were left without closure to the Mirror Master storyline of Season 6 and had to wait a whole 10 months before the Scarlet Speedster graced our screens again. So, to tide myself over, I resorted to re-watching old episodes.
Even though I would identify as a binge watcher, I had never actually binge-watched The Flash before. Watching all the episodes so close together like that made some character traits more obvious to me. For instance, Cisco (Carlos Valdes) is not afraid to call his friends out, Iris (Candice Patton) is always ready for combat and Barry Allen (Grant Gustin)–the Flash himself–has a saviour complex.
There are a few examples of this throughout the show. In every episode, it seems like Barry says some version of “I’m not fast enough to stop them”/ “this is all my fault”/ “I should have been there”/ “I can’t save them”. He also has to be told repeatedly by his friends that, “you are not God, Barry”. However, it’s the first half of Season 6 that really puts his complex on display.
The season opens with the Crisis where it was foretold that “the Flash must die”, which looms over Team Flash’s heads. At first, they think they can stop it from changing their lives, but after Barry pulls a Doctor Strange and sees billions of possible futures, he develops the conviction himself that he must die to save everyone. He spends a portion of the show trying to prepare his friends for a world without the Flash, training them so they can be heroes without his leadership and picking out who should lead the team when he’s gone. In this season particularly, I find that the show positions Barry almost as a Jesus-figure. He becomes a ‘paragon of love’ who is willing to sacrifice himself to save all of humanity.
My favourite episode of the season (and possibly of the entire show) is episode 7 “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen Pt. 1”. It plays with the choice between good and evil and, as the name implies, Barry is presented with the possibilities that his life holds if he chooses evil in an “all this could be yours if you bow down to me” type of situation. Aside from Grant’s phenomenal acting, the reason I love it is that we finally see that our hero has a dent in his armour. Still, even though he’s argued with his friends and family about the reasons for his conviction and has been preparing his team for his demise, Barry outrightly says to the Speed Force here that, “I don’t want to die.”
The Speed Force is a sentient, infinite source of energy that I like to think about as the speedsters’ God. It chose Barry to be the Flash and he only maintains his speed because of his connection to it (as of right now) and it frequently tells him of the sacrifices he must make as a hero. It even has laws that he must abide by, with repercussions for breaking them. The Speed Force shows up in this episode to help our hero make the right decision and Barry speaks to it about the trajectory of his life as a hero and as a man.
Since we’ve known him, Barry has developed close friendships with his co-workers (the aforementioned Team Flash), married the girl that he has had a crush on for over a decade, and even met his daughter from the future. He loves his life. So, even though he has always willingly adhered to the laws of the Speed Force and accepted its consequences when he broke them, Barry snaps when it states that it is just here to guide him on the path he has chosen. “A lightning bolt shot down from the sky and struck me!,” he cries out. “I didn’t choose this; this was done to me! … Why do I always have to suffer for you?”
I low-key relate to that resentment, feeling like I have to be strong for everyone–my family, my friends, even God–and then sitting in my bed going ‘I can’t do this’/’Can I just have a minute?’. Maybe you feel that way too as a parent, a guardian, a sibling, or a friend. It’s hard not to try to be strong when you have people who are depending on you. I mean the lives of millions of people rest on Barry’s shoulders! Yet, in this episode, he finally sees something his friends have been trying to teach him. Something we must all learn at some point in our lives:
We weren’t made to carry our burdens alone.
No matter how good or smart we are, we’re all flawed people who need help from our own Team Flash and from our Infinite Source.
The Flash returns on the CW on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021.
Justice League is one of the most anticipated movies of the year, but not because you get a DC team-up film. The anticipation comes because most people were wondering, “Will they finally get these characters right?” That, of course, was the big question going in–so much so that Rotten Tomatoes delayed their Tomatometer for the film because they claimed they wanted to debut a new show and get more in-depth. In reality, they received heat from the studios, complaining that they were ruining the box office numbers (umm, bad films do that–not a Tomatometer). The DCEU has only one good film in its four-film roster, and that one came out earlier this year. They hitched their wagon to Zach Snyder to create this universe; the problem has been that Snyder wanted to make it in his own vision and that doesn’t always work with established characters.
Ben Affleck is probably on his way out of playing Batman, but I will say that he is a good Bruce Wayne and an above average Batman. He moves slow for the Dark Knight, but then again, he’s portraying a much older and seasoned character, so that could be the reason. What he nails a little is the strategist Batman who is a reluctant leader. Even with a team, he thinks about himself as a solo act, all the while pushing team members to discover themselves.
Gal Gadot is the showstopper once again. Her Wonder Woman is most definitely a beacon of light. She’s the first character in the DCEU that was nailed perfectly first time through. In this film we see her grow as a heroine and see how great she really is. There is one complaint I have…but I won’t spoil it here.
Ezra Miller is the bright humor that the DCEU has been lacking. Besides the flaws in CGI (when they slow down, his running looks very abnormal at times) Flash was well done. If you grew up watching Justice League the Animated Series, Miller personifies this version of Flash.
Jason Mamoa as Aquaman was just meh. In an attempt to make Aquaman look cool and badass, he surprisingly came out very flat. I really didn’t think he meshed well and when he was off-screen, I didn’t miss him.
Ray Fisher as Victor Stone/Cyborg was an interesting character. He and Flash were my two favorites (besides WW, of course), only because they showed the most growth. Even though mostly cybernetic, the human element in him shined and he grew to be the hero of the story.
Ciaran Hinds, as Steppenwolf, was your generic bad guy. Like almost all of Marvel’s villains, he is forgettable. We’ve actually seen him and his story arc before…in Guardians of the Galaxy baddy Ronan the Accuser. They are literally the same character bent on doing the same thing, albeit for different reasons.
With all that being said, let’s offer up some solutions.
