Consequences | The Flash “The Race For His Life” Review

Season two of The Flash is now in the books. The Finale, “The Race For His Life,” provided some nice moments with a huge ending twist. The Zoom storyline concluded (as much as they do in time oriented shows, anyway), but it was sort of a letdown after the absolutely spectacular season one villain, Reverse Flash.

The final scene of the finale was just as good, if not better than the final scene of the season a year prior. The Flash, after facing so much loss this season, realizes that he has the power to change everything that has happened. His emotions are so frayed that he doesn’t even care about the potential consequences this could have across their timeline and really any DC show on the CW. Is this how Laurel Lance comes back? What happens with the crew over at Legends of Tomorrow? Will Reverse Flash make a reappearance?

The scene itself was well shot, and it brought a tour de force of emotions. On the one hand, Barry can finally save his mother, but at what cost? We’ve seen the consequences of his time travel previously, so I can only imagine the reverberations this will spread throughout the various timelines.

The finale’s plot dealt with Zoom attempting to destroy the infinite earths and keep Earth-1 as the only remaining Earth, since it is the absolute center of them all. After taking Joe through the breach after a horribly failed attempt to capture Zoom without Barry’s help (he was far too emotionally invested in revenge for Zoom killing his father), Zoom challenges Barry to a race. If Barry wins, he will free Joe and all will be well; if he doesn’t, everyone dies. But, Zoom’s main plan is to get the two to run fast enough to charge the “Magnetar,” which is the device that will destroy all the other worlds.

The scene is fast and frantic, and Barry pulls out a trick from Zoom’s playbook. Barry creates a time remnant which allows him to speed over to free Joe. Barry’s time remnant generates enough speed to reverse the explosion, but it is at the cost of his life. In the pivotal moment where Barry could easily kill Zoom, in typical superhero fashion, he doesn’t. He does however let the time wraiths have their way with Zoom, which is pretty awesome to see.

As for the last remaining secret involving Zoom, the man in the iron mask turns out to be… Jay Garrick. The Jay Garrick of Earth-3 who also happens to be a doppelganger of Henry Allen. I understand why the reveal was indeed a Henry Allen Doppelganger as it certainly progressed Barry’s choice to go back in time, but it just felt like the whole ordeal dragged on a bit too long. I’m not sure that any reveal would have been satisfying, but I am glad it was finally revealed.

My main qualm with the Zoom storyline turns to why he needed Barry in the first place? Assuming that Zoom has the ability to pull an infinite number of time remnants, would he even need the Barry race-off to generate enough speed to power the Magnetar? Sure, it wouldn’t make much sense and would completely kill the superheroism in which the show is based, but that seems like a pretty obvious solution to Zoom’s problem.

Problems aside, the finale did something the show has done since the pilot; it was fun. No matter how impactful or not each episode is, they are always a joy to watch. Sure the acting can be a bit iffy here and there, and a threat may be dispatched too easily, but each episode provides flat out fun.