The Flash Review - S2 Ep 23: "The Race of His Life" Season 2 Finale

The Flash Review - S2 Ep 23: "The Race of His Life" Season 2 Finale

Welp. Don't know what to say about this finale episode other than it was a mixed bag. The writing has not been nearly as sharp this season as it was last season.
            Zoom as a villain has been disappointing, especially when compared to Reverse Flash.

Eobard Thawne only had one goal: to get back home. He did many elaborate things to make that happen, including stealing Dr. Wells' identity and making the particle accelerator explosion happen sooner. His aim however was always clear. His hatred of Barry was consistent. And the future world that he came from was brimming with mysterious and exciting possibilities. In short, we wanted to see that world.

Zoom, on the other other hand, just didn’t work for me. I have an emotional disconnect between Teddy Sears and the masked visage of Zoom. I also have one between Tony Todd’s excellent scary voice and Teddy’s baby face. And Zoom seemed to change his mind in terms of his goals with every episode. Even though The Flash was obligated to set up Legends of Tomorrow and the outstanding Supergirl crossover episode, this season still felt all over the place.

One minute Zoom wants to destroy Flash, and he sends other villains to do it, the next minute he wants to steal his speed, the next minute he wants to do nothing but torment him, then he’s giving Barry the Flash version of The Killing Joke, the next minute we discover he’s playing mind games by pretending to be Jay Garrick, the next minute he’s actually in love with Caitlin, the next minute Zoom wants to terrorize his city in Earth 2, then he wants to take over the entire planet, then he wants to dimension hop and terrorize Earth 1, then he wants to take over Earth 1, then he wants to see who’s the fastest man alive, then he actually wants to destroy the multiverse. Yeah um just no.

So this episode starts out with CryBarry being CryBarry because THERE IS NOT ONE SINGLE EPISODE OF THIS SHOW WHERE BARRY DOESN’T CRY.

So his dad is dead, and Barry didn’t even try to superspeed over there and stop Zoom. Why? Barry is so much faster after his interface with the Speed Force he could’ve at least tried. But whatever, I’ve stopped expecting consistency here. And Zoom channels Darth Vader because he keeps telling Barry to use his anger and give in to his hatred. Barry goes crazy and comes within seconds of vibro-stabbing Zoom’s heart and then it was a time remnant and the real Zoom says he needs to be willing to kill himself. …..Right.

Blah blah blah funeral, swearing on his father’s grave(because everyone must be Batman now), Wally connects with his hero, and the gang pretty much spends all of their time together now. Cue the first of the three obligatory heart-to-heart talks that happen every episode as Iris tries clumsily to comfort him. Barry’s dealing with the peace he found accepting his mother’s death contrasted to the torment he feels watching his dad be murdered in front of him. Oh look it’s Zoom again!

And the gauntlet is thrown down. A race to see who’s the fastest man alive. We know who the SLOWEST man alive is, because Barry is always helpless to stop Zoom from killing his loved ones. Okay.

So the Magnatar is a Pulsar is a power amplifier with a highly magnetized dense rotating core that can be easily weaponized and is suddenly able to magnify speed to destroy the multiverse (and said Magnatar will be completely forgotten once the episode is over). So you know what Team Flash does? They freaking shoot Barry with a tranq and put him in a cage. I was done with the episode when that happened. I couldn’t believe they all turned on him like that. But again, the obligatory “Barry has a bad idea and Joe or somebody has to talk him out of it” coupled with the “Barry’s going to do it anyway and there’ll be consequences” tropes were in play, but still.

That was just one of the dirtiest things I’ve seen done to the hero of a show. They took away his choice and gave him a superhero intervention. If I was Barry I’d never fully trust them again. How does Barry know they won’t make this kind of decision in the future? That would be like Lois using Kryptonite to shut Clark down because she didn’t agree with the decision he needed to make to save everyone. Pass. I’m much more upset about this turn of events that I’m letting on here, but I don’t want to spend the whole review ranting.

So then Team Flash concocts a plan to stop Zoom without The Flash and I am just done. Why didn’t these SAME people have a plan in place for when Zoom had Wally and Barry was faster than Zoom at that point? Or even before Zoom got Wally, when Barry had locked Zoom down and was taunting him like a teenager? Nobody had a plan THEN, and now they have one that takes Barry out of the action. That means less screen time for the hero in his own season finale. Again, I was done at this point.

Blah blah, Jesse Quick wants to go home.

More on that later. So the Flash Scoobies spring into action, and Caitlin-the-human-distraction activates. And pledges her loyalty to the Dark Side. WHOOPS Caity Cate’s a hologram.…So their plan works! Except for the “Zoom takes Joe with him” part. So the gang has already decided that no matter what happens, they’d sacrifice whoever they needed to to keep Zoom off of Earth 1. Which is short sighted. Because if Zoom is still alive he can always come back. Wally Wallster stumbles in and realizes how patently ridiculous it is to nonchalantly sacrifice Joe and keep Barry out of the action. It’s the first thing that Wally’s done on this show that made me cheer.

So Earth 2 revelations, and we all called it a long time ago: the Man in the Iron Mask is Jay Garrick. The real one. We so knew that. Also, did we notice that Zoom’s lightning was blue BEFORE he took Velocity 9? Didn’t Barry say that it was the V9 that turned a speedster’s lightning blue? Whatever. And wait, the Speed Wraiths have been coming after Zoom ever since he started dimension hopping? I thought Wells said they don’t show up if you know what you’re doing? Whatever.

Wally lets Barry the Poutnacious out, and I still don’t get why they think Barry’s anger and desire for revenge will make him lose. It’s precisely those things that make Batman win. So SpeedForce Vibe Barry accepts Zoom’s challenge, and it’s on. So we go to the super dark villain factory showdown place with the superspeed carnival Magnatar thingie. And then Caitlin says, “Either he(Zoom) goes, or we all die together.” 

If that’s how they felt, why didn’t they skip the whole locking Barry up part? Whatever. And then Iris does her best Adrian-before-Rocky-fights impersonation, and Zoom and Barry prepare to race. And discuss how Barry can beat Zoom. Okay. So it really looks like Barry is lagging behind most of the race and then, Barry creates a suicidal time remnant. And then…? Time Remnant Flash runs until he creates a counter energy to the Magnatar’s pulse wave and then derezzes while superspeed aging, which is straight out of Crisis on Infinite Earths, where Barry dies the first time. Real Barry then basically does some Matrix Fu on Zoom and beats him to a pulp. So now I’m just totally confused. If Barry was going to beat Zoom by doing superspeed martial arts, why couldn’t he have done that at any point before now??? All of this Speed Kwan Do somehow draws out some angry Time Wraiths and it’s the ending of Ghost. Which we find out later was a gamble by Barry. Okay. And Zoom looks like he turns into Black Flash on his way into Speed Purgatory.

So back at Star Labs, Wally reflects the audience perspective because that whole Time Remnant thing is really confusing and feels like a cheat code. Next up, the big unveiling, and the banter between Wells and Cisco is priceless! And of course, as we all knew, the real Jay Garrick is a doppelganger for Henry Allen. But of course he is. And Barry has to cry about that because he hasn’t cried in ten whole minutes.

So anyway, Wells 2 and Jesse Quick decide to go back home together, and so does Jay, but his home is Earth 3 now? That’s a villainous Earth in the comics but we’ll let that one go. And HOLY ELECTRIC EELS did John Wesley Shipp look fantastic in that costume.

He even managed to give that helmet some dignity. And it was so cool watching him use his Flash powers. This was easily the best scene in the whole episode. You know both Wells and Jesse Quick are gonna be back next year. And Wells leaving seemed to bring out lots of tears, it was strangely moving. And Jesse basically says that she’s really sorry her and Wally won’t get to bone since she’s leaving. That goodbye between them had me rolling. And like that…they’re gone.

Now I must admit, this last scene was well done, because I didn’t see it coming. Read my predictions. Barry and Iris kiss but actually uncouple, and Iris pledges to wait for him. Yikes and wow. And then…? Barry goes back and saves his mom.

Which means that Season Three is gonna be Flashpoint. Ha HAH!

That’s it for this season boys and girls. We’ll see what this show has in store for us next year.